Episode 6 – Omexom Green Story: Promoting E-mobility throughout the VINCI Group
This sixth episode of the Omexom Green Story takes us to Paris, France, where a team of young engineers has made it their mission to make e-mobility accessible within the VINCI Group. Their initiative won the Evolution of practices prize in the climate category at the regional VINCI Environment Awards. Let's have a look!
E-mobility: A major step to reduce CO2 emissions company wide
In 2020 VINCI committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.
With ninety-five percent of our Scope 1 & 2 emissions linked to vehicle emissions, it makes sense to start by cleaning up our own back yard first – literally — and switch our vehicle fleets to electric.
While it represents an obvious solution to lower emissions in our daily operations, there are practical obstacles to adopting e-mobility more widely within companies: fear of the unknown meets concerns about reliability and availability of charging stations.
“We noticed that there were a lot of preconceived ideas about electric mobility and that the network of public charging stations was still quite poor,” explains Maxime Beudet, Project manager at Omexom Mobilité Electrique Paris.
What actually are Scope 1 and 2 Emissions?
Scope 1 corresponds to direct emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) used to heat our buildings, operate our construction equipment and drive our vehicles. These are the company’s assets.
Scope 2 relates to indirect emissions from our consumption of electricity to heat and power our buildings and electric vehicles.
This observation drove the development of Too Electric, a solution to promote and facilitate the deployment of electric vehicle fleets by installing charging stations directly on company grounds.
A turnkey offer developed internally at VINCI Energies for VINCI business units, Too Electric takes care of all aspects, from audit to maintenance and supervision, making e-mobility more accessible to any company that wants to take steps towards achieving carbon neutrality.
“One of the problems we have encountered with electric mobility is the complexity of this environment, of this ecosystem,” Maxime says. “Omexom aims to facilitate understanding of the various issues and to promote access to electric mobility.”
When receiving a request, the team first studies the exact uses a company will make of the electric vehicles and recommends a customised charging infrastructure adapted to the company’s needs.
Once this infrastructure has been dimensioned, a partner company of the VINCI Energies network will install the charging stations according to these specifications.
Once installed, the charging stations are supervised and maintained, guaranteeing optimisation throughout the entire operation. This is where Too Electric partnered up with the Group’s internal hypervision experts.
Too Electric: e-mobilising companies
Hypervision: Optimising availability and reliability of charging stations
Mathieu Aveline, Project Manager Electric Mobility at Citeos Ingénierie, part of the Omexom network in France, is no stranger to electric mobility and associated infrastructure. His team currently supervises and manages 6,000 charging stations across the country. But through the partnership with Too Electric, he entered new territories.
“We knew the world of the community, of public charging stations. Too Electric is really, for us, a springboard to work with companies on the charging stations, on the different car parks with specific services,” explains Matthieu. “How we adapt our operation by allowing companies to switch part of their fleet to electric, to emit less, but while also reflecting on their needs.”
Associating hypervision tools with the Too Electric offer presents many advantages.
For the site manager, it means charging stations that are more available, via fine measurement of their functioning and alert feedback, in real time. The maintenance management integrated into the hypervision allows to have all information on the operation of the charging stations and to be more efficient in their maintenance operations.
Through a badge, users benefit from access to the various terminals of their company, as well as a record of their consumption and the charging powers associated with their use. On top of their ‘home gas station’ in front of the office, the badge also allows them to access all other charging stations within the network.
The future of Too Electric: All of VINCI connected to one charging network
So far, 100 sites within the VINCI Group network now have their very own charging stations.
Throughout the Group, participating companies have achieved 30% GHG emissions reduction (scope 1) in one year and maintained an objective of 50% to 65% in 3 years’ time. To facilitate the deployment throughout France, e-mobility infrastructure experts, who’ve received specific training, are available to accompany all VINCI business units in making the change.
Ivan Dworniczek, business unit manager at VINCI Facilities in France, is amongst those who are making the switch from fossil fuels to electric mobility.
In 2020, he was about to order 12 new vehicles, the usual ones he always ordered.
But something clicked. He cancelled the order and instead turned to the Too Electric teams to help him take his first steps towards deploying e-mobility in his business.
The goal is to constitute at least 50 per cent of the company’s utility fleet with electric vehicles by 2024. Four charging stations have been installed on company grounds in Hoenheim, and six additional ones at the homes of employees, making e-mobility more accessible than ever.