SAINT_GOBAIN_REGISTRATION_DOCUMENT_2017

One ambition: to improve the well-being of all Creating great living places

Users’ experience at the heart of the c) Multi-Comfort approach

Similarly, the thousands of measurements taken in restaurants have helped to determine that the sound level above which customers complain of discomfort is 71 decibels. More than the tool, Saint-Gobain’s teams have integrated experts in physiology, psychology and sociology to better understand the individual, cultural, and subjective dimension of comfort perception. The objective is still to define comfort for the future and make possible the diagnostic of comfort level of an existing building or to check the quality of the technical improvement during a renovation. The skills developed in the area of building science, especially via cross-functional programs, are key for the success of the Group’s construction strategy. They are essential to the roll-out of the Multi-Comfort program developed by the marketing teams. Developing Saint-Gobain’s capabilities in this area supports the user comfort and experience-centered approach to designing effective buildings, taking into account the use value of the solutions adopted. The Group’s industrial Activities linked to the construction markets have completed the life cycle analysis for their products and published environmental product declarations (EPDs) verified by third parties, throughout the world. The first EPDs for Insulation in Argentina and Flat Glass in India were published this year. The Group is the world’s first verified EPD supplier. A new market demand is emerging, coming from across the Atlantic in particular (via the development of version 4 of the LEED certification), but also under the impact of the development of the circular economy: transparency around the ingredients contained in Construction Products and the hazards associated with these ingredients. The Group is keen to provide a proper, comprehensive and considered response to this demand that is consistent with existing regulations and has commenced work on exploring and testing the solutions already on the market in order to shape its position on this matter in 2018. Product stewardship b) After investigating the methodologies developed by other groups in different industries in 2016 and exploring its customers’ expectations in terms of sustainable solutions, in 2017 the Group developed a methodology appropriate for the sustainable performance criteria for its construction product portfolio. In line with the Group’s vision for sustainable construction, this methodology takes a view of a product over the entirety of its life cycle and defines its degree of sustainability from two perspectives: its environmental and social impacts, from the extraction „ of the raw materials and until it leaves the factory; its contribution to making the building more sustainable. „ Producing and distributing 2.2.2 sustainable, comfortable solutions Product transparency a)

In any physical location (a room, a vehicle, etc.), the well-being of the occupant depends on a certain number of factors: temperature, humidity, sound level, air quality, etc. When developing solutions and the products that comprise or delimit this location (ceilings, floors, walls, windows, etc.), the first step is to understand the required comfort levels, in terms of temperature ranges, noise levels in decibels or percentage humidity. This novel approach to the design process, underpinned by intensive needs analysis, makes the user the central focus of the entire innovation process”: several parameters, rather than just one, determine wellbeing, and therefore the health, efficiency and productivity of end customers. While comfort is an intuitive concept, it is often still difficult to quantify or grasp. Most of the time, a person is capable of giving a qualitative description of what makes their environment uncomfortable. The most commonly cited sources of discomfort, in any environment (residential, professional, transport, etc.) are: too high a level of noise; „ too low or too high a temperature; „ polluted air: smells, too much or not enough humidity, „ dust; a light source that is too bright or not bright enough, too „ point-like, or too colorful; in a transport setting, vibrations. „ To develop its solutions, Saint-Gobain draws on its innovation processes and its R&D teams organized around the concept of Building Science. A program has been developed to go beyond this handful of observations. Building on digital techniques, Saint-Gobain has developed a measurement tool, the Comfort-meter, which can immediately characterize a situation by measuring the parameters that describe the different types of sensory comfort. The tool is a portable, pocket-sized box fitted with sensors and connected to a Smartphone via an app. A measurement of the parameters is taken on demand. It can be processed locally to provide information to the user – the app gives indications of the recommended levels, etc. It can also be sent to a cloud service: by aggregating all the data, Saint-Gobain’s data scientists can derive lessons learned that help the R&D teams to find targeted solutions, and the specification and sales teams to hone their arguments. For example, based on thousands of measurements sent to the cloud service by Comfort-meter users, it has been possible to prove that the average noise levels in open plan office space, which play a decisive role in employee productivity and health, vary considerably between countries: the measurements give an average of 46 decibels in the US, and 63 in Brazil.

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