VINCI 2011 Innovation Awards Competition – Prizes awarded to 17 in-house innovations

Dec 19, 2011

Xavier Huillard, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of VINCI and chairman of the Final Jury for the 2011 Innovation Awards Competition, presented the 17 final prize-winners chosen from among the 1,717 projects submitted by 5,100 employees in December at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

This year's Grand Prize was awarded to a Soletanche Bachy (VINCI Construction) laboratory team for its "polymer muds" used as drilling fluids, which offers reduced costs and environmental impact in foundation projects. A Sustainable Development Prize was awarded to the Aubagne Nymphea Environnement (VINCI Construction) team for its Notil, trawling for marine pollution innovation, a floating net that can be towed behind a boat to recover up to 10 tonnes of hydrocarbons after an oil spill. The jury also highlighted a project presented by a Sogea-Satom (VINCI Construction) team in Chad for its new "Sahel head and neck scarf", which won a Special Equipment Prize. This new-design headgear adapted to working conditions in sub-Saharan Africa is compatible with use of a hard hat and is produced by a local company employing women.
  
Below is the complete list of the final prize-winners:
  • Grand Prize: Polymer muds as drilling fluids to replace bentonite muds
  • Dissemination Prize: Worksite pickets and organic barrier tape, a kit for marking out worksites that combines safety and sustainable development
  • Dissemination Prize: Soft Mini-perm, long-term financing for infrastructure projects
  • Safety Prize: Safety hoops for mechanical shovels
  • Safety Prize: Panel Clip, a solution to reduce road operatives' exposure to risk
  • Sustainable Development Prize: Solidarity thrives on the motorway – social integration and organic market gardening
  • Sustainable Development Prize: Notil, trawling for marine pollution, a floating net used to recovery hydrocarbons after an oil spill
  • Breakthrough Innovation Prize: Light rail track system, the first integrated technical solution
  • Breakthrough Innovation Prize: 3D – another dimension for building worksites
  • Materials, Processes and Techniques Prize: Automated exterior cable-tray installer
  • Marketing and Services Prize: Paying for on-street parking by mobile phone
  • Equipment and Tools Prize: Trench shoring with slides, high-performance protection at utility line crossings
  • Management Prize: Women's network – towards greater equality
  • Special Working Conditions Prize: Hunting down vibrations, calculating real exposure values to control risks
  • Special Equipment Prize: The new Sahel head and neck scarf, headgear compatible with use of a hard hat
  • Special Emotion Prize: The Next Few Days and My Workplace Accident films
  • Special Perseverance Prize: Cable installer's guide tube, making connections easier
 
VINCI has been organising the Innovation Awards Competition every two years since 1995. The competition invites the Group's 180,000 employees working in almost 100 countries to share their innovations with the aim of capitalising on them and facilitating their dissemination. Eleven "regions" compete against each other: seven in France (Nord, West, South-West, South-East, Rhône-Alpes, East, Paris Region), three outside France (Northern Europe, Central Europe, International Region) and one at central level (Central Activities).
 
Employees enter their innovations in one of four categories: Materials, Processes and Techniques, Marketing and Services, Equipment and Tools and Management. All these innovations illustrate a state of mind that enables VINCI to continue progressing in terms of quality, safety, shortening deadlines and environmental protection. Since 2009, the juries also award a Dissemination Prize to reward prize-winning innovations from previous competitions that have been most widely disseminated across the Group.

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