sain t-gobain annu al report 2008 annual report

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for example, 91% of the Group’s CO 2 emissions.
Because of the Group’s wide-ranging business operations,
the environmental indicators managed in Gaïa do not all apply
to all businesses. The indicators are therefore combined
into “batches” and allocated to groups of units with similar
environmental impacts and ratios (i.e. indicators expressed
by unit of production, generally per metric ton).
The main unit groups – referred to as environmental
sub-scopes – are as follows:
• The “Glass” sub-scope, comprising units in the Innovative
Materials Sector - Flat Glass Sector, the Packaging,
the Reinforcements business (Innovative Materials Sector -
High-Performance Materials) and the Insulation Division,
excluding rock wool (Construction Products Sector),
that use glass furnaces (113 concerned sites out of a total
of 120 units).
• The “Pipe” sub-scope (22 concerned sites corresponding
to the 22 units).
• The “Innovative Materials Sector - High-Performance
Materials – Silicon Carbide” sub-scope (8 concerned sites
out of 10 units).
• The “Innovative Materials Sector - High-Performance
Materials excluding Silicon Carbide and Glass operations”
sub-scope (108 concerned sites out of 203 units).
• The “Others” sub-scope, covering all other units
(Industrial Mortars, Lapeyre plants, glass products, etc.)
(169 concerned sites out of 473 units).
Particular attention is paid to the «Mines and quarries» sub-scope
(currently representing 112 units, as the Environment
questionnaires has not yet been rolled out to all 145 quarries)
(see page 59).
One of the principles applied by the Group for the calculation of
ratios is to use tons of finished product complying with quality
standards (“tons of finished products”), rather than tons floated
(for glass) or cast (for cast iron).
EHS financial data (expenses and capital expenditure) have been
tracked in Gaïa since 2007. Annual data are adjusted during the
following year to take into account information obtained after
the year-end.
Definitions of indicators
Definitions of indicators are provided in detailed glossaries.
The glossaries have been prepared in several languages
to ensure that all contributors understand what is required.
Social reporting
The social reporting glossary is available in French, English,
German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Polish, and is distributed
by the Delegations.
EHS reporting
The EHS reporting glossary is available in its entirety in French
and English, and translations of the main terms are
also available in German and Portuguese. Some Delegations
have also prepared supplementary handbooks.
Consolidated data
Social reporting
Saint-Gobain’s social reporting process comprises three stages:
• Data input by contributors at individual company level.
• Data validation by the head of Human resources,
at company or Delegation level depending on the country.
• Data verification and consolidation by the Group Employee
Relations Department.
EHS reporting
The EHS reporting process (monthly and yearly) involves
four stages:
• Data input by the EHS correspondent or correspondents
at the reporting unit concerned.
• Data validation, usually by the unit manager
or by the company or divisional coordinator.
• Data verification by EHS managers in each Sector.
• Data consolidation by the Group EHS Department.
Difficulties and limitations
Social reporting
The main difficulty in social reporting stems from the Group’s
wide geographic presence. Indicators may be interpreted
differently from one country to another, due to differences
in local legislation and practices. For example, certain
employee categories commonly used in France,
such as “cadre” (roughly translatable as “manager”) and “CDI”
(employee with a permanent employment contract) may not
have any direct equivalent in other countries. The Doctrine
Department is working on commonly understood definitions
to avoid this problem.
This year’s merger of the two social reporting system has
led to changes in scope for certain indicators, leading
to differences in some historical data.
EHS reporting
Difficulties can be experienced with consolidating data across
businesses that use different units of measurement.
Problems can also arise from differences in the interpretation
of technical terms such as “waste” across different countries
and businesses. Since Group-wide reporting systems
were launched, reporting quality has steadily improved as
the specialist teams have become more familiar with the new
systems and reported difficulties have been resolved.
The new version of Gaïa will allow the Group to deploy
modules for the daily tracking of environmental data
in alignment with monitoring practices at operational level.
This will enable more frequent reporting of EHS data according
to operational needs, so that data controls can be performed
at shorter intervals.
Saint-Gobain - 2008 Annual Report