Bolloré China HQ - French House Reduces Embodied Carbon by 28.7%
Bolloré Logistics Greater China has unveiled its newly renovated headquarters, designed by French House. Located in Shanghai, the design aims to strike a balance between nature and the built world, both in terms of reducing climate impact and the visual equilibrium between natural and man-made materials.
With ambitious targets to reduce its carbon emissions, Bolloré first needed to know where they were and how to improve. To achieve this, the project team first took a step back in order to quantify the embodied carbon, circularity, and health of the existing office.
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As a global leader in international transport and logistics, Bolloré Logistics has been a pioneer in driving sustainable development within the logistics sector, particularly in terms of carbon footprint, Bolloré Logistics aims to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions by 43% by 2027, along with an additional target of a 30% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2024. In this context, Bolloré Logistics has added the built environment into their focus seeing as it represents a significant aspect of their environmental impact.
“As we reopen this stunning new office, we are proud to set a higher standard for workplace excellence. All of us at Bolloré Logistics Greater China are dedicated to creating an exceptional working environment for our employees, fostering teamwork, and encouraging innovation while remaining committed to sustainability initiatives at the same time."
- Frederic MARCEROU, CEO of Bolloré Logistics Greater China
Project Highlights
Embodied Carbon
28.7% reduction in carbon emissions from construction (compared to the old Bolloré office)
22.3% reduction in carbon emissions from construction (compared to the industry baseline. as per RESET data)
Embodied Circularity
31.5% of the new Bolloré office interior can be feasibly recycled or biodegraded
17.1% of the office is circular, which is:
4.5x better than the old Bolloré office
4.1x better than the industry baseline
Embodied Health
90.3% of the material ingredients are known and free of harmful red-listed chemicals, which is:
5.4x better than the old Bolloré office
13.3x better than the industry baseline
How Embodied Performance was Improved
Before commencing the office renovation, the project team conducted an audit of the existing site, documenting and quantifying all materials and products so as to better understand opportunities in improving the new office. The embodied performance of the old office was also used to serve as a highly specific baseline for benchmarking.
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With baseline data on hand, the project could then allocate its budget to the higher impact materials, based on studying the contribution of each material to the total and prioritizing those with lower carbon, better circularity, and better health performance. Take glass partitions for instance, which made up a large proportion of the materials used. With a change to recycled steel, embodied carbon emissions were heavily reduced by a total of approximately 38 tons of CO2e while also improving circularity. Additionally, local material manufacturers were sourced for the project, so as to reduce carbon emissions during transportation.
Copyright @ Bolloré Logistics
Copyright @ Bolloré Logistics
Once completed, the final project results were calculated and audited using the RESET Embodied Standard for Carbon, Circularity, and Health, establishing a total embodied metric for Bolloré Logistics Greater China Headquarters.
Compared to the old Bolloré office, the new office, which utilizes more eco-friendly materials, reduced embodied carbon by 28.7%, saving a total of 49.2 tons of CO₂e, equivalent to 19 flights between Paris and Shanghai. Furthermore, in terms of circularity and health, the new office outperforms the old office by 4.5 times and 5.4 times respectively.
Copyright @ GIGA
Lessons Learned
We have summarized the lessons learned from this comparison project:
In order to control the budget, it is more effective to focus on a few high-impact materials than many lower-impact materials.
Focusing on materials with a high level of circularity also helps reduce carbon emissions. Products and materials must have the ability to be separated and disassembled into homogenous materials so as not to compromise recyclability or biodegradability.
Although adhesives, paints, and sealers come in small quantities, they can compromise the materials they are added into or onto. It is necessary to ensure all are red-list-free so as not to compromise health and circularity.
We particularly commend Bolloré Logistics for taking a step back in order to take an informed and treated step forward.
Project Information
Project Location: Shanghai, China
Project Typology: Commercial Interiors
Project Size: 920m²
Project Stage: In Use
Certification Status: RESET Embodied Certified
Design & Construction: French House
Project Lead: Romain Poirier
RESET Embodied Accredited Professional: Salena Zhang
RESET Auditors: Raefer Wallis, Zhou Lingling
About Bolloré Logistics
Bolloré Logistics is a global leader in international transport & logistics.
The mission of the company is to support its customers as they grow by providing customized service that allows them to be more competitive in their respective markets.
Bolloré Logistics is committed to delivering reliable, flexible innovative and value-creating solutions.
About RESET®
RESET® is a data standard, accompanied by a set of assessment tools, created and managed by GIGA, to develop actionable, long-term strategies towards health and sustainability for the built environment. RESET focuses on creating a quantitative structure around embodied and operating data to generate opportunities for improvement and optimizations by combining the development of databases, continuous monitoring, and cloud software to increase the visibility of health and sustainability reporting and analytics in the built environment.
For more information about RESET, please visit: https://www.reset.build/.