Designing more sustainable mobility solutions
Designing more sustainable mobility solutions is a challenge encompassing how we get around, how we transport goods and all the infrastructure this involves. Improving access to rural areas, developing regions and protecting the environment are all priorities that require a new approach to transportation infrastructure and the introduction of new mobility solutions. Innovation has been at the core of Colas’ culture for over 90 years. The pioneering spirit of its employees is a powerful driving force behind the Group. Innovating in the field of mobility means never losing sight of its role as a service – for people and the planet. It’s about ensuring that development in one area does not jeopardize the future of another. We have to make our contributions meaningful so that we can move forward, together, in the right direction.
Greater mobility, lower impact
Developing and promoting low carbon solutions
Giving everyone the means to move forward doesn’t mean that mobility should be uncontrolled, ever faster, more omnipresent and around-the-clock. Above all else, it’s about preserving resources and protecting the regions and ecosystems where we live and move around. There is no future for mobility without responsibility and restraint. The goal isn’t to deliver ever more powerful mobility solutions, but ones that are fairer, better suited and more ethical for everyone. Innovation has to address the question: “How can we improve the way we get around?” To which our answer is: by making our mobility options as low-impact and disturbance-free as possible, adapting and connecting the types of infrastructure that underpin all forms of mobility, making use of new materials, promoting predictive maintenance to make our existing infrastructure more durable, and working to make our solutions more recyclable.
Innovate for a global and sustainable management of road assets
Meaningful innovation takes into account the infrastructure’s entire life cycle and must be integrated into the overall management of road infrastructure. The aim of innovation is to guarantee users an efficient, sustainable service, and to provide managers with solutions to optimize their maintenance and investment budgets, while also reducing their carbon footprint.
In order to monitor infrastructure maintenance needs as closely as possible and gain a better insight into the regions in which it operates, Colas is rolling out a range of innovative services that combine infrastructure monitoring and inspection, data collection and processing, planning and performance monitoring, execution of construction, operations and maintenance work, and solutions for recycling infrastructure at the end of its useful life.
They offer several advantages:
- Financial – by minimizing maintenance expenses and spreading them out over time, and building in the possibility of budget fluctuations
- Organizational – by gaining a better understanding of road infrastructure assets and user needs
- Environmental – by presenting cost-effective, sustainable solutions and optimizing work scheduling, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Mobility solutions for more cohesive, connected communities
Innovating to improve mobility is a means of supporting regional development. Mobility connects, empowers and energizes. Our solutions are aimed at helping to achieve local, national and global ambitions in this area. Mobility also changes with the times, evolving with the emergence of new usage patterns and lifestyles, and allows us to rethink how we use the space we have. Transportation infrastructure has to be a solution, not a constraint, so that mobility can be seen as a service, providing as many options as possible while promoting regional development and ensuring the well-being of the people who live and work there. It’s about serving a purpose. That’s why we don’t see innovation in a closed, centralized vacuum, but rather as a shared philosophy that serves communities.
Public spaces: promoting social interaction
Innovation requires a willingness to change, to be challenged and to embrace what can help us grow. Public spaces and roads are fundamentally places where people meet and share. So naturally, we have adopted an approach to innovation that reflects this philosophy: one that is open, inclusive and based on an ecosystem of stakeholders. We support and encourage open innovation and participate in collaborative projects that help improve public space as a communal asset and make mobility a shared journey and a powerful driver of regional development.
