Sustainable buildings

Sustainability of construction work has become a topic investigated by all stakeholders all along the value chain of a project.

Property owners, engineering consultants and architects are constantly seeking new strategies to deliver sustainable buildings and structures that attract tenants and buyers whilst maximising “green value”, such as increased asset value and reduced risk of depreciation. 

General companies and installers are then asking for products and solutions supporting this new approach. Meanwhile, occupants want buildings that foster collaboration as well as innovation and increase employee productivity and well-being. They also need to reduce operating costs, energy use, and environmental impact.  Within Nexans, we do offer solutions that will help each stakeholder all along the project in order to achieve the great objective of BUILDING TOMORROW, TODAY

Given the current reality in the construction industry — which alone accounts for 40% of global energy consumption — players at all levels in this market are beginning to move towards sustainable buildings.

A sustainable building is :

• Comfortable, safe and reliable place to live and work.  
• Designed to achieve energy efficiency and optimize the use of energy during its life cycle.
• Designed and built to have a low environmental impact all along its life cycle, including carbon footprint.

Nexans’ response to these varying challenges combines several products and specific services, for any type of building, whether it involves residential housing, public and office buildings, or industrial sites.

Low impact solutions

Every product around us has an impact on the environment, from the extraction of raw materials to the end-of-life recycling or disposal. Nexans is taking into account the life cycle of its products and is working all along the value chain, from purchasing the right materials to providing the right information to the designers of Green Buildings.

With its “à la carte solutions”, Nexans offers services and support to reduce the environmental impact of cables taking into account the entire life cycle. 

• Answer to Environmental classification of Buildings : Green buildings

One of the best way to achieve the targets of sustainable building is to follow the Green Building certification scheme that exist around the world, like HQE® Green Star, Green Mark… The 2 most widely spread and used around the world are LEED (created in the US) and BREEAM (created in the UK) .A product itself cannot be ” LEED” or ” BREEAM” certified, but it can certainly contribute to the overall targeted performances per credit categories required by the reference scheme. Contact us for more information about how our Nexans offer can help you gain points.

• Drum management and Green Drums Program (PEFC™ certified)

In 2010, Nexans became the world’s first cable manufacturer to upgrade to drums holding the PEFC certification. Now Nexans’ Green Drums initiative holds both PEFC (for Europe) and FSC (Worldwide) certifications. PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) are organizations dedicated to promote Sustainable Forest Management through independent third-party certification. They work throughout the entire forest supply chain to promote good practices and to ensure that timber forest products are produced respecting the highest ecological, social and ethical standards.

On customer’s request, empty drums are picked up on site by a logistic provider selected by Nexans. The returned drums are repaired and cleaned up and re-used (or in some cases recycles).

• PEPecopassport® environmental declaration of product

PEPecopassport® is the product environmental identity card, based on a standardized, reliable and recognized Program. It provides the results of the environmental impact evaluation of the product obtained using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. This methodology measures the impact of the product on air, water, soil and natural resources during the whole product life cycle, from the raw material extraction to the end of life. The PEPecopassport® complies with the ISO 14025 standard dealing with Type III environmental declaration. All PEPecopassport® are registered by the PEPecopassport® Program. The PEPecopassport® are useful today for public and private contractor, and design consultants involved in sustainable buildings, as well as OEM customers involved in the ecodesign developpement of their products and systems.

• Recycling services

We are not only cable experts, but also recycling experts. We have been recycling end-of-life cables for over 35 years.

Our customized recycling solutions offer :

• State-of-the-art grinding technology for copper and aluminum cables;
• Turnkey logistics solutions;
• Accountability and traceability for all operations.

Health and safety solutions

The main cause of casualties in indoor fire are smoke and hazardous emissions which significantly reduce the chance to escape and extend the damage to goods far behind the burned area. The contribution of cables is key both in active and passive protection. Electrical cables can warrant the supply of energy and the transmission of information. They can contribute to improve the time to escape the fire.

Our Halogen free product range is an alternative to standard cable for improved behavior in case of fire.

It ensures a safe evacuation of people and helping facilitate the work of rescue team, thanks to low smoke and limited hazardous gas emissions.

Energy efficiency solutions

Optimize your energy efficiency thanks to Nexans EcoCalculator

The Nexans EcoCalculator will help you optimize cable sizing according to Energy savings and Co2 emissions during the time of usage of the cables once installed.

The EcoCalculator is an online application which determines the possible savings using a cable with a bigger cross section. This tool enables customers to easily calculate the energy savings they can get from their electrical installation.

The savings could be really interesting with a ROI around one or two years for the use of a superior cross section. These savings are estimated according to the three pillars of the sustainable development:

• Save CO2: environment: results are presented in terms of savings in KWh and their equivalent in CO2 footprint.
• Save Energy: economy: Including the price of all cables and the cost of electricity, a time in Return On Investment can be calculated. The ROI is based on the difference in price and electrical losses between a standard cross section and a bigger one.
• Protect life: safety: an alternative solution with halogen free cable is automatically given when available.