Environment

Advanced participant of the United Nations Global Compact, Naval Group is actively participating in the collective effort to preserve the planet, an urgent question for this century.

While naval defence is currently exempt from the obligation to comply with regulations from the International Maritime Organisation in particular, Naval Group is committed to exemplarity in terms of environmental impacts. A pioneer, the group initiated an eco-design approach on ships in 2008, which has gradually reached all facets of its activity, including innovation through the Blue Ship approach. As a visionary, Naval Group invested very early on in the development of alternative energy from the sea. Through its subsidiary Naval Energies, the group has established itself as a leader in marine renewable energy (MREs).
Naval Group’s environmental approach was ISO 14001 certified in 2008. This certification encompasses its products and services activities and its infrastructures. Three principles define these eco-responsibility requirements, whether or not they are governed by the legislator: prevention of the effects related to our industrial activities and the reduction of our impact on the environment, reduction of the environmental footprint of ships, services and infrastructures over the entire life cycle, and finally, participation in the fight against global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Eco-design: Naval Group, leader

Eco-design is a discipline whose objective is to reduce all the environmental impacts of ships, from their design to their deconstruction, including operation, manufacture and maintenance. Nearly half of Naval Group’s new programs are now eco-designed. The adaptation, monitoring and control of environmental requirements throughout the program's life are carried out by dedicated design teams.
The challenges of eco-design are also economic, via renewed control of production costs (energy consumption, waste recovery, etc.) and operational, via the increased autonomy and discretion of the boats made possible through new hybrid propulsion systems. Lastly, these challenges are competitive: Naval Group took an early interest in this discipline and is now one step ahead on the naval defence market.
This eco-design approach, developed since 2008 by Naval Group, is ISO 14001 certified. Initiated on ships, the approach has been progressively extended to the Group’s infrastructures and service offers in order to fully meet sustainable development goal #13.

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Responsible innovation, the Blue Ship focus

Naval Group’s efforts also stand out in the sphere of R&D. They cover the definition of methods for measuring environmental impacts over the entire product cycle. They also cover waste and emissions management, protection of the marine environment and the impact of Naval Group products on the biotope, green technologies, carbon-free energies and energy efficiency.
Blue Ship is one of the six guiding principles of Naval Group’s R&D. Its main feature is that it brings together all the environmental themes of interest for the Group. Its aim is to combine innovations, new operational capacities and sustainable growth. It marks Naval Group’s commitment to blue growth and its desire for excellence as well as leadership in this field.

Marine renewable energies, the alternative

Naval Energies’ mission is to produce renewable, decarbonised and environmentally-friendly electricity based on marine winds and the thermal energy potential of tropical seas. From site studies to the construction of production systems, from in-zone deployment to underwater connections bringing energy back to land, Naval Energies is positioned over the entire product life cycle: design, manufacture, installation and maintenance, both at sea and on the shore.

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Floating wind turbines

Floating wind turbines are a solution that use the energy potential of powerful, regular offshore winds in deep sea areas. Naval Energies, a strategic subcontractor, offers semi-submersible floats anchored at sea, in order to harness the considerable potential of this technology. A fundamental asset for the development of floating wind turbines, Naval Energies’ floats are manufactured locally with a view to their deployment in large series.
In France, Naval Energies is preparing to respond to future requests for tenders to appear in the recently published Multiannual Energy Programme (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l’Energie - PPE). Naval Energies handles the design and construction of floats for the three wind turbines of the “Groix and Belle-Île floating wind turbines” project, managed by Eolfi, as well as the offshore installation of the three 9.5 MW wind turbines for the production of the electricity required to supply 20,000 households on the Atlantic coast.
Elsewhere in the world, Naval Energies is participating in the market boom, in particular in Japan, the USA and Scotland. Naval Energies is collaborating with Hitachi Zosen Corporation, a leading developer and industrialist in renewable energies in Japan, on a joint floating wind turbine project.

Ocean thermal energy conversion

The exploitation of deep sea water plants consists in harnessing the potential of deep ocean water for multiple uses. Starting from the ocean thermal energy conversion system, designed to produce electricity, other technologies can be added such as Sea Water Air Conditioning (SWAC), desalination, industrial cooling or even aquaculture. For instance, seawater pumping, used for electricity production, benefits other stakeholders.
Within the context of these projects, Naval Energies contributes its expertise both in the engineering and design basis phases of the plant’s overall system and in the design, construction and installation of heat exchangers (condensers and evaporators) for the production of electricity and cooling. Naval Energies is currently the only company in the world capable of guaranteeing the performance of these exchangers.

MERIC

Naval Energies is also present in South America via its Chilean subsidiary Energia Marina, involved in the MERIC project. This R&D centre is a key player in scientific research applied to MREs, not only in South America but also internationally.

Naval Group - defence - reservist partnership

Naval Group has signed an agreement to support the operational reserve with the National Guard for the benefit of its reservist employees. This agreement promotes their commitment to sovereignty. A winning combination for reservists, who are looking for new experiences and responsibilities, for the operational reserve, which benefits from additional expertise, and ultimately for Naval Group, which, by meeting the expectations of the French armed forces and the French Navy as fully as possible, is refining its understanding of their needs.

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