The infrastructure in the VINCI Concessions network is home to a rich reservoir of biodiversity. To protect it, VINCI Concessions set itself an ambitious strategy in 2024 to structure and make better use of the company initiatives applied on the ground.
2025 Introduction of a biodiversity/ nature index to assess the quality of natural environments and the effectiveness of the work being carried out
The infrastructure that VINCI Concessions operates occupies large pieces of land that are rich sources of biodiversity. Almost half of the airports in the VINCI Airports network and around a third of VINCI Highways’ and VINCI Autoroutes’ highways are located near key areas for biodiversity, while VINCI Railways has undertaken a major biodiversity preservation programme near the SEA HSL, with environmental offsetting measures in place across 3,800 hectares of land. In 2024, VINCI Concessions bolstered and structured its approach with the aim of achieving no net loss of biodiversity. To make sure this strategy is clear and transparent, a biodiversity/nature index will be introduced from 2025, enabling us to assess the quality of the natural environment and the effectiveness of the work being carried out on the ground. By understanding the impact of the company’s activities on the various factors that lead to biodiversity loss, VINCI Concessions’ Strategy focuses on three areas: knowledge of the environment, how the impact on biodiversity can be avoided and reduced, and infrastructure’s positive contribution. VINCI Concessions entities are already working with expert partners to draw up wildlife and plant inventories at road, rail and airport infrastructure sites. This mapping enables us to visualise the richness of local flora and fauna and involve employees in a citizen science process. By precisely identifying the areas affected, these analyses or inventories can be used to optimise an airport’s overall layout, for example, or to adopt different approaches for nearby land. On highway infrastructure, as a developer, builder and operator, VINCI Autoroutes has helped step up the regulatory requirements of the “Avoid, reduce and offset” approach and, over time, developed significant expertise in environmental engineering for the industry.
The Group therefore regularly applies an “Avoid, reduce, offset and support” approach, which includes additional nonregulatory measures to provide added value – such as tangible actions and the acquisition of knowledge related to biodiversity preservation. Efforts are made wherever possible to make infrastructure “transparent” and restore functioning in areas that have deteriorated, going further than the limitations of the public highway under concession if possible. And to go even further, a tool is currently being developed with the Murmuration start-up, with support from Directorate General for Entreprise (DGE) – part of the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty – through the France Tourisme Tech partnership. By analysing high-resolution satellite imagery and leveraging artificial intelligence, the tool will enable users to identify soils, compile in-depth inventories, and to find the ideal locations for infrastructure, avoiding important ecological areas. Moreover, airports integrate staff with expertise in avifauna into their teams, particularly in the context of preventing wildlife hazards. Lastly, VINCI Concessions entities are carrying out rewilding projects, identifying areas where land take has occurred around airports or highways that can be given back to nature. These projects generate a positive impact for regions, going beyond the needs of VINCI Concessions.
