It couldn’t be in a more sensitive area. The days are long gone when the Seine ran like an open sewer; it has now caught up with the Thames in having a salmon run, and its banks are home to crayfish, another pollution barometer. And that could potentially cause Renault a problem. The factory’s environmental manager, Yves Galliou, shows me around with obvious pride, pointing out the features that put this tiny splinter of massive Renault at the forefront of its eco2 environmental initiative. And in a sense, he saves the best until last.
The eco2 initiative spans all of Renault’s activities, from the production of its cars to parts manufacture, and even the cars themselves. It sets parameters for reducing energy consumption and water use, and is succeeding At Choisy, the evidence of the change is all around. The big problem with any industrial site is surface water run-off, and with the Seine next door, Renault Choisy has taken great strides in attenuating the run-off. Indeed, it has gone much, much further.
First of all, it has a concrete barrier designed to prevent anything getting off the site, and to prevent the Seine getting in. The wall has been built at above the highest recorded flood level of the river.
Within this impermeable containment bund, Renault has surfaced storage areas with a sloping, resistant paving which directs all drainage to a new system. The system intercepts the run-off, collecting any oil, and pumps the surface water into two massive settlement lagoons. The eventual effect is to remove all pollutants, and the water that feeds into the Seine is constantly monitored.Standing alongside the settlement lagoons is the fire hydrant water tower. This not only uses rainwater instead of a potable supply, but has cleverly been adapted to become a heat sink for the factory’s cooling system.
Beneath the factory, a sophisticated filtration system deals with all liquid automotive waste on site rather than making it someone else’s problem. Successive treatment tanks remove sludge for incineration, collect oil and other contaminants, and settles fine particles until the water remaining is sufficiently clean to be used again. For directly about this basement waste centre is the raison d’etre of the Choisy plant – a massive recycling operation.
In an era in which everything has become disposable. Renault employs Choisy to remanufacture engines and gearboxes to be returned to use in its cars, eking out the huge investment of energy which went into casting engine blocks and forming steel panels.The components are washed and disassembled, the parts measured and returned or rejected, and reconditioning kits follow each engine or gearbox as skilled engineers resurrect them to live a second life.
It is perhaps fitting that a factory devoted to recycling at a very fundamental level should also be at the forefront of the eco2 effort to take Renault into a more environmentally-friendly future.
