It was around a camp fire in Finland during his Erasmus trip that Antonin Buys realised he wanted his career to contribute towards environmental protection.

For this young man from Liège, who spent his childhood in the countryside and who regularly engages in outdoor pursuits, the new environment & sustainability officer role created by VINCI Energies Belgium was a godsend.

“My role is first and foremost to conduct analysis assessments at each site under my responsibility,” he explains. “To do that, I use our in-house software Eve to list all sources of consumption and waste production. I then propose action plans that tally with VINCI Energies and VINCI objectives: reducing emissions across Scopes 1 and 2 (1) by 40% by 2030, making greater use of the circular economy, and conserving natural environments.”

Antonin’s job often includes practical action in the field. For example he has been working on the recycling station of a VINCI Energies building since the start of 2023. Another project he is involved in relates to Elia, Belgium’s electricity system operator, which decided to list all the areas of energy consumption falling within its Scope 3 (1).

“This gave me a good idea of how effective this kind of initiative can be. When a business takes the decision to do this, service providers have to align themselves with their client. It’s a powerful lever for transformation.” He adds: “I’m happy to be able to make my own contribution to environmental change. In the future I’d like to play a leading role in incorporating sustainability into VINCI Energies strategy.”

(1) Scope 1: direct greenhouse gas emissions (heating, fuel, refrigerant leaks, etc.); Scope 2: indirect emissions from electricity use; Scope 3: indirect emissions from upstream and downstream activities (transportation, distribution and disposal of goods sold by a company).