Major Achievements by Environmental Pillars
Explore here our main environmental achievements of the last years, linked to our objectives and divided into five environmental pillars: water, energy, air, waste and noise.
The savings resulting from our actions
The development of our building infrastructures is part of universal conventions under the aegis of the AEnEC (Energy Agency for the Economy). These contain savings objectives defined in terms of KWh consumed and monitored annually by the agency.
All the actions taken by tpg contribute to the reduction of our CO2 production.
The water
Washing vehicles
Through the washing of vehicles, we are one of the major consumers of water. It takes 300 liters for washing a tram and 200 liters for a bus. If all vehicles were washed daily with fresh water, we would consume about 94 m3 of water per day. To limit the impact on this pillar, all our washing tunnels are equipped with a water recovery, purification and recycling system. Thus, we manage to recycle more than 70% of the wash water for reuse on the following vehicles.
In addition, the vehicle washing strategy consists of washing vehicles only when they are visibly dirty (e.g. rainy days, wet roads). Since 2020, counters dedicated to washing tunnels have made it possible to know more precisely the weekly consumption as well as the number of washing cycles carried out.
Water treatment
To protect the risks of environmental pollution by the various oils, fuels and products used for and by our vehicles, all the pipes of our maintenance centers collect waste water in retention tanks. Each maintenance center is thus equipped with a water treatment station in order to discharge only treated water outside our walls. The En Chardon site is also equipped for this purpose.
The energy
The Bachet-de-Pesay site is equipped with a rooftop photovoltaic plant with an area of 5,500 m2 and 3,372 solar modules that produce more than 800 MWh per year (866 MWh in 2019, 840 MWh in 2020).
Since autumn 2019, we have doubled the production capacity of the photovoltaic plant installed on the roof of the Jonction site to reach an area of 2,300 m2, or a third of a soccer field. This installation, which has been in operation since 1998, currently produces about 220 MWh of electricity per year. The particularity of this power station is that it is directly connected to the Plainpalais substation, which directly supplies our electric vehicles. This energy allows a trolleybus to travel nearly 100,000 km or a tram to travel more than 50,000 km.
The roof of the new En Chardon depot will be covered with a 5,000 m2 photovoltaic power plant for an estimated production of 915 MWh per year and a vegetated area of 11,000 m2.
The type of construction of the building meets high ecological standards, in particular by being designed to obtain the Minergie label, and the En Chardon project was resolutely respectful of the principles of sustainable development. A 1.6 km long conveyor belt has been put into service to evacuate the spoil from the construction site to the gravel pit in Epeisses, where it has been reused. It allowed 325,000 m3 of spoil to be evacuated out of the total 505,000 m3 and avoided 30,000 truck trips.
The renovation project of the Bachet lighting consisting of replacing all the luminaires with the latest generation LED luminaires is underway. This replacement is accompanied by the implementation of a lighting control system that makes it possible to optimize the lighting according to the environment by means of sensors. This renovation will result in an estimated annual savings of ~220 kCHF/year. The cost of the work is estimated at around 3 million francs. The payback period is estimated at 15 years. The 3rd and 4th floors are now equipped, and work will begin in the workshops and other parts of the site.
SIG-eco21 certificate
tpg is committed to eco21, the energy saving program for SIG. tpg has implemented energy performance actions aimed at reducing the company's electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Download the eco21 certificate
Gain in energy efficiency
After joining the SIG-eco21 program in 2015, tpg signed a universal agreement for Jonction and a cantonal agreement for Bachet with the objective and the commitment to gain energy efficiency with its buildings. As the cantonal convention expired in 2019, a universal convention has just been signed to continue these efforts. In addition, since 2019, four of the five gas boilers at the Bachet site have been replaced by a pellet boiler (wood). tpg heats itself sustainably.
Work on the balancing of radiators also started in 2019 on the Bachet site. Indeed, the pumps and circulators circulating the hydraulic network were not optimized, which did not allow for harmonized heating on the site. Some areas remained very cold while others had to open the windows in winter. The optimization of this distribution by hydraulic rebalancing and the replacement of circulators should reduce electricity consumption by approximately 70% and thermal consumption by 10% to 20% with a return on investment over 15 years. This project is promoted by a declaration of this energy performance action (APE) to the eco21 program Ambition Negawatt of SIG.
The air
The implementation of TOSA buses has been one of the major and striking environmental challenges of recent years. In 2019, the 12 TOSAs made it possible to operate Line 23 and covered 548,812 km of production (for 2020, 534,773 km). It is a saving of more than 70 tons of CO2 that tpg achieved, than if this line had been operated by diesel vehicles.
Note that the majority of our travelers use an electric mode of transport (61.6% in 2019, 55.4% in 2020); this proportion will be increased with the development of tram lines and the evolution of the bus fleet.
The fleet of light service vehicles is renewed with the purchase of electric vehicles in order to achieve the target set by DETEC of an average of 130 g of CO2 emissions per km, by 2022 (average value 144 g to date).
In parallel with these developments, we continue to consume 100% renewable electricity from Vitale Bleu.
It should be noted that the autonomous vehicles project has come to an end. Unfortunately, the XA line connecting Meyrin-Gare to Meyrin-Village, which was operational in 2019, has been abolished due to roadway improvements (speed bumps) that are incompatible with this type of vehicle. On the other hand, the autonomous shuttle project on the Belle-Idée site is in preparation with a schedule scheduled for 2021.
Autonomous vehicle
Two electric car charging stations for staff have been set up in the Bachet car park.
Our company offers very good alternatives to traveling in individual motorized vehicles for our colleagues through the corporate mobility plan. The yearly unireso Tout Genève Zone 10 travel pass, which includes journeys by Léman Express, is offered by the company. On the other hand, 80 covered bicycle parking spaces at Bachet and 24 spaces in a closed space at Jonction have been created. In addition, the company provides employees with financial assistance every 5 years for the purchase of bicycles/electric bicycles up to 20% of the purchase price, up to CHF 500.
Reduced CO2&Kwh certificate
tpg is committed with conviction to the sustainable protection of the climate. As such, we voluntarily participate in the program of the Energy Agency for the Economy (AEnEC) aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and improving energy performance. Our site in Bachet de Pesay received the reduced CO2&kWh certificate in 2021.
Download the CO2&kWh certificate
The waste
Recycling
Waste management is also a strong objective of environmental actions. At the level of workshops and maintenance centers, tpg has a waste disposal center on each site that allows to sort and recycle all the waste. This is how we reached 67% of recycled waste in 2018 and 2019 (73% in 2020, but 77% excluding special waste). The target requested by the Geology, Soils and Waste Service (GESDEC) of 70% recycled waste is therefore reached within the tolerance margin. Moreover, tpg is the only Autonomous Public Establishment to have met this target.
By being recycled, our waste is also a source of income. Thanks to the numerous recovery spaces on our sites, paper, batteries, aluminum, scrap, stainless steel, brass and copper are sold to various specialized companies. In 2018, the recovery of our waste brought the company more than 40,000 CHF (53 Kchf in 2019 and 64 Kchf).
Switch to electronic ticketing
Over the last three years, the shift towards digitalization has been initiated, starting with the ticket by SMS, followed by the online sale of travel passes and other transport tickets, the evolution towards the SwissPass, the settlement of statements online or even real-time passenger information directly accessible on cell phones.
Reduced impressions
Access to multi-function printers via the badges allowed, through the number of pages launched for printing, but not printed, the equivalent saving of 133 trees in 2018 and 325 in 2019 and 2020, i.e. the equivalent of 10 tons of CO2.
The noise
The campaign to lubricate flanges on trams, as well as the actions taken to reduce the noise of the TOSA charging stations and the replacement of all auxiliary emergency units of the new trolleybuses with battery extensions have borne fruit. The number of complaints about this noise nuisance is almost zero.