COP 21: SPIE Reaffirms its Commitment to the Fight Against Global Warming

Cergy, France (ots/PRNewswire) -

Dialogue, innovation and training: 3 key conditions to succeed in
the energy

transition

Just a few months before the holding of the United Nations Climate
Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris, from November 30 to December 11
this year, SPIE has restated its commitment to the fight against
greenhouse gas emissions. Through its participation in this key
event, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in
the fields of energy and communications will seek to share its
experience with all its partners in order to take up this worldwide
challenge.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120731/552278 )

With the unprecedented goal of reaching a universal binding
agreement in order to effectively fight climate disruption, COP
21 will be the major environmental meeting in 2015. As a player in
the transition to a low-carbon society, the SPIE group will naturally
be at this event to showcase its contributions in the Solutions
Gallery organised on the fringes of the summit meeting.

Discussing and explaining

While the diagnosis of climate change and its anthropogenic nature
appear to be unanimously accepted, the implementation of solutions
calls for convergent action by several types of players, such as
businesses, NGOs and countries. As a responsible company, SPIE plays
an active part in several joint professional bodies to further debate
and prepare for the future. In this context, the Group is supporting
The Shift Project (TSP), a European think-tank supporting transition
to an economy freed from its dependence on fossil energy sources.

Constantly innovating

40% reduction in greenhouse gases, 27% of European energy
consumption from renewable sources by 2030: these are targets, set by
the European Commission, which SPIE aims to support by proposing
innovative solutions in its business fields (Smart city, e-fficient
buildings, Energies, and Industry services).

In the building sector, representing the largest portion of energy
consumption in Europe - accounting for nearly 40% of final energy
consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, SPIE proposes a
comprehensive approach combining energy transition and digital
technologies. The primary objective is to improve buildings' energy
and environmental performances, while ensuring the comfort of
occupants. This approach was illustrated by work carried out on the
D2 tower in La Défense business district, near Paris, where SPIE
teams provided comprehensive services in 2014 for the installation of
the tower's high and low voltage electrical power systems, generators
sets, building management system, energy efficiency system and fire
safety system. This flagship 37-storey, 54,000 sq. m building
qualified for French high environmental quality and very high energy
efficiency certification. A similar high level of requirements had to
be met for the "La Toison d'Or" housing complex in Belgium, where
SPIE installed heating and air conditioning systems. The choice of a
biofuel-fired cogeneration system should provide energy savings 15%
better than current legal requirements.

Industry is another key sector in which SPIE has built up special
expertise in optimising all energy inputs for the same service
output. The resulting improvement in overall performance gives
industrial firms competitive advantages, as illustrated by the
project SPIE implemented at the Takeda pharmaceuticals plant in
Germany. The solution adopted brought this pharmaceuticals company
annual savings of EUR1.1 million, reduced annual electricity
consumption by more than 10,000 kWh and replaced 8,000 MWh of heating
with cogeneration technology.

Through development in areas such as green energy sources,
sustainable mobility, intelligent networks, eco-neighbourhoods and
advanced communications, smart cities also pave the way to a
reinvented urban environment that is more responsible and more
economical with resources. Looking forward to a low-carbon economy,
priority is given to reconfiguring major infrastructures, such as
power transmission and distribution systems, airport sites, and road,
rail and waterway networks. In taking up this challenge, SPIE
addresses local needs by seeking long-term unified responses to
technical problems. In this context, SPIE has, for a number of years,
been rolling out smart lighting systems, like the City Networks
system which allows urban lighting to be adapted to take various
factors into account, such as sunlight, number of people or holding
of special events requiring more lighting.

Constantly changing professional disciplines

Technologies are changing but what about the skills needed to
implement them? Many of the disciplines represented at SPIE did not
exist a few years ago. The company has to dedicate considerable
resources to ongoing professional training to ensure that the skills
of all its employees keep pace with ceaselessly changing
technologies. At SPIE, this training is provided by an in-house
organisation, SPIE's Skills Development Centre which comprises a
Management School and a Technology Institute. Qualified external and
internal training staff pass on their expertise to provide suitable
training modules to keep up with the changes in the world around us.

"Enhancing the quality of life for as many people as possible
while also facilitating our transition to a low-carbon society is
clearly a tough challenge but that mustn't stop us - on the
contrary!" says Alfredo Zarowsky, SPIE's Deputy Managing Director.
"The United Nations conference on climate change in Paris and the
decisions that will then be made are driving forces for innovation,
encouraging us to keep optimising our skills. This is the only way of
achieving the ambitious targets necessary for the preservation of our
planet."

About SPIE

As the independent European leader in multi-technical services in
the areas of energy and communications, SPIE supports its customers
to design, build, operate and maintain energy-efficient and
environmentally-friendly facilities.

With more than 38,000 employees working from close to 550 sites in
35 countries, SPIE achieved consolidated revenues of EUR5.22 billion
in 2014 and consolidated EBITA of EUR334 million.

http://www.spie.com

https://www.facebook.com/SPIEgroup

http://twitter.com/spiegroup

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ots Originaltext: Spie
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Contact:
Press contacts
SPIE
Pascal Omnès
Communications Director
Tel. +33(0)1-34-22-58-21
pascal.omnes@spie.com

Agence Droit Devant
Philippe Hériard
Tel. +33(0)1-39-53-53-33
heriard@droitdevant.fr