No one is more committed to caring for our environment than St-Luc.

As a sign of its continued growth, St-Luc chose to renovate an industrial building in the Northern French town of Bondues for its French branch, Microbox Packaging. The renovation included the installation of photovoltaic cells on the roof of the building, demonstrating our clear choice for renewable energy.

A high-tech, energy-producing roof

In order to meet our own tough insulation standards, which strive far beyond the legal requirements, we decided to completely dismantle the existing roof and replace it with acoustically perforated steel roofing with a damp-proof membrane. Stone wool completes the insulation and the top, water-proof layer is composed of a synthetic membrane of EPDM rubber (ethylene propylene diene Monomer).

St-Luc then quickly decided to incorporate its green principles into the construction of the new roof by employing it to generate power for the building. Analysis showed that the best solution would be to use an EPDM membrane with integrated amorphous photovoltaic cells.  The cells have been directly integrated in the water-proof membrane over a surface area of 2,500m², spanning half of the total surface area of the roof.
This high-tech, energy-producing roof allows us to produce up to 85 kW h, which could power around 15-20 homes. This is currently the largest collection of photovoltaic cells north of Paris.

But, there’s more…

In addition, our commitment to being a quality-focussed and environmentally-conscious company has led us to further improve insulation by adding double walls to the building. This was achieved by adding aesthetically-pleasing polyurethane sandwich panels, which in addition to improving the insulation of the building also improve the building's appearance.

The result of these modifications is a building that consumes very little power and remains unaffected by external circumstances. By allowing us to maintain a constant temperature of 18-20°C and a humidity level of 50-55%, the building provides the perfect environment for the storage, printing and processing of cardboard.

This environmentally conscious attitude that permeates everything we do – from our facilities to our way of working – is perfectly in keeping with the commitment to quality and service at the core of our sustainable business practices. Our consistent approach to sustainability means that you can trust that your packaging needs are in the hands of a socially engaged and responsible partner. From our facilities and production procedures to our approach to processing raw materials, we are proud to say that we are contributing to the environmental effort and investing in the energy of the future.