The Montauban postal sorting center (Tarn-et-Garonne) is a 1980s building. same time and eight loading docks whose doors open wide with each arrival of a truck, and even more often in this last straight line leading to Christmas. Enough to make this 2,650 m2 gas-heated liner an ideal “victim” of the explosion in energy costs. However, the site can boast of having reduced its energy consumption by 25.8% in 2022. “Without major work, just with common sense”, assures Bénédicte Le Chevallier, technical inspector at the regional management of La Poste in Occitanie and, as such, responsible for 150 buildings, not all of them state-of-the-art.
When it decided to attack the consumption of the Montalbanais sorting centre, the specter of load shedding did not yet hover, the threat of an explosion in bills as a consequence of the war in Ukraine was barely rising. But she had another motivation in her crusade for sobriety, that of having entered the sorting center in the competition Cube*, the French energy savings championship organized by the French Institute for the energy performance of buildings (Ifpeb) and whose winners will be unveiled this Tuesday, December 13 in Paris.
To appear well in the competition, Bénédicte Le Chevallier made a major inspection with the “maintainer” of the site, to “dissect” the possible sources of savings. The big ones that flowed naturally first, such as the decision to switch portable air conditioning units to 22°C then 26°C instead of 18°C in summer, and to lower the temperature from 22 to 19°C in offices in winter and from 18°C to 16°C in the large nerve center where everyone is on the move. Sanitary facilities – showers and WCs – that were underused but which came on at the same time as the others with presence detectors were outright condemned, as was the radiator which was “just next to the refrigerator in a room break”.
Access to 25 radiators found
Examination of the premises also brought to light a beautiful absurdity: these 25 radiators in the sorting room, wedged behind the lockers and therefore impossible to adjust manually. They are now cleared and Ridouane Brioual, work environment manager (RET), never fails to check when he passes that they have not been fully restored by those who are cautious. With posters and giant placards, the executive spent the year recalling the instructions and eco-gestures. “Make as if you were at home” is his mantra for the 90 employees. “At home, we don’t leave the light on when we leave, that would surprise me. And in a one-story building (two with the mezzanine), “it’s better to take the stairs than the elevator”, when you’re not encumbered by a big cart. Ridouane Brioual also ensures that the PCs in the offices and the large printers are turned off in the evening. And he repeats over and over that it’s not worth leaving the dock doors open between two unloadings.
To say that these efforts were made with joy and good humor would be an exaggeration. “Inevitably, when you change the comfort of work, it can get snug”, recognizes Ridouane Brioual. “We are not in the world of Care Bears”, concedes Bénédicte Le Chevallier. But, from time to time, the defects of this eco-discipline have been corrected. For example, a desk that was located above an unheated room suffered from greater thermal amplitude. Its occupants were entitled to a carpet and footrests.
* Competition for efficient building uses