News The Jaeger-LeCoultre site, which currently occupies a floor space of 16,000 m2, will have an additional 9,000 m2 by 2010. This extension is part of a wider programme to emphasise the manufactory’s natural integration in its geographical and social environment.
Since its creation, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been both a motor and a magnet for economic growth in the Vallée de Joux, a region of unspoilt countryside located at an altitude of 1,000 metres. The original workshop founded by Antoine LeCoultre laid the foundations of a brand which has grown to become an international player on account of its hi-tech designs and avant-garde watchmaking philosophy. Since 1833, the date on which it was established, essential expansion projects have followed one another every two or three decades: 1866, 1888, 1912, 1946, 1972 and 1996. The firm’s success has now made it necessary to accelerate this rate and, just eleven years after completion of the last stage, the largest expansion in the firm’s history is already under way. And with 1,000 employees, its status as the leading employer in this exceptional region with a low population density calls for added focus on social and environmental responsibilities.
For Jaeger-LeCoultre, the concern to ensure natural integration within an exceptional setting is nothing new. The Manufacture built one of the first water-treatment plants in the area. The existing plant will be adapted to meet the additional needs so as to ensure that industrial activity has no detrimental impact on the environment. Designed to withstand extreme weather conditions, it will naturally take account of the specific topographic and geographic features of the area in order to guarantee the purity of the discharges.
Implemented for the past ten years, a project based on various recovery processes has already enabled a significant reduction in water consumption, and this despite the considerable rise in production. The design of the new building will serve to further intensity this approach. The machines will be cooled by a closed-circuit water loop as well as a free-cooling system based on fresh air from outside the building.
Over the past 15 years, a purification of the heating system has kept fuel consumption stable, whereas the surface area of the production premises has increased by a massive 40%. The envelope of the new building will feature an extremely high thermal coefficient in order to take account of specific altitude-related demands. Excess heat will be recovered, stored and reused according to needs.
This integration of the Manufacture with its natural setting is obviously also complemented by a concern for the human dimension: Jaeger-LeCoultre will double the number of apprenticeships offered as soon as the new workshops are operational and will train almost forty new professionals each year.
The overall increase in the number of employees within the Manufacture, corresponding to around a hundred new recruits per year, also implies handling additional responsibilities in terms of pollution linked to means of transport: in a region characterised by the spread-out nature of human habitation, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been actively supporting car-pool schemes for several years and since October 2007, it has begun running and covering the full costs of a dedicated bus service. In light of the immediate success of this venture, two new lines will be added as of March 2008. Intended to offer employees a pleasant and reliable means of transport from their home to the Manufacture in the morning and in the opposite direction every evening, the routes extend over a distance of 35 to 50 kilometres. Buses run with a timetable slightly adjusted to escape rush-hour evening traffic, thereby saving a good deal of time. Given that the full set of measures – car-pool schemes and bus lines - serve to avoid 270 cars driving 50 kilometres for around 220 days a year, the total number of kilometres thus not covered amounts to 3 million per year, representing a major contribution to reducing vehicle-related pollution.
And since it is important to be consistent in terms of one’s choices, the number of parking spots provided by the Manufacture will not increase at all over the coming years - a weighty new argument that further enhances the already remarkable energy balance of the Manufacture, which has always chosen to grow exclusively within its historical site and incorporates 40 different professions under its roof.
February 08, 2008
