Our philosophy
At Grad®, innovation never comes at the expense of the essential. We design smart installation solutions, built to last, easy to implement, and of impeccable quality. Our commitment is also environmental: we select responsible materials and collaborate with partners dedicated to reducing their ecological impact. Durability, performance, and high standards guide each of our decisions to build a more responsible future, without compromise.
Innovation
Responsible
Sustainable
Our mission
Grad® was born from a mission: To develop innovative, simple, and durable high-quality and technical fastening solutions for private, public, and architectural applications, with the ambition of becoming essential in the French and international markets.
We prioritize the quality of products and services from needs assessment to on-site support (specialized design tool and design office for custom solutions, responsiveness, dedicated customer service, communication and sales support, technical training and product presentations, etc.). Our main objective is to establish lasting partnerships by placing our customers at the center of our concerns.
At Grad®, we think about tomorrow. Sustainable decisions and strong partnerships with our suppliers are essential to excel and offer our customers a premium and lasting experience.
As an industrial company, we face major challenges in our approach to designing, sourcing, and producing our solutions.
We maintain constant vigilance regarding the repercussions of our decisions and actions. This is why we have initiated a study of our carbon footprint to better understand our current impact, with the desire to continuously reduce it.
In this regard, we prioritize, as far as possible, the selection of local, French, and European partners committed to an environmental approach, materials with limited environmental impact, as well as eco-responsible and sustainable production processes.
For example, the aluminum we use for manufacturing our rails is composed of an average of 80% recycled material and is infinitely recyclable. The polypropylene (PP) used for manufacturing some of our accessories contains 70% recycled materials.
We have also chosen to stop sourcing exotic woods subject to serious environmental and ethical controversies.
To ensure the compliance of our system in France and internationally, we strive to meet current normative and regulatory requirements. This is why the Grad® system is controlled, tested, and validated internally, in accordance with a control plan, and by testing organizations and laboratories (e.g.: FCBA) to verify its compliance with applicable standards in France and internationally (DTU 51.4 (decking), DTU 41.2 (cladding), Eurocodes, etc.).
A vision focused on sustainability and the environment
We also attach great importance to developing and perfecting our system, scrupulously respecting regulatory standards.
Aware that the future of our planet is being played out and decided today, our initiatives and developments are moving in this direction. This is why a continuous evaluation of our processes and our environmental impact allows us to constantly improve our practices and products. Read more… We have notably undertaken a series of measures aimed at addressing current environmental challenges, particularly by adopting sustainable and eco-responsible production practices at all stages of the process, from the selection of materials and suppliers. We intelligently invest in innovative solutions to offer a high-performance system that gracefully withstands the test of time while optimizing resource utilization, reducing waste, and promoting circularity.
A new factory compliant with environmental expectations
Our new factory has been the subject of extensive consideration in terms of energy savings and environmental impact. For its construction, we chose to prioritize local partners and craftsmen as much as possible for the work.
Integrated within a group whose core business is wood, Grad® opted for interior partitions with a wooden frame by another brand of the Burger & Cie group, BOOA, always with the aim of short supply chains and reducing our environmental impact.
In parallel, as our activity generates wood waste, this is reused to heat our current premises. This heating method will be maintained in our new unit.
2200 m2 of photovoltaic panels allow us to produce approximately 561 MWh per year, thus covering nearly half of our annual production consumption.
Furthermore, to minimize the use of artificial lights, natural light is favored by integrating glass walls along the entire length of the building and glazed sheds on the roof. To minimize energy losses, we plan to recover energy from cooling circuits.
Our future flows and production organization will allow us to limit the use of handling equipment and temporary packaging.
Tanker delivery of our polymers and their storage in silos will eliminate transport packaging.
In addition to investments related to the building itself, Grad® will be equipped with high-tech production tools to reduce manufacturing times and, consequently, energy consumption times.
