UK-based Eave is one of just ten 'cutting edge ventures' selected for Catalyst, which is only open to mature innovative companies already in a position to start rolling out their products and services.
Catalyst is run by Leonard, VINCI's foresight and innovation arm - Leonard exists to provide VINCI partner companies with the support and resources they need to deploy their services and products within the Group's business units. Crucially, Eave's enrolment in the Catalyst programme gives it preferential access to VINCI executives and means it is now the Group's preferred next-generation hearing protection partner.
Eave's partnership with Vinci comes as an increasing number of companies recognise that traditional hearing protection devices like earplugs and passive ear defenders will never be an effective solution to the scourge of occupational deafness in the construction industry.
Eave's solution to the problem is a hearing protection system comprised of smart ear defenders, which promote situational awareness while gathering real-time data on environmental noise and the wearer's exposure to noise, and an online platform ('Peak') for analysing the data and gathering insights. Eave's customers use these insights to protect over-exposed workers, adjust working methods, and remove noise hazards at source.
Eave is already working with the likes of Galliford Try, Costain, Skanska, Ferrovial, VolkerLaser and BAM Nuttall in the UK. Eave's partnership with VINCI is the first step in its ambitious European expansion plan for 2021.
David Greenberg, CEO of Eave, said: "According to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, 28 per cent of the European workforce is exposed to a high level of workplace noise - and noise-induced hearing loss is the most commonly reported occupational disease in Europe.
Unless businesses that require workers to operate in hazardous noise change their approach and move away from passive hearing protection products, the human cost of workplace noise will remain unacceptably high. We're delighted that VINCI has signalled its intent to raise the standard of hearing protection across its business units by bringing Eave into its Catalyst programme, and we look forward to starting our first pilot projects with VINCI in the near future."
Louis Cottin, Catalyst Program Manager, commented: "Prevention and safety are major priorities for the VINCI Group. Eave provides an innovative solution for the acoustic protection of workers and the mapping of worksite noise. The jury for the new CATALYST cohort was won over by the quality of the innovation, the maturity of the solution ahead of its market and the possibility of rapid deployment within the VINCI Group."V
