For example, Saint-Gobain has changed the way it delivers plaster board to construction sites. Before, it came in a standard size, and workers cut the board to fit the rooms being built. But the leftovers just went to the dump.

"We have now a cut-to-order system," Soritsch-Renier says. "So, we get the building information model, we optimize the cuts, then nothing goes to the landfill."

She says the new system improved time-to-installation by 30%. "In construction, time is money," she says. "And the environment wins because in the end it is less raw material and less energy. And that's thanks to the digital tools we're using."

Microsoft has been a key partner, Soritsch-Renier says, and the framework agreement the two companies signed in July will benefit both companies by accelerating the search for sustainable construction materials and processes.

"You don't just push technology for the sake of technology," she says. "You need to always understand the 'why' and the 'what for.' And with that understanding you develop and you evolve and you push things forward with new tools, like with the research platform."

Saint-Gobain's efforts to embrace cutting-edge technology took another step at the beginning of September, when it appointed Annica Hagen to a newly created role as the company's first chief artificial intelligence officer.

She will work with Soritsch-Renier to define how AI can support the Saint-Gobain Group's strategic plan.