/regions/2024/01/11/19-pol-mique-sur-le-d-frichage-de-8-hectares-de-la-hardt-pour-construire-usine-soprema-00-00-21-01-65a02f3374c55317860051.jpg)
The Soprema group is planning the creation of a new factory near Sausheim, in Haut-Rhin. Information makes you react. Some see the potential creation of jobs, while others deplore the significant destruction of forest areas.
One of the world leaders in waterproofing and insulation, soon in Haut-Rhin. Soprema plans to establish itself around Sausheim. THE group based in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) has 12,000 employees and 123 production sites around the world.
At this time, the group has not communicated any deadline for this installation. The public inquiry has just ended at the beginning of January: the building will be located in the Hardt forest.
This last information provokes a reaction. Supporters of the project mention additional jobs that will be created soon. Conversely, opponents fear consequences for the environment.
The Strasbourg firm plans to settle on land that belonged to Stellantis (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën). 12 hectares which were used by the automobile group’s sports association. They were sold to a real estate company, quite convincing of Soprema’s taste. The site is close to the motorway, the Basel-Mulhouse-Fribourg airport, but also the railway. The absence of depollution is another argument which counted in this upcoming installation.
For those behind the project, this new industrial site is the promise of dozens of jobs. The turnover of the Soprema group is close to 5 billion euros. It is also well established in France, but also abroad. The Strasbourg company is, for example, established in the United States, Brazil, China and Senegal.
The Soprema group chose this site, in particular for its proximity to road and rail communication routes and the Basel-Mulhouse airport. • © France 3 Alsace / France Télévisions
Contacted by France 3 Alsace, Soprema did not wish to comment on this information for the moment. No more than local elected officials, who refrained from responding. For the time being, the establishment of this factory will necessarily involve an environmental compensation measure. The company will indeed have to plant 10 new hectares of trees.
A counterpart which is not enough, from the point of view of the opponents. The future site is on the edge of the Hardt forest. This immense area of 13,000 hectares is located to the east of the agglomeration of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin). A forest that is already suffering, denounce Environmentalists. “Soprema’s industrial activities do not cause me any concern. It is its location that poses a problem, particularly because it requires cutting down trees over an area of 8 hectares,” asserts Loic Mincey, municipal and agglomeration councilor of Mulhouse, member of the Ecologists (Europe Écologie-Les Verts).
Faced with the attack on this refuge of biodiversity and tool in the fight against heat islands, this elected official proposes an alternative. “We must review the potential of other economic sites in the agglomeration. What should have been done is to ask Stellantis to accommodate the land that has been released. This group has compressed these activities, so that today, it can sell plots on its old land, which was artificialized,” he says.
Once in place, this new Soprema site would be the 124th opened by the company.