Eco-design of buildings and infrastructures

Establishment of the Chair

November 2008 for a five-year period

Coordinator for Ecole des Ponts 

Fabien LEURENT (LVMT)

Objectives

To provide long-term support for the implementation of eco-audit and eco-design approaches in companies with implications for public policy, the inclusion of environmental performance levels in the commissioning of buildings and for public awareness raising in the eco-friendly use of buildings and infrastructure. The goal is to create decision-making tools whose scientific credibility guarantees ideological neutrality and to make them available to the different stakeholders.

The purpose of these tools is to measure and quantify the economic impacts (production costs, operating costs, commercial returns and more broadly transfers between parties) and the environmental impacts (CO2 emissions, biodiversity, water and energy consumption, etc.) of projects in France and abroad. The primary focus of the Chair is studies and research in Europe, with a concentration on France.

Themes

This Chair has three primary research priorities in eco-design, within a systemic and multidisciplinary approach:

• Assessing the environmental quality of buildings and neighbourhoods, with equal application to new fabric and regeneration, a major challenge in Europe.
• Analysing the life-cycle and impacts of transport infrastructures. The objective of the Chair is to study eco-labelling strategies and innovative design models for better management of infrastructure life-cycles.
• Managing buildings and transport and regulating their use for optimum environmental protection. Linking urban and transport issues is a way of establishing more effective environmental protection regulations for “habitat-transport” systems.