Building a smart, sustainable and green campus

A SMART CAMPUS DRIVING POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE AREA

Attentive to its environment and keen to adapt to a world undergoing a profound transition, La Rochelle Université has become a true testing ground for research in the service of the region and the challenges of tomorrow. Global, ambitious and innovative, the Smart Campus approach aims to make the university an exemplary campus that is committed, connected, sustainable and green. 

This involves a strong commitment to building renovation and the introduction of smart systems to regulate energy consumption and flows. Renovation operations, technical equipment, insulation work and digital heritage management services are all included in the demands for the contractualisation process with the State and institutional partners (CPER, Recovery Plan, etc.), and should enable the institution to limit its own ecological impact on the area.

La Rochelle Université is also involved in a programme to change people’s behaviour towards sustainable transport. We are helping to set up the AGREMOB project with a consortium of local actors. The programme involves setting up awareness-raising initiatives, workshops and incentives to help the residents of La Rochelle make the transition to sustainable mobility. La Rochelle Université was awarded the “Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility” label in 2022. This label recognises the institution’s commitment and strategy in terms of sustainable development and social responsibility, and commits it to a continual improvement process. 

In this respect, the project is representative of the way in which the institution is seizing the digital opportunity to turn it into a tool for opening up the university to all and building a smart campus. This ambition is also reflected in the virtual campus, designed to offer 1 000 usable virtual offices and a reinvented library, providing shared workspaces and digital portfolios for students. 

Providing access to a virtual work environment for the entire university community means improving the university’s digital infrastructure. 

RAISING AWARENESS OF SOCIETAL ISSUES AND ENLIGHTENING DECISION-MAKING THROUGH RESEARCH EXPERTISE

As the national and international academic landscape evolves, the university is not only faced with the globalisation of higher education, but also with its responsibilities in terms of the development of society. Through its missions of education, research and professional integration of its students, the university contributes to the training of responsible citizens of the world who can play an active role in present and future changes. By developing and disseminating new knowledge and providing innovative solutions to a rapidly changing world, the university remains the laboratory for tomorrow’s society.

Drawing on the intellectual potential of its student and scientific community, La Rochelle Université is helping to produce decision-making tools to help solve public policy problems. This ambition is all the stronger in that it is part of the joint actions undertaken by all the local actors as part of the La Rochelle Zero Carbon Territory project. The university plays an important role in this process, drawing on a number of multi-disciplinary fields:

• civic engagement,
• blue carbon,
• digital responsibility,
• digital data exploitation
• sustainable construction
• circular economy
• creation of a carbon cooperative

OPEN AND SHARED GOVERNANCE

The university’s responsibility also lies in the nature of its approach, which we want to be collective and shared. For this reason, we are looking at our actions in terms of shared management and participative decision-making processes.

The creation of a Strategic Orientation Committee bringing together high-level national and international experts, economic and social partners and elected representatives is planned as part of the next institutional contract. The aim of this committee will be to assess, confirm or readjust the university’s strategic choices.

A RESPONSIBLE UNIVERSITY COMMITTED TO FIGHTING ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

Putting people at the heart of its institutional policy, La Rochelle Université aims to fight against all forms of discrimination and has created a Vice Presidency for Quality of Working Life and Equality. The vice-presidency’s cross-disciplinary approach seeks to promote a culture of equality, while strengthening social dialogue and expanding best practice and existing schemes such as “L’Université me protège” and the Gender Equality Action Plan.