Building a smart, sustainable and responsible campus

A SMART CAMPUS THAT MAKES A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE REGION’S SOCIAL CHANGES

La Rochelle Université is attentive to its environment and is keen to adapt to a world in deep transition. It has become a real 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, committed, connected, sustainable and responsible campus.

It involves strong action in favour of the rehabilitation of buildings and the implementation of intelligent devices for regulating energy consumption and flows. Included in the requests for contractualisation operations with the State and institutional partners (CPER, Recovery Plan, etc.), the renovation operations, technical equipment, insulation work and digital services for managing the estate should thus enable the institution to limit its own ecological impact on the territory.

La Rochelle Université is also committed to a programme to change behaviour towards soft mobility. It is helping to set up the AGREMOB project with a consortium of several local players. The programme consists of setting up awareness-raising actions, workshops and incentives so that the citizens of La Rochelle make the transition to sustainable mobility. La Rochelle Université was awarded the “Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility” label in 2022. This label highlights the institution’s commitment and strategy in terms of sustainable development and social responsibility and commits it to a continuous improvement process.

The creation of a centre for the dissemination of scientific culture, the “Science & Society Comm’On Lab”, planned in the ExcelLR project, aims to support the development and monitoring of the University’s projects, whether they be research programmes, educational explorations or student initiatives, in order to anchor them in a societal strategy.

CAPITALISING ON DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD THE CAMPUS OF TOMORROW

With ‘Smart Code’, the University intends to be accessible anywhere and at any time thanks to the development of connected classrooms allowing a remote experience equivalent to that of the classroom. In this sense, the project is emblematic of the way in which the institution is seizing the digital opportunity to make it a tool for opening up the University to all publics and building the smart campus.

This ambition is also expressed in the virtual campus, which is intended to offer 1,000 virtual and usable offices and a reinvented library, based on shared work spaces and digital portfolios for students.

RAISING AWARENESS OF SOCIETAL ISSUES AND INFORMING PUBLIC DECISIONS THROUGH RESEARCH EXPERTISE

In a context of change in the national and international academic landscape, the University is not only faced with the globalisation of higher education, but also with its responsibilities in the development of society. Through its missions of training, research and the professional integration of students, the University contributes to the training of responsible citizens of the world who are active players in present and future changes. Producing and disseminating new knowledge, providing innovative solutions to a world in full transformation, the University remains the laboratory of tomorrow’s society.

Relying on the intellectual potential of its student and scientific community, La Rochelle Université helps to produce decision-making tools to solve public policy problems. This desire is all the stronger because it is part of the actions carried out jointly by all the players in the region as part of the La Rochelle Zero Carbon Territory project. The University plays an important role in its articulation, relying on various multidisciplinary fields for this purpose:

• citizen participation,
• blue carbon,
• responsible digital technology,
• the use of digital data,
• sustainable building,
• the circular economy
• the creation of a Carbon Cooperative

OPEN AND SHARED GOVERNANCE

The University’s responsibility also lies in the nature of its approaches, which it wishes to be collective and shared. It is therefore looking at its actions, providing for shared steering and participatory 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 in the next establishment contract. This committee will aim to evaluate, reinforce or readjust the University’s choices of trajectory.

A RESPONSIBLE UNIVERSITY COMMITTED TO FIGHTING AGAINST ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

Placing people at the heart of its institutional policy, La Rochelle Université intends to fight against all forms of discrimination and has set up a vice-presidency for quality of life at work and equality. The transversal approach of this vice-presidency aims to promote a culture of equality, while reinforcing social dialogue, developing good practices and measures in place such as “The University protects me” or the Professional Equality Action Plan.