Decarbonization Strategies
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions—a major 21st-century challenge—is an indispensable condition for all our operations, both at the urban and building level. Our approach is to consider the decarbonization required as a stimulating, innovative lever for design and renovation, rather than a constraint that needs to be fixed. We offer pro-active, iterative low-carbon engineering services to steer urban and architectural choices towards sustainable, viable, and resilient solutions, in line with the roadmap set by France’s National Low Carbon Strategy (Stratégie Nationale Bas Carbone, SNBC).
With a view to balancing viability, sustainability, and climate resilience, our approach views carbon not as a priority above other architectural and urban challenges, but as a means to serve them. Overall, our aim is to “do better with less”, by trying to reconcile the challenges of comfort, energy and use—among others—with the carbon challenge.
At the building level, decarbonization aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction, use, and end-of-life of buildings. In this way, we take action across the entire life cycle, studying in detail all possible sources of carbon reduction: reuse and repurposing potential; built morphology and compactness; inventory of local bio/geo-based materials; durability and reversibility of built spaces; study of renewable and decarbonized energy supply; incentives for decarbonized uses, and much more. Our expertise is backed by analysis calculated with flexible calculation tools (LCA software and in-house tools) allowing us to provide a response adapted to all types of projects and all phases of progress (from competition through construction). This means we can quickly simulate and assess the carbon impact of materials or entire buildings, to then adjust design choices and move towards the most virtuous version of the project.
We also carry out regulatory LCA studies for the RE2020 (France’s revised thermal regulation of buildings) and various labels and certifications[AD1] that include low-carbon requirements in their standards (BBCA, HQE, BREEAM...).
Finally, to provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary analysis of rehabilitation projects, we are also committed to characterizing the environmental relevance of energy improvement measures. In fact, we believe the “carbon payback time” of each action (initial carbon expenditure vs. energy saving in use) is an essential indicator, particularly for securing the targets set by France’s Décret Tertiaire (French government decree aimed at regulating energy consumption in tertiary buildings).
At the urban level, our approach integrates all GHG-emitting aspects of development: construction, energy, mobility, outdoor spaces, etc. For us, a neighborhood LCA is much more than a collection of best practices: it’s a guide for urban and landscape design. We base our calculations on the latest methods developed by ADEME and the BBCA, while developing our own in-house tools for subjects that are still poorly covered (mobility, public spaces, etc.).