Key initiatives at the Université de Lyon

As part of its Energy and Ecological Transition, and now its social and environmental initiatives, the Université de Lyon has launched a series of major initiatives. These initiatives will gradually build in additional annual strategies.

Since 2017, the Université de Lyon has held the Agir ensemble pour des campus durables (Act together for sustainable campuses) label. Led by the AVUF, the CPU, the CGE, the ADEME, the Crous and the MGEN, in collaboration with the RESES and the CIRSES, and with the support of the Banque des Territoires and the CASDEN, this scheme was created to promote local initiatives that contribute to the development of sustainable campuses in sustainable areas. "Agir ensemble" encourages and supports regional alliances that collectively develop and implement annual action plans aimed at involving students and staff members from higher education and research institutions.

The Université de Lyon, along with the Crous de Lyon, is the driving force behind this alliance. A local steering committee, composed of the Métropole de Lyon, the Saint-Étienne Métropole, the RESES, the Banque des Territoires, the MGEN and the CASDEN, has been established to develop an annual action plan.

Several actions have been implemented for 2022/2023. Two “How to make your event eco-friendly” training sessions were organized for committed student organizations. In order to raise awareness, 28 staff members from our institutions have been trained to run the Climate Fresco, and 24 to run the 2-Ton Workshop. At the same time, a guide entitled “Ecological transition: some awareness-raising tools for my institution” has been developed. It provides institutions with everything they need to conduct five workshops to raise awareness about social and environmental issues: the Climate Fresco, the Biodiversity Fresco, the Digital Technology Fresco, Let’s invent our low-carbon lives, and the 2-Ton Workshop.

Click here to learn more about the Agir Ensemble initiatives from 2017 to 2022 (in French)

Following the formalization of the 2018 Energy and Ecological Transition strategy, energy economists were recruited by the Université de Lyon, and made available to member institutions on a part-time basis. Today, most of these energy economists are working full-time for the institutions, although some positions are still shared in cases where the institutions do not need them on a full-time basis. The network is still active and enables the exchange of best practices and technical knowledge.

An energy economist’s responsibilities include collecting and analyzing consumption data (energy, water, etc.), identifying ways to optimize consumption, and identifying work to be carried out on technical installations in order to reduce consumption. The role of an energy economist is described in detail in a video produced as part of the Métropole de Lyon’s Regional Climate Air and Energy Plan.

Watch here the Université de Lyon energy economists video (in French)

In 2022, the Université de Lyon participated in the organization of a Climate Promotion training program with the Lyon-based start-up We Count, with the aim of providing training on how to conduct a carbon assessment and initiate a low-carbon strategy. The training program brought together eight volunteer institutions from the site and was structured around several workshops specific to the context of higher education and research.

At the end of this training program, the proposed actions were summarized in a guide published in November 2022. This guide provides an assessment of this first important step and presents the results of the various participating institutions: Crous de Lyon, ENISE, ENS de Lyon, ENTPE,  Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université Jean Monnet and VetAgro Sup.

Given the diversity of issues and the richness of the world of higher education and research, these proposals do not represent an instruction manual, nor the vision of each institution. They are intended to provide food for thought within the higher education community and other institutions.

Click here to download the Guide to Decarbonizing Higher Education (in French)

For more than ten years, the Université de Lyon has been managing the renovation and construction of buildings on the Lyon and Saint-Étienne campuses for the benefit of its institutions. These are laboratory, classroom and office renovation programs related to university activities.

In addition to its role as project leader, the Université de Lyon also supports other higher education stakeholders and institutions in the development and implementation of their projects. In particular, it plays a key role in the implementation of the current State-Region Project Contract (CPER - Contrat de plan État-Région), through its general coordination of projects in the field of higher education, research and innovation and its specific support in the pre-study and operational phases.

Find out more on our Real Estate Management web page (in French)

In order to understand their evolution and impact, a team of researchers from the Université de Lyon conducted a major survey on student mobility among member institutions between 2017 and 2019: “MobiCampus”.

MobiCampus is a research project aiming to learn more about and understand the use and needs of the university community in relation to travel. The findings from this project will give some food for thought about areas for improving travel between work, education and home, as well as on campus and between the university sites.

Find out more on the MobiCampus mobility monitoring center web page

Because rallying users together is essential to the success of the energy and ecological transition, in 2018, the Université de Lyon launched a campaign to raise awareness about eco-responsible actions. With 180,000 users, the Lyon and Saint-Étienne campuses are home to a population that, if supported in its eco-friendly actions, can play a major role in reducing the site’s energy bills.

The eco-friendly actions campaign, developed in collaboration with our institutions, aims to involve all users of the site – students, researchers, research professors and staff – and to raise their awareness of the importance of “small actions”. It aims to familiarize its various target audiences with the environmental issues and change their behavior in several areas.

An initial campaign on energy consumption and water leaks was followed by a second campaign on leaving IT equipment on standby.

Click here to discover the Eco-friendly actions campaign