Carbon footprint: on the right path

The University of Bordeaux's first greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions assessment was drawn up in 2016, followed by a more comprehensive carbon assessment - based on the method recommended by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) - in 2019. Since the launch of the Institute for Transitions within the university in 2023, Grégoire Sierra, Transitions Management Support Officer, has been coordinating the process of collecting data enabling the measurement of the institution's carbon footprint: "The aim is to establish a snapshot of the impact of the university's various activities in order to identify the main sources of emissions and prioritise possible improvements. We are currently carrying out this assessment on the scale of the entire institution, but hope that in the future we will be able to assess the impact of each of its components in order to refine our analysis. Many laboratories are already engaged in this process. We could also consider carrying out an assessment for an event organised within the university, as we did for the MayDay student festival last year."

Prioritising ecomobility

First source of emissions for the university: transportation. Malvina Orozco, a Policy Officer recruited in 2022, has devised a plan for inter-institutional mobility for the Talence, Pessac and Gradignan campuses, implementation of which began last year. An action plan for the Bordeaux campuses of Carreire, Victoire and Bastide is now being finalised. "These plans cover commuting and travel to and from the university, as well as business travel, excluding long-distance travel, which is covered by the university's travel policy." One major focus is a cycling plan that aims to reduce cycling discontinuities and conflicts of use thanks, in particular, to road improvements, road markings and priority given to cyclists. The university is also participating in the rollout of a network of "cycle motorways" led by Bordeaux Métropole, the ReVE – Réseau vélo express, which plans to open 14 fast, clear and safe routes that will cover the entire metropolitan area. Line 8 will cross the Talence and Pessac campuses, where cyclists will clearly have priority over drivers.

Other measures to reduce the university's emissions related to the movement of its community include various financial incentives for staff using environmentally friendly modes of transport, facilitating car-sharing through a partnership with the Karos application, installing charging stations for electric vehicles, and working in partnership with the Métropole to ensure that bus routes serve the campuses efficiently. "In terms of development, we are gradually nibbling away at the space allocated to cars to make more room for cyclists and pedestrians. But the impact of these decisions on the university's carbon footprint will only be seen in the long term," emphasises Malvina Orozco.

Optimising purchases

Second source of emissions: purchases. Cédric Carcaillon, Director of the Purchasing Department for ten years, recalls that in his field of action, the first notable efforts in favour of transitions were driven by the DD&RS label (in French). The university now has an action plan for environmental and societal transitions, one chapter of which details current and future actions concerning purchases (also known as "inputs") and consists of buying less and better. "We are trying to streamline and rationalise the expenditure chain by reducing our associated carbon footprint. This consists of a multitude of actions such as grouping orders and deliveries as much as possible, taking into account the life cycle of purchased products, choosing caterers who favour short supply chains and reducing plastic in packaging, etc."

At present, nearly 40% of the University of Bordeaux's contracts include environmental considerations. By the end of 2026, as provided for in the 2021 Climate and Resilience Act, all contracts will have to include environmentally responsible clauses. The future end users obviously play a key role in the expression of their needs when it comes to the equipment purchased by the university. Cédric Carcaillon cites the example of energy-intensive scientific equipment such as supercomputers: until a few years ago, their computing power was one of the main considerations for scientists when making their choice. Now, their energy consumption is also being scrutinised and is proving to be a decisive factor.

Decarbonising energy

Finally, as regards the university's energy footprint, Timothée Aubursin has the answer: "by 2028, the university aims to reduce its energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 40%", summarises the head of the Environmental Performance Department within the Property and Environment Division. While 90% of the university's buildings are currently still heated by gas, two heating networks will be created by 2028, one on the university estate (the Talence, Pessac and Gradignan campuses) in partnership with Bordeaux Métropole, and the other on the Carreire campus in Bordeaux, in partnership with the university hospital. "The use of wood and geothermal energy (exploiting the heat in the ground) will therefore replace gas (fossil energy)," explains Timothée, who also informs us that by 2028 the university will have abandoned its very last oil-fired boilers. At the same time, the deployment of photovoltaic panels on roofs and sunshades is continuing - an additional 10,000m² over the next three years.

The other actions detailed in the "energy" chapter of the transitions policy plan aim to tackle GHG emissions by all possible means: renovation of the building stock (external insulation, replacement of roofs and joinery, etc.), ambitious targets set for operators to reduce heating, ventilation and air conditioning costs, rationalisation of surface areas to adapt, in particular, to the evolution of teleworking in recent years and to avoid unnecessarily empty offices, raising awareness of the university community to various eco-friendly actions, etc.

Uncertainty and hypotheses

As Grégoire Sierra, - who collects all the data used to calculate the university's carbon footprint -, notes, energy-related data is the clearest and easiest to analyse. "For other items, we have to formulate hypotheses and the margin of error is much greater, for example on the subject of student meals, since the CROUS (student centres) are frequented by both our students and those from other establishments on the campus." He emphasises the uncertainty inherent to the exercise, which he tries to manage as best he can: "We work with researchers who are curious about how the data is calculated and not keen on approximations! This encourages us to provide very rigorous and documented work, of course, but a carbon footprint is never perfectly accurate, and we have to live with that. It is a tool, made up of orders of magnitude, which helps us make decisions. A diagnosis that must be followed up with actions to be fully meaningful."