The event is part of the continuity of the transformations undertaken by the Catholic University of Lille since 2013 and the arrival of Jeremy Rifkin, who announces the entry of Hauts-de-France into the dynamics of rev3. Since then, the University has embarked on an extensive transformation program with an investment plan of 500 million euros, unheard of in this institution that produces 38,500 students. baptized “Live tree”the ecological and social transition of the campus is part of both a real estate perspective and that of the evolution of skills.
At the heart of the project, the desire to make the campus a demonstrator, starting from 2024, with the start of the transformation of the 48,000 m2 of the Catholic University of Lille and the ambition that the buildings will be low-carbon from 2025. We are also talking about the future urban farm at the Rameau Palace (horizon 2025), run over by Junia, or about a dozen demonstrators developed in the Vauban district : self-consumption of energy, innovative thermal renovation, internal and external greening of buildings …
Involve students more
“We want to make Catho a learning University, where scientific excellence moves towards the student experience. It is an era of transition: the University decompartmentalizes and becomes the student actor. I’m not talking about CSR but about RSU: the social responsibility of the University. It is necessary to de-compartmentalize disciplines, research …», States the former president-rector Pierre Giorgini (2012-2020), who involved the Catholic University of Lille in this important transformation.
And since it is a place for the production of skills, why shouldn’t the University become a pioneer in becoming a place of transformation? Beyond the intellect and the education of the students, the Catho is committed renovation of its emblematic buildings. The 6,500 m² of the Rizomm building, for example, allows users to take possession of it thanks to their numerous sensors. Not to mention the installation of temperature controllers in the classrooms and waste management.
“It is an essential question of the transformation of society. We can’t just tell ourselves that we will train talent. We want to be an actor who advances», Explains Benoît Robyns, vice president of CSR.
Five days of collective reflection
The next step in this transformation also involves organizing the biennial ECOPOS, from 26 to 30 October, in the premises of the University, but not only because it will also involve the New Century as well as the various components of the Catho. In total, more than 200 events
in the form of conferences, exhibitions, round tables, debates, etc., but also through the testimony of committed leaders through Crédit Agricole Assurances, Kairos, Mon gobelet en lin … and personalities such as the director Cyril Dion and the eco-activist the businesswoman Eva Sadoun. Everyone will have the ambition to put people at the center of priorities to give hope to the generations of tomorrow, on the general theme “We dare to praise the future”.
This constructive optimism will unquestionably be the red thread of ECOPOSS, to be able to take a step aside and embark the company on “possible futures”. “We want participants to engage in transitions on exit, according to their freedom of choice and their level.adds Louis-Marie Clouet, director of the ECOPOSS project. Far from being moralistic, the Biennale (whose next edition is therefore scheduled for 2024) above all has the will to support a collective dynamic and is in interaction with the World Forum for a Responsible Economy which will take place a few days earlier, on October 18th.
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