Edycem and Centrale Nantes are working on tomorrow’s urban challenges

The partnership with the École Centrale de Nantes enables Edycem to accelerate its R&D by making it operational afterwards. Photo by Charles Marion for Edycem

It is a wonderful meeting between two worlds that takes place several times a month. Academics from Centrale Nantes and Edycem staff are working together on the challenges of tomorrow’s cities. A partnership whose first mutual scientific support goes back twenty years.

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In 2024, the challenge is related to finding an operational system for city dwellers who suffer from the increase in heat islands, due to the hardening of cities and global warming. Realizing that concrete was able to respond yesterday to the needs of sustainable infrastructure, health, economic and inclusive issues, Edycem today wants to take its responsibilities related to the product it markets. “We know that we have an impact on the environment, but also on the comfort of life in the city,” summary of Béatrice Vila, marketing director at Edycem. “Concrete must provide solutions, not create additional problems. That is why the issue of water infiltration into the soil and cooling of roads, especially in summer, are topics that are important to us. »

The teams are particularly considering a project to “water circulation on sidewalks”. The fact that there is no shortage of plants in the city allows them to play their role as a natural heat solution. The program will also be political as it will ultimately require the support of a number of stakeholders including public and private contractors. “Prototype in Progress”noting the man who is part of the steering committee, “However, it will take three years before the solution is commercialized.”

Based in Montaigu-Vendée, the company with three hundred employees and whose commercial value exceeds €144 million, wanted to be uncertain about the research and development envelope given to this subject. The focus was on the last chair’s program between the two groups “an investment of €3 million”we study on the school website.