SIXTH CALL FOR LOW-CARBON AND CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
The winners of the sixth SEKOYA call have been announced. You can find them in the ‘Low-Carbon Solutions’ tab. Our warmest thanks to all the participants.
The themes of the sixth call for solutions
Data in service of environmental performance and sobriety at the core of construction solutions
Aware of their impact on the environment as well as the opportunities presented by the ecological transition, construction sector stakeholders are mobilizing to undertake coordinated and innovative action to meet current environmental challenges.
In this context, data exploitation emerges as a strategic lever. The sector now has access to a vast amount of data collected over recent years but must capitalize on and structure the management and valorization of this data. The human element remains central, treating data as a powerful aid in decision-making for use cases such as: modeling and predicting the impacts of construction projects on surrounding biodiversity, optimizing building design, improving resource management during the construction phase, and throughout the buildings' lifecycle. Although these data require special attention to be fully understood and leveraged, the opportunities they present are therefore promising.
However, the transition to a more efficient use of data cannot be separated from a broader dynamic of frugality and environmental responsibility. Adopting resource and energy frugal practices becomes not just necessary but vital for ensuring a viable future. Implementing measures that allow for the adoption of lightweight and modular construction methods to minimize construction waste, improving buildings' thermal insulation, and adopting sustainable soil management techniques are all solutions that contribute to reducing the environmental impact of the construction sector.
The two themes chosen this year are :
1. Data in service of environmental performance
Environmental performance addresses biodiversity, climate, and resources challenges as well as cross-cutting data aggregation issues such as CSR compliance, risk forecasting, impact assessments, identification of sustainable business models, urban planning, etc.
2. Sobriety at the core of construction solutions
- Material sobriety: materials, products, and construction processes (modular, reversible, changes in use, repairable) to minimize construction waste, reuse
- Energy sobriety: materials, energy efficiency, thermal regulation of buildings
- Land sobriety: rehabilitation of industrial wastelands, revitalization of neighborhoods
- Resource sobriety (water, soil, etc.): water revalorization, soil preservation
HOW DOES SEKOYA WORK?
The Carbon & Climate platform seeks to identify and qualify innovative, sustainable and low-carbon solutions through an online application process. Eiffage and its partners will qualify the most effective solutions (via a carbon footprint statement and a life cycle analysis) with a potential to contribute to a more frugal construction.
The platform is technically operated and hosted by the Impulse Labs accelerator, an actor experienced in identifying innovative solutions since its creation.
FOCUS ON CARBON & CLIMATE ISSUES:
New Forms of Mobility
- Optimise mobility fluidity in congested urban areas (signage, digital control, adaptation to real flows...).
- Enhance the attractiveness and intuitive understanding of public transportation offers for all types of users.
- Promote low-carbon forms of mobility and urban land use.
Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering
- Reintegrate nature into cities as a source of ecosystem services: creation of freshness isles, urban agriculture and short circuits, use of CO2 for agricultural purposes, etc.
- Develop solutions to restore degraded natural areas (soil stabilisation, water infiltration, soil decontamination by plants, renaturalisation of mineral areas, etc.).
- Tool to evaluate the quantities of stored biogenic carbon.
Low-carbon Design and Implementation
- Systemise the use of low-carbon materials.
- Propose an efficient, biosourced insulation for new and renovated buildings.
- Develop industrialised solutions for energetic renovation.
- Design buildings with scalable uses and without structural costs.
Methods and Tools
- Absorb CO2 in cities and rural areas by reintroducing green spaces into our projects.
Circular Economy
- Develop rapid resource diagnostic solutions designed used before existing buildings' demolition.
- Develop physical and/or virtual exchange systems between supply and demand for land, materials, equipment, etc.
- Develop solutions for on-site reuse of concrete and aggregates in construction, infrastructure, treatment of deconstructed materials before reuse, etc.
Renewable Energies and Energetic Performance
- Propose upstream diagnostic systems for the use of local renewable energies.
- Develop any energy-saving solution.
- Develop new solutions for renewable energy production and recovery.
- CO2 capture processes.
