Sustainable Construction Conference in Overseas Territories: Summary of the results of the concluding workshops

As part of the OMBREE program, the organization of these Conferences was one of the recommendations of the 2017 senatorial report. The last step will be the publication of a white paper in October 2024, in order to propose benchmarks adapted to specificities of these territories. Overview of the first conclusions of this unprecedented mobilization of overseas stakeholders.

The first conclusions of the Assizes

Governance and sustainability of actions

To establish sustainable governance and continue, over time, the work initiated during these Conferences, three areas must be worked on:

• The integration of overseas territories into a collective,
• The integration of these territories into the political, technical and economic environment,
• The integration of regional expertise in the production of a normative corpus.

Particular attention must also be paid to the balance, which remains to be found, between the establishment of a single body, spokesperson for the overseas territories, and support for actions developed in each territory.

Adaptation and production of technical standards with regard to environmental constraints, locally available materials and the vulnerability of constructions

Each territory has local know-how relating to construction adapted to the climate and available resources. Vernacular architecture has various advantages (quality of use, use of local materials, responses to climatic specificities). This knowledge must be protected and valued because it tends to disappear.

Significant work must be carried out to formulate technical benchmarks, which are inspired by the texts formulated for France but which take into account local specificities (technical, economic or cultural). Three scenarios can be identified:

• Updating the existing (for example: Antilles rules and thermal standards),
• Regulatory gaps to be compensated (for example, para-cyclonic regulations, missing RTAA for the tertiary sector),
• Practices inherited from France having caused local practices to disappear.

Adaptation and production of benchmarks with respect to cultural uses and specificities

In terms of housing, uses (education, food, hygiene, etc.) must be placed at the center of the standards, each territory having its own culture and therefore its way of living. It is important to acculturate project owners to the understanding of the environments and lifestyles in each territory in order to build housing that the inhabitants will appropriate, the quality of use playing an important role in the sustainability of the work.

Local scientific contributions to adaptation and production of benchmarks

Local expertise makes it possible to both promote the local constructive culture and facilitate the acceptance of constructions by the populations because their uses will have been taken into account. Regional laboratories and testing centers in collaboration with national laboratories represent a strength in the adaptation of standards.

Capitalizing on know-how and products from close geographical areas

One of the challenges identified for overseas territories is to be able to build their own construction standards, which meet French criteria, while having the possibility of using products available locally. This implies reciprocity between the standards of different countries. At present, it is much more ecologically and economically rational for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to use Canadian materials, but these Canadian materials do not correspond to the standards implemented in this territory.

Finally, another major issue concerns the methodology to be adopted to capitalize on local know-how: we frequently observe a descent of information towards the territories, but the dissemination of messages from overseas territories to political authorities must not be neglected.

The next appointment is in October 2024 for the publication of the white paper of the Sustainable Construction Conference in Overseas Territories.