The “Quartier Energie Carbone” R&D project delivers an operational method accessible to all

Financially supported by ADEME and managed by a consortium bringing together CSTB, Efficacity, Elioth, Alliance HQE-GBC, Effinergie, Certivéa, Association BBCA and Atlantech, with participation in the Steering Committee of the Ministry of Ecological Transition , it now delivers an operational method accessible to all, the Quartier Energie Carbone method, making it possible to assess, through a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach, the energy and carbon impacts of a development or renovation project. urban.

Beyond this assessment, the method is a real decision-making aid enabling the project to be improved by identifying the best levers to be mobilized and by quantifying their potential carbon impact.

Finally, this method is a tool for dialogue between the various planning actors: it offers communities, planners and their partners the opportunity to set both ambitious and realistic objectives, to objectify the choices and to determine if their projects are consistent with the trajectory of the Paris Agreements.

The carbon energy district method: a tool for performance and dialogue

In its development and validation phase, the Quartier Energie Carbone method was based on a first implementation in software, UrbanPrint, co-developed by CSTB and Efficacity. This validation phase, carried out on 8 pilot projects representing a wide variety of types of development operations, demonstrated the operational nature of the method.

The added value of the method is twofold:

• The rigorous quantification, by an internationally recognized LCA approach, of the energy and carbon performance of an urban project, and the comparison with a reference project making it possible to determine the “energy score” and “carbon score” of the project;
• taking into account all the contributors and uses present at the district level (buildings, energy systems, water, waste, outdoor spaces, mobility, etc.).

The method is proving to be an effective tool for decision support and dialogue between decision-makers:

• upstream of projects, by identifying the action levers with the greatest carbon impact,
• in a more advanced phase, with a view to evaluating the performance of the project with a more precise set of data.

Mobility, construction products and energy = three main contributors to carbon emissions:

Out of the 8 pilot operations, the evaluations carried out made it possible to draw up a first observation: Mobility, Construction products (buildings) and Energy (energy systems) are, in order, the 3 most important contributors to emissions. total carbon in new neighborhoods today.

1. Mobility

The transport sector is responsible for a significant portion of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (29% of GHG emissions - EEA - European Environment Agency - 2018). Urban design, amenities, the supply of public transport and the promotion of soft modes of travel strongly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions linked to travel.

2. Construction products

The choice of construction products has an impact on the final footprint of the neighborhood Reuse, reuse and recycling offer avenues for reducing the carbon emissions necessary for the construction of our living spaces.

3. Energy

Carbon is strongly present in energy consumption, in particular that linked to heating and the production of domestic hot water. The creation of pooled or networked solutions is a major axis for reducing the carbon footprint, by reducing production needs and promoting the penetration of renewable and recovered energies. They also provide energy efficiency and scalability that individual production cannot achieve.

Increase experience to open up perspectives

On the strength of the initial feedback, the method, tested on a full-scale basis, has strengths and great potential.

While making it possible to advance understanding of the levers of low-carbon development at the district level and to measure their effectiveness, it provides operational keys to communities, planners, developers, etc. to make choices that are perfectly consistent with the climate challenge. It allows them to arbitrate by taking into account not only the financing constraints and the needs of the territory to which the project responds (housing, services, jobs, inclusion, etc.) but also the energy and carbon impacts of the project.

By applying in the future to a greater number of development operations of different typologies, it will ultimately participate in the development of reference values ​​at the level of the districts and in the enrichment of the levers of action.