This new Department brings together cross-functional activities: Research & Development, testing, evaluation and certification. For this purpose, it brings together teams specializing in the issue, from the former Climatology Aerodynamics Pollution Purification (CAPE) and Hydraulics and Sanitary Equipment (HES) departments, with the aim of synergies and cross-functionality, to address the new challenges of sustainable management of the water. Maxime Roger is appointed Operational Director by Etienne Crépon, President of CSTB.
Addressing all issues related to sustainable water management in buildings
About 32 billion m3 of fresh water are withdrawn each year for cooling power plants, supplying canals, producing drinking water, agricultural and industrial uses...* At the scale of buildings, neighborhoods and cities, this consumption poses many challenges, including:
- Environmental, with the central issue of water resources, in connection with climate change and the associated water stress;
- Techniques, in particular in connection with the condition of equipment and pipe networks, to be renewed and modernized, in a dynamic of adaptation to new uses (recovery, reuse and recycling, etc.);
- Sanitary ware, linked to a central and continuous quality requirement.
Working on the issue of sustainable water management in buildings requires taking into account all of these issues, but also all the players concerned, from manufacturers and specifiers, to users, including local authorities and real estate operators.
It is for this purpose that the CSTB Water Department was created.
Organization of the CSTB Water Department
Until now, two CSTB departments worked on water: Aerodynamic Climatology Pollution Purification and Hydraulics and Sanitary Equipment, mainly within the framework of Research & Development activities for the first, and certification for the second.
These teams have been brought together within the new Water Department, to create more synergies and cross-functionality in the work and organization of resources and skills around water, to introduce more scientific and technical resources into certification and innovation support services, etc.
The new CSTB Water Department is thus structured to:
- Address all current and future issues related to the sustainable management of water in buildings, connected to their environment;
- As part of an approach based on stakeholder needs, at the product, building and neighborhood scales, serving the general interest;
- By bringing together all the public concerned, construction professionals and institutions, already sensitized, but also, more broadly actors of the real estate (owners of buildings, operators, social lessors...).
The Water Department is therefore organized around 4 divisions:
- Networks and external structures, with the main target being communities;
- Internal networks and pipes, with the main targets being builders and installers;
- Building Sanitary Equipment, with the main target being industrialists;
- Uses and new challenges, with the main targets being users, owners and operators.
It brings together Research & Development, testing, evaluation and certification activities. It is piloted by Maxime Roger.
Maxime Roger, appointed Water Operational Director at CSTB
Maxime Roger, an engineer who graduated from Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées in 2008, joined the CSTB in 2009 as a Studies and Evaluation engineer, first in charge of the hygrothermal team for the structures, then of the Insulation department and Coatings.
In 2015, he was appointed Director of the Nantes establishment of the CSTB, and Operational Director Climatology Aerodynamics Pollution Purification (CAPE).
He is now entrusted with the new Water Department at CSTB, in the creation and organization of which he sees "a unique opportunity to respond in a cross-functional, efficient and long-term manner to the problems of sustainable water management. water in buildings, by uniting all the players around this crucial issue of public interest".
The CSTB Water Department will be present at the Local Water Management Crossroads, on June 29 and 30, 2022, at the Parc des Expositions in Rennes, stand 694, Hall 8.