Sustainable Development
What is sustainable development?
« Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs »
Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtlant, Prime Minister of Norway, in 1987
In Europe, Lille is known as a city highly committed to promoting sustainable development practices. In 2000, Lille signed its
agenda 21, a proposal aimed to define, develop, and promote sustainable development in the city. Since 2001, Lille has made it a mission to see that its procurement policies are more respectful of the environment and of social and professional integration.
The city of Lille and numerous partners have already been putting into action concrete measures to educate and inform the public of their important role—
as citizens— in promoting sustainable development.
According to a study conducted by Ernst & Young, the city provides the best location for setting up a business in the tertiary sector with the smallest carbon footprint.
Sustainable development and the meeting industry
For the meeting and events industries, sustainable development is both an opportunity and a challenge. The association of event communications agencies was the catalyst in creating this 'eco-guide', written with the participation of all parties involved in the industry to be able to give concrete answers and solutions to sustainable development questions.
Key players in Lille’s sustainable development
The Lille Grand Palais (convention center) takes sustainable development seriously and is convinced that future development requires considering the impact of further growth on the environment. The Grand Palais carried out a study to measure its carbon footprint (using the ADEME method) and was the first convention center in France to do so. The result of this study provided the Grand Palais with 3 axes of possible improvement:
• Lowering consumption (energy, travel, paper, etc.)
• Opting for lower-emitting alternatives (public transport, clean cars, recycled paper, environmentally-friendly management of service providers)
• Adopting social policies (promoting workplace diversity and equality; community enterprises)
These three axes are applied to three categories: the destination, the building, and the event.
Choosing Lille as an event destination means that the client is also choosing a low carbon venue.
The new location of Lille 3000 is the Gare Saint Saveur (train station) whose renovation site was managed according to the following priorities: minimizing disturbances to the neighborhood and to the environment, the quality of the architectural design, meeting deadlines, safety, and keeping costs as low as possible.
Ecologically and economically sound, the station is equipped with a 200-square meter photovoltaic-celled roof and an 8,000-liter rainwater collection tank.
Transpole, Lille’s public transportation system, encourages the use of energies that respect the environment: electricity, gas, biogas. As a result, 91 percent of passengers travel with clean energy.
Both the metro and tramway run on electricity, a clean energy with low greenhouse gas emissions.
73 percent of Lille’s city buses are fueled by gas or biogas. These buses are considerably more silent and pollute less than diesel-run buses. The remaining buses run on GECAM diesel, which minimizes dioxide azote emissions.
Part of the bus fleet is fueled with biogas from the Centre de Valorisation Organique (organic upgrading center) in Sequedin. The fermented organic matter from the Greater Lille population fuels the buses with no greenhouse gas emissions.
Respecting the ISO 14001 environmental standards, Transpole makes certain that the company limits its impact on the environment.
Furthermore, the new bus depots in Sequedin and Wattrelos carry the high environmental quality standard “HQE.”