How to generate eco-innovations? An application to future eco-railway station. – Econoving 2

The Econoving Chair (2nd phase, 2012-2016) proposes to reinforce and render fully operational the principal results obtained during the 1st phase of activity (2008-2012). Relying on most appropriate conditions and standing, the Chair is ready to accelerate the emergence and the disseminationof breakthrough eco-innovations and to promote the associated tools, to enhance partnership developments and to surmount the next major challenges. Eco-innovation provides a competitive edge by virtue of being a creative and collaborative process which integrates scientific and technological research. Further, eco-innovation is arguably superior in anticipating needs, building implementation strategies and financial accompaniment all the way to product and service development, marketing and release, and generatingof start-ups.
What is here called the railway eco-station of the future constitutes the application terrain of demonstratorsrepresenting the main eco-innovation areas (smart grids, renewable energies and energy efficiency, water management and related services, eco-materials, mobility) covered by the five industrial partners (Alstom, GDF-SUEZ, Saur, Italcementi, SNCF). Based on the foregoing achievements and insights, the 4-year program proposed hereby aims at testing two interrelated hypotheses, and benefitting the developments thereof: (i) the railway eco-station of the future is a catalyzer for all major eco-innovation areas cited above, and (ii) the railway eco-station of the future is pivot to improving the environmental and social impact on the urban territory surrounding it.
The availability of two pilot railway stations, one urban and one periurban, will allow the materialization and optimization of an array of eco-innovative solutions.This is expected to generate substantial insights upon the station’s efficiency and integration into the wider territory and communities,and to shed lights upon the station’s roles with respect to the daily behavior of the customers. This is also an appropriate platform forenlighteningthe limitations and the opportunities associated with the proposed solutions, with respect to social-environmental concerns and seeking to boost business viability models.
The project is led by University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), a highly dynamic and innovative institution which firmly relies on its widely recognized multidisciplinary competence and strengths in environment, climate and sustainable development. The projects benefits the support of the REEDS laboratory (ecological economics), of thePRiSMlaboratory(information technology and modeling), and of the Lavoisier Franklin Institute (physics and chemistry of the materials). The Industrial Chair Econoving 2 also benefits the valuable competences of Supelec (Department of Energy and Department of Informatics), Ecole Centrale Paris (LGPM) and university Paris Sud 11 (ICMMO). Two local communities (Communautés d’Agglomération de Versailles Grand Parc et de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines) are associated to the program by hosting the two pilot railway stations, along witha select group of venture capitals (XAnge Private Equity, Demeter Partners, Goodwill-Management) aiming at creating start-ups, and ADEME. The recent achievements of these actors acting as part of the 1st phase of Econoving (Climate KIC, FUI EPIT, ADEME ECO2CHARGE, Living Lablabeling, etc), along with the consortium agreement already in place for railway station developments and the partnership agreement with FONDATERRA (FondationEuropéennesur les Territoires Durables), represent a most concrete anticipation of success.