Green Technologies and sustainable cities cluster

• opportunities for green growth, accentuated by the Grenelle de l’Environnement process, which naturally concern the 192 businesses in the cluster, including its 13 world-leading companies and some forty small and medium-sized enterprises and industries, producers and operators in the energy, transport, environment, civil engineering and construction fields, engineering companies, and companies providing services to local authorities and to industry;
• and an exceptional melting pot of skills: over 200 laboratories, the MEDDLT’s major scientific establishments, the Ile-de-France’s top schools and universities, and private research facilities.

In four years, ADVANCITY has examined over 270 projects, of which nearly 90 have received financing representing a total investment of €230 million in research and innovation.  
 
"To remain competitive at the international level, it is necessary to stay ahead; besides incremental innovation, it is essential to concoct breakthroughs, radical innovations that make it possible, for example, to gain 25% on major international invitations to tender.”

Michel Cote 
Deputy CEO of Bouygues Construction, ADVANCITY's former president 
 
From eco-technologies to the city

ADVANCITY is involved in 4 major economic sectors

Urban and spatial planning and development

Housing and construction

Mobility and transport

Resources and environment

In France, cities represent 90% of GDP, 80% of the population, 75% of total energy consumption, and 2/3 of greenhouse gases. The reestablishment of an urban metabolism that is more economic with resources, more environmentally friendly and yet still active, attractive and open, constitutes one of the biggest challenges of the 21^st Century, in which eco-technologies play a crucial role:

• air : treatment and prevention of pollution, and noise and olfactory nuisances,
• water : reduction of consumption, drinking water, treatment of rainwater and wastewater,
• energy : efficiency, integration of renewable energies into building developments, use of urban biomass as a resource,
• underground : storage capacity (geothermal power, CO2 etc.) and networks,
• land : remediation of polluted sites and soils, urban biodiversity,
• materials and waste : eco-friendly materials for construction and cities, waste collection and processing, recycling,
• instrumentation and environmental monitoring. 

instigating innovation

The first of the cluster’s goals is to instigate innovation, to irrigate the industrial fabric of the Ile-de-France region with new skills and innovative projects. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop an interface of open collaboration, without partitions, linking centres of competency which, once they are brought together, constitute powerful engines of innovation.

The strength of ADVANCITY resides in its capacity to invigorate and perpetuate the synergies between stakeholders ensuring that collaborative projects are completed and result in concrete commercial perspectives.

The rapid deployment of eco-technologies in the service of the sustainable development of cities is fuelling numerous areas of fundamental research, of technological development and of engineering that only a network can deal with in an integrated way.

Every week, innovative small and medium-sized companies are rallying to the ranks of the founding members. For these champions of innovation, the competitiveness cluster is a genuine project accelerator, continuously providing the opportunities of acquiring the comparative advantages that ensure their sustainability and reinforce their attractiveness.