Eco-design of a model building to showcase innovative energy-efficient solutions
The social entrepreneurship platform is supporting "Les 7 Vents" through funding and skills sponsorship
The Rexel Foundation is backing "Les 7 Vents" in an ambitious renovation project called RENO-3.0 for the design of a model building that will incorporate many of the most innovative energy-efficient solutions.
Florian Guillote, how would you sum up the mission of "Les 7 Vents"?
"Les 7 Vents" is a public-interest cooperative that unites organizations and private parties, members and partners, around a common goal: to create a favorable framework for the development of sustainable systems, which can range from microeconomics to heating systems.
Concretely, how is this objective achieved in terms of operations and projects?
Every year the team advises 1,500 private parties through our Espace Info Énergie (Energy Information Space). Since "Les 7 Vents" was founded 15 years ago, the consulting unit has provided more than 200 coaching services and studies for corporations and local governments. For example, pilot projects have been developed in the Lower Normandy region, including an eco-site, a local energy agency and an innovative photovoltaic solar roof system. In a sense, that region has become our innovation laboratory.
How does the Rexel Foundation help you today?
The Rexel Foundation is backing us in the RENO-3.0 project for the design of a model building that will incorporate many of the most innovative energy-efficient solutions. Our goal is to make use of existing solutions to develop a model smart building and then use it to promote those solutions, raise public awareness of the importance of energy efficiency, and develop tools for monitoring the behavior of the equipment in an actual use situation.
For RENO-3.0, the Rexel Foundation provides two kinds of support, know-how sponsoring and funding for our research on eco-design in construction. The former is provided mainly by Jean-Yves Bouchet, an applied solutions engineer at Rexel. Jean-Yves is going to contribute advice and methodology during the building design phase, and he has already provided us with a framework for the functional specifications. We just started working together in September. Most of our collaboration will take place starting in the final quarter of 2014, and we hope to continue it even after we move into the building, which should be in the fall of 2015.
