The CETU’s Sustainable Development Division
Driving change in professional practices
In early 2021, the CETU launched its ‘Transition in Practices and Sustainable Development’ initiative and set up a specific dedicated technical division to implement it. The aim of this initiative is to drive change in practices across all areas of tunnel activity, with a view to greater environmental protection and resource conservation. This initiative must be carried out from the design stage, through to operation and must also address issues of safety and asset management, both in terms of equipment and structural elements.
The aim of the division is therefore to drive change in practices across all areas of expertise covered by the CETU.
The objectives of this initiative include:
- promoting methods and tools for assessing practices in terms of sustainable development (life cycle analysis, carbon footprint, etc.) and making them available to the profession,
- developing an applied research programme, with actions aimed at implementing or testing new practices, when project opportunities arise.
While the role of this division is to encourage the CETU’s technical departments to adopt changes in practice in their respective technical fields, it also oversees two cross-cutting areas: - the circular economy, particularly through the management and recovery of materials excavated during underground works,
- the eco-design of underground structures, by developing and implementing impact assessment methods and tools.
The areas addressed by the CETU’s “Transition in Practices and Sustainable Development” division
The division also leads a strategic research programme at the CETU: “Ecological transition in underground structures”. This research programme encompasses several topics:
- Environmental assessment and eco-design of underground structures
- Excavated materials from underground structures and optimisation of mineral resources
- Equipment efficiency: optimisation of resources and energy consumption
- Air quality and mobility transition.
Project collaborations
Since 2020, the CETU has been entrusted with specific tasks relating to ecological transition, the environment and eco-design, within the scope of several major projects.
The Lyon-Turin Euralpin Tunnel (TELT)
The CETU and TELT have signed their third framework agreement for the period 2024–2027. It notably covers the project’s environmental approach and the management of excavated materials.
Over the period 2021–2024, the CETU’s Sustainable Development division has supported TELT in several areas:
- contribution to the analysis of bids for Operational Site 11 ‘Management and use of excavated materials’,
- implementation of environmental indicators for site monitoring and assessment of the data collected,
- integration of environmental specifications in the contract for Operational Site 12.
Support for carbon footprint assessment is planned from 2025 onwards.
CERN’s future underground particle accelerator: ‘Future Circular Collider’
The project for CERN’s future circular collider (FCC), with a circumference of approximately 90 kilometres, is mainly located in France. If the decision to build is taken, work could start around 2030, with commissioning scheduled for around 2040. This underground project would generate around 6 million cubic metres of spoil, consisting mainly of molasses. The CETU was a partner in the European Future Circular Collider Innovation Study (FCC IS) project led by CERN as part of the H2020-INFRADEV programme. Its Sustainable Development division oversaw the drafting of the deliverable on the management and use of excavated materials and participated in the jury for the Mining the Future challenge. This call for innovation, organised by the University of Leoben and CERN, aimed to bring about new technological solutions for recovery and new uses.
The Grand Paris Express
Since 2020, the CETU’s Sustainable Development division has been working with the Société Grand Paris (which has since become Société des Grands Projets). The CETU is a co-contractor, providing project management assistance for the implementation of the corporate strategy, the innovation programme, the development of land impacted by the Grand Paris Express and the optimisation of Société des Grand Projet’s infrastructures. More specifically, this has involved ‘Recycling and recovery of excavated land’..