Sustainability Collider - Sustainability in Construction and Urban Futures

Co-organized by the Vice Presidency for strategic initiatives (VPS) and EPFL’s Center for Wordwide Sustainable Construction (CWSC), this forum serves as a platform for dialogue between EPFL’s research labs, startups from its innovation ecosystem, industries and governmental agencies, around the issues of sustainable construction and urban development.

RATIONAL
The construction and urban development sectors stand at the center of the global sustainability transition. Buildings and infrastructure shape how we live, move, and consume resources. They also represent one of the largest sources of material use, energy demand, and carbon emissions worldwide.
As cities expand and societies face increasing pressure to decarbonize, the challenge is no longer incremental improvement, but systemic transformation: rethinking how we design, build, select materials, and develop urban environments from the ground up.
This collider will explore how innovative building materials, circular construction approaches, and forward-looking urban development strategies can dramatically reduce environmental impact while enhancing performance, resilience, and quality of life.
Through expert presentations and a multidisciplinary roundtable, participants will examine how research, industry, and public stakeholders can collaborate to accelerate the adoption of sustainable construction solutions, moving from laboratory breakthroughs to real-world implementation at scale.

PROGRAMME
15h00 – 15h05 : Welcome notes & Introduction by Prof. Katrin Beyer, Dean School of Architecture, Civil & Environmental Engineering

15h05 – 16h30 :

• Prof. Karen Scrivener, Laboratory of Construction Materials: Decarbonising Global Growth: The Scalable Role of Low-Carbon Cement
• Dr Francois Girod, Head of Circular Economy, Holcim (Suisse) SA: The challenges of sustainability in cement & concrete production
• Prof. David Ruggiero, Concrete Behaviour and Structural Design Laboratory: The structural diet: Designing more material-efficient buildings
• Prof. Gabriele Manoli, Laboratory of Urban and Environmental Systems; Planning the Unplannable: Navigating Wicked Urban Problems
• Short pitches by Startups and organisations
  • Nicolas Hermant, Medusoil: From the lab to the building site: how biocementation connects science and environmental responsibility
  • Dr Zuhaib Batra, GBDI: Filling the gaps with Data: Global Building Data Initiative
  • Mélanie Lutz and Mattia Pretolani, Coopérative Origo: Knotweed : from a local invasive plant to an effective insulator
  • SEPAR, Artem Polsky
  • Dr Thibault Demoulin, Oxara AG: Towards sustainable, circular, and affordable housing