Hi everyone and welcome.
We’re here in Grenoble, France in IntenCity
which is our newest flagship building at Schneider Electric.
I’m joined here with Eddie Woods,
who is the Head of Engineering at Bouygues Immobilier,
and, Laurent Bataille
who is our new leader for Schneider Electric in France.
It’s fantastic to be here, in a building that’s energy neutral
and extremely efficient thanks to electric and digital technology.
37 kWh per square meter per year,
which makes it eight times more efficient
than the average building in Europe.
It’s a building that’s more electric and more digital
to drive this fantastic performance.
So, Eddie you’ve been leading the project and the construction
in partnership with Schneider Electric.
How is this project different to other projects you’ve been leading so far?
What’s important is that Bouygues Immobilier has been handing over,
or developing, energy-positive buildings since 2011.
IntenCity changed that dynamic in really upping the ambitions
in terms of energy efficiency,
basically halving the amount of energy that’s being consumed, very important.
So, the game has changed a lot.
We very quickly went into dynamic energy simulations
using the energy module of the digital tool,
to predict the way the building was going to operate,
to make sure that the design was compliant with the brief
and also that the construction work was compliant with the brief.
Very rigorous testing commissioning of the facade, importantly,
as the facade allows a lot of energy to escape
if it’s not commissioned, and the building systems.
From there, once the building was handed over,
we went into two years of energy monitoring.
The first year was basically comprised of calibration
to show that the virtual model
and physical model conform to each another.
If there are discrepancies, we analyze why and we calibrate,
either virtually we calibrate the model
or physically the building.
Thereafter we go into a period of constant monitoring: over four seasons
seasons we ensure that all the testing commissioning that was done previously,
all the dynamic modeling etc., is compliant with what we require.
That’s amazing. So, Laurent,
you’ve had the tough job to participate in the design
and then now to operate the building
and to ‘live’ in the building,
and to have all our colleagues ‘live’ in the building.
So, can you tell us more about that?
So you’re right, actually employees have paid attention
and polled to know how we should conceive the building.
I think it has had a big impact. It has been designed for them.
Now a very efficient building thanks to the all electrical part,
and it’s also all-digital, and what we see is that this has a big impact
on the satisfaction of users.
We have around 1,600 people onsite.
Of the four sites we have in the Grenoble area,
which are all very recent,
clearly IntenCity ranks the best
in terms of satisfaction with the work environment.
A lot of it is linked to the design, the physical layout,
but also the digital infrastructure that enables collaboration,
working well together.
Two interesting dimensions,
because we are pushing the limits in terms of energy efficiency
and we have a lot of engineers here,
we see users trying to raise the bar further
and making a lot of proposals,
saving for instance more energy, not using plastics etc.
So, I think it’s very good for engagement
and the engagement of our engineers.
Second, this is really a data collection machine.
We collect 60,000 datapoints on the building every two minutes,
so it’s a living organism
which for us is a great opportunity to innovate further
and experiment with a lot more sensors
and the ability to play with our digital systems.
So, it’s going to be a great building for the long term.
Super. So, thank you both.
I love the symbol.
We are here very close to the roots of Schneider Electric.
The A plant, the first plant of Merlin Gerin,
was just next door;
not exactly a building of the future at that time,
that was close to 100 years ago.
We are here in the 21st century,
a century where we need to drive sustainability
and a world that gets rid of carbon by 2050.
40% of the global carbon footprint comes from buildings,
so we need to put in place
energy-neutral and carbon-neutral buildings,
and this building is a fantastic symbol
and illustration that solutions do exist today
because of technology that is coming from Schneider Electric,
and because of progressive companies like Bouygues
that are working together and leading the path of the future
to a zero carbon world,
which is absolutely what we need.
That’s very exciting and it’s very promising.