Living in a sustainable world is a sine qua non of the sense that the Cité internationale wishes to make of the world. This is why the Cité internationale enables the young talents it hosts, who are tomorrow’s decision-makers, to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change. It helps to raise awareness by making them aware of climate issues and encouraging their eco-responsible behaviour. To act for the ecological transition, it supports collaborative and circular economy, plays a pioneering role in encouraging biodiversity in Paris, contributes to raising awareness among its audiences and acts to reduce its direct carbon footprint.
With 6,800 accomodations, a 34-hectare park and services open to the public, the Cité internationale functions like a small city. Faced with climate change and the ecological crisis, the Cité internationale has taken concrete steps to integrate global limits into its activities. In 2014, the Cité internationale adopted a sustainable development strategy with an Eco-campus Charter. This strategy is based on three axes: protecting, preserving and enhancing our green spaces, improving waste treatment and reducing our energy consumption.
The Cité internationale’s park offers a rich natural heritage, vital for the habitat, feeding and reproduction of many species. Since 2009, the gardeners have adopted a reasoned management of the 34-hectare park, taking into account the characteristics, uses and frequentation of each area. Green waste is recycled, mulching and mechanical weeding have become widespread. No pesticides have been used since 2009.
As part of its Cité 2025 development project, the Cité internationale has also redesigned its green spaces and added new plantings to the park to enhance its landscape structure, recover its forest atmosphere to the east and the copses to the west of the Great Lawn, and revitalise its uses. In 2022, the estate’s management, which is responsible for the maintenance of the park and the management of its spaces, has launched two new vegetation projects in the park. One at the back of the Maison de Norvège and the second in the heart of the Maison du Portugal, in the residents’ garden, in order to reinforce the existing ecological corridors.
In the park, we apply gardening techniques that promote biodiversity, such as differentiated management. To promote biodiversity, we have not used any phytosanitary treatments since 2009.
The Cité internationale has formed partnerships with eco-organisations for the reprocessing of waste produced on campus. To date, there are 12 sorting channels on campus: Love Your Waste, Oléovia, Le Relais, Eco-mobilier, Recyclum, Screlec, La poste, Conibi, Eco-systèmes, Greendays, Vélo Volant and Bouchon d’amour.
It also deployed a plan to boost selective sorting in collaboration with the city of Paris and Citeo in 2017 as part of the “You sort, we recycle” operation. 32 sorting bins shelters have been installed with Citeo in the park between 2019 and 2022. The project to install the sorting bins shelters was implemented in 2 phases. The first 12 sorting bins were installed in November 2019 and 20 others in May 2022.
The kitchens of the houses are also equipped with sorting bins. Awareness has also been raised in the university restaurant with the introduction of colour codes and instructions on the sorting bins. 8 composts have been installed to enable residents to sort their green waste (Maison de la Suède, Maison des industries agro-alimentaires, Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre, Collège franco-britannique, Fondation des États-Unis, Maison du Canada, Maison des étudiants de la francophonie and Jardin du monde). They have been made aware of and trained in composting methods.
Quantitative tonnage monitoring tools make it possible to evaluate the volume of waste by type. The control of flows and quantities allows the Cité internationale to project itself towards more ambitious waste reduction and treatment objectives.
In 2022, 76 tonnes of clothing, 81 tonnes of green waste and 52 tonnes of waste (paper, furniture, mattresses, lamps, light bulbs, batteries, used oil, cartridges, etc.) were collected. A total of 94 maintenance staff have been trained in waste management.
The Cité internationale is also pursuing energy reduction objectives. The renovation work carried out over the past 10 years on the existing buildings takes into account energy requirements in terms of insulation and reducing the carbon footprint. In 2016, the Cité internationale signed an energy performance contract worth €8 million to renew heating equipment, improve solar panel installations and insulate attics… In 2022, an energy sobriety plan was adopted to respond to the energy crisis and the climate emergency. The Cité internationale has also received 25 million euros in financial support from the State and the European Union as part of the recovery plan for energy renovation. Five houses on the campus are involved.
The Cité internationale universitaire de Paris supports the sustainable development initiatives of students and researchers on campus. Jardin du monde, a shared organic garden in the park, created by residents, has become an emblematic place on campus for learning to garden, helping to understand nature and its needs, but also for exchange. Vélo Volant is a participatory workshop created by the residents to rent a bike, learn how to repair it, participate in friendly bike rides or engage in do-it-yourself. It is open to all Parisians. Cité Souk aims to give a second life to objects abandoned by former residents while helping new residents to equip themselves quickly and cheaply. The redevelopment of the former university restaurant in the Parc Ouest (Laprade building) will make it possible to open a ressourcerie within the Cité internationale in 2023.
I have lived on a campus where ecology is a way of life. I feel more responsible and useful for the planet.
1700 trees, 1500 of which were planted with the support of the City of Paris as part of the Cité 2025 development project. More than a hundred species were planted in isolation or grouped in groves. These plantings have made it possible to create an ecological corridor between Montrouge, Gentilly and Montsouris and to become more deeply embedded in the urban fabric of the City of Paris.
Thanks to the partronage support of the Engie Foundation, the Cité internationale has created 4 rain gardens to improve water management. Rain gardens limit the discharge of rainwater into the sewage system. As wetlands, they are particularly favourable to biodiversity and participate in the ecological continuum of the city of Paris.
The Domain teams in charge of maintaining the park and managing its spaces have launched two new vegetation projects in the park in 2022. One at the back of the Maison de Norvège and the second in the heart of the Maison du Portugal, in the residents’ garden, in order to reinforce the existing ecological corridors.
To optimise the sorting of its waste, the Cité internationale has signed a partnership with the City of Paris and Citeo which enabled the installation of 32 sorting bin shelters in the park. This installation which began in 2019 ended in 2022.
In December 2022, the Cité internationale adopted an energy sobriety plan for the campus in response to the climate emergency, the economic crisis and the war in Ukraine. It is part of a more global reflection on sobriety and frugality as a lever for energy transition (recycling, soft mobility, short circuit consumption).
The Cité internationale has received a 25 million euro grant from the State and the European Union as part of the Recovery Plan to launch major energy renovation work from 2022 to 2024 in 5 houses: the Fondation Avicenne, the Gréard Pavilion of the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe, the Fondation de Monaco, the Maison des étudiants arméniens and the Maison des Provinces of France.
The Maison de l’Île-de-France is the first 100% solar-powered positive energy collective housing building in France. Financed entirely by the Île-de-France Region, the house has 540 m² of photovoltaic collectors and two thermal tubes of 78m3 each that heat the water.
Our residents are very committed to climate change and their houses are places of opportunity to create a positive impact on society. They create collaborative projects and organise debates and events to raise awareness among their peers. A Resident Initiative Fund supports them in bringing their projects to life.
Result of a joint effort, the Jardin du monde has become an emblematic place at the Cité internationale. Learning to garden, helping to understand nature and its needs, but also having a good time together: this is the collective’s collaborative project. Created by residents, since 2022 it has also been open to Cité internationale employees.
The Cité internationale promotes mobility of the world’s youth and access to knowledge by ensuring the well-being of the students and researchers it hosts, by encouraging them to experience otherness in a spirit of kindness and respect, and by sharing common values of trust in progress and knowledge.
The Cité internationale promotes solidarity and humanist values by making them known to as many people as possible, by undertaking projects with collaborative values and by encouraging diversity and inclusion.