SUEZ and Bouygues Construction Deal to ‘Reinvent’ the City : French Firms Sign MoU on Smart City & Circular Economy Solutions

French firms SUEZ and Bouygues Construction have signed a worldwide partnership agreement to develop sustainable smart cities with circular economy solutions.

Environmental services giant, SUEZ, explained that the worldwide Memorandum of Understanding is for an initial period of three years and covers the design and development of new solutions to optimise resource management and to favour more sustainable building and the circular economy.

The company added that by 2030 the planet will have 9 billion inhabitants, 60% of whom will live in urban environments and about 40 mega-cities with more than 10 million inhabitants - their sustainable management is one of the key challenges of the 21st century.

Reinventing the City

According to SUEZ, the city needs to be reinvented to reduce energy and water consumption, to establish a virtuous circular economy particularly with regard to the recovery of waste, to improve transportation, to integrate more and more connected buildings and neighbourhoods, and to give a greater place to nature in order to ensure a better quality of life and a lower ecological footprint.

Faced with these challenges and issues, SUEZ said that it is providing know-how in water supply, water treatment, construction, recycling and recovery to develop urban projects.

Bouygues Construction is a specialist in the development of eco-neighbourhoods, from the design phase to assistance for users and residents, through new services introduced in France and internationally.

The two groups are already working together on a number of projects, including the construction of the Fort d’Issy-Vanves-Clamart metro station forming part of the Grand Paris Express. In collaboration, SUEZ said they have devised solutions intended to optimise the management and traceability of excavated site materials.

According to SUEZ, the worldwide partnership signed will take this collaborative approach further, sharing the expertise and vision of the two groups to ensure the development of innovative solutions through new joint offers, especially in-line with the circular economy.

Collaboration

In particular, this collaboration will cover waste recovery and recycled materials, water treatment and management, the development of on-site logistics solutions, local resource circuits, decentralised solutions for cities and eco-neighbourhoods and the development of public-private partnerships.

“This agreement represents a new chapter in the history of the two groups,” said Jean-Louis Chaussade, Chief Executive Officer of SUEZ. “We have already pooled our expertise in some emblematic projects, such as the recovery of construction waste from the first construction site of the Grand Paris Express, or the design of the first connected protective equipment that improves the safety of operators.”

“We are rising to the challenges of urbanisation and the circular economy by stepping up our efforts in favour of a virtuous construction industry and the development of resourceful cities,” he continued.

Philippe Bonnave, Chairman and CEO of Bouygues Construction added: “Meeting the environmental challenge of more virtuous resource management will be the priority of the partnership between our two groups.”

“The environmental emergency we all face today is now urging us to go further and draw on our respective expertise so that we can jointly propose disruptive solutions to achieve better recovery of resources,” he concluded.

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