Normand

Xavier

Normand

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:

I am an engineer (graduate from École Polytechnique, Paris) and I did my PhD about numerical simulations in fluid mechanics, before spending 17 years in small and medium-sized private enterprises. I have worked in energy and mobility systems (CORYS), in sustainable buildings (TECHNAL), in sustainable food sector (ECOCERT). I decided to specialize in sustainable development strategies and projects, and I was first a freelance consultant before joining the City of Grenoble, which is one of the most advanced local authorities in France in that domain. I have been in charge of sustainable urban development projects of the City of Grenoble (France) for more than 5 years. In 2011, in accordance with the strategic plan “Grenoble Facteur 4”, I was in charge of creating a transverse team, working with the existing thematic departments (urban planning, housing, energy, mobility, etc.), in order to be able to deal with an integrated vision of sustainable urban development. This included the leadership of the Grenoble’s EcoCité project (a 250-hectare advanced ecodistrict) and the coordination of local partners in transnational EC funded FP7 projects. Taking advantage of the experience of Concerto (www.concerto.eu), which was focused on energy issues, the Smart Cities and Communities program moved upscale and deals with integrated urban development. ZenN and City-zen transnational projects, in which I have been involved from the beginning, belong to that program.

B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:

As the “sustainable urban development” program manager for the City of Grenoble, I have been involved in several transnational projects: Concerto-SESAC (closed in 2011), City-zen, ZenN, Ambassador. In these projects, a major part of activities are related with the development of demonstrators in different cities, and exchange and learning processes play a central role in the cooperation and the cross-fertilization between partners belonging to heterogeneous categories. I was not directly involved in Concerto-SESAC, which was at its last stage when I joined the team. It was a good example for me and I worked on the assessment process in order to identify schemes to learn for the new projects. In City-zen, I was responsible from the beginning of the proposal (in 2012) and I was in charge of the coordination of all partners involved in the Grenoble’s demonstration site, organizing the dialogue with the other partners. This includes different levels of “cultural gaps” to deal with: between French and Dutch actors, in a domain highly related with local regulations; between local administration, utilities, industrial companies and academics. In ZenN, which started one year before, I have the same role, in a more homogeneous partnership. In Ambassador, I am a member of the External Advisory Board. In my previous positions, I have been in charge of organizing and managing transnational seminars about exchange of experiences among the EcoCert international network.

B.3. Proficiency in English:

I worked for more than 25 years in transnational environment, with only one common language between co-workers of many countries: English. In the last years, I gave several lectures in international conferences and participated in many round tables. One of these, in 2013 at Pollutec fair, entitled “The sustainable city in Europe complementary or diverging approaches – Examples from Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden and France”, can be seen on You Tube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTelJ5meGJY I am used to write e-mails and reports in English, which is the official language of all the transnational projects in which I collaborate, as City-zen (http://www.cityzen-smartcity.eu/); ZenN (http://zenn-fp7.eu/); Ambassador (http://ambassador-fp7.eu/).

Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

I have a 20-year experience of transnational projects (EC funded R&D projects, cooperation between cities and/or clusters, management of a worldwide network of co-workers, etc.), in which I occupied various positions: project or task manager, coordinator of transverse activities, team-building expert, etc. In all these projects, exchange and learning activities between partners were considered as strategic, as they are a sine qua none condition for a true cooperation between partners. My expertise was gained through several practical situations which include the use of various methods and tools, and mainly the ability to decide which tool could be suitable when facing such or such situation. The most recent experience is also the most important, with the design, negotiation and launch of two EC-funded “smart cities and communities” five-year projects (in all, 35 partners, 10 countries) which include exchange and learning activities, production and assessment of demonstrators, dissemination and deployment of knowledge and solutions.

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy:

Local Governance

Summary Thematic expertise:

Local governance is a topic I discovered 7 years ago, even if public management is part of my educational background. My first experiences were in the position of local elected representative and consultant, before joining the services of the City of Grenoble in 2009. In that new context, I was responsible for public ownership for the construction of new buildings, as well as for the delegation of public service for new urban planning operations. I was also involved in the monitoring and dissemination strategy of the “Grenoble Facteur 4” action plan and in various Public-Private Partnerships with the local energy utility companies. In all those situations, I worked in close relationship with the City’s elected representatives and various stakeholders, generally with the support of legal and financial experts. For the projects included in the EcoCité or FP7-Smart Cities programs, I wrote several proposals and reports in order to obtain subsidies from the French government or the EC. I had also the opportunity to present some of those projects in several international conferences and within university courses (for engineers, architects, urban planners). I had the opportunity to participate in exchange and learning workshops involving city practitioners as well as urban policy-makers through the “EcoCité network”, and I was able to use these results in a French-Japanese project in which local governance issues were central.

Theme / Policy:

Environmental Issues

Summary Thematic expertise:

Energy technologies are part of my educational background, and I worked for many years on energy-related issues. Recently, I worked more specifically on the role of renewable energies in sustainable urban development. In Grenoble’s EcoCité project, one objective was to develop a new positive energy district, i.e. to produce more renewable energy on site than the new buildings would use. I worked with the two local utility companies to design a set of innovative solutions: biomass CHP station, low-temperature DHC loop, low-fall hydro turbine, low-weight photovoltaic panels usable in roof refurbishment works, new buildings integrating “smart-grid ready” features, etc. I was in charge of coordinating the whole project, explaining it to the mayor and other stakeholders, drafting and defending proposals in order to obtain subsidies from the French government (EcoCité program). Then I managed EC-funded City-zen project, which took advantage of the experience gained in Concerto-SESAC and EcoCité about energy issues. I was also involved in the monitoring and capitalization strategy of the Grenoble Facteur 4 action plan, and I had the opportunity to participate in exchange and learning workshops involving city practitioners as well as urban policy-makers through the EcoCité network. I wrote reports about projects’ feedbacks and good practices, and presented them in several international conferences and within university courses (for engineers, architects, urban planners).

Theme / Policy:

Sustainable Urban Mobility

Summary Thematic expertise:

Technologies for mobility are part of my educational background, and I worked for several years on transportation system simulation projects in CORYS. Recently, I worked more specifically on sustainable urban mobility, which is one of the issues addressed by the Grenoble’s EcoCité project. The idea is to build an integrated mobility strategy for a new district, using various means: facilitated intermodality, new generation of shared multi-use parking lots, electric light cars in self-service for last-mile mobility. I was in charge of coordinating the whole project, explaining it to the mayor and other stakeholders, drafting and defending proposals in order to obtain subsidies from the French government (EcoCité program). I was involved in the monitoring and capitalization strategy of the “Grenoble Facteur 4” action plan, which aims to cut by 4 greenhouse gas emissions of the city’s territory by 2050, making presentations and writing the reports’ chapters linked with energy, mobility and all topics linked with the EcoCité project. I also had the opportunity to participate in exchange and learning workshops involving city practitioners as well as urban policy-makers through the “EcoCité network”. I wrote reports about projects’ feedbacks and good practices, and presented them in several international conferences and within university courses (for engineers, architects, urban planners).

Theme / Policy:

Sustainable Housing

Summary Thematic expertise:

I learned a few about architecture during my engineering classes, and I really enjoyed working on building techniques when I was in TECHNAL. In 1999, I had the opportunity to work with the architect F.-H. Jourda on a new concept of bioclimatic façades, before the sustainability concern for buildings arose in France. Sustainable housing is a major component of the projects I was involved in Grenoble. Concerto-SESAC project dealt with energy efficiency in buildings, either new or retrofitted, and led to implement a diverse range of demonstrating projects in Grenoble. I participated in the assessment part of the project, based on extensive measurement campaigns and qualitative inquiries. ZenN and City-zen projects take advantage of the experience gained in Concerto, especially on retrofitting techniques, including cases when housing is occupied during the works. In EcoCité new district, 12 new residential buildings are under construction with very interesting features regarding sustainability: high energy performance, use of renewable materials, plant-filled roofs and vertical gardens, shared rooms and services, remote control electrical equipment, multi-fluid / energy monitoring display, etc. I had the opportunity to participate in various exchange and learning workshops involving city practitioners as well as urban policy-makers and to present results in international conferences and within university courses (for engineers, architects, urban planners).

Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies

E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :

EcoCité project was designed in a highly participatory way, as a concrete expression of the City’s sustainable urban development policy. Many stakeholders have been involved in the projects: public bodies (City of Grenoble, Metropolitan authority, urban public transport authority), utility companies (water, electricity and gas, district heating), industrial companies, public and private housing companies, land developers, different groups of citizens, representatives of the employees of local businesses. The project’s governance was as follows: a steering committee, assisted by a narrow operational committee, was the decision-making body; thematic groups of coordination were set-up; dialogue with citizens was organized through a “Consultation and Follow-up Committee” with the surrounding neighborhoods. Various methods have been used, generally based on meetings. One issue was the level of performance of the new dwellings and the number of parking places allowed for each building. The objective was to encourage the new inhabitants to use collective transports and bicycle instead of their cars exclusively, and it was important to have the same policy for public and private housing programs. After several iterations, a consensus was finally found, based on parking lots which mutualize parking spaces between different kind of users (inhabitants, workers, and visitors) and a small amount of private spaces for each building.

E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:

In the EcoCité project, a set of housing buildings had to be designed by several teams of owners and architects, in order to create a new district with a proved high level of sustainability. A framework was drafted, covering all topics of integrated and sustainable urban planning: architecture, well-being, mobility features (bicycle garage, electric charging points), ecoconstruction (integration, low pollution processes and products), water and energy management, comfort (visual, hygrothermic, acoustic), health (quality of air and water), and extensively presented to the different teams in competition. Best proposals have been selected by a jury of elected representatives and the question became how to follow-up the commitments along the detailed design and delivery process. I investigated the different international standards (HQE, BREEAM, LEED …) which could help in that matter and none of them was sufficiently extended and balanced for this. Thus we created a matrix which allowed (1) to verify that the project was correctly balanced regarding the different chapters of the EcoCité sustainability framework and to record the commitments within the land sales contract, and (2) to evaluate the compliance of the project at all stages. Taking advantage of the experience gained in SESAC project, this tool was completed by a measurement protocol which will be applied during the three first years of operation.

E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:

As the “sustainable urban development” program manager of the City of Grenoble, it was one of my missions to keep up to date about sustainable urban development policies, trends and funds, at EU and national level. This was done mainly through my affiliation with different networks, at regional and national level: • the French “smart cities and communities mirror group”, which aim is to follow the different initiatives taken at EU level regarding “smart cities” (European Innovation Partnership, H2020 program, reform of the structural funds, etc.), share information between French actors and foster the emergence of projects with the participation of these actors; • the EcoQuartier and EcoCité networks and the prefiguration group for the future “Sustainable City Institute” in France. I participated in many conferences in which those topics were presented and debated: Energy Cities rendez-vous in Växjö (2013), Ecocity in Nantes (2013), National Meetings of Energy and Local Governments in Grenoble, Dunkerque and Bordeaux (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015), etc. I also follow various discussion groups on those topics either on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare and Scoop.it, and I participated in several MOOCs about sustainable development and urban planning. Finally, a lot of information is also obtained by exchanging with all our partners in European projects.

E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:

EcoCert is one of the largest organic certification organizations in the world, based in Europe and conducting inspections in over 80 countries, according to three international standards (EU, USA, Japan). In that certification business, it is very important to ensure the same level of expertise and requirement in all situations, even if there are large discrepancies between countries, regarding the type of farms and the initial training of field controllers, who are recruited locally. In charge of methods and tools at transnational level, as well as quality assurance, I was responsible for the competency of field controllers and I designed and supervised training programs which took into account all different local realities. As far as sustainable urban development is concerned, I participated in writing a document entitled “Guidelines for sustainable energy management” based on the Concerto-SESAC project experience. The aim of such a guide is to take advantage of projects which have been properly documented to identify and disseminate general schemes that can be adapted to the local context of many cities in Europe. A five-step iterative method has been designed and we made sure that it made sense for different cities by working with the so-called “following cities” of the SESAC project.

Summary Expertise:

The first local authority which I have supported as a sustainable urban development expert, was the City of Grenoble and it was “from the inside”. My team was responsible for the trans-disciplinary approach of operational projects, and we used to support elected representatives (EcoCité and Grenoble Facteur 4 integrated plans) as well as stakeholders like utilities, industrial companies, public and private housing companies, land developers, different groups of citizens, representatives of the employees of local businesses, etc. As a second step, Grenoble being considered as a leading example in France and sometimes in Europe, our involvement in transnational projects led to many supporting actions towards partner cities and companies in the ZenN (http://zenn-fp7.eu/; zero energy building renovation projects at neighborhood scale) and City-zen (http://www.cityzen-smartcity.eu/; development and demonstration of zero energy city concepts, with a central role for citizens) EC-funded projects. Those two sets of supporting actions dealt with urban strategic planning, integrated urban renewal, local governance and participatory policies, environmental issues, renewable energy development, sustainable urban mobility, sustainable housing.