Applications invited for Colas CSR Challenge - Imagining the responsible infrastructures of the future

About the Colas Group:

The Colas Group’s aim is to be the global leader in innovative and responsible mobility solutions. Its focus is on responsibly designing, building and maintaining transport infrastructure via its local presence all over the world. Its driving force is to bring people together and facilitate interaction in today’s world – and in tomorrow’s. The three main sectors it works in are Roads, Materials and Railways 

With operations on five continents, in some 50 countries, through a network of more than 800 construction operation units and 3,000 production and recycling units for construction materials, Colas employs 55,000 people and carries out more than 60,000 construction projects per year.

About the Challenge:

Imagining the responsible infrastructures of the future!

How can tomorrow’s infrastructure address the need for the local area’s socio-economic development while taking climate and social challenges into account?

Society today is faced with a range of challenges: climate and environmental challenges, energy challenges, growing and constantly changing mobility, the gradual urbanization of the world’s population, and more…

As the backbone of any region, bringing people together and enabling their everyday activities, infrastructure must address the need for the local area’s socio-economic development while taking climate and social challenges into account.

For over 90 years, building infrastructure that brings people together has been part of Colas’s DNA. Today, our sector needs to evolve to take these new challenges on board, and we believe that in order to overcome them, we need to take action and make commitments so that together, we can succeed. And so we’re calling on you to share your vision of the future, your creativity and your inventiveness – disruptiveness welcome – to help us create the infrastructure of the future by taking your viewpoint and your expectations into account.

Suggest your ideas!

Submit your innovations, win prizes and share our ambitions by getting to know us! Put a team together and take part in this Colas challenge to submit your innovative and ambitious solution for the future of mobility infrastructure!

We’re looking for innovative yet pragmatic and achievable ideas – and don’t forget to make sure your submissions are well-argued!

The finalists will be invited to take part in the grand final and pitch their projects to a prestigious jury panel

Creating solutions for better sharing of public space

Cities are constantly changing: their populations and traffic volumes are growing, and the boom in new mobility solutions means decisions need to be made on managing the use of space. How can we respond to city development challenges by creating a more peaceful and more fluid shared urban environment?

A few topics for inspiration:

• Urban decongestion
• Dynamic sharing of the street and the road
• Soft mobility offerings
• How do you see the more peaceful shared spaces of the future?

Creating solutions to adapt infrastructure to climate change

Climate change affects cities and whole areas, bringing risks of flooding and of coastal areas being lost to the sea, the devastating effects of heatwaves and drought, the impact of loss of biodiversity, and more besides. How can we anticipate the effects of climate change by creating resilient infrastructure that mitigates the impacts of global warming or allows nature to return?

A few topics for inspiration:

• Preventing soil artificialization
• Developing solutions and facilities that protect biodiversity, and in particular wetlands
• Combating the urban heat island effect
• What solutions can you offer to anticipate the effects of climate change on infrastructure?
• Creating solutions to manage infrastructure sustainably

Faced with today’s environmental and climate challenges, clients and users expect sustainable infrastructure that offers new features and is optimized throughout its life cycle.

How can sustainable management solutions be developed that address the entire infrastructure life cycle?

A few topics for inspiration:

• Ensuring infrastructure is properly sized for its intended use
• Modular infrastructure: adaptability based on use and traffic over time (on a daily basis, a seasonal basis, etc...)
• Developing new road features: generating and storing renewable energy, smart roads that communicate with the cars on them, carbon sinks, and more…
• How do you see the future of infrastructure that meets the needs of society throughout its entire life cycle?

Registration Phase

• Click on the "Participate" button.
• Create or join a team from 2 to 5 members.
• Chose on of the 3 topics proposed.
• Create, in English, a presentation of your project based on this template (5 to 10 slides) (PDF format).
• Submit your project before May 30th, 11:59PM (UTC+1), in your participation space. You also have the possibility to submit appendixes to detail your project.

For more information please check the Link