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Paris La Défense launches a competition to reduce the territory's carbon impact

League territory The Cube

This is a first since 2014, the year the competition was created by the IFPEB: The CUBE inaugurates a special "territory" league, and it is Paris La Défense that has the chance to take the plunge. This is an opportunity for the developer to involve the actors of the territory in order to achieve its ambitious objectives in terms of sustainable development, in particular the reduction of consumption and the carbon footprint.
But what is Le CUBE, and what benefits does it bring to the business district? We tell you everything!

The CUBE competition and its special "Territory" league

The CUBE competition, initiated since 2014 by the French Institute for the Energy Performance of Buildings (IFPEB), is the largest collective initiative to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. The principle? Companies, schools, buildings, ERP and coworking spaces... compete for a year (in a friendly way!) to achieve the greatest energy and CO2 savings, all in a fun and educational spirit.

The competition is part of the objective to anticipate the ELAN law (tertiary decree), which requires all private and public actors to reduce the energy consumption of their buildings by 40% by 2030 (then -50% by 2040 and -60% by 2050), and whose application starts this year, in September. In 2020, the top 10 candidates in the competition reached the 40% savings threshold set for 2030 by the decree, in just one year!

Thus, with the conviction that "every gesture counts", the IFPEB is launching, for the 2021-2022 season, its first "territory" league of the CUBE competition in partnership with Paris La Défense. This year, the CUBE competition will act as a "top start" for the tertiary decree, with the participation of a business district as a major first. Orange, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Groupama Immobilier... Major occupants of La Défense are taking part in the French energy saving championship, in a league specially created for the area.

Collectively, the first entrants are putting 500,000 sq.m. at stake in La Défense, including :

  • Coeur Défense, the largest office building in Europe, owned by Amundi Immobilier, Primonial REIM and Crédit Agricole Assurance and managed by BNP Paribas REPM
  • La tour Saint Gobain, the headquarters of Saint Gobain, to be inaugurated in 2020
  • Allianz One, headquarters of Allianz France,
  • Le Palatin, managed by BNP Paribas REIM France (asset manager) and BNP Paribas REPM (property manager)
  • Groupama Campus, in Nanterre

Any organisation with a presence in La Défense, be it offices, shops or higher education establishments, can sign up to join the league and participate in the competition! For more information: CUBE website or by email

The main stages of the CUBE 2021 competition

  • September 2021 : Official launch of the competition
  • June 2022: Closing of the competition.

Paris La Défense, federator and participant!

The CUBE competition will allow Paris La Défense to better understand the state of energy consumption in the area, in addition to the carbon assessment carried out this year in order to understand the energy challenges. In fact :

  • The emissions of the Paris La Défense territory were approximately 1000 kt CO² in 2019 (equivalent to a large provincial town of 127,000 inhabitants);
  • The construction of offices accounts for nearly 24% of greenhouse gas emissions and the movement of people, particularly business travellers, for nearly 32% of emissions;
  • Energy consumption (electricity, gas, heating and cooling networks) accounts for more than 15% of these emissions: the Cube competition is a way of working on this lever for reducing the carbon footprint.

Last March, the public institution presented the principle of the competition to the members of the Paris La Défense Users' Association to broaden the panel of participants. Although competitive, the competition will enable the various players in the area to improve exchanges and pool the resources mobilised with the aim of nurturing the collective spirit and pulling the area's performance upwards to achieve maximum energy consumption. Through this competition, Paris La Défense, as a federator of the territory, accelerates the trajectory of decarbonisation on the scale of the district, in an educational, playful way and in a collective dynamic by encouraging and accompanying potential actors in an energy transition process, combining both a committed approach and compliance with a regulatory requirement.

Paris La Défense, committed to the ecological transition

As an office tenant and participant in the competition, the public institution is committed to making 2021 a pivotal post-crisis year against climate change by taking the first step towards the now indispensable ecological transition. The competition is also part of the continuity of the actions carried out by Paris La Défense for several years, in particular:

What is the IFPEB?

The French Institute for Energy Performance in Buildings is an alliance of economic players who have been working together as an association under the 1901 law for 10 years, in partnership with their members: energy companies, major accounts, design offices, etc. Its objective is to propose the conditions for an ambitious environmental transition in line with operational reality. Its means: making content available to the general public, specific working groups on certain subjects with their members. For more information on the IFPEB

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