Start of the French energy saving championship

It's on! The French Energy Saving Championship officially started on Tuesday 7 December 2021 on the lawn of the Paris La Défense Arena where some of the participating teams came to present their concrete solutions for reducing their energy consumption. This event demonstrates a new form of "positive" and "collective" commitment and is in line with the new strategic direction of Paris La Défense.

A competition demonstrating the collective spirit

The CUBE competition, initiated in 2014 by the French Institute for the Energy Performance of Buildings (IFPEB), is the largest collective mobilisation to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. This year, the CUBE competition brought together, on 7 December 2021, some of the 1,000 participating teams, including companies, towns, territories and schools, as well as the Chairman of Paris La Défense, George Siffredi, and many personalities from the world of business, local authorities and education. This meeting was an opportunity to officially launch the French Energy Saving Championship with speeches, testimonies and showcases aimed at unveiling a new method of commitment and encouraging as many people as possible to join the movement. An event that will be a milestone in the collective effort for energy sobriety. This season, the competition already brings together nearly 750,000 sq.m. of office space in the Paris La Défense business district, representing 15% of the total office stock, and 12 companies, including Cœur Défense, the largest tertiary building in Europe, the Saint Gobain tower, Allianz One, the Palatin, managed by BNP Paribas REIM France and BNP Paribas REPM, and the Groupama Campus, in Nanterre. In the last few years, participants achieved an average of almost 13% energy savings, with the best performing achieving over 50%. Collectively, they saved the equivalent energy of 15,600 homes last year.

Paris La Défense, federating and participating!

In line with the new raison d'être of Paris La Défense, and its desire to become the first post-carbon business district, Europe's largest business district is continuing its transformation action by accompanying its occupants in their energy transition. Thus, this special "league" of the French Energy Savings Championship was created in mid-2021. "By entering this challenge, Paris La Défense wants to demonstrate its determination to involve investors, companies and users of La Défense in making it the first post-carbon business district in the world, with the objective of halving its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030," says Georges Siffredi, the general chairman of Paris La Défense. "The CUBE competition is in line with our wish to encourage companies, employees and residents of La Défense to adopt more responsible behaviour with regard to their environment". Although competitive, the competition allows Paris La Défense to better understand the state of energy consumption in the area and for the various players to improve the means mobilised in their ecological transition and to achieve maximum energy consumption.

The main stages of the competition

• January 2021: launch of candidate recruitment
• October 2021: launch of the CUBE competition
• 7 December 2021: launch of the Energy Savings Championship at the Paris La Défense Arena
• 30 September 2022: closing of the competition
• End of 2022: award ceremony