When we think of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, we almost cer­tain­ly think about the envi­ron­ment. But in order for the objec­tive of sus­tain­abil­i­ty to be achieved, oth­er dimen­sions come to bear, in par­tic­u­lar eco­nom­ic, tech­ni­cal and social issues.

It was back in 1993 that the UTC set itself the goal of rec­on­cil­ing tech­nol­o­gy and the envi­ron­ment. Design­ing a prod­uct, piece of equip­ment, process or method whilst min­imis­ing pol­lu­tion or iden­ti­fy its source is the approach adopt­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty. Thanks to the com­ple­men­tary skills of its var­i­ous lab­o­ra­to­ries and the qual­i­ty of its research, UTC-Com­pieg­ne is well placed to assess and con­trol the risks that tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment can pose to the envi­ron­ment and to find tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions to envi­ron­men­tal challenges.

From the design of a prod­uct that can be eas­i­ly recy­cled, to opti­mi­sa­tion a man­u­fac­tur­ing process to make it clean­er and/ or less ener­gy-greedy, to the imple­men­ta­tion of an effi­cient end-of-life waste treat­ment and recov­ery sys­tem, or even the detec­tion of pol­lu­tion using bio­log­i­cal meth­ods, a glob­al approach is favoured.

Prob­lems that also involve eco­nom­ic and social issues. Hence the empha­sis on includ­ing the teach­ing social sci­ences and human­i­ties. In all these areas, UTC has a lot to offer in terms of edu­ca­tion, research and innovation.