The use of sustainable district heating to foster local ecological transitionan industrial ecology approach
Résumé
Sustainable District Heating (SDH) are both local public infrastructures of sustainable heat production and distribution and a specific collective organization supporting this infrastructure designed for an ecological transition at a local level. This ecological transition is the last evolution of urban transitions reconfiguring the place of public authority and PPP (public-private partnerships). Designing a SDH is not only a technical matter, it is a social and organizational process by which a network of stakeholders is involved and structured within a governance framework. The building of stakeholder networks, based on governance mechanisms, and aimed at building sustainability-driven interdependent systems of resources, are precisely the core of industrial ecology. Our research question is the following: to what extent SDH, considered as a specific form of industrial ecology, may contribute to an ecological transition at the local level? In this communication, we first characterize the local sustainable transition in which district heating are embedded in, then build on two pillars of industrial ecology-the design of a shared imaginary and the governance of the stakeholder network. We highlight the importance of contracts in the governance of such settings and finally, point out some gaps between sustainable imaginaries in Europe. We illustrate this dynamic through two district heating case studies in France. We use these two case studies to propose a comprehensive understanding of SDH design and governance and to build a new conceptualization of the key role of contracts in the collective governance process.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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