Poster De Conférence Année : 2025

What are the values that prevent action to reduce the C footprint of research activities?

Laurent Jeanneau
Emilie Jardé
Maïwenn Corrignan
  • Fonction : Auteur
  • PersonId : 1592991

Résumé

At the global scale, 2023 and 2024 were the hottest years on record since 1850, and 2025 has a 6.2% chance of being even hotter. In this context, it is absolutely essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit climate change. In France, the national low-carbon strategy sets a target of dividing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 by 2050. Within the CNRS, the Institute for the Sciences of the Universe, which is responsible for some of the research on the critical zone, has launched an experiment to voluntarily reduce its emissions by 6% per year, i.e. by a factor of 5 by 2050. Against this backdrop, the French research community has organized itself around the LABOS 1.5 collective that has been recognized as a research group in 2021, by developing a tool for calculating the greenhouse gas assessment of laboratories, structuring the community, sharing best practices and setting up experiments. However, providing information is not enough, as the knowledge hypothesis is the sole driver of change is not borne out. Indeed, achieving such reductions in the C footprint of laboratories implies rethinking why and how we do research, and these questions come into opposition with what we think is the “right” way to do research. This opposition creates cognitive dissonance, to which each individual can respond with a range of behaviors from denial to action to rejection or denigration. During the 5th congress of the French Organic Matter Network, held in March 2024, a collective workshop brought participants together to reflect on these values. After a short presentation on the national context, the nature of the C footprint of an environmental science laboratory and the mechanism of cognitive dissonance, participants were asked to reflect in small groups of about ten people for 1h40 on the following two questions: “What beliefs/values do we hold that are in dissonance with reducing the environmental impact of research?” First in relation to our working methods (30 minutes), then in relation to the organization of research (30 minutes). The second question, “What would a research laboratory be like in a society that had made its social/ energy/ environmental transitions?” was designed to get participants to share their vision of an enviable situation (30 minutes). Among the values identified by colleagues as obstacles to reducing the environmental impact of research are technosolutionism, the digitization of work, the generation of more and more data, and competition as a driving force behind innovation. Conversely, when asked about their vision of an ideal laboratory, the values put forward are respect, benevolence, mutualization and organizational freedom, with the aim of reappropriating time in a slow science logic. This poster presents the results of this collaborative workshop in order to share the values identified as hindering the implementation of environmental impact reduction in research.

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hal-05307361 , version 1 (10-10-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05307361 , version 1

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Laurent Jeanneau, Emilie Jardé, Maïwenn Corrignan. What are the values that prevent action to reduce the C footprint of research activities?. 3rd OZCAR TERENO Conference, Sep 2025, Paris, France. ⟨hal-05307361⟩
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