Two years after it was launched, the partnership between Bouygues Construction and the Scientific and Technical Centre for Building(1) (CSTB) has now been stepped up. On the occasion of a jointly organised conference on the analysis of building lifecycle management, the Group and the CSTB announced a new joint initiative. 

As of 2012, Bouygues Construction will take part in a public research project on the analysis of the lifecycles of buildings, directed by the CSTB. The project, known as Benefis, will make it possible to improve the performance of existing building lifecycle management methodologies and software programs. Benefis has been awarded funding for a period of three years by the French National Research Agency (ANR). This collaborative project will also enable the Group to work with other players, including the organisations Armines and Maisons de Qualité and the company Izuba. 
In this framework, Bouygues Construction and the CSTB will strengthen their cooperation on the Elodie software package, which can be used to assess the environmental performance of a building throughout its lifecycle. The partners' joint work has already resulted in the software being brought more into line with needs in the field. 
The topic of building lifecycle analysis is vitally important for Bouygues Construction, which is carrying out increasing numbers of design, build and facilities management operations. Building lifecycle analysis represents the only way of assessing the global environmental cost of the heritage that we will leave behind for future generations. 
Lifecycle analysis is one of the themes covered by the research and teaching chair in Sustainable Building and Innovation that was set up by Bouygues Construction in October 2010, in partnership with the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and the Fondation des Ponts, the Ecole Centrale Paris and Centrale Paris Développement, Supelec and the Supelec Foundation, and the CSTB. 
  

⁽¹⁾ The Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB) is an industrial and commercial public institution dedicated to promoting innovation in building. It carries out four key activities - research, engineering expertise, quality assessment and the spread of knowledge - which enable it to achieve sustainable development objectives for construction materials, buildings and their incorporation into neighbourhoods and cities.