Sustainable Development

Turn the lunchbreak into a friendly, relaxing moment. Discover new foods. See the canteen transformed into a responsible restaurant.

Sustainable development in action

• Improve the menu using sustainable ingredients and methods
• Reduce leftover waste and use bio-waste solutions
• Promote experimentation and discovery thanks to ‘living lab’ meals

 Limit our impact on the climate by promoting green transportation and videoconferencing.

• Sign agreements with the local tramway and bus services (TaM & Hérault Transport)
• Set up more videoconference rooms and supply portable videoconference materials
• Use electric vehicles for on-campus maintenance
• Create 450 bicycle parking spots
• Optimise the automobile fleet
• Work with other scientific institutions, universities and local authorities to help develop regional sustainable development policies.

 Limit our impact on the climate by promoting green transportation and videoconferencing.

Sustainable development in action

• Sign agreements with the local tramway and bus services (TaM & Hérault Transport)
• Set up more videoconference rooms and supply portable videoconference materials
• Use electric vehicles for on-campus maintenance
• Create 450 bicycle parking spots
• Optimise the automobile fleet
• Work with other scientific institutions, universities and local authorities to help develop regional sustainable development policies.

Exotic and Mediterranean vegetation flourish across the Montpellier SupAgro campus. In the arboretum, pathways meander through mature trees, some representing very rare species. The experimental vineyard, planted with 32 vine varieties, is a living classroom, and the vegetable garden is open to all students and staff.

Limit water consumption

• Favour alternative natural resources
• Reduce watering
• Calculate more precisely the need for watering

Update grounds maintenance methods

• Stop using herbicides and pesticides
• Use shredded wood obtained from pruning to supply straw replacements
• Plant hedges using existing plants as a source of saplings
• Take cuttings and use layering to generate new plants and weed either by hand or with mechanical tools
• Plant bulbs and sow seeds rather than planting seedlings

In 2013, Montpellier SupAgro signed the Gender Parity Charter developed by the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles, a non-profit association of higher education institutions in France. Since then, we have regularly conducted surveys to assess and promote gender equality among students and staff.

These surveys have helped identify two objectives:

• Promote awareness
• Develop female entrepreneurship

and our strengths:

• Part-time, flexi-time work schedules
• 70% of students in the French Agricultural Engineering Diploma Course are female
• School statutes - consideration of gender parity is compulsory when electing members to the Board of Directors.