Eco-neighbourhoods, solar panels, recycled heat: these were just some of the innovative ecological projects presented at the panel discussion organised by the Commune of Meyrin at the Globe on Thursday 21 June. CERN is closely involved with several of the projects.

CERN has an important role to play in sustainable development, and in Meyrin it has an excellent local partner. This was perhaps the key message, from CERN’s point of view, to come out of Thursday’s event. It particularly highlighted the proposed plan to use part of the “waste” heat going to the cooling towers at Point 1 to contribute to heating Meyrin’s new ecological housing project, Les Vergers. Some of CERN’s other high-profile contributions to sustainable development, such as the solar panels using CERN vacuum technology on the airport roof, were also presented. The video below presents some of the main ideas and actors in the CERN-Meyrin partnership. Please note that the video is currently only available in French.