Sustainable Dependability Chair

For Technical Systems That Are Safe in Operation and Sustainable from Societal and Environmental Perspectives

Led by Sector, the Sustainable Dependability Chair positions operational safety within a new paradigm: environmental sustainability.

After optimising reliability, availability, maintainability, safety and cost of technical systems throughout the 20th century, the 21st century introduces a new strategic criterion: integrating environmental sustainability into risk assessment and overall system performance.

Context and Challenges

Today, the objective is to create an integrated conceptual framework — combining standards, guidelines, initial and executive education, and professional certification — to support engineer-managers in the design, production, maintenance and recycling of technical systems.

The aim is to develop systems that are both safe, value-generating for companies, and environmentally sustainable.

Geopolitical tensions, climate change, reindustrialisation and growing awareness of natural resource limits require a new, integrated approach. With over 50 years of expertise in dependability, risk management and integrated management, French know-how offers a unique opportunity to address these challenges through an innovative discipline: Sustainable Dependability.

This context requires addressing three major challenges:

Managing complexity: sustainably integrating systems at all scales (components, equipment, facilities) while assessing their global and local impacts.
Coordinating stakeholders: aligning decisions and actions of diverse actors (technical, economic, financial, CSR) to achieve multidimensional performance criteria.
Ensuring transparent reporting: providing clear financial and extra-financial performance assessments to engage internal teams and reassure external investors.

Key Issues to Address

Green industrialisation and ecological transition: developing ecosystem-friendly solutions, notably through Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
Creating sustainable value: integrating environmental sustainability as a key characteristic of technical systems while respecting resource and ecosystem constraints.
Integrated governance: defining internal and external management approaches to optimise risk and opportunity management through a systemic perspective.

The Sustainable Dependability Chair positions itself as a key actor in addressing these issues by training the engineer-managers of tomorrow to integrate these dimensions into their projects and strategies.

3 Strategic Pillars

Integrating Sustainability into Dependability

The Chair develops an innovative discipline: Sustainable Dependability.

Its objective is to design technical systems that are:

Safe and reliable
Value-generating for companies
Compatible with environmental and societal constraints
Aligned with 2030 targets and net-zero 2050 objectives

Developing Integrated Decision-Making Models

Faced with the complexity of ESG frameworks and regulatory requirements, the Chair designs:

Performance models integrating technical, financial and extra-financial performance
Integrated risk management processes
Multi-scale decision-support tools (project, portfolio, company level)

Training the Engineer-Managers of Tomorrow

The Chair structures a comprehensive conceptual framework combining:

Standards and reference frameworks
Initial and continuing education
Professional certification
Dedicated pedagogical engineering

Objective: train a new generation of engineer-managers capable of integrating sustainability into industrial strategies.

Main Objectives

Scientific and Technical

Define the conceptual framework, standards and methodologies of Sustainable Dependability
Identify typical sustainability-related challenges and collect relevant data
Develop models integrating sustainability into traditional dependability approaches and, more broadly, create performance models dynamically embedding technical systems within their societal, economic and environmental contexts
Develop relevant R&D to achieve these objectives
Demonstrate proof of concept through doctoral research by sector and system, according to operational priorities
Implement sustainable dependability models within integrated engineering and management frameworks

Performance of Partner Companies’ Projects

Enable companies, at project, portfolio and corporate levels, to achieve objectives in:

Reliability, maintainability, availability, production, safety and security
Sustainability
Financial and extra-financial performance

Corporate Governance

Identify and integrate new internal rules related to sustainability
Structure the collection of sustainability-related feedback data (REX)
Improve data quality for reliable financial and extra-financial reporting
Upon request, develop digital tools adapted to specific sectors and professions, particularly to integrate into digital twins simulating technical, financial and extra-financial performance and managerial processes

Shared Objectives

Develop educational content on Sustainable Dependability for engineering students and professionals
Prepare voluntary pre-standardisation and/or labelling initiatives

Strategic Challenges of the Sustainable Dependability Chair

The Chair aims to:

Create and structure a new profession of engineer-managers capable of designing, engineering, producing, maintaining and recycling technical systems that are operationally safe, socially acceptable, value-generating and environmentally sustainable.
Integrate climate adaptation and mitigation into sustainable industrial growth strategies and ensure reliable financial and extra-financial reporting to investors.

Key Scientific and Technical Barriers to Overcome

Extending performance criteria: integrating sustainability of environmental flows and stocks, resource sobriety, climate mitigation and extra-financial performance into existing dependability and integrated risk management approaches.
Data and value creation: identifying, collecting and leveraging sustainability-related data to create value for companies.
Designing decision-making models: developing decision-support tools to assess and manage performance at different scales (project, portfolio, company), relying on integrated analyses and technologies such as AI and stochastic simulations.
Anticipation and reporting: designing models capable of real-time anticipation, adaptation and structured reporting aligned with stakeholder expectations.