Mission leaders: Claire Carré, Olivier Maury
What is MARBEC GREEN?
As a research laboratory focusing on marine biodiversity, MARBEC documents the interrelated crises of climate and biodiversity and seeks sustainable solutions.
In line with this ecological orientation, MARBEC has launched the MARBEC GREEN initiative in 2019.
MARBEC GREEN is part of the 
and aims to quantify the environmental impacts of our scientific activities and to reduce our ecological footprint, individually and collectively at the MARBEC laboratory level.
With the growing awareness of ecological issues, climate and biodiversity research is acquiring an important political dimension. We believe that the credibility of our scientific positions in this debate can only be strengthened by our efforts towards more environmentally responsible practices.
Our actions
MARBEC GREEN is focusing its efforts on carrying out the UMR's carbon assessment and developing a strategy to reduce the laboratory's emissions by 8% per year, in accordance with the Paris agreements and the most recent European objectives.
UMR MARBEC's carbon assessment is carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the and contributes to it.
Seven sectors are considered:
- Emissions from buildings, mainly related to electrical consumption (equipment, lighting, air conditioning, heating etc.),
- numerical calculation and use of Internet (computing, data storage, purchase of hardware) et use of internet
- the sea campaigns (use of oceanographic vessels),
- the use of small vessels (mainly on the lagoons), the use of service vehicles,
- travels to work and meals,
- emissions related to laboratories (purchase of consumables, maintenance),
- business travels.
A data collection protocol adapted to the UMR's activities has been drafted in order to allow and facilitate the standardised annual calculation of the carbon balance.
At the beginning of March 2023, these mesures were presented to our management, who will decide how they can be implemented within MARBEC
At the same time, un "Marbec-Green good practice" guide has been produced, bringing together all the ideas, information, tips and advice gathered during the various participatory workshops and meetings of the MARBEC GREEN group.This guide is to be used without moderation!
A small insert will be dedicated to highlighting these tips in the unit's monthly newsletter.
We attach great importance to the adhesion of all MARBEC members to the UMR's carbon emission reduction approach. To this end, we have always favoured participatory actions to co-construct the strategy for reducing its emissions. Various collective events have been organised, each time bringing together a large part of the UMR's staff and making it possible to collect numerous concrete proposals for reducing our ecological footprint and to develop a consensus on them:
* The following documents and presentations developed within the framework of MARBEC GREEN's activities are accessible via the download centre on the MARBEC website intranet; to access them, please log in!
- an awareness of climate issues and a presentation of the MARBEC GREEN approach in November 2019
- an online survey to assess the interest, motivation and commitment of staff in January 2020
- an 1st workshop for the collective development (brainstorming) of a "1°5" strategy in January 2021
- an assessment of the acceptability of these proposals through a second online survey in February 2022
- a presentation of the 2019 carbon footprint calculated by MARBEC GREEN group which highlighted the different items with the highest emissions in February 2022
- un 2nd workshop to discuss the most effective measures for each of the 4 main carbon footprint items and build an ambitious consensus on them, in February 2022
In addition, MARBEC GREEN participates in communication, training and experience sharing events around these eco-responsibility issues in RSE:
- supported by our supervisory bodies and other partners, such as at the UM on 9 June 2022 and at IFREMER on 20 September 2022 and 5 December 2022,
- during the MARBEC 2022 days, where we led a workshop entitled "Should we change our research activities to help reduce our carbon footprint?"
- Ma Terre en 180' workshops (https://materre.osug.fr/) and Climate Fresco (https://fresqueduclimat.org/).
Finally, we participate in the prospective study organised by the French Oceanographic Fleet "Imaginons la Flotte de demain" (Let's imagine the fleet of tomorrow), which aims to reduce the environmental footprint of future ships.
In addition to reducing the UMR's carbon footprint, MARBEC GREEN is gradually extending its work to other types of impacts that are not directly related to climate.
About us
MARBEC GREEN brings together about 25 motivated volunteers from all categories of staff.
Coordinators MARBEC GREEN : Claire Carré and Olivier Maury.
« Buildings » group:
Animators : Auriane Jones et Franck Lagarde.
Participants : Amaël Dupaix, Christine Felix, Hervé Demarcq, Jean-François Ternon, Jonathan Rault, Claire Carré, Laure Velez, Mélanie Blanc, Olivier Maury, Yoluene Massey.
« Digital Computing and Internet » group:
Animators : Nicolas Barrier et Amaël Dupaix.
Participants : Hervé Demarcq, Jonathan Rault, Laure Velez, Mathieu Depetris, Matthieu Lengaigne, Olivier Maury, Claire Carré, Valérie Derolez, Yoluene Massey, Yunne Shin.
« Travel to work and lunch» group:
Animators : Yoluène Massey et Patrice Guillotreau.
Participants : Amael Dupaix, Amédée Roy, Auriane Jones, Claire Carré, Matthieu Lengaigne, Olivier Maury, Yunne Shin.
« Sea campaign » group:
Animators : Claire Carré et Franck Lagarde.
Participants : Angélique Jadaud, Marc Soria, Jean-François Ternon, Olivier Maury, Yoluene Massey.
« Laboratories » group:
Animators : Corinne Bouvier et Mélanie Blanc.
Participants : Christine Felix, Claire Carré, Jonathan Rault, Olivier Maury.
« Business travels » group:
Animators : Marc Soria, Matthieu Lengaigne et Olivier Maury.
Participants : Adrien Brunel, Amaël Dupaix, Amédée Roy, Claire Carré, Corinne Bouvier, Hervé Demarcq, Jonathan Rault, Laure Velez, Nicolas Barrier, Patrice Guillotreau, Yoluene Massey.
How to get involved?
If you wish to join us, please contact Claire Carré and Olivier Maury.