Dry toilets and green roofs for a highly educational back-to-work itinerary

"The bau-building sector is growing fast in the Drôme and Ardèche districts, and I'm convinced that PIHC's approach will help create new back-to-work jobs and offer skills training. The idea of green roofs is a genuinely interesting example, which I aim to test myself on a couple of buildings."

Stanislas Pouradier Duteil

Something new has happened in France: the bau-building sector is flourishing. Woodframe houses, positive energy buildings, photovoltaic panels ... these new techniques are increasingly used to build residential and public buildings.
And the panoply of these innovations includes dry toilets, made of wood and collapsible, and the construction of green roofs. At Romans, in the Drôme region, PIHC (Plateforme d'Insertion par l'Humanitaire et la Coopération), a workforce development organization approved by the Labor Administration, has decided to diversify its back-to-work operations by jumping into these two new markets.
Created in 1994, it so far offered the twenty-seven persons that it supervises, training, social and professional accompaniment, and a return to work in the areas of local development and international cooperation. Thanks to bau-building, it now aims to increase the number of back-to-work itineraries that it proposes, and also reach a broader public (especially handicapped persons) and in addition, offer its employees effective training for the labor market.

Twelve new back-to-work jobs

The first new project is the production of dry toilet cabins.Many of them were first built to confirm their feasibility, and agreements have already been signed with a company providing this type of service for major public events. PIHC employees have already been active at Rock en Seine in Paris, the Charleville-Mézières festival, and Mars Attacks in Marseille.

As to green roofs, a pilot project will be carried out on a site picked together with the municipality of Romans. To ensure the success of this first project, PIHC will enlist the expertise of a supervisor trained in the technique, who will be the interlocutor for the technical services of the city and the architect of the municipality. This new activity will begin in 2010.

By taking the decision to help PIHC, the Veolia Foundation will help it purchase part of the equipment required to smooth the progress of the two activities. And twelve new back-to-work jobs will then be created instantaneously.