Les défis pratiques et épistémologiques d’une écologisation de l’aménagement

This article looks at how research and practitioners are addressing the ecologisation of planning practices, and in particular the business model of public land developers. The financing of these land developers largely rest on the sale of future constructability rights, being therefore highly intertwined with construction and artificialisation practices. This leads to the increasing mobilisation of land, materials and energy resources and the perturbation of ecosystems, fairly incompatible with planetary boundaries and their declension in urban projects. Faced with global environmental turmoil and recent regulatory developments (such as net-zero objectives), a number of public land developers consider their operating model as obsolete to be. Drawing on ethnographic material collected with six French land developers (semi-public companies and/or local public companies) and a collective discussion with them and other players involved in regulating development in France, this article examines the theoretical and practical challenges raised by the ecologisation of the planning and constructing act. How can we rethink the value production in planning, so as to take into account and to make count matter, energy and living things? What does it entail operationally and accounting-wise? This article aims to contribute to a research agenda on ecological planning practices and metrics.