Presentation | Research | Observatories | Education and Training | News and Press | Partnerships

In the face of today’s systemic crises, it is essential to provide local stakeholders with insights into often invisible dimensions of sustainability. The two observatories presented here aim to equip actors with tools to better understand their local context, adopt a broader view of value creation, and identify new levers for action.

The Well-living Resource Hub (Cap Bien-vivre in French) is co-led and co-developed by GEM. It provides theoretical, methodological and operational resources to help stay the course toward a more just and sustainable society. The platform brings together, highlights and documents initiatives from around the world that rethink wealth, well-being and evaluation frameworks. It also offers practical tools and feedback to support informed decision-making, clarify key issues and design approaches adapted to local contexts.
The Well-living Resource hub is aimed at all stakeholders—citizens, public authorities, academics and businesses—who wish to take action and engage in transitions grounded in well-being and sufficiency.

Permanent Well-Being Indicators Forum

To extend the momentum generated by the two International Forums on Well-Being, in which GEM was a partner, the Chair has been organizing a Permanent Well-Being Indicators Forum since 2022 as part of the Well-living Resource hub initiative. This forum brings together researchers and practitioners working on well-being indicators. Its objective is to draw lessons from existing approaches and collectively explore next steps. An indicator-building exercise is presented at the beginning of the session, and the remainder of the session is devoted to discussion.

Organizer and facilitator: Fiona Ottaviani

Publications associated with the Well-living Resource hub

Well-living Resource hub publications contribute to two key research streams of the Chair: Sustainable lifestyles and New forms of local organization, with a particular focus on well-being and place-based evaluation. Well-living Resource hub also supports the development of educational tools, such as the Good Living Together Game.

Media coverage and public engagement

Recent media articles:

• The Conversation, 28.04.2025, Des coûts-bénéfices aux co-bénéfices, Fiona Ottaviani, Eléonore Lavoine, Lola  Valero, Hélène L’Huillier, Fanny Argoud et Thibault Daudigeos
• Resilience, 10.03.2025, “Assessing Local Good life: The Art of Prioritizing ‘What Counts’ Together”, Fiona Ottaviani
• Cahiers de la métropole Bordelaise – CaMBo#26, janvier 2025, « Bien-vivre et territoire – Quel sur-mesure ? », Cécile Ezvan, Eléonore Lavoine, Fiona Ottaviani

Well-living Resource hub outreach also relies on participation in local and national events (examples below). A full list is available on the Hub’s website.

• Fiona Ottaviani, « La croissance fait-elle le bonheur ? », 2025 Climat Libé Tour Grenoble
• Fiona Ottaviani, « Comment Grenoble s’outille pour la transition ?  Donut, IBEST et le Baromètre des transitions », Semaine du développement durable du CEA, 2025.
• Fiona Ottaviani, « Des indicateurs de bien-vivre : pourquoi & pour quels usages ? », Webseminaire du Cler, 2025, En ligne, France
• Fiona Ottaviani, Lola Mercier Valero, « Comment intégrer les outils du bien-vivre et de la sobriété dans la conduite de son action », Biennale des villes en transition, 2025, Grenoble, France.

The Transitions Barometer aims to document the practices, behaviors and representations of residents in the Grenoble metropolitan area on major societal issues, in order to help institutions act more effectively in environmental policy and local public action. It is supported by Grenoble Alpes Métropole and ADEME, the Ecological Transition Agency, particularly in relation to environmental policies and public decision-making.

Implemented by the Local Sustainability Transition and Well-being Chair, the Barometer is a recurring survey-based observation tool and a decision-support instrument for ecological and social transition policies at the local level.

The Barometer makes it possible to:

• conduct regular surveys on perceptions of environmental issues, behaviors, levers for change, and the reception—and impact—of public interventions;
• develop socio-spatial profiles (age, life stage, socio-professional category, income level, housing type, etc.) to better target public action;
• collect feedback on public measures (services, infrastructure, regulations, communication), whether already implemented or still in the design phase.

The surveys feed analyses that support public decision-making, including baseline assessments, evaluation of Grenoble European Green Capital initiatives and the Climate, Air and Energy Plan, as well as co-designed thematic surveys tailored to local issues.

The Barometer relies on a research panel, launched by GEM in 2020, bringing together residents from the 49 municipalities of the metropolitan area. This panel enables the testing of survey tools designed to be replicated in other local contexts.

Publications from the Transitions Barometer

Reports

• 2026 – forthcoming: Waste and Consumption Report – in French
  Nicolas Verger, Fiona Ottaviani, Vincent Jourdain
  This survey examines environmental representations, waste generation, repair and second-hand practices, and perceptions of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), shedding light on behavioral levers for the circular economy.

• 2026 – forthcoming: Ecological Funeral Practices Report – in French
  Nicolas Verger, Fiona Ottaviani, Vincent Jourdain
  This study explores current and anticipated burial practices, funeral consumption behaviors, and perceptions of links between funerals and ecology, including the role of cemeteries as spaces of nature.

• 2026 – forthcoming: Socio-Ecological Inequalities Report – in French
  Nicolas Verger, Fiona Ottaviani, Vincent Jourdain
  The survey analyses differentiated responses to environmental exposures (noise, pollution) and everyday needs (mobility, services), with a focus on mobility and residential environments.

• 2025: Water Use for Swimming and Cooling – in French
  These surveys identify water-related practices among residents of the Grenoble metropolitan area, including everyday cooling uses, associated inequalities, acceptability of water in urban settings, and hydro-climatic impacts. Results available upon request.

• 2025: Ecological, Social and Economic Risks – in French
  This survey contributes to the local adaptation of the Global Risk Index by analysing how risks are perceived by elected officials, businesses and residents, in support of the Annual Report on Risks and Resilience.

• 2023: Ecological Practices Survey Report – in French
  Vincent Jourdain, Fiona Ottaviani
  This survey analyses the drivers of everyday environmental behaviors across mobility, food, consumption, waste and energy, highlighting representations, social practices and local action levers.

View all Transitions Barometer publications, – in French (2022–2025)

Videos

Media coverage

The Transitions Barometer is regularly cited in the media. Selected examples in French include:

• 25.01.2024, Novethic, Smartphone, aspirateur… Le bonus-malus réparabilité, un premier pas vers un changement de pratiques dans les entreprises
• 02.01.2024, Socialter, 3 propositions radicales pour un âge de la maintenance des objets
• 30.03.2023, Les affiches de Grenoble et du Dauphiné, Que mettons-nous dans nos assiettes ?
• 04.05.2023, Le vent se lève – LVSL, Consigne sur les bouteilles : un débat technique hautement politique

Publications

Institutional publications

Selected publications from the Grenoble-area observatory network (Obs’y), in French:

• Inconfort dans le logement et capacité à faire des travaux : une équation à fort enjeu face au changement climatique
• Perception des maux et des mots de l’écologie sur le territoire de la métropole grenobloise
• Alimentation : des pratiques qui évoluent, en fonction du niveau de revenu et des représentations
• Réduction des déchets : une vraie culture de la seconde main chez les habitants de la métropole

Academic publications

• Jourdain V., “Labeling future markets: the making of the French repairability index”, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2025, Online First
• Jourdain V., Lamah M. E., “Fostering and slackening consumption, downstream and upstream: Consumer’s roles in French circular economy”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2024, vol. 467, no. August, pp. 142884

Other publications

• Bailly, F., Daudigeos, T., Jourdain, J. et Ottaviani, F. (2022), De quoi la sobriété est-elle le nom ? Le virus de la recherche – Transition environnementale, PUG.

Conferences and academic events

Researchers involved in the Transitions Barometer regularly present their work at conferences and symposia in French, including:

• Conférence : Premiers résultats de l’enquête sur les usages domestiques et baignade de l’eau par Thomas Bolognesi et Fiona Ottaviani, Séminaire Popsu Transition du 5 décembre 2024
• Conférence : Jourdain V., Ottaviani F. (2024), Baromètre des transitions de la métropole grenobloise, Croq’ Futurs 12 mars, Grenoble, France
• Colloque : Cukierman, P., Jourdain, V., Ottaviani, F. et Vallée, J. (2025), Brocarderies au travail, taquineries en famille : quand l’écologie instille le doute chez les classes supérieures, Congrès de l’Association Française de Sociologie (AFS), 8-11 juillet.
• Colloque : Jourdain, V. et Ottaviani, F. (2023), Des pratiques environnementales à l’intersections de pratiques sociales, économiques et politiques. Résultats d’une enquête en ligne auprès de Grenoblois.es, 10e Congrès de l’Association française de sociologie, 4-7 juillet.