Sustainable Development and Ergonomics: A Reflection Stemming from the Commission “Concevoir pour le Développement Durable”

Is our community sufficiently organized from an institutional and disciplinary standpoint to meet the challenges of Sustainable Development? As co-chairs of the “Concevoir pour le Développement Durable” commission of the ARPEGE association, we wish to take the opportunity of this joint session to gather to exchange ideas on this issue with colleagues from different countries and associations. After briefly describing the French context in which the commission was born, and ARPEGE goals, we highlight some of the institutional challenges by considering the experience of the commission concerning sustainable development in Ergonomics. While our commission responds to a current need of several ergonomists, researchers and stakeholders in France, it is obvious that it cannot provide an institutional environment powerful enough to structure all the changes needed. There may be a need to collaborate more strongly in the future, and maybe to create other functional and legitimate agents (research groups, networks, research and training centers, etc.) focused explicitly on Sustainable Development.