About Charles

Hi everyone! You may have met me at ISIE-SEM 2022 in Vienna, or perhaps at Brightcon2024 or the recent Départ de Sentier Autumn School. I’m Charles, a newly appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Water Engineering at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada.

I have a background in wood engineering (B.Eng., Université Laval). During my MSc and PhD at the Industrial research chair on sustainable wood construction (CIRCERB, Université Laval), I have worked on topics such as biogenic carbon accounting, carbon budget allocation, and building stock modelling. Specifically, my (ongoing) PhD addresses the embodied impacts of Quebec’s residential dwelling stock. Leveraging some of the outstanding prior work by several members of our community (MFA, LCA), I have developed a regional, dynamic, stock-driven model to figure out how to answer Quebec’s growing housing needs while minimizing environmental impacts.

Potential for collaboration

One main motivation drives my research: how can we fairly provide the necessary services to society, without compromising environmental boundaries?

I am interested in applying (and developing) MFA and LCA methods to buildings and to the wider built environment (including infrastructures). I wish to support and contribute to open science, tools, and initiatives, including for example previous initiatives like Brightway, ODYM, the IEDC database, etc.

As a newly appointed faculty member, I am looking for collaboration and funding opportunities, and hope to continue doing research on topics such as:

• Socio-economic metabolism;
• Prospective, dynamic, and time-explicit LCA;
• Model uncertainty and sensitivity analysis;
• Dynamic material flow analysis;
• Carbon accounting and policy-making for the built environment.

A materials spotlight?

Through a déformation professionnelle backed by two decades of scouting, camping, and other outdoor-related “-ings”, I have developed a close interest (and soft spot) for the potential of bio-based materials in developing a more sustainable built environment. Wood construction is an important topic in Quebec and Canada; and although several sources support its mitigation potential, there remains many knowledge gaps and contentious topics. Through this new position, I hope I can keep contributing to these topics, as well as gain (and generate) new knowledge on sustainable construction materials and practices. 

Links

Faculty Website : https://www.fsg.ulaval.ca/corps-professoral/charles-breton

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-breton-ab0096104/

ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7078-8310

RESEARCHGATE : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charles-Breton-2

GOOGLE SCHOLAR : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a9lvhq0AAAAJ&hl=fr&oi=ao