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Tous les articles postés par jfmathieu@epe-asso.org

5 January 2023

The digital, ally or enemy of the ecological transition?

COUVERTURE-NUM

In just a few years, digital transformations have profoundly changed our lifestyles and the way our societies function. Due to the rapid pace of innovation, digital technologies continually redefine our notions of time and space and profoundly change our ways of acquiring knowledge and information as well as our consumption patterns. Not only do they transform our lifestyles, they also shape the way our societies and market participants operate.

Digital technologies offer great opportunities to businesses and, if properly used, can contribute to environmental conservation and the well-being of people, but they are rather a significant source of environmental impacts.

The trend towards ever greater numbers of users and equipment and ever more intense digital uses will cause a sharp increase in digital-related impacts on the environment, for example, France’s carbon footprint from digitalisation could jump 60% by 2040 if nothing is done to limit it, although shortages in mineral and metal supplies are already threatening growth in the sector.

The new challenge for companies, therefore, is to pursue their digital transformation while reducing their environmental footprint. Since 2020, large corporate members of Entreprises pour l’Environnement (EpE) have been looking into the links between digitalisation and the environment in consultation with their stakeholders, under the aegis of EpE’s Digital and Environment Commission, chaired by Gilles Vermot Desroches, Director of Citizenship at Schneider Electric.

Managers and experts from those companies’ sustainable development and information systems departments have shared their corporate best practices and analysed the conditions for reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology (’Green IT’ section) and leveraging that technology to accelerate their ecological transition as well as that of society as a whole (‘IT for Green’ section).

This report summarises the work done and examines the strategies and practices designed to reduce the impact of digital technologies, measure their environmental footprint and monitor their uses by companies in order to accelerate the ecological transition.

18 May 2022

Business and carbon neutrality: a collective transformation

PUBLICATION VA 3_10

French version

At the end of 2015 the Paris Agreement endorsed the aim “to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and absorption by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century, on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty”.

Since then, carbon neutrality has emerged as the key issue to address in controlling ongoing climate change and protecting human societies from its effects, and it has been taken up by many countries, organisations and businesses. The transition to carbon neutrality for businesses involves major questions and transformations.

In the last few years EpE member companies met within the Climate Change Commission to discuss the individual decarbonisation strategies they have implemented across their organisations. This publication sets out the questions raised and describes the solutions those companies have been striving to develop over time: how can each corporate player act on their own? Do they go it alone, and if they do not, with whom do they team up and how? What difficulties are to be overcome and how?

This booklet is designed both for companies that want to initiate and accelerate their move towards carbon neutrality, and for their various stakeholders who are aware of the systemic aspects and difficulties of that transition.

 

1 March 2022

Lifestyle representations and the ecological transition

Couv - GUIDE VERSION ANGLAISE

The ZEN 2050 study by EpE member companies concluded that France could achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, provided all stakeholders (corporate, government, citizen-consumers, etc.) rallied strongly to achieve an unprecedented transformation of our lifestyles and consumption patterns. The equally important goal of preserving biodiversity further reinforces the need for transformation.

Every person pursues or adopts a lifestyle of their own, influenced by the context in which they evolve. Commercial messages carry representations through and beyond the promotion of goods and services. Businesses, especially advertisers and the advertising sector as a whole, therefore have a key role to play in what could be a revolution of the collective mindset. Several EpE members have already committed themselves to this path and their practices provide material for this guide.

Acting on those representations is one of the ways to achieve the ecological transformation of our society and economy. The energy and creative talent of the entire sector (brands, agencies and media), brought to bear on the representation and promotion of a new environmentally-friendly consumer society and new ethical standards, could well play a leading role in the transition of our lifestyles, based on three approaches:

  • identification of the positive and negative impacts on the environment of the lifestyles projected by commercial messages;
  • promotion of lifestyles conducive to the ecological transition in order to make them desirable;
  • avoidance of representations which mainstream lifestyles not conducive to the ecological transition.

This guide is organised around the following principles:

  • highlighting 10 stereotypes that are sometimes present in advertising, rooted in our unconscious, sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful to the planet, in order to contribute to the evolution of our habits and the emergence of new lifestyles;
  • these representations reflect common issues and so rely on existing referentials: food, transport, housing, travel, entertainment, ideas of happiness and success in life, relation to time and to nature. The issues fall under the main environmental impact sectors (greenhouse gases, biodiversity);
  • the guide sets forth proposals to make sustainable behaviours and lifestyles desirable, and illustrates them with best practices.
19 January 2022

Circular Transition Indicators v2.0 – February 2021

couv CTI 2.0 Report - Metrics for business by business final v2-2

Circular Transition Indicators v2.0
Metrics for business, by business

As the circular economy builds momentum, it is imperative for companies to prepare for their transition based on insights into their circular performance and associated risks and opportunities. To do this, business needs a universal and consistent way to measure its circularity.

The Circular Transition Indicators (CTI) shaped by 30 WBCSD member companies help answer questions like:

  • How circular is my company?
  • How do we set targets for improvement?
  • And how do we monitor improvements resulting from our circular activities?

Central to CTI stands a self-assessment that determines a company’s circular performance. It focuses primarily on the circular and linear mass that flows through the company, in which design, procurement and recovery models are crucial levers to determine how well a company performs. In addition to the ability to close the loop, CTI provides insights into overall resource use optimization and the link between the company’s circular material flows and its business performance.

The framework does not evaluate the environmental and social impacts of the company’s circular activities. However, understanding mass flows is a major step to knowing their impacts.

Although the use of common indicators for circular performance is essential to accelerating the transition to the circular economy, the value of CTI for a company goes beyond the calculation in the guidance, analysis and explanation for how circularity drives company performance. The CTI process helps companies’ scope and prepare the assessment and interpret its results, understand its risks and opportunities, prioritize actions and establish SMART targets to monitor progress.

12 December 2021

EBNS 2021

Recordings European Business & Nature Summit 2021

 

 

1 December 2021

EBNS 2021 Business Statement

European Business Statement
“Scaling up action for nature”

At the outset of the European Business & Nature Summit 2021, a Business Statement is calling on businesses and policy makers to mainstream biodiversity in all decisions and policies.

On 1 December 2021, the European Business statement was officially delivered to the European Commission at the EBNS 2021, in the presence of Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment and Laurent Burelle, Chairman of AFEP (Association française des entreprises privées). The European Business Statement was developed by 13 EBNS partners, and discussed at CEO-level among their members.

The statement calls:

  • on European businesses to scale up action, ambition and innovative collaboration on biodiversity;
  • on the European Union to integrate biodiversity as strongly as climate into the Green Deal and recovery plans, to actively work towards the adoption of a transformative Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework at CBD COP15, China, and to mainstream biodiversity in all European and national policies and decision-making.

 BusinessStatement_Page_4

 

26 November 2021

PUTTING THE ENVIRONMENT AT THE CORE OF A COLLECTIVE REBOUND

Opinion column published in the daily Le Monde,
May 5, 2020.

On the initiative of Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, CEO of BNP Paribas and Chairman of EpE, a collective forum of French and international business leaders issues a call for putting the environment at the core of an economic rebound.

Over the past few weeks, massive resources have been allocated to address the unprecedented crisis triggered by Covid-19. As well as the health impacts, the social and economic consequences of the crisis are being felt by people across France. The focus now is on limiting the effects particularly through the deployment of financial resources that enable French businesses to bounce back in an inclusive and resilient manner. We welcome the quick and momentous decisions initially taken by the French government to address the situation and recognize the solidarity shown by the business community.

This trying situation comes at a time when we had embarked on the transformation of our economy to address the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss and to prevent other major crises announced by the scientific community. We stand by our collective ecological transition ambitions and reaffirm the commitments we have made over the years, since continuing our efforts is the key to their success.

For this to happen, it will be essential to channel a large proportion of the financial resources earmarked for economic recovery into the areas already identified as supporting ecological transition[1], with an even greater emphasis on social justice.

We believe that these financial resources can be a powerful catalyst for a green and inclusive recovery. Forthcoming stimulus packages will present so many good opportunities for making the investments necessary to support transformation pathways.

The first opportunity consists in stepping up short- and medium-term support for sectors that have high job creation and environmental conservation value, in particular by focusing on:

  • energy retrofits of dwellings, buildings and offices in the public and private sectors;
  • development of decarbonised mobility, electric vehicles, soft mobility infrastructure and public transport;
  • expansion and storage of renewable and decarbonised electrical energies or heat.

In these sectors, every public financial initiative is a powerful lever for private investment, making them the best candidates for an early recovery.

As all sectors continue to make headway on their decarbonisation pathway, the second opportunity consists in using public investment to make Europe’s industrial facilities more resilient, while decarbonising them and reducing our carbon footprint. The crisis has starkly revealed the vulnerability of global value chains. Developing a more circular economy and more sustainable and local food supply – for which there is a strong demand from our fellow citizens – would be part and parcel of this drive.

The third opportunity concerns action to boost research, innovation, industrial demonstrators, and future industrialisation solutions, with huge medium- and long-term implications. Well-identified as priorities to be promoted, the solutions include bioeconomy and hydrogen and their uses in land and air transport, carbon dioxide reuse, among many others.

The benefits of these green investments include improved air quality, population health and quality of life in cities. Successfully implementing this emergency plan will also give us greater legitimacy as active participants in the next European Green Deal.

To address the crisis beyond the short term, we will need to deploy collective intelligence in the post-pandemic world, envision far-reaching changes to our methods of production, business models, consumer behaviour and lifestyles, and rethink our relationship with nature. Already we have set this thought process in motion to ensure that economic recovery is on a sustainable and resilient footing.

By acting collectively, we will be able to safeguard the health of our fellow citizens, revitalise our industrial facilities and make the necessary changes so that our children have a liveable planet which delivers human, economic and social prosperity. Let us use the present challenge we are facing together as an opportunity for us all to put the environment at the core of a collective rebound.

[1] See in particular SNBC and the ZEN 2050 study, Imagining and building a carbon-neutral France by 2050, 2019

SIGNATORIES

Patrick André, Vesuvius ; Bernard Arnault, LVMH ; Jacques Aschenbroich, Valeo ; Patrick Berard, Rexel ; Laurent Beuselinck, ERM-France ; Thierry Blandinières, InVivo ; Thierry Boisnon, Nokia-France ; Sophie Boissard, Korian ; Yannick Bolloré, Vivendi ; Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, BNP Paribas ; Christel Bories, Eramet ; François Brottes, RTE ; Thomas Buberl, AXA ; Laurent Burelle, Président de l’Afep ; Patrice Caine, Thales ; Bertrand Camus, Suez ; Heiko Carrie, Bosch-France ; Guillaume Charlin, BCG-France ; Jean-Marc Chéry, STMicroelectronics ; Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, Engie ; Benoît Coquart, Legrand ; Anne-Marie Couderc, Groupe Air France-KLM ; Christophe Cuvillier, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield ; Philippe Darmayan, ArcelorMittal-France ; Pierre-André de Chalendar, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain ; Thierry de la Tour d’Artaise, Groupe SEB ; Augustin de Romanet, Groupe ADP ; Michel de Rosen, Faurecia ; Fabrice Domange, Marsh SA ; Pierre Donnersberg, Siaci Saint-Honoré ; Bertrand Dumazy, Edenred ; Emmanuel Faber, Danone ; Jean-Pierre Farandou, SNCF ; Guillaume Faury, Airbus ; Laurent Favre, Compagnie Plastic Omnium ; Antoine Flamarion, Tikehau Capital ; Antoine Frérot, Veolia ; Didier Gauthier, Chimirec ; Jean-Marc Germain, Constellium ; Jacques Gounon, Getlink ; Jean-Laurent Granier, Generali France ; Christopher Guérin, Nexans ; Catherine Guillouard, RATP ; Edouard Guinotte, Vallourec ; Paul Hermelin, Capgemini ; Thierry Herning, BASF-France ; Paul Hudson, Sanofi ; Xavier Huillard, Vinci ; Sylvie Jéhanno, Dalkia ; Ilham Kadri, Solvay ; Denis Kessler, SCOR ; Christophe Kullmann, Covivio ; Marianne Laigneau, Enedis ; Matthieu Lassalle, Primagaz ; Olivier Laureau, Servier ; Gilles Lecaillon, Ecocean ; Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES ; Dominique Lefebvre, Crédit Agricole ; Thierry Le Hénaff, Arkema ; Jean-Bernard Lévy, EDF ; Eric Lombard, Caisse des Dépôts ; Pierre Magnes, Firmus France ; Nicolas Makowski-Kesic, Hudi ; Thierry Martel, Groupama ; Xavier Martiré, Elis ; Florent Menegaux, Michelin ; Didier Michaud-Daniel, Bureau Veritas ; Laurent Mignon, BPCE ; Dominique Mockly, Teréga ; Virginie Morgon, Eurazeo ; Frédéric Oudéa, Société Générale ; Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel ; Jérôme Pécresse, GE France ; Yves Perrier, Amundi ; Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, Paprec ; Nicolas Petrovic, Siemens-France ; François Petry, LafargeHolcim France ; Robert Peugeot, FFP ; Olivier Peyret, Schlumberger SA ; Bruno Pillon, HeidelbergCement France ; François-Henri Pinault, Kering ; Benoît Potier, Air Liquide ; Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Alstom ; Patrick Pouyanné, Total ; Jean-Philippe Puig, Groupe Avril ; Benoît Rabilloud, Bayer-France ; Sami Rahal, Deloitte France ; François Riahi, Natixis ; Alexandre Ricard, Pernod-Ricard ; Stéphane Richard, Orange ; Bris Rocher, Groupe Rocher ; Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, Président du Medef ; Romain Salza, ACQUA.eco/BioMicrobics France ; Frédéric Sanchez, Fives ; Joël Séché, Séché-Environnement ; Jean-Dominique Senard, Renault ; Guy Sidos, Vicat ; Nicolas Tiliacos, Prodibio ; Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider Electric ; Philippe Varin, Orano, Président de France-Industrie (…)

3 November 2021

The Green-Gold Rush: What governance for biomass? – November 2021

4 PAGES BIOMASS_Page_1

2 November 2021

Partnerships: cornerstone of the circular economy – November 2021

Couverture VA ÉCONOMIE CIRCULAIRE

Partnerships: cornerstone
of the circular economy

The circular economy provides a desirable alternative to the prevailing economic model, which is based on the linear use of natural resources from extraction and harvesting to waste disposal, and the cause of major environmental disruptions.
The development of the circular economy is hindered by the dispersal of secondary material deposits, their variable quantity and quality, the lack of technology, poor access to information, the absence of an incentivising regulatory and fiscal framework, and the persistence of psychological barriers.
The circular economy also presents specific risks that limit investment. An analysis of twenty-seven circular economy approaches, initiated by businesses and collected over three years of discussions within EpE’s Natural Resources Commission, has helped us to better understand the conditions for the successful implementation and mainstreaming of those initiatives.
Partnerships act as a necessary lever for overcoming obstacles and delivering solutions that make better use of local resources, secure supplies and outlets, organise circular economy pathways, experiment, and create new value chains.
A study of the various governance systems in place within the observed partnerships, conducted in collaboration with the ESCP-Deloitte Chair of Circular Economy, reveals three broad types of governance: centralised, distributed and digital.
The publication also highlights the role of public authorities in the development of these initiatives and underlines the complexity of measuring the environmental footprint of such projects.

21 May 2021

The sea, the environment’s and the global economy’s new frontier

Couv EN Ocean 2021

French version here

While the importance of the ocean to our society has never been so tangible and its economic role so strong, its conservation is threatened: the ocean is deteriorating rapidly under the impact of climate change, of multiple kinds and sources of pollution, of overexploitation of its resources and services, and of biodiversity loss.

Against a background of growing awareness, EpE member companies decided to set up an Ocean Commission in 2018 to collectively explore those issues and share their knowledge and experiences.

This publication describes how businesses are addressing these environmental, economic and scientific issues, and provides illustrations of their many best practices:

  • The first chapter deals with the rapid expansion of ocean-related economic activities and the risks that this «Blue Acceleration» poses for the economic and ecosystem services provided.
  • The second chapter discusses the vital role of scientific and technological knowledge in protecting the oceans.
  • In the third chapter, we discuss the development by business of known and innovative solutions to reduce the impacts of existing activities on marine environments.
  • The final chapter examines the arrangements enabling business to facilitate the coexistence of uses in the marine environment.

This publication collates EpE member companies’ thinking – supplemented with additional insights from businesses, scientists, public authorities, NGOs and financial players – and pursues three goals:

1. Raising awareness in the economic community and its stakeholders of threats to the stability of the oceans, and of solutions to reduce them.

2. Contributing to dialogue between maritime and non-maritime businesses and their stakeholders on the solutions and proposals advanced by them.

3. Demonstrating the existence of technological and organisational solutions whose widespread adoption can help restore a healthy and productive ocean.

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