Company
Ateliers de France
Headcount
~ 2 000 employes
Website
Sector
Industry
Project type
Climate strategy
Managers
Un projet similaire à mener ?
In brief
- Ateliers de France is a group of 43 subsidiaries specialising in heritage renovation and luxury construction projects.
- After an initial flow analysis, Carbon Cutter carried out an initial measurement of the carbon footprint of each of the subsidiaries. Carbon Cutter then supported the group in its climate strategy using the ACT Step-by-Step methodology.
- A climate trajectory aligned with the Paris Agreement (SBTi) and the business constraints of the subsidiaries was defined, along with quantified targets. All subsidiaries were provided with a monitoring dashboard.
- The rigour of this support was praised by Ateliers de France’s banking pool.
“Carbon Cutter’s pragmatic support enabled us to quickly identify the climate challenges posed by our activities and make informed decisions about our priority actions.”
— Dominique Niel
CEO of Ateliers de France
Ateliers de France: unique expertise in heritage restoration and exceptional projects
Ateliers De France is a French group bringing together around fifty companies specialising in decoration, woodwork, metalwork, roofing and cladding, marble and stonework, and high-end interior design.
The group brings together unique expertise derived from 17th and 18th century traditions: leaf gilders, stonemasons, marble masons, sculptors, plasterers, ironworkers, carpenters, bronze fitters and decorative painters.
The group has completed projects as exceptional and diverse as the Palace of Versailles, the Peninsula Hotel and the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, the Oval Office of the White House, the Opéra Garnier, Matarazzo in Brazil, the Hôtel Matignon and the Elysée Palace, and the homes of Yves Saint-Laurent.
The initial challenge
In 2022, Ateliers de France asked Carbon Cutter to:
- Conduct an initial carbon footprint assessment for the group;
- Design a climate strategy and emissions reduction trajectory that takes into account the specificities and heterogeneity of the group’s business lines, while meeting the requirements of Ateliers de France’s banking pool, which is particularly attentive to the proposed methodology and compliance with SBTi principles;
- Ensure that the 45 subsidiary managers take ownership of the measurement and action plan in order to respect the group’s organisational structure, which grants a high degree of autonomy to the subsidiaries.
The completed project
Ateliers de France’s support consisted of two main parts:
2022 – the launch of a structured and ambitious climate initiative
Ateliers de France called on Carbon Cutter to help it better understand the group’s environmental challenges and lay the foundations for a roadmap to unite and engage the entire group in a structured environmental initiative.
For this, we began by training the members of the management committee to engage them in the initiative and empower them to steer the action plan.
We then carried out an initial measurement of the carbon footprint of five companies representing the group’s various activities with the aim of identifying the most significant sources of emissions. We supplemented this measurement with an analysis of the material issues for each business unit, based on a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire distributed to all companies in the group.
Finally, we worked with the executive committee to develop an initial three-year roadmap detailing the priorities at the group level and for each business unit.
2023/2024 — Development of a climate strategy and SBTi trajectory
To achieve this, we:
- Refined the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions initiated in 2022 by focusing on the most significant sources of emissions, including raw materials (steel, aluminium, etc.), freight and employee mobility.
- Supported the group’s management in defining its climate strategy using the ACT Step-by-Step method.
- Modelled several greenhouse gas emission reduction trajectories to achieve a trajectory aligned with the Paris Agreement (SBTi).
- Rolled out the group climate strategy at the level of each company during dedicated workshops. Each subsidiary was thus equipped with a dashboard enabling it to consult the results of its carbon footprint assessment and to manage its action plan on a monthly basis.
The results of the project were presented to the Ateliers de France banking pool, which praised the rigour of the approach and approved the defined trajectory and group action plan.
‘What I appreciated most about the support provided by Carbon Cutter was their consultants’ ability to tailor their support and meeting facilitation to our Group. Their commitment to finding concrete comparative examples in other companies that were meaningful to us, and above all their dynamism in managing the project, were key factors in its success.’
— Xavier Reboul
Deputy Managing Director of Ateliers de France
The ecological transition at Ateliers de France, as told by those leading it
Interview with Xavier Reboul, Deputy Managing Director
Why did you initiate a decarbonisation process within the Ateliers de France group?
We have made a commitment, both to our financial partners and publicly, to reduce our carbon footprint in line with SBTi targets. In order to lend credibility to our approach, but above all to identify concrete actions to meet this ambitious goal, we decided to launch a step-by-step decarbonisation process.
What difficulties did you encounter?
The main difficulty we encountered was related to the very composition of our group: our subsidiaries, which we call ‘maisons’, have very different activities. The main challenge was to identify actions that would reduce the carbon footprints of all our houses.
What actions are you most proud of?
Thanks to the dynamism of the Carbon Cutter team, we have succeeded in getting the entire executive committee and all the houses on board with this initiative.
What did you appreciate most about working with Carbon Cutter?
Carbon Cutter’s ability to tailor its support and meeting facilitation to our Group, but also their commitment to finding concrete comparative examples in other companies that were meaningful to us, and above all their dynamism in managing the project, which was a key factor in its success.
