Feature : Environmental protection

With an expanding eco-industrial fabric, an increasing number of enterprises are incorporating the concept of sustainable development. More than nine years after the Rio conference, the French SME/SMIs’ [1] statement of commitment to protect the environment seems fairly positive.

There are currently several thousand of these eco-industrial enterprises in France where work consists of providing goods and services for evaluating, preventing or dealing with attacks on the environment. By not hesitating to play in the same league as the subsidiaries of the major French groups such as Vivendi, Suez and Gaz de France, they operate in almost all the fields of the sector. The specialities they cover include both the supply of industrial products and technologies, engineering, consultancy and research and development. However, the production of specific goods for evaluating and dealing with environmental problems seems to be the favourite field of small and medium-sized enterprises. The latter are particularly active in developing new technologies associated with the protection of the air and water among other things.

Evaluating, averting and treating

Due to the innovative nature of their technologies, a number of them are managing to carve out a niche in the market. This is the case, for example, with Aair Lichens, an SME offering a method of diagnosing atmospheric pollution unique of its kind, since it relies on the use of lichens. The technique developed by Richard Lallemand, a researcher at the University of Nantes, grades over forty or so pollutants including dioxins, heavy metals and pesticides. With this technique, a global index of air quality can be established and a given zone mapped out. Being the only one in this sector offering this type of product, Aair Lichens does not face the pressure of competition.

It is quite different for an SME such as Carbofil France, operating in sewage treatment, an area of activity dominated by the major French companies. This SME established in the Loire-Atlantique region has perfected a process for treating swill that relies on the use of biological components. The removal of fats from this waste discharged by the food processing industries is a major problem for sewerage plants. But it is a real gold mine for the eco-industrial enterprises. Carbofil France, with a workforce of seven people, thus has an annual turnover of 1,450,000 euros  [2](that is, approximately 9,500 000 Francs). Flushed with its success on the national market, the enterprise is trying to export its technology.

If we consult the France/Environment and Sustainable Development CD-ROM, published by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), which lists over 500 French eco-industrial enterprises, the case of Carbofil is far from unique. The good performance of some SME/SMIs, however, cannot mask the difficulties that most of them encounter.

The first obstacle is the setting-up of financing to launch their projects. Then comes the search for outlets ensuring continuity of their activities. This is just a normal route for any enterprise, with the difference that the environmental market is fairly distinctive. This distinctiveness is due notably to the fact that the public services are the main dictators of the eco-industries. When the expenditure of the local authorities stagnates, as has been the case in France in the recent past, outlets naturally decrease.

Even so, territorial anchorage remains a determining factor in the success of the eco-industrial SME/SMIs, on the one hand because the Départements and local districts are more suited to the implementation of sustainable development policies and, on the other hand, because the enterprises may benefit from financial support from decentralised structures such as the Regional Bureaus for Industry, Research and the Environment (Drire), or the regional offices of organisations such as Anvar (National Agency for Implementation of Research Findings).

The majority of small enterprises are still unaware of this aid. One of the tasks of Comité 21 (the French Committee for the Environment and Sustainable Development) is precisely to help the SME/SMIs in identifying it. Set up in 1995, this association has 230 members including companies, district authorities organisations and associations.

A French sector ranked 4th in the world

"Our first task is to encourage discussion between the networks of socio-economic and institutional players and to energize the implementation of sustainable development projects and initiatives", explains Etienne Ruth, manager of the Entreprises 21 programme piloted by Comité 21.

Entreprises 21 promotes new eco-industrial activities through an Internet web site which also lists around a thousand forms of environmental aid available in France as well as a barometer of sustainable development strategies.

Since 1997 French enterprises that have been looking for outlets on international markets may also benefit from the support of the international Ademe club. This club, the aim of which is to promote French know-how in sustainable development, has 56 enterprises, including 70% of SME/SMIs with strong technological potential and complementary skills, two indispensable qualities for taking on the world environmental market. Today, the French eco-industry, made up of the major groups and of SME/SMIs, is ranked 4th in the world after the United States, Germany and Japan. The many assets it has should enable it to take up the future challenges of sustainable development.

By Sylviane Robinet Journalist

1. Small and medium-sized enterprises/small and medium-sized industries. 2. One Euro = 6.55957 Francs.