At Vivatech, French-style GreenTech is on the rise

• The VivaTech 2022 show dedicates part of its programming to the GreenTech sector.

  The opportunity to examine in more detail this branch in full expansion in France.

• "The whole challenge of GreenTech today is to make an impact while offering sustainable services and products, accessible to as many people as possible"

  , Isabelle Albert analyzes for

  20 minutes .

Widely honored during this 2022 edition of VivaTech, the start-ups of the GreenTech ecosystem are taking an increasingly important place in the French entrepreneurial landscape: "From

, an American book released in the 2000 to GreenTech and ClimateTech which have become trends today, the acceleration has been very rapid over the past five years", analyzes Isabelle Albert, GreenTech expert in a European think tank and

of Satgana, a venture capital, which invests in start-ups seeking solutions to these climate and biodiversity issues.

"The whole challenge of GreenTech today is to make an impact while offering sustainable services and products, accessible to as many people as possible".

But in fact, what is “making an impact”?

According to the Impact France movement, an impact company is one that is built around four pillars: initiating a real transition in terms of eco-consumption and eco-driving, defending a social impact, internally vis-à-vis its employees and externally with inclusive services and products, sharing power by demonstrating decision-making transparency, ethical governance, gender parity and integration of the company into its territorial ecosystem, instilling values ​​by relying on an ethical financial strategy, fair and transparent management methods

Moreover, when Catherine Ballard talks about her green nugget, Earthency, present at VivaTech, she too immediately sets the tone: "It's an impact company, in the ecological transition".

This Breton start-up tackles the problem of land and water pollution, particularly with regard to illegal dumping, and offers a participatory digital solution.

Is committing to the climate then the main criterion for being part of GreenTech?

To integrate the GreenTech sector, is a low-carbon app then the sesame?

“Our French GreenTech companies present for this edition are very strongly committed to reducing their own environmental footprint and to creating useful innovation,” says Julie Ranty, director of VivaTech this year.

Greener than tech the French scene?

"Today, there is still a lot of funding for digital transformation, but we must not forget that digital is only a tool", tempers Isabelle Albert, whose motto could be "for a more sustainable and in the service of sustainable development”.

“Tech has an acceleration function,” she adds.

The GreenTech expert, also author of

(2020), takes the example of Ynsect, this food start-up, which creates, as its name suggests, food from insects.

By using

and artificial intelligence, Ynsect uses technology to facilitate the environmental approach.

This is also the case of Earthency which, to a good idea, adds a little tech: "Our tool does not have great technological depth, admits Catherine Ballard, but combined with our innovative concept, it becomes a start-up which has its place in the GreenTech category”.

“The difference today is in the impact analysis, and in particular that of the life cycle of the entire proposed solution.

Above all, you have to measure the weight of the technologies, their environmental impact to be sure that in the long term, the uses are more virtuous”, Isabelle Albert reasons.

From associations to sustainable economy and finance

Following a professional retraining in climate plan, the creator and founder of Earthency, Catherine Ballard worked on waste management and water quality.

In 2014, when the idea came to her, she saw no other way to carry out her project than under the aegis of "an association of general interest": "it's thanks to a free mook from HEC that I joined that I could in fact create an impact company, with which I would undoubtedly be better understood than with a simple association".

And for good reason, the associative world has long been the first and only one to engage in France, on environmental issues and for green solutions.

"A few brands like Patagonia or Weleda got hold of it very early on, but they were the exception," says Isabelle Albert.

Then, after associations and a few marginal

start-ups , the social and solidarity economy, the SSE, appeared in France.

And for the specialist, this is the starting point of this more virtuous economy: “today, so-called

companies want to be

They change the notion of desirability and marketing”.

In short, having the latest SUV and the latest generation smartphone in your pocket is less trendy than carpooling, consuming less, going vegan or buying a fairphone.

If the examples of Back Market, Vestiaire Collective or Rezlient, which by evangelizing the message "optimizing your budget and the environment is much cooler than over-consuming", inspire French GreenTech entrepreneurs, the eco-system can still be discouraging .

“To dare and undertake today in GreenTech is worse than an obstacle course, breathes Catherine Ballard, who launched Earthency in 2020. Mentalities need time to change, it is not yet obvious for investors to choose to inject their capital into meaningful jobs”.

What is French GreenTech today?

“We are talking here about 1,800 start-ups, a number which has doubled since 2020, 60,000 jobs and 3 billion euros in turnover”, relates Isabelle Albert.

“At VivaTech, we particularly wanted to shed light on these themes, which are becoming more and more important,” adds Julie Ranty.

“It is the end of financial companies that only tick the boxes of ESG criteria, which distribute ratings without really questioning the impact and the model”, assures Isabelle Albert.

The Ehpad Orpea scandal or the war in Ukraine have helped to reshuffle these cards: it is time for truly sustainable finance.

In the United States, the sector is increasingly buoyant and heard, but Europe also has assets to present.

“Sweden and Germany hold the rope, with France also doing well, analyzes Isabelle Albert.

European GreenTech is second in the world behind American power”.

Are

tech and

green irremediably linked?

The alliance of environmental protection with digital is largely due to the agility of the tech world and its role as a facilitator.

Potential geeks have a reputation for being particularly flexible and able to create just about anything, from scratch.

For the GreenTech expert, “it (the tech community) has recently integrated its duty to set an example.

She first believed she was not polluting by not printing any more sheets and staying in the

.

The only optimization was for

, because ventilation and energy were expensive”.

Today, because her ability to adapt is strong and because awareness is all the same faster, she operates her transition much more quickly.

This makes tech an undeniable asset for impact companies.

"GreenTech is a return to balance, to reverse the phenomenon of anthropization and act positively on the overflows of human activity", emphasizes Catherine Ballard.

We must never forget that “technology is only one of the means of responding to the climate emergency”, concludes Isabelle Albert.

And hope that, like Amsterdam and the American continent, Paris will soon have its show entirely dedicated to GreenTech.

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