Natixis CIB Green Summit: Supporting the adaptation and competitiveness of territories

At the heart of its strategic project Vision 2030, Group BPCE is mobilizing locally accessible solutions for everyone to enable its clients to trust in the future with confidence and foster local competitiveness. Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking organized the Green Summit gathering more than 600 attendees to discuss the challenges of climate change. During the event, several stakeholders shared insights on the specificities of these territories and how their economies are adapting to climate change. 

Catherine Piante sea program manager at WWF France, Nils Joyeux, CEO and co-founder of Windcoop and Dominique Thillaud, General Director of Compagnie des Alpes, presented insights into the specific challenges within their sectors and the concrete solutions they are implementing. 

Catherine Piante discussed the pressures that maritime economic growth places on marine ecosystems, highlighting the Posidonia seagrass meadows that WWF aims to fully protect by 2030 in the Mediterranean. These meadows are crucial ecosystems that provide habitat for juvenile fish. This plant also acts as a natural carbon sink. Between 10% and 30% of the Mediterranean Posidonia meadows have disappeared. Proposed solution: a raising awareness and protection measures that allow coexistence between the ecosystem and its uses (tourism, fishing, etc.). 

Nils Joyeux, CEO and co-founder of Windcoop that manufactures and operates cargo ships equipped with sails, hinghted some solutions to reduce CO2 emissions in maritime freight. For example, the sails on the ship developed for Ariane Group to transport the Ariane 6 rocket reduce its fuel consumption by one-third. He also insisted on the importance of governance showcasing the cooperative model, positioned as a creator of value for both society and the planet. 

Dominique Thillaud, General Director of Compagnie des Alpes, explained that the impacts of climate change are already tangible in the Alps region, which heavily relies on the ski economy, with glacier melting and ski resorts closing. Dominique Thillaud shared examples of the measures implemented by Compagnie des Alpes: 

• Recycling of used oils from the company’s amusement parks as fuel for grooming ski slopes, reducing CO2 emissions by 93% compared to diesel. 

• 8% of exclusion zones in the ski area to protect certain species;  

• 90% of the extracted water is returned, and the remaining 10% evaporates and falls back to the East; 

• Publication of financial results accounted for in euros and CO2 emissions; 

• Net-zero carbon trajectory by 2030.