The Climate Solutions Business Matching Program connects local and regional governments and industrial companies with innovative startups and SMEs to help them tackle the challenges of climate change.
It is a community-driven initiative, built in partnership with the French Agency for Ecological Transition, Greentech Innovation-labeled solutions, general and specialized support organizations, and leading industrial partners.
We identify the needs of the region, as well as the key priorities of local authorities and industrial players.
We source innovative startups and SMEs capable of delivering concrete solutions to regional and industrial challenges.
We help solutions showcase their value proposition, their benefits, and their ability to partner with large companies and local authorities.
We organize the pitch day and highly targeted one-to-one meetings, connecting solutions with needs.
We provide close, personalized follow-up to turn exchanges into real, lasting partnerships.
When needed, we combine complementary solutions to fully address regional and industrial needs.
We equip stakeholders to communicate the impact of these solutions to the public, strengthening their adoption and visibility.
Local authorities and the industries in their regions recognize that innovative solutions from startups and SMEs can be implemented locally to address the challenges of climate change.
The French Governmental Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) plays a central role in implementing the France 2030 plan, a broad program of strategic investments overseen by the General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI), an organization reporting directly to the French Prime Minister.
ADEME supports businesses, local authorities, and research organizations in innovation projects related to reindustrialization, in order to accelerate the decarbonization of the economy.
Major corporations help identify innovative solutions and create local value to meet climate and environmental challenges.
They also promote Open Innovation, both locally and within their own organizations.
The Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label helps decision-makers find efficient, economically profitable solutions to meet their environmental commitments.
The Greentech Innovation Label from the Ministry for Ecological Transition drives the ecosystem of French companies (micro-businesses, SMEs) that innovate sustainably.
The Capenergies competitiveness cluster facilitates the emergence of innovative projects, supports their financing and development to accelerate the energy transition across the regions.
Le Village by CA - Crédit Agricole's nationwide network of 50 innovation hubs - connects startups, corporations, and local partners to drive business growth and open innovation.
Creative Minds catalyzes all stakeholders around the Climate Solutions Business Machting program through a signature methodology - pragmatic, collaborative, built on collective intelligence.
Thanks to their ready-to-use technologies, start-ups and SMEs with climate solutions aim to go to scale as quickly as possible.
Here are some examples
According to experts on the field, individual behavioral changes for the average French person would result in a maximum 20% decrease in personal carbon footprint. This would represent a quarter of the global effort needed to achieve the goal of limiting the average global temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
In total, commitment of individuals and households to decarbonize their lifestyles, which is certainly unavoidable, is nonetheless insufficient to achieve the reduction targets and aim for carbon neutrality in France by 2050.
In order to win the battle and the race against time in which we are engaged at the planetary level, it is necessary to transcend individual action and reach a collective level of action, while involving the citizens too.
While the major orientations for the climate (plans, strategies, etc.) are defined at the national level, it is at at the regional and intermunicipal levels that these policies are implemented in order to ensure the coherence of the measures and their implementation in all sectors.
Local authorities are directly responsible for a certain number of local public services that are related to the environment and allow them to contribute to its protection. To meet the challenges of climate change, they are looking for innovative solutions, particularly from start-ups and SMEs, which in turn need to develop rapidly and "scale up".
These solutions, whether they are high-tech, mid-tech or low-tech, are also in the field of social innovation and sobriety of uses while allowing the development of new local jobs and the emergence of local activities.
Initially inspired by TED's OUNTDOWN . program to detect and promote inspiring ideas ("We can change Climate Change"), the Climate Solutions Business Matching works operationally with local authorities and start-ups to enhance the implementation of innovative solutions.
