Since June, Thibault Josselin has been Astek’s delegate to the “Grand Défi pour la Planète” (Great Challenge for the Planet).
4 sessions later, it’s time to take stock of the investment of this Breton engineer who is committed to making things happen on a daily basis!
Delegate to the Grand Challenge, that is?
For Thibault, “it means giving your time to advance a cause that goes beyond the company but in which the company is a stakeholder. These are 12 days spread over 6 months, for a 1st step: presenting 100 concrete proposals to accelerate the ecological transition of companies. The more the days and the sessions go by, the more we realize that it’s not going to stop on December 15th.”
Le Grand Défi pour la planète
Independent initiative, supported by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, aimed at bringing together 150 randomly selected French companies to present 100 concrete and realistic proposals to accelerate their ecological transition.
Concretely, the delegate participates in 6 sessions of 2 days over 6 months, from June to December; each session being punctuated by conferences, collective intelligence workshops and exchanges.
Each session has a specific theme and objective:
- Nantes: diagnoses and challenges
- Lille: role, responsibilities and impacts of companies
- Grenoble: lifting the brakes and defining our objectives
- Caen: time for proposals
- Montpellier: collegial work on the refinement and selection of proposals, by delegates and experts
- Paris (at the Climate Academy): sharing with the entire Grand Challenge ecosystem and political authorities
The exchanges are rich, the first sessions gave rise to a lot of discussions. “The delegates are not all at the same point in their journey. All have a certain fiber for the environment but which is not expressed in the same way. I have gained a lot in listening and discussion skills,” explains Thibault. Some delegates are in charge of CSR issues within their company, some are members of management, others, like Thibault, are invested and committed employees. Not everyone has the same level of knowledge, but they all work towards a common goal: to transform the company in a realistic way so that it is respectful of the climate and biodiversity.
In concrete terms, what happens?
For Thibault, “the session actually starts a week before if you want to do things properly, especially to remember the previous session, the report, the work, the readings recommended by others.”
Each session is meticulously organized and supervised by the Grand Défi volunteer team. The agenda is articulated around 3 stages:
- Time for learning with conferences on the climate led by speakers from the region or the host city, scientific organizations such as the IPCC or even inspiring local companies who come to share their policy change and/or or their best practices.
- Time for reflection during workshops in small groups of 10 on all the the company issues: governance, finance and investment, purchase and design, production, indicators…
- Moments of exchange and sharing of information, articles and books between delegates; all reports, works and readings are made available to all on a common database enriched daily.
“Our goal is to find solutions, propose innovative measures or deploy measures already tested and applied in certain companies. The aim is also to move the legislation when necessary – even if it is not obvious.”
After 3 sessions more focused on the context and market research, the 4th session was an opportunity to establish the first proposals, but “you will still have to be a little patient to learn about them. They will be presented in Paris in mid-December during the 5th session,” recalls Thibault.
Pragmatically, the Grand Défi aims to lead all French companies towards change, by already embarking 10% of them (by conviction or by legal obligation) in a real ecological transition.< /p>
Thibault’s message: “It’s all about moving forward, each at their own level!”
Faced with the magnitude of the task, Thibault wants to be optimistic. “If we move forward, we can only be right. Like many, I have made enormous progress in my journey during confinement. Favor short circuits, better sort waste, consume local and second-hand. Do I really need to buy new? So many questions that I took more time to ask myself”
And Thibault is convinced: everyone can do at their level! The Grand Challenge is also used for this: “we touch companies that touch companies that touch people”. Beyond the economic approach, it is also an opportunity to benefit from an extraordinary snowball effect.
Thibault
Development engineer at Astek since January 2022. Thibault is first and foremost a scientist. It was studies in geology that got him started on environmental subjects.
Today, Thibault describes himself as an “optimistic activist” for whom the only way to move the subject forward is by making things happen around you, with your acquaintances and in your company. As a result, applying to represent Astek at the Grand Défi was obvious and a chance to participate in a global initiative with a much longer reach.
We need to inform, raise awareness and exchange good practices. And all of Thibault’s investment is there. Proactive within the Group, he is ready to invest more to multiply exchanges both externally and internally during webinars or workshops, or even by leading working groups with other interested employees… we’ll keep watch…