Vive la France - Sustainability Leadership

On May 14th 2010, the UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron said "I want us to be the greenest government ever - a very simple ambition and one that I’m absolutely committed to achieving"... 

In 2016, as UK citizens consider their membership of the EU, the news is full of debate about the relative merits of staying or leaving. Whatever the decision, our friends in France can not only teach us about great cooking, but also sustainability leadership. In fact, they have been delivering innovative business models and regulation which has the potential to nudge the nation to be a global sustainability leader. Let's explore some of their innovations in a little bit more detail...

Mobility

Air pollution is becoming a huge problem in large cities (London is not an exception, with an estimated 9,500 premature deaths each year), and in Paris in May 2014, drastic traffic restrictions were imposed.  There's more need than ever, then, for new mobility solutions to be promoted.

Cycle hire

Long before London's cycle hire scheme was launched, back in 2007, Paris introduced their Vélib' cycle hire scheme.  With over 20,000 cycles and more than 1,200 stations, it's a sustainable and fit way to travel within the arrondissements of Paris.

Cycle Hire in Paris

Electric Moped Hire

Soon, there will be two-wheeled collaborative consumption competition, when Cityscoot [in French] launches, an electric moped scheme.  Available to riders over the age of 20 with a valid moped licence, they will be bookable from a smartphone app for €3/15 minutes.

Cityscoot electric moped hire in Paris

Peugeot Mu Vehicle Hire

Before many car manufacturers recognised the upcoming threat of 'access over ownership' business models, Peugeot launched Mu, allowing users to rent a car, moped or even van, depending on their needs.  Of course, their electric vehicles are available to rent as part of the scheme (e.g. iOn).  The scheme also launched in the UK back in 2010, as well as Germany, Spain and Italy.

Peugeot iOn Electric Car

Electric Vehicles

It's not just Peugeot who have 100% electric cars available, Renault has a range of vans (Kangoo Z.E.), as well as its tiny Twizy and Zoe, and Citroën (part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group) has something to offer too with the C-Zero.

Renault Twizy

Renault Kangoo Z.E.

Citroen C-Zero

And of course, with a significant amount of France's electricity generation coming from nuclear (check out this great site to see the energy mix), there's less of an issue of fossil-fuel power plants polluting the environment.

Finally, Renault have announced a partnership with Connected Energy, where their E-STOR proposition uses batteries from Renault cars to support storage from intermittent renewable sources, or for EV charging solutions.
Solar Roads

France hasn't stopped with the vehicles on the roads, it's even considering the roads themselves.  Colas has introduced Wattway, and there's now a plan for 1000km of roads to be made of solar panels across the country.

Colas Wattway Solar Road

Food waste

Food waste is a huge problem at all points along the supply chain from farmer's field, through to the fridge in the customer's home.  France is looking to tackle the problem between the two, banning supermarkets from throwing-away or spoiling food.

Solar / green rooftops

France has another leading policy with new rooftops in commercial zones around France, which must now be built with solar panels, or a 'green roof' covering part of the roof.

Grenelle II - Sustainability Reporting

In April 2012, France decreed that companies must report according to article 225 of law No. 2010-788, or 'Grenelle II', as it's known.  Courtesy of a helpful description from Alcatel-Lucent, it essentially means that corporates must produce an independently-verified report on the environmental, social and societal aspects of their business operations, alongside the financial results.

Corporate Leadership

As well as an active automotive sector referenced above, some other large French corporations are making positive steps to a more sustainable society.

Axa

Axa is a French insurance company, as has woken-up to the fact that climate change poses a fundamental threat to its customers, and therefore it's viability as a sustainable organisation.  It has several impressive initiatives underway:

• The Group has taken tangible steps to address climate change, in particular by divesting €0.5 billion from coal companies and by tripling its green investments to reach €3 billion by 2020
• Specialist insurance for the wind energy industry
• AXA Investment Managers have launched WF Planet Bonds, to support environmental investments at scale

Veolia

Veolia has long seen the business opportunities around the 'circular economy', and has successfully reinvented itself as a 'resource management' services provider.  It's a member of the Ellen MacArtthur Foundation, and is helping push the circular economy agenda.  One such initiative, is where they have created a recycling loop for small electrical appliances, in partnership with Groupe SEB and Eco-systèmes.

BNP Paribas

Innovative startup, Qarnot Computing, has developed a distributed data centre solution, where schools and offices around Paris can host servers, which are then used to heat their premises, for free, using excess heat as radiators.  BNP Paribas have agreed that 5% of its computing power to support risk calculations will be used via this platform, reducing their carbon emissions required to support this computing effort by 75% (mainly due to reduced cooling needs).

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All images © respective manufacturers/organisations, unless otherwise stated 

Mobility for a new generation

Car ownership has been an aspiration for generations of teenagers, but this is changing fast.  The next generation of drivers are less likely to own a car, and a lot more likely to access a car only when they need it.  And you can understand why:

• Car's are not cheap to buy, insure or maintain
• Cars depreciate in value quickly - and this will accelerate as new car technologies render older ones less attractive
• Parking is not readily available for a lot of people
• Congestion and pollution aren't being resolved in cities

For the car industry, this is a problem, as their traditional business model relies on selling volumes of cars to the public, or for fleets.  Car dealers too, will struggle to survive in their current form if cars aren't purchased as often.  Below are outlined some of the new business models being introduced, and the players who are vying to deliver a great experience and win customer loyalty.  It is interesting to note those manufacturers who have embraced these new business models.

Why is this relevant to sustainability?  Well, put simply, car sharing should mean less vehicles on the road.  That means less materials used in manufacture, less congestion, and less emissions.  In fact, a Frost & Sullivan study suggested that each car sharing vehicle available, it was equivalent to 15 privately-owned vehicles.

This blog will consider 5 different business models:

• Car sharing
• Peer-to-peer car sharing
• Lift sharing
• Car Lane Sharing
• Taxi services
• Parking space sharing

Car Sharing

People have been hiring cars for decades, but given the fixed costs of

rental agreement processing, cleaning and maintaining cars, it hasn't been suited to short-term rentals, so was only attractive to holiday-makers and businesses.  Local residents were stuck.  This is no longer the case...

Zipcar

Zipcar was setup in 2000, in Boston, US, merged with Flexcar in 2007, and in 2010, bought London-based Streetcar. In the UK, Zipcar offer a variety of VW/Audi cars/vans (plus Vauxhall Corsas) for hire, on an hourly or daily basis, in one of five cities (London, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford, and Maidstone).

BMW DriveNow 

BMW i, Mini and Sixt have launched DriveNow in eight cities, including London.  In an all-inclusive package, once you have become a member, you can access a fleet of cars, and pay by the minute.  There's no need to return it to the same space it was collected from. 

Here's a promotional video:

Peugeot Mu
 
Peugeot haven't caught the imagination of the car sharing / sustainability media as much as they perhaps deserve.  Peugeot Mu started on the Continent, and was launched in the UK in 2010.  Its service offers a selection of mobility options for short-term rental, including cars, vans, mopeds and vans.

It seems to only operate from five Peugeot dealers in the UK (in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow), so its limited reach may restrict its wider acceptance.

Audi Unite

Audi Unite takes car sharing to a whole new proposition, by making car ownership between a group of people a lot easier.  A smartphone app allows you to locate the vehicle, reserve it, and see how much fuel is available.  And cleverly, the all inclusive running costs are then shared between the members of the circle, based on their respective usage. It's currently only available in Stockholm, so will be interesting to see if it gains further traction.

Car2Go

Car2Go (part of the Daimler AG group) operates in 30 cities across Europe and the US (but no longer in the UK).

 If you'd like to learn more, here's a video explaining the service:

City Car Club

City Car Club was launched in 2005 from Leeds, and offers cars for sharing in 17 locations in the UK.

Peer-to-peer car sharing

Taking the concept of car sharing to the next level, peer-to-peer sharing allows car owners to make their car available to other people, through peer-to-peer sharing.  Of all the collaborative consumption business models that exist, it may prove one of the most difficult, as trusting someone else with ones car is a tough call. One of the early pioneers, WhipCar, unfortunately is no longer in business, but there is at least one organisation still operating this model.

easyCar club

easyCar Club offers peer-to-peer lending, with driver vetting, insurance and RAC roadside assistance all providing peace of mind.

Lift sharing

Another twist to car sharing is offering spare seats to give the driver company for a trip they were already planning.

Lyft

Lyft operate in a large number of cities in the US, with passenger ratings, payments via an app, and additional insurance services.

bla bla Car

Paris-headquarterd bla bla car offer peer-to-peer services in a handful of European countries, including the UK.  

Car Pooling

Munich-based Car Pooling is Europe's largest carpooling community.

Car Lane sharing

Car Lane sharing, or 'High occupancy vehicle' (HOV) sharing gives drivers access to an exclusive lane on a highway, if they share with at least one other participant. The idea is that this not only reduces their journey time, but with less overall cars on the road, it should have a net total benefit.  The reality can be somewhat different, with the non-HOV lanes finding an increase in congestion, and sometimes the HOV lanes very sparsely used.  This is a shame, as it's a great concept which perhaps needs to be more dynamically controlled.

Taxi services

Uber

Uber is a smartphone app which had an impact in every city it's entered, for example the traditional black cab drivers in London staging a protest.  Via a smartphone app, you can book a car with driver to collect you and drive you to your chosen destination.  The passenger can choose the level of car they'd like (e.g. luxury), and the payment is all made via the app.

Parking Space Sharing

JustPark (referral link) allows you to earn money from renting out a parking space you have (e.g. your driveway), to someone that would like to park there (by hour, day, week, month, etc.).  It's so simple, that even I use the service to rent out a space. 

Summary

If a journey can't be made by foot or cycle, ideally public transport should be used to minimise the environmental impact of the journey.  Where this isn't practical, there's no longer a need to own a car - there are a whole host of options available, helping people get to their destination.