The life (of a consulting firm) is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.*
Now that the year is coming to a close, we can say that in 2023, we were treated to a nice assortment.
First, one number: 50, which is the number of missions we have won, either alone or in partnership, since the beginning of January.
In half of the cases, these are "territorial" studies, on behalf of local authorities or natural areas:
- Development of ecological networks (green, blue, black...), from the Rouen Normandie Metropolis to the Baie de Somme Picardie maritime Regional Natural Park, including the Syndicat de l'Orge, de la Rémarde et de la Prédecelle (SyORP), Nîmes Metropolis, Grand Paris Sud, and Dijon Metropolis.
- Integration of the issues related to the ERC sequence ("avoid, reduce, compensate") in territorial planning, from various angles: zero net artificialization strategy (SCoT Pays Basque and Seignanx), project assessment (Communauté de communes Anjou Loir et Sarthe), land strategy (SIARJA)...
- Management of natural spaces, with a wide range of issues: impacts of fires in the Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park, ecological functionality of sensitive natural areas in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, environmental indicators for the new charter of the Haut-Jura Regional Natural Park...
Now, if we zoom in on infrastructures and development projects, we can highlight two sectors particularly relevant to the studies obtained this year:
- Transport infrastructures, with topics such as monitoring the effectiveness of wildlife crossings on highways (on behalf of APRR), or environmental requalification of a segment of the A64 highway (on behalf of the Ministry of Ecology).
- Energy infrastructures, with missions focusing, for example, on analyzing ecological continuities within a facility (for TotalEnergies), or evaluating compensatory measures as part of a photovoltaic park project (for wpd France).
Other topics are also beginning to gain traction, particularly urban nature and agroecology. We will talk more about this soon.
And let’s not forget, finally, the missions with a strong scientific research dimension. This includes, for instance, a statistical study conducted on sampling campaigns by Ifremer, or the work that the French Office for Biodiversity entrusted to us to model the distribution of cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea.
In fact, we could have started with that, as it is true that research is the other leg on which we stand. Moreover, 2024 is shaping up to be intense in this regard. We will share more in a few weeks, and in the meantime, we wish you happy holidays!
*And for the reference, it’s Forrest Gump.