Why decarbonization support changes everything
You've launched your first carbon audit, but since then... nothing? Wondering how to go from a few figures to a real roadmap? You're not alone! In 2025, structuring your low-carbon trajectory has become a vital issue if you want to stay in the race: regulations are intensifying, investors are more demanding, customers are looking for transparency... Companies that don't move quickly risk stalling.
In France, all organizations - SMEs, ETIs, major groups, players in industry and the service sector - are being urged to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to remain competitive, benefit from financing and reinforce their responsible image. SMEs alone account for 30% of the national environmental footprint. In France, industry remains one of the biggest GHG emitters, with a high energy dependency that makes it a priority lever for achieving climate objectives. Every project undertaken in this direction, whether supported by a major industry or a small business, represents a concrete opportunity to combine energy performance with measurable results in terms of emissions. At European level, the objective is to reduce GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (Fit for 55 program).
But there is still a gap between the will to act and an effective strategy. Structuring your transition plan requires expert decarbonization support and the right tools to ensure that your strategy is sustainable. Far from being a constraint, this structured approach changes everything: it enables us to act methodically, mobilize our internal resources, involve the entire value chain, and transform our commitments into concrete results.
Contents
From intention to method: managing decarbonization
Why a carbon footprint is the first step in an effective climate strategy
Too many companies act in isolation, without prioritizing their actions and lacking a clear framework. The result: ineffective efforts that are difficult to capitalize on.
A rigorous diagnosis - such as a GHG emissions report that complies with the relevant standards (ISO 14064, Bilan Carbone®, etc.) - is essential. It provides a clear vision of the areas that emit emissions, gives tangible benchmarks, and enables us to organize our actions around objectified priorities.
From this initial stage, the Global Climate Initiatives (GCI) platform facilitates emissions measurement with a simple sector questionnaire and an ISO 14064 and ISO 14083-certified pathway, with or without expert support as required. This initial framework makes it easier to understand the issues at stake, and puts the organization on a solid footing.
From measurement to action: building the right plan
Once the emissions have been measured, we need to know how to act. This is a key stage in defining a clear climate trajectory, without getting bogged down in a diagnostic phase. We need to transform this diagnosis into a roadmap adapted to our sector, in line with regulatory requirements, available resources and defined priorities.
Expert support helps you make the right choices. It also helps to reinforce the company's overall dynamic, by identifying both climatic and organizational levers that can be planned according to its internal dynamics.
This is the case, for example, of the Schmidt Group, supported by GCI for :
- improve the accuracy of its Scope 3, representing 99.4% of its emissions,
- motivate the Purchasing team to collect reliable data,
- involve suppliers, often SMEs unfamiliar with carbon issues,
- make strategic choices based on the results obtained.
This example illustrates the extent to which structured support, combining human expertise and appropriate tools, is a decisive lever in transforming ambitions into sustainable action.
How to sustain and strengthen your business through a successful low-carbon trajectory.
Adapting strategy to your sector and value chain
An essential sector-based approach
Each sector has its own particularities, its own room for maneuver, and its own obstacles. In industry, decarbonization levers include heat recovery, process electrification and raw material substitution. In the service sector, the focus is on reducing the energy footprint of buildings and optimizing digital usage. As for SMEs, they can start with targeted actions on logistics, purchasing or energy. But the real challenge lies elsewhere: where to start? How can we identify relevant, mobilizing levers? How can we avoid getting lost in a sea of possibilities?
That's precisely why a well-thought-out transition plan makes all the difference. And to get there, you need method, projection... and accessible tools. Decarbonization coaching helps you gain clarity and efficiency, while keeping you grounded in the realities of your sector.
Take the Schmidt Group, for example. With the help of the GCI platform, they were able to cross-reference their internal data with the carbon results to obtain a clear view: suppliers, products, materials... everything became legible. This clarity made it possible to build a concrete, visual action plan that was easy to share, with measurable gains in competitiveness and improved environmental performance as a result.
For example, they found that the polypropylene in some garbage cans weighed 93 tons of CO₂ per year, a figure they were able to link to their emissions reduction targets. One exchange with the supplier later, they switched to recycled. Then generalize the approach to other references. Result: 242 tonnes of CO₂ saved on the future 2024-2026 range.
Thanks to this approach, Schmidt has succeeded in bringing its suppliers on board, a key issue in industry where value chains are often complex. It has also enabled them to make more sustainable choices, and anchor eco-design in their thinking. Not because a plan was imposed on them, but because they were able to build it in line with their own challenges, at their own pace.
That's exactly what Decarbo'Target® on the GCI platform: project your future BEGES based on existing data, test reduction scenarios, get your teams on board... and move forward step by step in a sustainable logic. And even if your BEGES has been done elsewhere, it can be easily imported onto the platform.
Manage, train and promote your low-carbon transition
Mobilize your teams and promote your commitment to the climate
A climate strategy doesn't just live in a report: it has to be lived, embodied on a daily basis, supported by teams, monitored over time, and promoted to customers, partners and financiers. This is where it all comes down: in the ability to get people on board, to give meaning, to transform figures into actions and shared stories.
What often makes the difference between a strategy that remains on paper and a well-established dynamic is the mobilization of teams, particularly through awareness-raising. Organizing a Climate Frescosession, as we did at TAIKI Europe, is much more than a workshop: it's a trigger. It's a concrete way of opening up dialogue, creating a common base of understanding, and getting teams moving.
This is what GCI offers in its support services: a combination of pedagogical and human tools to nurture an in-house climate culture. Thanks to the GCI Academyeach company can train its employees at their own pace, introducing them to the basics of carbon, the challenges of Scope 3, or sector-specific mitigation levers. And when necessary, experts can intervene to take things further, activating at the right time the technical or human resources that make the difference, and aligning efforts with the company's strategic objectives.
On the management side, the company retains control thanks to clear dashboards, reporting aligned with stakeholder expectations, and indicators that it can easily leverage in its CSR, banking or commercial approaches.
With GCI, companies have access to management tools (dashboards, reporting) and valuable support for calls for tender, CSR or banking files. All with human and educational support to maintain momentum over the long term.
Transition doesn't happen in silos. It is built over time, at the heart of the corporate culture.
What all these examples show is that a climate approach cannot be decreed. It is built, step by step, with methods, tools and support, within a sustainable vision that engages all players. And, above all, it must be implemented at every level of the company - from COMEX to purchasing, from employees to suppliers. Whether in industry or the service sector, each player can set in motion a transformation dynamic tailored to his or her specific challenges.
Visit Decarbo'Solution® has everything you need to make concrete progress in your decarbonization strategy:
- Decarbo'Target® to develop a clear and credible transition plan,
- Decarbo'Supply® to easily involve your suppliers,
- Decarbo'Tender® to integrate carbon criteria into calls for tender and manage purchasing.
With this comprehensive, scalable framework, companies can :
- Diagnose them,
- Prioritize their actions,
- Track their results,
- Promote their efforts to funders, partners and customers.
There's nothing abstract about the low-carbon transition. It is a concrete, accessible and profoundly strategic dynamic. By combining decarbonization support, sectoral action plans, accurate carbon assessments, greenhouse gas emission reductions and collaborative carbon management, companies now have the key levers they need to move forward.
The tools exist. The expertise is there. And it all starts with a simple question: when do we start, together?
