From 12 to 14 December in Paris, World Efficiency Solutions succeeded in meeting a major challenge, that of connecting the numerous stakeholders committed to deploying an economy that is more low-carbon and resource-efficient. Innovative in its decidedly cross-sectoral approach, the event has developed a method for accompanying and supporting markets aiming to reference and then connect transition projects and solutions from all backgrounds. This choice favours unique interactions and exchanges between the participants, in all spheres of the event.
Organised alongside the One Planet Summit, of which it was an official satellite event displaying the new business models that are little by little being integrated by public and private in-the-field stakeholders, World Efficiency Solutions welcomed almost 5,000 participants of whom 19% were international. These latter, governments, companies, cities and municipalities, responded to the planet-wide challenges of climate, reduction in emissions and adapting to the already irreversible impacts and, more widely, to sustainable development throughout the world.
A pioneer event
Overall, the feedback collected during and after the event concords: each person was thrilled to have participated in this event dealing with the major issues and concrete realities that the economic stakeholders have to face daily to ensure the transition towards low-carbon and resource efficient management. The choice of a hybrid format offering content that was both prospective and pragmatic – in multiple forms all aiming to encourage unique encounters – ensured World Efficiency Solutions was an unmissable event for professionals committed to implementing the Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. WE enabled this community of stakeholders to bolster their actions and establish solid partnerships to ensure extensive deployment of the solutions and the take-up of large scale projects on all continents and territories.
A major venue for boosting innovation
The organisers placed innovation, its eco-systems and its stakeholders at the very centre of World Efficiency, through the WEBoost programme that was a resounding success. The WEConnect platform showcased 53 technological or service innovations. Numerous companies were also recognised through the awards and trophies presented during the event.
A firm desire to discover innovating solutions was evident throughout the event, in particular on the Pitch Ring. This area for expression at the heart of the event saw 85 pitchers present their ideas to a captive audience that appreciated this short and dynamic intervention format during 15 broad-based sessions: CUB by WE start-ups, CEA spin-offs, young companies supported by InnoEnergy or the Ademe International Club, finalists from the Innovation Showcase by WE, international start-ups with high potential brought together by Paris Region Entreprises and winners of the My Positive Impact competition organised by the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme and the UNCPIE(1), partners of the event.
A driver for encounters and new collaboration
From the outset, with its cross-sector positioning, World Efficiency Solutions opted for less compartmentalisation between the sectors, stakeholders and organisations, thereby encouraging encounters, exchanges, collaboration and partnerships, the true keys to the successful passage to a low-carbon, sustainable and lasting circular economy.
The #WESummit programming fully validated this positioning through its different thematic sessions, and notably during the closing session entitled “Why will collaboration be the key to achieving global targets?”.
Also, above and beyond the exchanges between counterparts, World Efficiency facilitated encounters between professionals who, on the same topics, share deeply differing realities that need to be better reconciled for greater efficiency and more collective action: young talents and investors or key accounts; cities and businesses, in particular start-ups and SMEs; exchanges between the start-ups themselves and, more globally, encounters between French and international financial institutional organisations and companies with innovating solutions adapted to specific local requirements.
A remarkable 449 meetings took place during the three days of the event. They involved 200 stakeholders from 19 countries in Europe, Africa, North and South America and Asia. Overall these meetings resulted in more than 900 matchmakings, with clear market potentiality for a good number of them.
Examples included a Croatian start-up that develops connected solar public benches; it was approached by several key accounts specialising in urban furniture. One of the members of the Innovation Showcase jury, representing a multinational specialising in everyday consumer goods, declared that he wanted to contact in the very short-term three of the ten preselected entrepreneurs. Members of official foreign delegations forged promising relationships with French young talents in the energy field, etc. But the discovery for these delegations went far beyond the mere field of innovation with the creation of exchanges around more traditional solutions but in dimensions adapted to all sizes of projects.
An experimental initiative, the CiBix(2), “city-business” encounters aimed at facilitating a more regular, continuous and in particular call for tenders and public order phase preparatory dialogue, organised with the ICLEI, enabled cities such as Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) to enter into intensive discussions about the possibilities for collaboration and public-private partnerships. One of the encounters concerned urban furniture, the other energy transition adapted to an urban context.
Furthermore, the French Vivapolis network made many high level contacts at World Efficiency which should result in new international deployments of French expertise in sustainable cities.
At the international level, encounters between territories from very far afield also helped create a special atmosphere. Attendees at the event included Corinne Cahen, minister of the Grande Région; Nezha El Ouafi, Morocco’s Environment minister; Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Environment minister of the Republic of Congo; Nanami Tokashiki, Japan’s Environment minister, H.R.H Princess Abze Djigma, climate negotiator for Burkina Faso, Filip Vučak, Croatian Ambassador to France and Emilie Reichert, CEO of the Greentown Labs incubator in Boston. Also of note was the presence of various delegations: the Autonomous District of Abidjan, mayors from Chile, Hanoï, Franco-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce,… And representatives of the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Cincinnati, from the Lower Silesia Voivodship region in Poland, Belo Horizonte in Brazil, Luxembourg and the Cundinamarca region, whose pavilion was labelled “operation France Colombia”. In all, no fewer than 63 countries were represented at World Efficiency.
Acclaimed themes of #WESUMMIT
Amongst the topics generating the most interest were:
- The circular economy, under different aspects: short food distribution circuits, the organisation of circular modes of production and consumption, energy local loops, digital serving the CE, industrial and territorial ecology, local strategies, the CE in construction and property, impacts of the CE on careers and employment, etc.
- Urban mobility: carbon footprint of transport infrastructures, the future of mobility in semi-urban areas, sustainability in an urbanising world, greater electrical mobility, etc.
- Finance and institutional accompaniment : developing climate financing to sustain the new climate economy, choices for financing the infrastructures according to their carbon footprint & prospects for ADEME’s Investments for the Future Programme (PIA), the Commitments for Green Growth inspired by the Green Deal programme in Holland, etc.
The participants also showed their interest for international feedback and projects (example: development of the Bogota River in Colombia, Norwegian policy targeting mobility with 0 emissions, etc.).
World Efficiency Solutions 2017: key points to remember
- WEConnect, a dedicated platform with scheduling of meetings between project owners and solution providers (123 projects and solutions referenced),
- #WESummit: an international summit with 25 plenary sessions, 74 workshops and 2 city-business workshops bringing together over 340 high level speakers,
- An exhibition of solutions exclusively focussed on the circular and low-carbon economy
- Exceptional focus on innovation and start-ups for these new markets.
