Why Support for Decarbonization Changes Everything
You’ve conducted your first carbon assessment, but since then… nothing? Are you wondering how to turn a few numbers into a real roadmap? You’re not alone! By 2025, mapping out a low-carbon trajectory has become vital to staying in the game: stricter regulations, more demanding investors, customers seeking transparency… Companies that don’t take action risk falling behind quickly.
In France, all organizations—SMEs, mid-sized companies, large corporations, and businesses in the industrial and service sectors—are encouraged to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to remain competitive, secure financing, and enhance their reputation for corporate responsibility. SMEs and mid-sized companies alone account for 30% of the country’s environmental footprint. In France, industry remains one of the sectors with the highest GHG emissions, and its heavy reliance on energy makes it a key area for achieving climate goals. Every project undertaken in this direction—whether led by a major industrial firm or an SME—represents a concrete opportunity to combine energy efficiency with measurable results on emissions. At the European level, the goal is to reduce GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (the “Fit for 55” program).
But there remains a gap between the desire to take action and an effective strategy. Structuring a transition plan requires expert guidance on decarbonization and the right tools to ensure the strategy is aligned with a sustainable vision. Far from being a constraint, this structured approach changes everything: it enables companies to act methodically, mobilize their internal resources, engage the entire value chain, and turn their commitments into concrete results.
Contents
From Intention to Method: Steering the Decarbonization Process
Why a Carbon Footprint Assessment Is the First Step in an Effective Climate Strategy
Too many companies operate in isolation, without prioritizing their actions, due to the lack of a clear framework. The result: efforts that are ineffective and difficult to capitalize on.
A rigorous assessment—such as a GHG emissions inventory that complies with relevant standards (ISO 14064, Bilan Carbone®, etc.)—is essential. It provides a clear picture of emission sources, offers tangible benchmarks, and enables organizations to structure their initiatives around objectively defined priorities.
From this very first step, the Decarbo’Solution® platform (Decarbo’Solution®) simplifies emissions measurement through a straightforward sector-specific questionnaire and a process certified to ISO 14064 and ISO 14083, with or without expert support, as needed. This initial framework makes it easier to understand the challenges involved and sets the organization on a solid foundation.
From Assessment to Action: Developing a Tailored Plan
Once emissions have been measured, the next step is to determine how to proceed. This is a pivotal step in defining a clear climate trajectory, without getting stuck in the diagnostic phase. This assessment must be transformed into a roadmap tailored to the sector, in line with regulatory requirements, available resources, and established priorities.
Expert guidance is precisely what enables organizations to make the right choices. It also helps strengthen the company’s overall momentum by identifying both climate-related and organizational levers that can be planned in line with its internal dynamics.
This is the case, for example, with the Schmidt Group, supported by Decarbo’Solution® to:
- improve the accuracy of its Scope 3 emissions, which account for 99.4% of its total emissions,
- motivate the Purchasing team to collect reliable data,
- get its suppliers on board—often small and medium-sized businesses that are unfamiliar with carbon-related issues—
- base its strategic decisions on the results achieved.
This example illustrates just how much structured support—combining human expertise with the right tools—is a key driver for turning ambitions into sustainable actions.
How to ensure the long-term viability and growth of your business through a successful low-carbon strategy.
Tailor the strategy to your industry and value chain
An Essential Sector-Based Approach
Each sector has its own unique characteristics, scope for action, and obstacles. In manufacturing, decarbonization strategies include heat recovery, process electrification, and the substitution of raw materials. The service sector, meanwhile, focuses on reducing the energy footprint of buildings and optimizing digital usage. As for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), they can start with targeted initiatives in logistics, procurement, or energy. But ultimately, the real challenge lies elsewhere: where to start? How can we identify relevant and motivating levers? How can we avoid getting lost in a sea of possibilities?
That is precisely why developing a well-thought-out transition plan makes all the difference. And to achieve this, you need a systematic approach, forward-looking planning… and accessible tools. Support for decarbonization helps you gain clarity and efficiency, while remaining grounded in the realities of your industry.
Let’s take the Schmidt Group as an example. With the help of the Decarbo’Solution® platform, they were able to cross-reference their internal data with carbon footprint results to gain a clear overview: suppliers, products, materials… everything became transparent. This clarity enabled them to develop a concrete, visual, and easily shareable action plan, resulting in a measurable competitive advantage and improved environmental performance.
For example, they found that the polypropylene in certain trash cans accounted for 93 metric tons of CO₂ per year, a figure they were able to link to their emissions reduction goals. After a discussion with the supplier, they switched to recycled material. They then expanded this approach to other products. The result: 242 metric tons of CO₂ saved across the upcoming 2024–2026 product line.
Thanks to this approach, Schmidt succeeded in getting his suppliers on board—a key challenge in an industry where value chains are often complex. He was also able to make more sustainable trade-offs and embed eco-design into his decision-making process. Not because a plan was imposed on them, but because they were able to develop it in line with their own challenges, at their own pace.
That’s exactly what Decarbo’Target® offers on the Decarbo’Solution® platform: project your future BEGES based on your current situation, test reduction scenarios, get your teams on board… and move forward step by step toward sustainability. And even if your BEGES was created elsewhere, it can easily be imported into the platform.
Leading, Training, and Promoting the Low-Carbon Transition
Engage Your Teams and Showcase Your Commitment to Climate Action
A climate strategy isn’t just something that exists on paper: it must be lived out, embodied in everyday life, championed by teams, monitored over time, and promoted to customers, partners, and funders. That’s where it all comes down to: the ability to build buy-in, to give meaning, and to turn numbers into actions and shared stories.
Often, what makes the difference between a strategy that remains on paper and a well-established initiative is the engagement of teams, particularly through awareness-building. Organizing a session on Climate Fresquesession, as we did at TAIKI Europe, is much more than just a workshop—it’s a catalyst. It’s a concrete way to open up dialogue, build a shared foundation of understanding, and get teams moving.
This is what Decarbo’Solution® offers through its support programs: combining educational and people-centered tools to foster an internal climate culture. Thanks to the Decarbo’Solution® Academy, every company can train its employees at their own pace, introducing them to the basics of carbon accounting, the challenges of Scope 3, or sector-specific mitigation strategies. And when necessary, experts can step in to take things further, mobilizing the technical or human resources that make a difference at the right time, and aligning these efforts with the company’s strategic objectives.
When it comes to management, the company maintains control through clear dashboards, reporting tailored to stakeholder expectations, and metrics that it can easily highlight in its CSR, banking, or sales initiatives.
With Decarbo’Solution®, companies have access to management tools (dashboards, reports) and valuable resources for requests for proposals, CSR documents, and banking applications. All of this comes with personalized support and training to maintain momentum over the long term.
Transition doesn't happen in isolation. It is built over time, at the heart of the corporate culture.
What all these examples show us is that a climate strategy cannot be imposed. It is built step by step, using a systematic approach, tools, and support, as part of a sustainable vision that engages all stakeholders. And above all: it is put into practice at every level of the company—from the Executive Committee to procurement, from employees to suppliers. In both manufacturing and the service sector, every stakeholder can set in motion a transformation process tailored to their specific challenges.
The Decarbo’Solution® offered by Decarbo’Solution® brings together everything you need to make tangible progress in your decarbonization strategy:
- Decarbo’Target® to develop a clear and credible transition plan,
- Decarbo’Supply® to easily engage your suppliers,
- Decarbo’Tender® to incorporate carbon criteria into requests for proposals and manage procurement.
With this comprehensive and scalable framework, companies can:
- Conduct their assessment,
- Prioritize their actions,
- Track their results,
- Highlight their efforts to funders, partners, and clients.
The low-carbon transition is anything but abstract. It is a concrete, accessible, and deeply strategic process. By combining decarbonization support, sector-specific action plans, accurate carbon assessments, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and collaborative carbon management, companies now have the key tools they need to move forward.
The tools are there. The expertise is there. And it all starts with a simple question: When do we get started, together?
