Elcimaï encourages its teams to share best practices and is recognizing a project aimed at developing a hydrogen industry in Lozère
As part of its commitments as a mission-driven company, Elcimaï Environnement challenged teams across the entire Elcimaï Group through an internal competition. The goal : to highlight and share the most exemplary solutions they implement for their clients. Among the 16 projects submitted, the development of a renewable hydrogen ecosystem in Lozère particularly impressed the jury.
A competition to highlight exemplary solutions offered to clients
A mission-driven company (MDC) since 2020, Elcimaï Environnement—the Elcimaï Group subsidiary that develops its consulting and engineering expertise in the fields of the circular economy and the ecological transition—has charted its course and is implementing the resulting objectives and actions. Aware that the planet is our shared heritage, its employees apply best environmental practices and promote them through their work, adopting an ethical and collaborative approach.
A few weeks ago, Elcimaï Environnement invited the Group’s teams to participate in an internal competition, the Cé’SAM.
- Objective : to highlight and promote the “exemplary solutions” they provide to their clients, in order to raise awareness of all projects and innovations worthy of replication for their positive impact on the environment, society, or the community, and thus contribute to significant and positive change in our society.
For this 2024 edition, 16 projects led by 31 individual or group participants were submitted, covering most of Elcimaï’s areas of activity : mobility, infrastructure/roads and public services, construction, waste, water, and energy.
Three awards were presented, selected both by an internal jury representing the company driven by its mission and by all employees wishing to vote. The jurors paid particular attention to the environmental, social, and societal impact of the candidate projects, as well as their innovative and original nature. They also focused specifically on the “Elcimaï factor” and the exemplary nature of projects worthy of replication.
Two awards for a single project : developing a hydrogen sector in Lozère by transitioning from natural gas to biomass
While all projects received scores, the one led by Lozère Développement particularly impressed the jury.
It won the Environmental, Social, and Societal Impact Award as well as the Special Audience Award.
Committed to its ecological transition for many years, the department of Lozère now covers more than 41 % of its energy needs through renewable energy. It now aims to align with the regional strategy for carbon-free hydrogen development.
Led by Lozère Développement and co-financed by ADEME, the Banque des Territoires, and the department of Lozère, a study conducted from 2023 to 2024 by Elcimaï Environnement confirmed the potential for local production and consumption of renewable hydrogen and synthetic gas, produced through pyrogasification or thermolysis of biomass.
It was in northern Lozère that the development of a regional renewable gas project seemed appropriate, due to the proximity of the A75 highway, the railway line, well-established forestry and agricultural sectors, and the existence of relatively significant industrial energy needs, particularly those of the ArcelorMittal plant in Saint-Chély-d’Apcher.
This state-of-the-art industrial site processes more than 100,000 tons of steel per year to impart electrical properties to it, in order to meet the growing demand from the energy and sustainable mobility sectors. The company, which consumes more than 50 GWh of liquefied natural gas per year—part of which is converted into hydrogen via steam reforming—is seeking solutions to replace it with sustainable alternatives.
The initial mission entrusted to Elcimaï Environnement was to build a renewable hydrogen ecosystem around ArcelorMittal’s existing consumption patterns. However, its teams proposed also substituting the manufacturer’s natural gas consumption, thereby avoiding an additional 244 kt-eq of CO₂ over 20 years. Drawing on its multidisciplinary expertise (energy, ICPE, waste), Elcimaï Environnement designed a comprehensive and coherent regional project (use of local resources, restricted consumption zone, local recovery of byproducts) aimed at bringing together numerous stakeholders (Chamber of Agriculture, forestry cooperatives, CCI, CMA, ADEME, local authorities, private companies, etc.) to achieve an ambitious environmental, technical, and competitive goal.
Best practices also recognized internally
The Innovation and Originality Award was presented to the team at the Elcimaï agency in Toulouse for the sustainable and flexible redesign of its offices. In partnership with a local Social Solidarity Enterprise (ESUS) and based on specifications incorporating bio-based materials and those sourced from reuse supply chains, the team designed a telephone booth and a modular meeting room, allowing them to showcase the various types of bio-based insulation materials used in their designs.
Whether internally or with their clients, suppliers, and partners, the Elcimaï teams share and are committed to promoting the most exemplary solutions.