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Last updated: 24/09/2022
The president of (RE)SET is one of the many ambassadors of France 2030. Her role is to participate in the emergence of centers of excellence in the sustainable materials sector, for which she was appointed alongside Philippe Varin and Christel Bories, among others.
Géraldine Poivert, president of (RE)SET, joined France 2030 as an ambassador for the sustainable materials sector.
Ambassador for France 2030, a new honorary role? Not really. Bruno Bonnell, who heads the General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI) under the authority of the Prime Minister, leads the deployment and execution of France 2030. He has surrounded himself with expertise in various defined sectors by appointing ambassadors capable of connecting with industry players and enabling the emergence of centers of excellence. For sustainable materials, there are eight, including Christel Bories, CEO of Eramet, Jacques Vernier, President of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Sectors Commission, and Philippe Varin, Board Member of Suez. And thus Géraldine Poivert, president and co-founder with Franck Gana of (RE)SET, a consulting firm created in 2019 that supports companies in their environmental and economic transition. "I have been in the economic and environmental transition for twenty years," recalls Géraldine Poivert. "For me, the two always go together. At (RE)SET, we are pragmatic revolutionaries."
A DOZEN YEARS AT THE HEAD OF ECOFOLIO
Her career began in 2000 at the FCD (Federation of Commerce and Distribution Companies), where she joined at age 25. She became director of economic, public, and legal affairs. "I notably worked on sustainable agriculture, did the first carbon footprint assessments," recalls this political science graduate. "At a young age, I faced real operational transition, when, for example, we had to remove CFCs and HFCs from refrigerators. That gave me a taste for taking action."
In 2006, she was mandated by the retail sector to create Ecofolio, the eco-organization dedicated to paper recycling. In about ten years, she notes, the recycling rate increased from 41 to 55%, and 500 million euros were invested with local authorities in developing sorting and recycling in France. In 2017, she became deputy CEO of Citeo, the eco-organization born from the merger of Ecofolio and Eco-Emballages. In 2021, she joined the National Committee for the Circular Economy on the proposal of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili.
A COLLECTIVE VISION OF THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
At (RE)SET, "we open the engine hood. For sports brands, we invent waterproof fabrics without plastic; for cosmetics, their new inputs and packaging…" She advocates a collective vision of the ecological transition. "We can only work within an ecosystem because expertise is spread across different trades," she warns. "I believe in collective emulation. We must not collapse in the face of difficulty, and victory will be collective."
The former head of Ecofolio hopes for a five-year term of action. "During the last presidential term, many texts were published. I hope the new term will be one of taking action. I believe we need to be consistent, stop compromising, and reconcile the end of the world with the end of the month." She adds, "We have consumed too many low-quality products with many externalities. We have sacrificed the intrinsic quality of products. We need to relocate industry and consume locally, and implement environmental taxation. It's better to buy a wooden table than a glued laminated table full of glue that cannot be recycled."
SPREADING AN "ENERGIZING" MESSAGE
Her mission within France 2030 must be in continuity with her professional career. France 2030 will spend 54 billion euros to guarantee the country's independence (materials, components, energy) while dedicating 50% of these expenses to the decarbonization of the economy with zero environmentally harmful investment, according to the government. Géraldine Poivert recalls that France has an "incredible" forest resource, to use her now-established expression, which should enable the development of products using cellulose and significant quantities of unvalued biomass residues… "We do good R&D. Then, I want to support the centers of excellence of tomorrow. I want to spread an energizing and realistic message. To accelerate, we need money and long-term investment. Enough with the scattergun approach." And while she is convinced that "the environmental benefit of recycled products is decisive," she also advocates for sufficiency. "Recycling is not Santa Claus. In the end, we always lose a bit of material. The best is the material we don't use."
