EVEA | SimaPro partner in France
SIMAPRO PARTNER STORY | Global partnerships are an integral part of PRé’s success. By working with companies similarly committed to creating value through metrics, together we are able to make a bigger, quantifiable difference in the world — and in our clients’ bottom line. We spoke with our French partner, EVEA, to learn more about their commitment to creating sustainable value:
![Evea](https://pre-sustainability.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/EVEA.jpg" "Evea")
Company Profile: Autonomous Sustainability For All
A leading consultancy and software firm founded in 2005 by sustainability expert Jean-Baptiste Puyou, EVEA now boasts 25 employees at three separate locations in France. The company has a varied client roster. “We work with all kinds of companies from the very small, with one or two employees, to the very big, doing LCA, ecodesign, and other research and training projects,” said Guillaume Jouanne, manager at EVEA.
Similar to PRé, EVEA encourages their clients to become autonomously sustainable. “Our aim is to give the client all the information they need to be able to eventually perform ecodesign by themselves, independently,” said Jouanne. To that end, EVEA recently began developing the software, e-Dea, “Everyone Can Design with Environmental Awareness.” “It is a software for non-experts,” said Jouanne, “We believe we really need to provide easy ways to incorporate life-cycle and ecodesign thinking into company life. If it is too complicated and not intrinsic, it will not become successful long term.”
Jouanne discussed in particular a major perfume and cosmetics company, for whom they created a small, easy-to-use software tool, Winted. “It was very successful. After using it for one year the client decided to give the tool for free to the entire sector, of course to competitors, but also to contractors and suppliers,” Jouanne said. “And now, every year they assess their suppliers and their environmental impacts. As soon as a supplier proposes something, they make sure they do an assessment with Winted.” By helping clients to do quantitative assessments themselves, Jouanne said, “We showed them how it really is profitable for them to get involved in sustainability.”
Partnership with PRé: Working Together to Create Quantifiable Value
Since EVEA’s creation in 2005, the companies have exchanged ideas on sustainability methodologies. “We’ve discussed and shared our different visions of LCA and ecodesign and learned a lot from each other,” said Jouanne. “We are always trying to be better, and PRé helps us with their input.”
In addition, EVEA is PRé’s SimaPro agent in France. “SimaPro is really relevant to measuring impacts,” Jouanne said. “Without a tool like this, which is powerful and not too hard to understand, you’re left with the qualitative and the hypothetical.” With the development of e-Dea, quantitative sustainability is more accessible than ever. “These new developments are great ways to help our clients with an easier way of measuring sustainability,” Jouanne said. Jouanne hopes that by working with PRé, both companies can continue to improve their software. “We can exchange feedback from our clients, to better encourage correct usage and thoughtful updates.”
There’s also the global access that teamwork provides. “By working together we can tell an international client, ‘In France, the Netherlands, and the U.S., you have access to a specific person speaking your language during your office hours — experts to share information with your team,’ ” Jouanne continued, “Working together like this is really something very important because we are all small companies but as a partner network we are international, we are big and we are powerful.”
Industry Snapshot: Guidelines for Greater Success
Much like PRé, EVEA is invested in the future of sustainability. “For the past two years in France, we have been working to develop rules to be able to measure impacts of all kinds of products in the same way — from shampoo to tennis balls,” said Jouanne. “It’s been a very large effort, with NGOs, industry, and government participating. More than 180 companies volunteered to participate.” Jouanne explained that in France, to label a product environmentally friendly, an LCA must be performed and results provided, backing up the claim. “Unifying guidelines is the best way — even if you lose some part of the information — because you are able to provide comparable results to companies, who can assess all kinds of products and pass this easy-to-understand, accessible information onto their customers and suppliers.”
Long term, Joanne sees metrics only improving the field of sustainability. “I think in the future we will have improved indicators and methodologies, for the environment and for social metrics as well.” By working together to create accessible software and better metrics and methodologies for client across the globe, PRé and EVEA will be putting the metrics behind sustainability for years to come.