Author: EFICIA

The UN awards EFICIA the triple gold label for the third consecutive year as part of the “Climate Neutral Now” program

Because supporting companies in their energy transition required us to be a model for others…

EFICIA, a young innovative French company specialized in energy management for tertiary buildings, has been awarded for the third consecutive year the triple gold label of the United Nations as part of its Climate Neutrality Now program. This award alone symbolizes EFICIA’s commitment to building a changing world where each company must become an actor of change in the face of the climate challenge.

Launched in 2015, the Climate Neutral Now initiative aims to “ encourage all citizens to take action to help achieve the goal of a climate-neutral world by mid-century, in line with the Paris Agreement.” Unlike the various CSR labels that exist on the French market, the UN label is dedicated to carbon. It involves three actions on the part of companies applying for it: quantify their carbon emissions, reduce them by 5% per year and offset them. To help companies in this last area, the UN has set up a system for financing offset projects.

On a daily basis, EFICIA assists its clients in the energy performance of their buildings. Quantifying the impact and carbon gains of the companies that place their trust in us is therefore an integral part of our approach.

“Working to save energy for our customers should not generate more carbon impact on our end. The companies in our ecosystem must be examples and this has always been an essential element in our approach. So I built an internal tool to calculate the carbon impact of each of our purchases, even of a simple pen.” explains Alric Marc, founder and president of EFICIA. “Our first observation was that we allow our clients to reduce their emissions 30 times more than we emit, and it was obvious to us to do everything possible to reduce our own impact. For example, we have helped finance the creation of hydroelectric power plants in Chile and India, countries that still produce the majority of their electricity from coal.

Today, for the third year in a row, EFICIA has received the highest score on each of the three axes of the Climate Neutrality Now initiative.

EFICIA democratizes the energy market by launching the “App by EFICIA”, a 100% free energy monitoring application  

With this launch, EFICIA shows its ambition to act positively on the energy transition by making available free of charge to the greatest number of people, fast and efficient analysis and decision support tools.  

After having obtained, for the third consecutive year, the prestigious “Climate Neutral Now” label from the UN, symbolizing its commitment to building a changing world, EFICIA is going further in the face of this century’s challenge. The expert company is once again making its contribution to the market by launching a brand new, free and easy-to-use online tool, the App, aimed at democratizing access to and analysis of energy data, a decision-making tool for anyone, whether an individual or a company, who wants to reduce their energy consumption. 

“Accompanying large networks in their energy transition, by achieving significant and sustainable energy savings, remains our driving force. Obtaining the UN label was a step, but it was only the beginning,” explains Alric Marc, founder and president of EFICIA. “We had the ambition to accomplish a strong act; the COVID-19 and the publication of the tertiary decree were the triggers. We wanted to offer a simple, fast and, above all, totally free tool to all those who do not necessarily have the means to do so. Our objective is above all to democratize access to energy data and to support all those who wish to reduce their energy consumption.

The application, called the App, has been online since September 5 on EFICIA’s website.

Simple and quick to use, the App only needs a meter number to present a complete inventory of consumption. Whatever the typology of the site (point of sale, industrial, offices, individual housing…) it is thus possible to : 

• have a global view of its consumption thanks to a history of several years, 
• be alerted in case of overconsumption, 

• follow performance indicators, 

• define consumption thresholds, 
• analyze the evolution of energy performance, 
• compare sites of the same type with each other. 

With the current crisis, the energy market is experiencing an unprecedented situation, with electricity prices soaring throughout Europe in recent months, forcing companies and individuals to react to find solutions. However, if the government calls for energy sobriety, how can we reduce our consumption when we don’t really know how energy is consumed, nor which performances can be improved?  

EFICIA’s approach thus provides the beginnings of a response to the crisis, by helping organizations cushion the effects of price increases and meet regulatory obligations while acting for the environment.

Leroy Merlin entrusts the energy management of its buildings to EFICIA 

As part of the renovation plan for its network of buildings and its We Make It Positive approach, Leroy Merlin has set itself an ambitious challenge to optimize the overall performance of its real estate and limit its environmental impact.  
 

EFICIA, an innovative French Tech expert in building energy management, has been chosen by Leroy Merlin, the famous French DIY chain, to optimize energy consumption at all of its 143 sites in France. 

When the project was launched in 2020, several market players were consulted. Leroy Merlin’s challenge was to reduce its energy consumption, improve the overall performance of its network through better optimization of thermal comfort and support the technical management of its buildings.  

In this context and after a pilot phase in situ that lasted more than a year, the company chose EFICIA for the global and 100% integrated nature of its solution and for the capacity of its teams to optimize in real time the operation of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting equipment in sales outlets. 

“To do our job well, while limiting our impact on the planet, we are tracking down all possible avenues for optimization. The environmental footprint of our stores is of course at the heart of our action. As part of a continuous improvement process, we are working to make them more energy-efficient and ever more comfortable for our customers, without compromising safety.

This is what is at stake in our collaboration with EFICIA. Their teams have mastered the entire service chain we need, and we will be able to deploy the solutions we have tested over the past few months across our entire fleet,” explains Arnaud Berchon, Technical Director at Leroy Merlin France.

“We are very proud to accompany Leroy Merlin in such an exciting and strategic project for the company. We are working with their teams on a continuous basis with the objective of supporting the renovation plan and reaching the obligations of the tertiary decree as soon as possible” says Alric Marc, Founder of EFICIA.  

Since the beginning of the project in 2021, about fifty buildings have been equipped to date, with visible results on energy consumption thanks to the 24/7 work of EFICIA’s energy specialists. An energy performance contract has also been put in place, consolidating the partnership between EFICIA and Leroy Merlin for 5 years.

20% of point of sale energy consumption is avoidable

Every day, the news highlights the importance of energy in the daily lives of the French. Whether individuals or companies, everyone has a role to play in reducing their energy consumption.

In this environmental and economic context, and a few days before World Environment Day, the experts at Eficia, a global and innovative French Tech that supports companies wishing to reduce their ecological impact, note that :

On average, retail outlets could save 20% of their energy consumption.

Alric Marc, founder and president of Eficia, comments on this figure: “For a 5,000m² point of sale that consumes an average of 500 Mwh per year, this represents an annual saving of about 100 Mwh per year, or €15,000 (at current rates).”

According to him, “these 20% potential savings could be obtained in particular by:

• Ensuring that equipment does not consume energy unnecessarily during periods of unoccupancy
• Optimizing the operation of equipment during periods of occupancy (time scenario, temperature set point, etc.)
• By using the building’s inertia permanently
• By programming the scenarios according to the weather forecast.”

It is essential today to analyze in detail the typical energy consumption of an average retail outlet and to implement best practices that can be easily deployed today for a more virtuous and less expensive consumption.

Bils-Deroo entrusts the energy management of nearly 400,000 m² of logistics buildings to EFICIA

EFICIA, an innovative French Tech expert in building energy management, announces the signature of a new large-scale project with the Bils-Deroo Group, a French expert in logistics and transport. This collaboration will allow the group to better understand the way its buildings consume energy, to optimize their use, and above all to have a partner to accompany it in its global CSR policy.

The Bils-Deroo Group has set itself the challenge of reducing the number of KWH consumed in its real estate portfolio, which is essentially composed of large logistics buildings (between 10,000 and 90,000 m²), while optimizing operations. This approach is part of the actions implemented by Bils-Deroo as part of its CSR strategy, supported by the Tertiary Decree. At the same time, the project will provide the group with a better understanding of its energy management and support its technical teams on site, by reporting equipment malfunctions.

After a first project successfully completed in 2020, which has already enabled the group to save between 8% and 10% of its energy bill, Bils-Deroo has renewed its confidence in EFICIA, and entrusted it with the energy management of nearly 400,000 m² of logistics buildings.

For this project, Bils-Deroo benefits from a financial aid thanks to the Energy Saving Certificates which aim at facilitating the renovation of buildings to limit the impact of real estate on the environment.

Effectively improve the work environment without changing habits