Building towards sustainability with Pôle Sem Sud

Pôle Sem Sud is a privately and publicly owned organisation managing over 6,000 flats and offices in Marseille and its surroundings. Early 2007, the manager decided that the organisation of about 200 employees needed to formally move towards sustainability, going further than the independent and irregular good ideas and actions.

At the end of 2007, the cooperation with TNS France started with highlighting 3 main processes describing their activities: (1) planning, building and using sustainable buildings; (2) eliminate their contribution to un-sustainable societies as soon as possible; and (3) walking the talk with a vision and actions to transform their daily routines. The project manager then invited the staff to participate in three working groups, one per theme.

Within weeks, and without a second invitation, diverse groups of 11 were formed from all services and all levels of hierarchy. The groups worked through the ABCD process in one day, and met again half a day to finalise their work. The following and last step was a full day of work with all the directors and one representative per group to put together a systemic and strategic action plan that will create momentum and move the organisation and its actions towards sustainability.

The action plan is in implementation phase since mid-2008 and as an element of it an external and part time sustainability coordinator has been hired to keep the momentum going … and it is!