Let's begin with a few words about the 9 planetary limits. They are used to assess the impact of human activities on the planet, to determine the threshold beyond which the natural balance will be disturbed and living conditions will become unfavourable to humanity.

These 9 limits, defined by an international team of researchers, are :

• Climate change
• Erosion of biodiversity
• Disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
• Changes in land use
• The freshwater cycle
• The introduction of new entities into the biosphere
• Ocean acidification
• Depletion of the ozone layer
• The increase in the presence of aerosols in the atmosphere.

By September 2023, only the last three had not been crossed. So with 6 out of 9 limits exceeded, we have an urgent duty to act.

Our management team, well aware of this reality, has decided to integrate these considerations into its vision of the company's development. To this end, Belco has joined the Nouvelle-Aquitaine section of the CEC (Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat), whose aim is to raise awareness and support the transformation towards a regenerative and resilient economic model for our regions.

Alexandre, CEO of Belco, Simon, Deputy Managing Director and Nicolas, Impact Director have all followed this path.

First shaken, then convinced and stimulated, they wanted to collectively involve the whole company. The collective was born.

The Belco Collective Belco for the living is a group of 23 Belco employees who met on a voluntary basis every Thursday lunchtime for two and a half months to reflect together and question the Belco business model in the face of the challenges of climate change and planetary limits, following the methodology proposed by the CEC.

As a result, we have been able to question and work on our company's business model in the broadest sense.

• What are the social and environmental challenges facing our industries?
• What are the corporate governance models of tomorrow? Are they applicable to our activities?
• For Belco, what are the potential economic developments based on social equity and respect for our natural resources?

At first sight, all these reflections and exchanges shook us up, challenged us, nourished us, enriched us and united us. We got out of our comfort zone, our day-to-day operations and our business prism to take a step back and become aware of a desirable projection for our company.

It was a galvanising collective experience, because our personal convictions on these social and environmental issues are intertwined and help to build the company of tomorrow.

This experience has enabled us to deliver a plan of 70 concrete actions which we submitted to all Belco managers last week.

The BELCO of tomorrow is built together.

Methodology used: CEC (Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat)

Sources:

Planetary limits: https://www.notre-environnement.gouv.fr/themes/societe/article/limites-planetaires

CEC Parcours Nouvelle-Aquitaine:

https://cec-impact.org/cec-territoriales/cec-nouvelle-aquitaine-2/

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jHWPKgjGnqMTLM0joRpSx3wHLHa5PEvt/edit#slide=id.g2caca9a8e7b_0_1