The 20th
anniversary
edition
March 14 & 15, 2025
at UNESCO • Paris

Laurent Germain, you are the CEO of Egis, an international consulting, architecture, engineering, construction, and operations group that works globally to support more balanced, sustainable, and resilient territories. Egis has seen significant growth in recent years. Could you explain this strong growth? Is it compatible with your ambition to help territories build a more sustainable future?

Laurent Germain: We are very proud of the progress we’ve made, and our ambition is clear: to be in the global top 10. This goal will allow us to amplify our impact, particularly by participating in major programs that support the ecological and energy transition (EET).

Our strong growth can be attributed to our commitment to innovation and investment in sustainable projects. Since 2020, Egis has doubled in size, reaching a consolidated revenue of €1.9 billion in 2023, a 28% increase from 2022. This performance, which is expected to approach €2.2 billion in 2024, is driven by strong organic growth (13% in 2023) and the acquisition of a significant number of strategic companies in recent years, particularly in renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure sectors.

We have placed sustainability at the heart of this momentum. By the end of 2024, 45% of our revenue will significantly contribute to the ecological and energy transition. Additionally, our growth is accompanied by a policy of excluding projects that are incompatible with our environmental and societal commitments.

Egis’s commitment reflects a vision where economic growth and sustainability align to create lasting positive impacts. We remain determined to align our expansion with our sustainability objectives.

Your group has set a Net-Zero emissions target by 2050: what are the next steps and concrete actions to achieve this ambitious goal?

At the end of last year, we received validation from the Science Based Targets Initiative for our decarbonization trajectory related to our internal operations, which confirms the strength and ambition of our commitments and goals.

Concrete actions have already been implemented starting in 2024. For example, we have increased the production and consumption of renewable energy, consolidated some office sites to optimize energy consumption, and converted part of our vehicle fleet to electric or low-emission fuels such as biofuels.

Egis is a global leader in infrastructure, mobility, and sustainable energy, with nearly 70% of your activity taking place outside of France. How do you manage to spread virtuous practices in countries where these practices are less common?

We collaborate closely with local governments and stakeholders to adapt our solutions to the specific contexts of each country. Our projects now integrate sustainability and social responsibility criteria.

By sharing our expertise and best practices, we contribute to the adoption of more stringent standards, regardless of the local context. For example, our eco-design principles or our climate change mitigation initiatives are systematically applied through a global framework called Act4ecodesign, which our teams implement both in France and internationally. This global approach, integrated into our technical signature and gradually deployed in every region of the world and across all our activities, is supported by an ambitious training program and allows us to aim for a positive impact, even in contexts where environmental standards are still developing.

You were appointed President of the INSA Foundation in July: what role can education play in the dynamic of a just and sustainable transition?

The Fondation INSA, which I have chaired since 2023, is one of the key drivers in training a generation of leaders capable of addressing the challenges of the ecological transition. By encouraging interdisciplinary programs and pedagogical innovations, it prepares future engineers to design just and sustainable solutions. This catalytic role reflects the conviction that education is essential to transforming our societies and building a future that is both responsible and resilient.

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with a projection of 70% by 2050 (World Bank). The environmental and territorial challenges linked to urban sprawl will therefore be a central theme at l’Université de la terre on March 14 & 15, 2025, and you will participate in a discussion on territorial planning. What projects from Egis are addressing these challenges related to urban sprawl and a decarbonized and reforested future?

Egis plays a key role in iconic projects that address the challenges of sustainable urbanization, notably mitigating the harmful effects of urban sprawl.

For example, in Paris, between Porte de la Chapelle and Porte d’Aubervilliers, where the new Hébert district is gradually emerging, the environmental challenge has been established as a top priority. This project aligns with the objectives of the Paris Climate Plan. Alongside SNEF, Egis brings its expertise in bioclimatic engineering to transform a 5-hectare urban wasteland, previously dedicated to railway storage, into a sustainable mixed-use space. It is a project that incorporates eco-design, biodiversity, and energy resilience principles.

Not far from there, as part of the “slow city” concept (read our white paper “Slow City”), we are managing the Promenade Bleue project in Asnières-sur-Seine. This riverfront development aims to restore a link between the city and the Seine by creating an 800-meter pedestrian path with vegetated areas and breathing spaces. Here too, we take a long-term approach that balances well-being, respect for biodiversity, and urban functionality.

In Riyadh, we are leading one of the most ambitious greening programs in an extreme environment. By 2030, this project aims to increase green cover by 7.6%, reaching 541 km², and provide an exceptional green space ratio of 28 m² per inhabitant (compared to 1.7 m² today). Our teams support the strategy and monitoring of hundreds of reforestation projects, including the planting of 7.5 million endemic trees, thanks to a dedicated GIS platform for optimized management.

These initiatives, along with the development of innovative solutions like phytoremediation to detoxify wastelands while preserving biodiversity, or the Landboost® project to integrate nature into urban buildings, reflect our ambition to turn the challenges of urbanization into opportunities.

The Egis Corporate Foundation is now dedicated to combating and adapting to the consequences of climate change and promoting a transition approach. You’ve also launched an international student challenge, Team up for Climate, which stimulates the emergence of local and collective actions to adapt to climate risks. What is your goal with this challenge, and what results have you seen after three editions?

The Team up for Climate challenge aims to mobilize young talents around innovative solutions for climate change adaptation. Since the relaunch of the Egis Foundation in 2021, adaptation to the impacts of climate change has been at the core of our actions. After just three editions, we are pleased to see very strong participation, with up to 1,700 participants in the latest edition, and promising, concrete projects implemented locally. These young people, whether engineers or students from other disciplines, demonstrate great creativity by proposing adaptation solutions rooted in local realities. These initiatives are already addressing the ongoing changes that will continue to affect us in the near future. This also allows us to discover exceptional talents, who may, who knows, one day join Egis, or contribute with us, in one way or another, to building the world differently.

Finally, I want to commend Egis employees, who play a key role in this initiative as volunteer mentors within the Foundation. Their personal commitment strengthens our ambition to promote an inclusive and collaborative ecological transition.