Sekoya: Shared sustainable innovation at the heart of Eiffage's actions

Stéphane Martins, responsible for sustainable development and water referent. In a word, what does Sekoya mean to me? It’s an effervescence. Sekoya is the innovation event of the Eiffage group, which brings together many stakeholders. And today, we are talking about water because water is life. It is an increasingly pressing issue. We are here to sometimes debate in a quite powerful way and find solutions together to move forward, preserve water and so we are very happy to welcome everyone today.

Hélène Barou Maxwell, development manager at Spark Lab. I think the event is very rich in exchanges. It’s kind of nice that he’s different. the spaces, so a round table space where different people will come to testify on a subject, the confluence meeting space where everyone can exchange in a more informal way, and also the workshop space, which is even more advanced in terms of collective intelligence to reflect on these different subjects, so it mixes different worlds.

François Dapilly, responsible for transversal innovation and operational support. Fishbowl was an innovative format that we wanted to implement for this year’s Sekoya. It looks like a jar since we can imagine a room surrounded by chairs from which ideas will be picked up. A form of public debate, a giant debate, and it ultimately makes the debate both dynamic, and I think it’s a really informal nature, precisely because of this accessibility. That allows us to be a little less conventional in what we say. It’s simpler in fact, and simplicity ultimately leads to a good understanding of the subject.

Hélène De Vestele, director of Nuova Vista. It’s an extremely interesting event with a common thread around the water that plays out in the names of different rooms, spaces, and experiences. Beyond that, to put this topic back on the table in a context where all environmental topics, not necessarily the coast and just for that, is an important event that marks.

Mariam Mouffak, responsible for sustainable development. I remember that everything was very relevant and well chosen, and that the hardest part was being able to choose on the schedule what to participate in. I am also energized to see everything that is being done at Eiffage. I see that a lot of things are being done. It feels good. It’s inspiring.

Romain Brisson, site manager. So, I came to Sekoya because I became interested in the subject of water following the problems we encounter on the ground every day and I thought that coming here to Sekoya to find solutions to our problems might be a good idea. I think that the solutions must also come from people on the ground. So it’s up to us to capitalize on everything we’ve seen today and everything we’ve learned to try to find the solution that might suit us best.

Hélène Barou Maxwell, development manager at Spark Lab. Confluence is a space that was designed in any case to bring together a whole bunch of actors around the table so they could meet. We really like the workshops with different exercises to really feed the discussions. The idea was really to map out everyone’s ideas on this wonderful poster. Then, as a result, there were meetings between different stakeholders on issues related to water, whether it is our dependence, the measure, and so on.

Vincent Mendes, CEO of Willie. The Sekoya event is incredible. You can get cultured, be informed, inspired, learn about all the topics around water and water is complex and there is all of that gathered here in a great setting with the right people. Honestly, it’s great.

François Dapilly, responsible for transversal innovation and operational support. We talk about water, but it’s the energy: people’s energy working on sustainability projects, because water is a bit invisible sometimes or at least secondary; and yet, as soon as we talk about it, it’s essential. And so there you go, I find that putting it back thanks to an event like Sekoya at the center of our issues, I am extremely proud of it and I am very happy that people are participating in this way. 

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