Innovation

The innovation brought by OXAO consists in setting up the ecological economy in the Bordeaux region, to do so, its members detect the damage to the environment and then set up a strategy to restore it and make it sustainable.

On the one hand, they set up evaluations and audits to verify the positive and negative impact of actions/funding in order to promote communication and continuously improve their strategies. Oxao brings its transversal expertise in public strategies and policies through the implementation of monitoring mechanisms up to recommendations.

Then, the company supports the territories to support them in the organization of agro-ecological practices: territorial strategy to support the development of agro-ecology. For economically viable activities that respect the environment and promote diversified and attractive landscapes.

The founders of Oxao are convinced that the transition of territories necessarily requires training and consultation. They bring their expertise and that of their partners in order to propose tailor-made sessions, in particular through simulation games that they develop: serious games.

Inspiration

After meeting in 2014 at the AgroParisTech school, VALENTIN POMMIER and MATHIAS GAILLARD had the ambition to work in the ecological and solidarity economy. Their skills complementing each other perfectly, they decided to embark on the Oxao adventure. Mathias Gaillard told us that during a work in New Caledonia he noticed a strong degradation of nature and that is why he wanted to act for reconstruction. As for Valentin Pommier, he says he grew up in nature, so he has always had this ecological awareness and desire to act for it. In their own words, their inspirations are: "The blue economy, the knowledge economy, the economy of reconstruction, ecology, the reconquest of biodiversity. It's not just words or counter wisdom. It is a total objective. It is just not possible to live in distrust, in a world that mortgages our future. Closing oneself off from prospects, telling oneself that one cannot live better by continuing in this way... is unbearable. Solutions must emerge. They're coming from all over now. They allow nature to take the path we have taken, to live on economic models that benefit everyone and not to the detriment of some."

Overall impact

Oxao's innovation has a significant impact on the Bordeaux ecosystem, helping players such as local authorities to restore the environment. They make it possible to pool the efforts of the various actors and prevent them from avoiding and compensating for the negative impacts of their activity on the environment, but rather to concentrate their effort and money on specific objectives for the restoration of natural environments.

At the social level, this makes it possible to bring together a large number of people at the scale of a territory and thus to facilitate social integration, to integrate actors who are not generally at the centre of this type of process. Oxao creates opportunities for individuals, such as farmers, to earn a living while doing something positive for the environment in a concrete way.

Business benefit

As mentioned above, the action makes it possible to create a certain number of jobs, particularly in connection with social integration associations or farmers in difficulty.

Social and environmental benefit

The restoration of the environment and the development of the ecological economy offer several social and environmental benefits. Environmental restoration is more of an environmental benefit by definition. It allows nature to regain a place that is necessary for human survival. This reconstruction makes it possible to limit CO2 in the air, natural disasters and the extinction of certain animal species. As for the social benefits, they are felt in the development of the ecological economy. By helping this new way of looking at the economy, Oxao is helping new jobs to be created. One of their future projects would be to help people in a situation of social reintegration to occupy these new positions.

Interview

VALENTIN POMMIER and MATHIAS GAILLARD, Oxao Interview