Economic and financial assessments
Why
A materials resale or reusing plan? A decarbonisation project? A new green or circular product, service, value chain, innovation idea? To ensure durability, one primarily needs to secure economic viability and a sufficient demand. Costing will enable establishing business models, sales revenue forecasts, profitability and financial projections.
Our contribution
We assess the commercial potential and viability of any project, venture or innovation. We size and analyse target markets, examine competition, prices, distribution channels. We develop costs, revenues, business models, demonstrate profitability or means to secure it. We model financial projections and provide strategic and commercial advice to maximise results.
To date, we have contributed to the deployment of 58 profitable green/circular value chains with on average 26.4% EBITDA margin, EUR 1.7M turnover, 68,000 t annual processing capacity.
Methodology
Market sizing combines primary data* (supplied directly by companies) and secondary data (already available). For our financial projections we detail and single out each step of the production chain, after which we collect production data and prices from operators.
We are well equipped for the collection of primary data, even hard-to-reach data. Our long experience of semi-structured interviews (328 conducted, 300+ hours, including 209 with businesses) and of cooperation with private sector executives makes the task much easier. The many contacts established over nine years of activity are a further advantage.
For example
For the CIRCULAR URBAN RENOVATIONS – STAGE 2 project (social housing developers consortium), we established and modelled the costs and financial gains of the circular approach for 3 types of operations (demolition, rehabilitation, construction) and 2 materials flows (inflows and outflows, 18 materials for each flow), across two distinct periods and modalities:
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2020-24 assessment (mature value chains, 116 dwellings demolished per year): 17% / EUR 242k gain p.a.
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2027-29 projections (emerging value chains, 5,300 dwellings deconstructed/renovated/built per year): 3% / EUR 416k gain p.a.
We also assessed the economic maturity of 48 local value chains. This work enabled La Méta — a consortium of four social housing providers in charge of the social housing stock of the Greater Lille Authority — to pursue and deepen its circular initiative.
Much anticipated, it is the first study of its kind in France at this level of detail, intended for La Méta as well as the local ecosystem (national environmental and urban renovation agencies, Region, etc.), and then the wider French social housing community.
For the ECOCIR project (state railway works company), we have collected operational costs of three value chains (stone ballast, concrete railway sleepers and deconstruction waste), interacting with seven industry operators. We established prices of 16 final products (aggregates of various sizes and nature), as well as profitability and EBITDA margin (25%), while recommending ways to maximise them.
For the SEDINNOVE project (Paris-Le Havre-Rouen commercial port), we sized markets for a ‘sediment-sand’ meant for XS3**, ready-mix and pre-cast concrete, as well as for road sub-layers, in a 40 km radius (concrete trade area) around 2 production sites.
* Collected for the first time
** For aquatic environments
