Social Impact

Eradicating Fuel Poverty In France

Solving an environmental and societal crisis one home renovation at a time

More than 5 million French households live in buildings that are not energy efficient and cannot afford their home energy bills. This is a major environmental and societal issue in France, that is worsening with the current energy and economic crisis.

In 2021, the National Housing Agency (ANAH) granted financial aid to renovate only 1,600 of these homes. Stop Exclusion Energétique is  a non-profit whose mission is to scale-up and accelerate efficient building renovations to eradicate fuel poverty in France. The group has rallied a strong and diverse network of more than 60 large corporations, public service institutions and NGOs with both national and local footprints. By 2023, they intend to support 500,000 home energy efficiency renovations.

The nonprofit and its network turned to Oliver Wyman to come up with a plan to do so. 

This project is a strong testimonial for Oliver Wyman’s commitment to social impact and communities. We had the opportunity during this engagement to use our industry and functional expertise to shape an ambitious yet realistic plan that will likely have a material and measurable impact on French society
Eric Confais, Partner, Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman was introduced to Stop Exclusion Energétique through Make.org, an online platform that crowdsources solutions to civic problems. Stop Exclusion Energétique sought the firm’s support to define a scale-up plan to reach the goal of eradicating fuel poverty in France.

An Oliver Wyman project team was fully dedicated for three months to help the nonprofit define its strategic ambition and position in the ecosystem, and to design its operating model and a three-year detailed roadmap. Oliver Wyman worked alongside the NGO’s partners and stakeholders to identify challenges, define solutions to overcome them, frame the strategic scale-up deployment, and collectively define a very ambitious yet realistic and actionable plan.

The team also performed a full cost-benefit analysis and identified regions with highest need, to launch a pilot phase. Members of the Oliver Wyman Social Impact project team still provide regular light support to the association in this long and impactful journey.

The raison d'être of the Stop Exclusion Energétique collective is to change the scale of action. To achieve this, we needed an approach shared by all members of the collective that would be translated into a clear action program. The Oliver Wyman team brought us clarity and structure, and helped build and accelerated the strategy. We now have a strategic approach, with clear milestones and steering mechanisms, implementation-ready
Gilles Berhault, co-founder, Stop Exclusion Energétique

As a result of the team’s work, the NGO’s founders and partners are now aligned on a framework for providing aid and a tactical roadmap. The key tenets of the program and the cost-benefit analysis were presented to France’s Directorate General of Energy and Climate to get government support to launch the pilot in 14 territories. Stop Exclusion Energétique won the government’s €15 million program at the end of 2022.

This project is a perfect example of the role we can have as consultants to collaboratively develop solutions to solve complex and critical societal issues. The project will have environmental and societal impact at scale. I am very thrilled to have had to opportunity to help frame it
Solène Boudot, Engagement Manager, Oliver Wyman