Cascades wants to move from words to actions. The Kingsey Falls company is partnering with technology accelerator Cycle Momentum to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The two organizations are calling on everyone to find sources of energy and heat that will allow the manufacturer of packaging and hygiene products to reach its own climate targets for 2025 and then 2030.
Cascades uses the concept of open innovation to help resolve energy issues which, in its sector, are enormous. “We are in a very energy-intensive industry, we will quickly have to move towards renewable sources”, confirms its vice-president, communications, public affairs and sustainable development, Hugo D’Amours. “We have already identified internal projects that allow us to reach the targets easier. To tackle the rest, we decided to ask for help from the start-up and innovators from around the world. »
The manufacturer will thus open its doors to young companies, mainly in the clean technology sector, who would like to help it solve its problems. Those interested will have until mid-June to express their desire to collaborate with Cascades and Cycle Momentum through a contest called “Challenge: clean energy source”.
We are in a very energy-intensive industry, we will quickly have to move towards renewable sources.
This is the third time she has done this. In particular, the company sought, a few years ago, to find renewable vegetable fibers for its future products. Milkweed, a plant that grows in abundance especially along highways throughout Quebec, was also considered in the context of these past projects.
This time, Cascades is targeting its energy supply. The company claims to have reduced the level of its direct GHG emissions by 50% compared to 1990. Its sustainable development plan published last summer promises to reduce, by 2030, by 38.7% compared to the year 2019 the greenhouse gas emissions of its paper manufacturing plants and by 27, 5% those of its other activities, including its factories converting paper into finished products.
The companies selected for this competition will receive support from Cycle Momentum and Cascades. They could also benefit from financial support from the federal government through Canada Economic Development, and rely on the collaboration of the Quebec cleantech cluster Écotech Québec and the cleantech incubator 2 Degrés, based in Quebec City.
green hydrogen
Cascades is not taking its first steps in what is called the circular economy. The company was born in the 1960s, when its founders, brothers Bernard, Laurent and Alain Lemaire, discovered that it was possible to produce various types of paper from waste. Its current climate action plan is actually the fourth time it has made strong environmental commitments.
The objective this time is to increase its use of renewable energy sources to produce the heat necessary for its industrial activities. Cascades cites the use of biomass, green hydrogen, renewable natural gas, geothermal energy and solar energy as part of the solutions considered. Already, more than a thousand companies worldwide have been listed as potential candidates. Cycle Momentum, which is supporting Cascades in this project, will have the task of reducing this list during the summer to about fifteen names. The objective is to elect before the end of the summer the five projects on which all the energy will be put to achieve the 2030 targets.
Cascades will act as an industrial partner for the companies chosen, but the relationship could go further, indicates Hugo D’Amours. “It could lead to a joint venture, or we could buy out the technology, or whatever. We’ll see,” he said.
It is part of the basis of open innovation to allow technology to evolve in different ways depending on the context. A truly innovative energy solution could be spun off to be resold to other companies, for example.
“Quebec Inc. must act”
This is not the first time that the CEO of Cycle Momentum, Patrick Gagné, has rubbed shoulders with a company from Quebec inc. to try to promote the importance of developing a Quebec innovation economy. This is not his first business relationship with Cascades either. But large Quebec companies are not all equally receptive, he laments.
Faced with climate issues, “the major Quebec industrialists must show more than interest and take action,” he says. ” We do [avec Cascades] a call for candidates, but it is also a call to action with Quebec inc. If all of Quebec’s industrial leaders imitated Cascades, we would have a very large ecosystem of companies specializing in clean technologies in Quebec. »
“It is sometimes easier to lead from one quarter to another than to see in the longer term,” adds Hugo D’Amours, who encourages Quebec entrepreneurs not to be afraid to embark on the unknown, d where transformative ideas often emerge. “The light bulb was not invented by a process of continuous improvement of the candle,” he illustrates. “We don’t know if our project will produce similar technologies in which we want to invest, but we are confident. »