Reconciling industry and biodiversity

In 2014, Storengy started supporting the National Strategy for Biodiversity (SNB). The objective? Developing a policy in favour of biodiversity from 2015 to 2018, at its 14 French sites, through local actions, training and promotion, in conjunction with its stakeholders and all territorial players. Storengy’s voluntary commitment to the SNB was recognized in 2015 and is based on a five point action plan established with the support of the IUCN French Committee, regarding 6 out of 20 goals set by the SNB.

In July 2018, Storengy consolidated and further developed its actions in favour of biodiversity by supporting Epe Act4nature's initiative launched to “mobilise businesses to question their direct and indirect impact, their dependencies and their possibilities to act in favour of nature”.

In May 2021, Storengy France confirmed its commitment by submitting the dossier “Businesses Committed to Nature through act4nature France”, which was followed in November 2021 by Storengy SAS handing in a dossier to “act4nature international”.

This dynamic and continuous development enables Storengy to deal with new projects in a more comprehensive manner and over a longer time step. Internally, re-discovering nature in an industrial environment enabled collaborators to find new missions and gave a new sense to Storengy’s core activities.

The SNB action plan

Our Act4Nature commitments

Storengy France has implemented a voluntary EEN-act4nature-France action plan with 4 “core activity actions” and 3 “complementary actions”. It is part of Storengy's continued, voluntary action in favour of the National Biodiversity Strategy (2015-2018) and act4nature (2018). Two aspects are part of this action plan:

• “Making biodiversity a territorial development for Storengy France” and
• “Promoting actions carried out in favour of biodiversity”.

"Core activity" actions

• Develop an innovative economic solution for the ecological management of industrial sites: ECO-FM
• Structure association partnerships with Storengy France to become a player in biodiversity in the service of territories.
• Alongside rural communities, commit to the ecological, energy and agricultural transition.
• Promote and highlight biodiversity actions towards our partners in joint industrial projects.

"Complementary" actions

• Sponsoring: financing of the LPO’s “Programme des terres et des ailes” and the International Festival of Animal and Nature Photography in Montier-en-Der, contributing to the financing of general interest measures.

• Enhance sensitisation and training offers in the field of biodiversity for employees and service providers of Storengy France.  This action strengthens the company’s capacity to deal with biodiversity; it is essential for skill improvement and the dissemination of the action – Development of knowledge.

• Organise and participate in promotional events in favour of biodiversity ad promote them internally and externally.

The “Zero Phyto” initiative: An opportunity to protect nature as a common good

Since 2015, the “zero plant protection product” policy has been tested at the Céré-la-Ronde pilot site, especially around wellheads, and progressively applied to all 14 storage sites in France. An iconic wet area rehabilitation project (CE10) is being conducted at the same time.

In 2016, this policy has been generally implemented at the entire site in Céré-la-Ronde, as well as in Chémery, and progressively at the other 13 sites. On 1st January 2018, Storengy stopped using plant protection products for good.

Differentiated management: An unavoidable step to combine nature and industry

The ecological diagnoses of Storengy’s properties is an essential step in our biodiversity procedure. Its aim is to identify ecological challenges at each site depending on their operating and industrial constraints, as well as the safety of the environments considered in order to establish adequate and dynamic management plans. The introduction of differentiated management has enabled us to enlarge the scope of energy transition to ecological transition

In 2012, Storengy and the Musée national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) signed a long-term partnership agreement to perform the diagnoses which started in 2013 at the Chémery (Loir-et-Cher) and Saint- Clair-sur-Epte (Val d’Oise) storage sites. Storengy relies on the ENGIE Lab Crigen research centre to steer these studies, which are part of Storengy’s R&D programme. Ever since, diagnoses have been established the Etrez (Ain), Cerville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Saint-Illiers-la-Ville (Yvelines), Beynes (Yvelines), Tersanne and Hauterives (Drôme) sites.

The methodology elaborated in the framework of this project is part of Laura Thuillier doctoral thesis “Consideration of biodiversity by an industrial company: The case of Storengy”, which was presented at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in June 2020. By calculating the STOREVAL indicator, it is a means to evaluate the ecological value of the properties of each Storengy site (at cadastral parcel level) in order to be able put it into perspective with the concerned Regional Ecological Consistency Schemes (SRCE).

Storengy's aim was to benefit from these results and consolidate its procedure by implementing local, long-term naturalistic monitoring for each site. Thus, partnerships have been established with local environmental associations of recognised competence:

• Conservatoires d’espaces naturels (CEN),
• Local associations of Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux (LPO) and the 
• Permanent Centres of Initiative and for the Environment (CPIE)

These players contribute to improving knowledge about the ecology of our sites with the objective of having a better overview of ecological transition.

Encouraging local partnerships to support the ecological transition

Storengy is developing a collaborative and participatory approach with national (MNHN, UICN, LPO), regional (LPO, CEN) and local (LPO, CPIE, consultants) to share experience which may help all the partners at all territorial levels. They have helped to create a new perception of our sites, from the point of view of nature. In return, they have been able to discover the industrial environment and the utility of Storengy’s activity regarding their territories’ security of supply with natural gas.

These collaborations may take many forms according to their topic and context:

• A sponsorship agreement: The aim is to contribute financially to a general interest programme. Ever since 2020, Storengy has been contributing financially to the LPO project “Des terres et des ailes” aiming to favour the reintroduction of birds in cultivated environments, as well as the International Festival of Animal and Nature Photography in Montier-en-Der (since 2018).
• A partnership agreement: Since 2012, Storengy has signed many partnership agreements with local associations of LPO, CPIE and CEN.
• An R&D programme: This is the case of a study about nocturnal lepidoptera (butterflies) led by the association Noé with the support of the ENGIE lab Crigen research centre. This project is a contribution to a call for projects by the region of Ile-de-France. These works are also a very concrete illustration of Storengy's commitment to reducing night lighting at its sites, a major challenge for Storengy over the 2 years to come.
• A service delivery: In most cases, this is about calling on local consultants for assistance in project management and expertise in the field of nature. The aim is to benefit from their unique field expertise while favouring our local purchasing approach.