ADEME’s ACT Pas à Pas Program: 12 Months to Decarbonize Your Business for the Long Term

Developing a transition strategy that takes planetary boundaries and resource constraints into account is no longer an option, but a necessity for sustainability in an uncertain world marked by frequent supply disruptions.It is also an increasingly unavoidable requirement from stakeholders (primarily customers and financiers). While the process was once perceived as costly and complex, the framework ADEME’s “Step-by-Step” ACT program is a game-changer, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies.

As a consulting firm listed by ADEME, Carbon 4 supports you for 9 to 12 months in developing a credible transition plan, with funding covering 60% to 80% of your consulting fees.

For more than 18 years, Carbone 4 has been helping companies and organizations integrate environmental challenges and planetary boundaries into their business models to ensure their long-term sustainability and resilience.

Following on from this article, You will discover the five key factors for success in developing a robust business strategy that incorporates decarbonization challenges at the right level.

You'll also see how the ACT Step-by-Step framework helps you take these five key success factors into account when developing or enhancing your climate strategy.

Finally, we will present the “collective” version of the ACT Pas à Pas program, which allows major contracting entities, industry federations, or regional associations to bring together multiple companies to develop concrete decarbonization plans.

If you'd like to learn more, the "ACT Step-by-Step with Carbone 4" guide—available for download on this page—will help you learn more about detailed information about the program and our support services, as well as feedback from our clients.

Moving Beyond the Illusion of a “Push-Button” Decarbonization Plan: Why Does It Take Time to Develop a Transition Plan (and Why Is It a Worthwhile Investment)?

There is no "push-button" decarbonization strategy. To be effective, a transition plan must be grounded in the company's technical, human, and financial realities.

At Carbone 4, our experience has led us to identify 5 Key Factors for Success to turn carbon constraints into a competitive advantage, particularly as part of a Step-by-Step ACT approach:

Raise awareness among your teams about climate issues so that climate strategy is not seen as a constraint but rather as a corporate initiative

A strategy remains a dead letter without the buy-in of your key personnel. We train your operational teams (Purchasing, Production, Marketing, etc.) on the practical challenges of climate change. The goal: to transform an abstract obligation into a shared initiative where everyone understands the “why.” Structuring your climate strategy must be a unifying effort for your teams, not a mandatory requirement. This requires a significant awareness-raising and training phase so that teams can fully embrace and be convinced of the need to act to decarbonize your company—without waiting for shortages or a spike in fossil fuel prices.

Harness collective intelligence by breaking down barriers between teams

Decarbonization is disrupting business models. By bringing together all levels of management, we harness "collective intelligence" to remove organizational barriers and turn roadblocks into drivers of innovation.

Work within an ecosystem to collaboratively develop your plan with your key partners

You can't decarbonize on your own. We help you engage your suppliers and customers to rethink your contractual relationships (e.g., the functional economy) and secure your value chain in the face of future physical disruptions.

Quantify the technical, financial, and human impacts of actions in order to make rational decisions

To avoid "false good ideas," we evaluate each solution against five criteria: actual carbon savings, financial impacts (CAPEX/OPEX), technical feasibility, internal acceptance, and customer buy-in. At Carbone 4, our role is to help our clients make the right decisions so they can make sound investments and avoid stranded assets. We also focus on connecting you with hand-picked providers of low-carbon solutions to save you time.

Experiment first to ensure a smooth transition to full-scale implementation

The strategy derives its credibility from concrete results. Through pilot projects in real-world conditions (“test & learn”), we work with you to validate the economic viability before rolling out a given solution on a large scale with your teams. Establishing a system of “climate champions” also helps convince a given population by setting an example. In particular, this helps overcome barriers to change by demonstrating that adopting new habits is possible—such as switching to sustainable transportation or electric company vehicles.

If you’d like to learn more about the critical path to implementing a robust and resilient decarbonization strategy, our guide “Decarbonizing Your Business: Our Practical Recommendations for Moving Forward” will provide you with useful insights.

The ACT Step-by-Step Program: A Financial and Methodological Tool

ACT Step-by-Step is a methodology developed by ADEME that aims to facilitate the implementation of a robust corporate strategy in response to planetary boundaries and to structure a robust decarbonization plan for your company based on a pre-existing carbon footprint assessment covering Scopes 1, 2, and 3.

Whether you are an SME or a mid-sized company, this program allows you to:

• Reduce investment: A grant of 60% to 80% on external support.
• Adopt an international standard: The ACT (Assessing Low-Carbon Transition) methodology is recognized worldwide for its rigor.
• Preparing for the CSRD, Responding to the VSME[1] and organize your environmental reporting: Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) and a transition roadmap that comply with sustainability reporting requirements.

Identifying the “middle path”—the balance between short-term economic survival and the long-term carbon sustainability of your business—is now within reach for all motivated organizations.

A company can receive support on an individual basis or through a powerful variation of the program: as part of a group support program.

Carbone 4’s Perspective on the Collective Approach to Decarbonizing the Industry?

ADEME supports initiatives led by contracting entities, industry associations, or regional clusters aimed at simultaneously engaging a group of companies (often strategic suppliers or members of the same industry sector).

• Due date: Call for proposals open until June 12, 2026.
• The principle: In addition to providing individualized support to each business, fund group discussion sessions to address common challenges.

Our feedback on these formats shows that they accelerate the transition exponentially, particularly in the following areas mentioned in the downloadable guide:

• Sharing Ideas
• Sharing Best Practices
• Creating Circular Supply Chains
• Value Chain Resilience Centered on a Major Shared Client

Why should you choose us for your ACT Step-by-Step process?

• Expertise Grounded in Reality: Our industry experts and our partner ecosystem identify concrete solutions tailored to your technical, operational, and financial constraints.
• A people-centered approach: We know that the success of a transition plan depends on your teams’ buy-in. We design our initiatives to foster this essential internal momentum.
• From Strategy to Reporting: From defining your path forward to structuring your climate reporting (CSRD or VSME), we ensure every step is handled properly so you can report your impacts in a robust and transparent manner.
• Whether you want to confirm your eligibility for the ACT Pas à Pas program, develop your deep decarbonization plan, or launch a collaborative initiative with your strategic suppliers, our team is here to help.

To learn more about the detailed process of our ACT Step-by-Step support program and read our client testimonials, you can download our guide below.