Be Green Engineering manager Jean-Fabrice Vandomel represented South Africa at environmental trade show Pollutec, being held in Lyon, France, this week.

Be Green Engineering is a multidisciplinary green building engineering consultancy, with a specific focus on sustainable development.

The company has branches in South Africa, Reunion, Nice and Madagascar.

Vandomel also works with Ceris Group as the Reunion office director.

Ceris is an independent engineering group involved in the health, life sciences and high-stress industries.

The group is involved in the reorganisation or construction for hospital projects, research centres and biotechnology companies.

Vandomel has, therefore, worked on a number of sustainable building projects in France, such as the restructure and redesign of laboratories and hospitals.

This entails "greening" these buildings, by introducing energy and water efficiency measures.

Vandomel leverages his experience and expertise working at the group to tailor it for projects in South Africa, working through Be Engineering.

He realised that his expertise and services could be adapted to different sectors in the country.

“There is nothing missing in South Africa in terms of general engineering, the country has all the necessary skills, equipment, and companies for this. However, on the niche side, I have identified a number of opportunities for very specific expertise, in instances of green building.”

Notably, Be Green’s ethos is to work in collaboration with South African engineering companies, a complementary offering that enables development of local expertise by leveraging on the expertise of different people and companies, thereby exchanging skills, knowledge and experience. 

Working in South Africa has also required an adaptation in approach, such as seeking smaller projects, with French projects typically much larger.

Vandomel has already worked on a number of projects in South Africa, including on a French cultural building in Johannesburg, an environment efficiency audit project and an ecolodge project in Cape Town.

Vandomel encourages South Africans to attend future Pollutec shows, to keep abreast of the developments in the environmental industry.

He says Pollutec serves as a considerable exchange platform, where South African attendees can meet other engineering companies, experience what they do, see how they can benefit each other, and learn how best to respond to the needs of people in the countries they operate in.

Moreover, it allows the identification of further needs that South African companies can adapt to offer - as they already have the engineering capabilities - by referencing what is being done around the world.