Afilog meets with Olga Givernet, former Minister of Energy and member of parliament for Ain

Claude Samson: Our sector is facing increasingly restrictive standards. We also have issues regarding access to land and the acceptance of our activities in local areas. Taxes are another concern. Finally, and this does not apply only to logistics real estate, there is a need to simplify the standards and regulations to which we are subject.

Olga Givernet: Thank you for inviting me to come and speak with logistics real estate professionals. It enables us to address the issues that will determine the future of our economy: France’s political outlook, the energy transition, and logistics’ key role in these transformations. Talking with people on the ground and business leaders is often the only way to develop sound public policies that are rooted in reality. Adapting our infrastructure, strengthening our capacity while remaining true to our ambitious environmental objectives: these are all challenges we must tackle together.

OG : As elected officials, we are often approached about warehouses when a site is being sought; we then try to understand the needs in terms of connections to infrastructure and energy needs as well… But I think we also do so with certain preconceptions, particularly about the amount of space they take up, trucks coming and going without us really knowing what goes on inside, the limited number of jobs...

Ludovic Bernini: We rarely meet with elected officials, or at least not often enough, at our logistics sites. On the other hand, we often see them, particularly within Afilog, during the review stages of our projects. At that point, we try to do a great deal of educational outreach. Depending on the region, our activities are often associated solely with e-commerce, and particularly with one of its major players, whereas logistics is not just that—it is, above all, many other things. Logistics, for example, is essential to industry. I recently read in Plateformes Magazine the interview with Jacques Rolland, first deputy mayor of Saint-Vulbas, in Ain, who says that he now prefers industry to logistics. We understand why, but it is a shock. Elected officials, even those who know our activities well, now have a negative perception of them.

OG : In people’s minds, a warehouse is a big box seen from a distance, with the idea that perhaps it does not create many direct jobs compared with the land it occupies, even though it is an essential link in our reindustrialization. The question, then, is how you can help us understand why logistics matters and how it plans to evolve in light of current constraints and challenges.

LB : Indeed, changing this perception of logistics may be the number-one challenge for an association such as Afilog today. We need to make people understand that there are jobs, that efforts are being made to improve landscape quality and reduce the carbon footprint... Yet we keep explaining that we need logistics for our pharmaceutical industry, our hospitals, to feed people...

About 20 years ago, when we were processing a logistics application, once the prefect and the mayor were convinced, there was no longer a problem. Today, prefects are much more wary of their own reviewing departments, which sometimes do not even follow the prefect’s view. They are also wary of certain environmental associations. Yet if we cannot build where it is most appropriate, it is a triple penalty : more trucks on the roads and therefore more pollution, a loss of industrial competitiveness, and fewer jobs created in our area. We should also remember that the number of square meters per capita dedicated to logistics is among the lowest in Europe. In the Netherlands, it is four times higher. Logistics, which accounts for 10 % of GDP in France, is indispensable to the French economy.

CS : I would add that the efforts made by the industry to decarbonize the construction and use of logistics buildings are pointless if the warehouse is located 50 km from where it should be.

OG : An elected official naturally tends to see the additional trucks that will be traveling through their municipality if they approve a new warehouse. They need to learn to make the connection between logistics and their constituents’ daily lives : the parcels they receive every day, the industrial activities it enables… I therefore think there needs to be more transparency, so that people know what happens in these warehouses, and as elected officials, we must strike the right balance between residents’ expectations and what the area needs.

CS : I would also point out that logistics is a sector where social mobility still works, with people able to start out as order pickers and become site directors a few years later.

OG: The energy transition must continue. For many months now, we have been pursuing a supply-side policy to produce decarbonized energy and try to move away from all forms of fossil energy. Another benefit of the energy transition is that it reduces energy bills for French households and businesses. Energy is now a decentralized issue, and we can think at the scale of a business park or a municipality, particularly with regard to self-consumption and landscape integration. But this is not merely about meeting consumer needs; it is also essential to view the energy sector as an economic sector in its own right. We expect a great deal from the PPE (Multiannual Energy Program) to provide planning with pathways consistent with what we are capable of doing. These are long-term issues, sometimes difficult to address in a time of crisis such as today.

LB: The energy transition is certainly a constraint, but above all it is a regulatory one. In line with the aim of decarbonizing our economy, we are also wary of seemingly good ideas that can sometimes come from lawmakers... Photovoltaics are a good example. Logistics real estate stakeholders are committed to going beyond what the law requires, installing panels on more than 50 % of new logistics facilities, with some companies covering 100 % of their roofs. But when we are required to do the same on existing buildings, it is not possible ! They do not have the physical capacity to bear these extremely heavy panels, they do not have the necessary waterproofing, and the insulation will not withstand this additional compression either.

Furthermore, if we conduct a life-cycle assessment of these materials, most of which are manufactured in China, the outcome is not very positive. Finally, the return on investment for such installations is in the range of 2 to 4 %, which is insufficient to motivate investors compared with other investments.

OG : On these issues, I encourage you to find your own interest beyond regulation, which can change. Moving toward self-consumption seems to be a good solution in that respect.

OG: Everyone complains about it, but for now, I have not had a single case of conflict in my constituency. None. So I do not know whether it is because we have not yet encountered the problem, or because project developers have already so fully absorbed the constraint that they no longer even try.

LB : I can confirm that it is indeed the latter: many people give up. And when you talk to mayors and elected officials today, they tell you, “I am going to face competing uses for my 1% allocation under the ZAN law—housing, logistics, retail. So I am not going to include logistics in my local urban plan.” South of Paris, it was even the prefect who told us, even though the site had been designated as developable and earmarked for logistics, “ZAN is coming, it’s over,” even though we did not yet have the Île-de-France ZAN plan. There are many other examples like this, with companies ultimately locating their warehouses in Portugal or elsewhere in Europe. It is also a loss for local authorities, which will consequently not receive the taxes these companies would have paid. The ZAN law therefore also risks becoming a problem for municipal budgets.

Furthermore, the redevelopment of brownfield sites, which is one response to ZAN, is not made any easier because we face exactly the same constraints as for agricultural land : development tax, the same flora and fauna studies, wetland areas, etc. On that last point, there is another concern for the industry: the European Commission has asked all Member States to submit maps of their wetlands, where development is prohibited without specific authorization. According to initial estimates, France identifies 27 % of its territory as wetlands, whereas our European neighbors identify between 1 and 3 %. Once again, we are shooting ourselves in the foot… It is a parliamentary bill, but we therefore need to revisit the definition we give to these wetlands. I would also note that ZAN exists only in France...

OG : We need a genuine discussion about what logistics is, taking into account transport modes, consumption patterns, and industrial needs… This will give us a clearer outlook. I also understand that companies in the sector need greater clarity and consistency in the decisions that directly affect them.