We have long been convinced that our country is a territory of innovation that does not know it, driven by its companies, its scientists and its bold individuals, ready to share their dreams in the service of the collective interest.
Our motivation to support and accelerate innovation, whatever it may be, provided it rests on our know-how, under virtuous conditions and for societal benefit, seems lately to be running into obstacles, more or less deliberate, within local and regional policies. No doubt out of caution in the face of the current political and economic context. Yet it is precisely in such times that we must show boldness so that the Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and France keep an indisputable role on the European and international stage.
The company Œnoteam (oenological consulting laboratories based on the right and left banks of the Gironde) wishes to express its interest in, and commitment to, collaborating with these local authorities with the aim of innovating in the fields of sustainable mobility and opening up rural areas.
Certified CSR at the “confirmed” level since 2022, Œnoteam has launched an innovation plan aimed at contributing to the continuous improvement of our impact within the wine industry. One of our ambitions is to help decarbonise freight transport through innovative aerial solutions.
We propose to run a pilot experiment aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions caused by traditional road transport through the establishment of air corridors for cargo drones. Initially, these corridors would link the right and left banks of the Gironde département, and then connect Bergerac to Pauillac via Libourne, flying over the natural routes of the Dordogne and the Gironde.
This ambitious initiative rests on the use of transport drones, a clean and efficient technology that could revolutionise the movement of goods over short and medium distances. In addition to their ecological advantages, drones help to relieve congestion on land infrastructure and to reduce transit time.
This approach is part of the one initiated by the Néo Terra compass (1). Our determination to act and innovate in the emergence of a new model for decarbonising mobility responds to certain ambitions of that policy:
– agriculture and food: in the face of climate disruption, the wine industry must be an active player in the ecological transition;
– innovating for a responsible, decarbonised economy: reducing energy consumption by supporting companies and industries in their transition, and by supporting research and development;
– travelling and living in territories adapted to climate change: reducing the ecological footprint of the transport sector by encouraging alternative, decarbonised transport. This forms a development strategy for all territories, both more balanced and more attractive.
This project, named ŒnoDrone, is attracting keen interest from other private companies that have joined the discussion table. The French civil aviation safety directorate (DSAC) is following our progress closely. We have now brought together the human skills and the technical expertise and have identified the needs, but we are held up by the slow administrative and financial set-up with the local authorities.
ŒnoDrone, which comes out of our dreamy and perhaps limitless minds, has only one objective: to be shared. For us, innovating means sharing. Self-financing from private funds and ending up with a commercial product does not fit our philosophy. We simply wish, in time, to be users among others of an innovation developed and supported by the community.
France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine must remain a territory of innovation, of scientific and environmental conquest, turned towards the future, for virtuous progress, shared progress, a model of healthy ambition, useful modernity and a force for proposals.
(1) : https://www.neo-terra.fr/quest-ce-que-neo-terra/
