After the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, who opened the ball, on Sunday December 8, of this new Sunday section “A coffee with”, an informal conversation with a personality from Biterrois, in the heart of the Biltoki halls, place today to Nicole Bartoli, consultant in ecological transition and sustainable development.
She was known as an activist, even an activist, to save trees and defend the environment. Now, Nicole Bartoli is taking a new step by setting up her company and becoming “sustainable development consultant. “I’ve wanted to get into economic entrepreneurship for a long time. I left my salaried job in 2023 and I launched this year, with the strength of my five years of activism, which allowed me to develop my skills.”
Her experience in the field, her readings and her discussions with numerous stakeholders pushed her to transform “this militant passion in concrete actions”in the face of the climate emergency and “the state of unpreparedness we are in”.
A constructive approach
However, there is no question of falling into a moral lesson. “It’s not just a question of defending the environment but of being in a constructive approach” to enable businesses, schools or local authorities to adopt an approach to sustainable development and ecological transition.
Because for Nicole Bartoli, “the situation is really serious. If we do not act, if we do not try to question our production or consumption models, we are heading towards catastrophe. Ecology is not punitive. Punishment, it is the inhabitants of Valencia who suffered it… We must not stop everything but we must return to common sense policies”when we agreed to live with nature without putting it on credit.
Return to local
“We must highlight local know-how, whether in the field of industry or agriculture”. And stop with “initiatives that make no sense, like this golf project in the Pyrénées-Orientales, while the department has suffered a constant drought for several years. Or turn a blind eye to the disastrous consequences of pesticides on the environment and on humans as well. We have disconnected ourselves from nature for our comfort..
Certainly, the neo-consultant in sustainable development, just registered with Medef, admits: “Everything will not happen in a snap of the fingers”. But faced with the absence of ambition and vision at the national or international level, “we have to come back to the local”.
A network of experts
Nicole Bartoli wants “offer businesses, associations or communities to adapt to the vagaries of climate change by helping them cope with episodes of drought or heatwave”through targeted support, participatory workshops or informed advice.
“I don’t claim to have the answers to everything, but I work with a network of experts and I am convinced that by combining our expertise, we can succeed in improving the situation.”
