AFAM: Hello Lucile and thank you for the time that you took to answer our questions. You pursued your 18 months VIE in the United States in 2022-2024. The company you worked for was ReValorem (http://www.revalorem.fr). Could you please tell us more about this company and its mission?
Lucile: ReValorem is a French company that creates Recycled Raw Materials from unsold luxury goods. Its mission is to provide reuse, recovery or recycling solutions for Luxury Goods Industry. Saving the luxury goods final life-cycle step from landfills.
AFAM: As far as I understand you supervised a ReValorem site in the United States. Quite a challenging mission for a young engineer. Please let us know more about your job and every day tasks that you accomplished at the company.
Lucile: Indeed I did. This job has made me grow professionally but also personally. I was in charge of : - Creating and making sure the Recycling Orders were done in time according to our customers needs
- Organising the on-site deliveries and security
- Coordinating with our French team (customer, software, recycling solutions)
- Learning and teaching the sorting of different materials
- Using continuous improvement methods to update our site to its best
- Adapting our French standards & processes to the American local team
- Training my VIE successor
AFAM: was working for a recycling company more of a coincidence or your deliberate choice? How come you are interested in recycling, green technologies? Any companies in this sector (French or American) you are closely following and admiring?
Lucile: It was a dream job for me that I did not think existed before I found it. My values are eco-friendly - I like eating vegetarian as often as possible, I recycle/reuse/donate all my items from my kitchen to my room. I try to reduce as much as I can my environmental impact. As an industrial engineer, I know many industries have an important impact on the environment. It is important for me to be able to align my work with my values - it gives more sense to work harder and find solutions. There are many recycling companies growing in our world, here are 2 examples :
- « Pratt Industries » in the US recycles cardboard and recreates new pizza boxes for Mellow Mushroom (pizza restaurant)
- « Le Pavé » is a French startup that uses our everyday plastic waste to transform it into new compacted tiles to make furniture (tables, chairs) or floors and ceilings. Magic don’t you think?
AFAM: as an Arts et Metiers engineer, how well were you prepared for your American mission? Any green initiatives/projects you’d like to mention which were part of your school life?
Lucile: The theory of my production engineering studies gave me a solid basis. Overall, the most useful was 5 years of apprenticeship in 2 different companies. My 3 last years of apprenticeship in a small French company definitely made the difference because I already had all the knowledge and practice on how a small company works and what does it need to survive. It helped me understand how to manage my priorities.
In one of our school subjects we had to create a company. With my team we decided to create a company that creates a material from recycled fish skin tanned with essences from local trees. The local logistics would have been operated with bikes to deliver our customers.
AFAM: working in the United States, in Savannah, what did you enjoy after work, during your weekends?
Lucile: I discovered a new American sport : Pickle-ball! It’s like a small tennis with a paddle bigger than a ping-pong one. Good fun and great communities in Georgia. I met my best-friends on the courts. I also loved traveling around the US either for a pickle-ball tournament or to hike in the nature. Puttshack is a great experience to mix some mini-golf, fun and technology!
AFAM: Any future plans that you’d like to share with us?
Lucile: I am currently back to France seeking for a new Production Manager opportunity in Chalon-sur-Saône with a small company that has a green impact. Crossed fingers I’ll find my next dream job! :)
AFAM: thank you, Lucile, and good luck with your future endeavors!
Picture: courtesy of Lucile
Please read other interviews in "Green and Clean" series:
Interview with Julien Artur de la Villarmois (Cl 218)
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