Mesdames et messieurs. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here with us for this Investor Day. I would also like to welcome those who have joined us through the internet broadcast. Before handing over to Maxime Séché, I wanted to briefly remind you of the reasons that have led us to disclose new financial and extra-financial objectives today. In 2021, we were here with you to present the financial outlook to 2025. We were setting a contributive revenue objective of EUR 1 billion for 2025. We had an EBITDA go up with gross margin between 24%-25% of contributive revenue on the 2021 scope. We had also committed to maintaining strict financial discipline with stringent goals in terms of liquidity and financial flexibility.
Well, we have to say that we have achieved some of these objectives ahead of schedule. After several years of strong growth, we will be close, in fact, extremely close to EUR 1 billion in revenues in 2023. We have consistently, over the period from 2021 to 2023, met our financial targets. Regarding operating margin, the operating margin already stood at over 23% in 2022, on the base of 2021 scope, including almost 25% in France. Our policy in terms of operating performance and cost control has therefore set us on a strong footing to achieve this footing, to achieve this goal on the historic scope.
In particular, over the past two years, we have pursued an active acquisition policy, that has enabled us to enter new strategic markets, such as the industrial water cycle, which is at the very heart of sustainable development and environmental transition issues. We have strengthened our presence internationally, in particular in Italy, in Southern Africa, and Latin America. And thus, we have been able to integrate close to EUR 200 million of revenue into our scope, therefore, offering the group new prospects for growth and profitability. This external growth changes the approach to performance based on our historical scope, and therefore, we felt it was essential that we should set ourselves new goals in terms of growth, profitability, financial flexibility in the medium term.
Finally, as a player of the environmental transition, we have, in recent years, set up a strategic management approach, partly based on extra financial performance. These extra financial management tools guide actions and measure our industrial performance for each of our sites. Environmental transition challenges, for example, decarbonization, are shared with our clients. At a time when we have to step up our environmental transition, we have to set an example in order to serve our ambition for operating performance. New extra financial targets extended to water and energy in particular are going to be presented today. Without further ado, I will hand over to Maxime Séché, our CEO, who is raring to go and who will be running this half-day presentation.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. I'm very happy to see you here today. So we have built an agenda with the main managers of the group to explain to you our industrial project. In the first part, we will be presenting the various drivers of our growth and our environmental strategy at group level and to serve our clients. We will also be looking at the commercial strategy in terms of growth and integration. We will see how we will be stepping up our growth on new markets with two growth areas. Number 1, by extending our offering to these circular economy, and secondly, through a geographical broadening using our existing base. In the second part, after a 15-minute coffee break, we will be focusing on R&D as a growth driver, and then we will present our operating excellence plan and our financial trajectory to 2026.
After all the presentations, there will be a question and answer session, and if you're following us online, you can send your questions to Manuel Andersen, whose address you will find displayed on the screen. To continue building an offer to respond to today and tomorrow's challenges in terms of environmental transition, decarbonization, and preservation of biodiversity. This Investor Day gives us an opportunity to share with you our industrial plans, our trajectory, and our vision. We are a family company with a long-term vision and strong values. This has enabled us to develop a strong model with strong visibility. It's a strong model because we have a long-term vision, which enables us to invest in the long term, in tools, and also in innovation, serving the environmental transition.
Next, because we put the human factor at the core of our company. In other words, we're close to our teams because in the group, everybody has an informal relationship. We share ideas, we're more responsive, and we also emphasize the collective approach, helping each other, including safety at work. We have a very flexible decision-making process, and we have stable teams, which enables us to build together and sometimes come up with customized innovative solutions for our client. And also being a family company produces trust. We do what we say, and we say what we do. So this is it's very reassuring to know that we work on a transparent basis, and we meet our commitments.
As you know, this is a further guarantee of quality because we avoid taking any reputational risk, which sets us apart from our competitors. This model is relevant because we have been able to build a full offering based on our values and industrial tools. We respond to the environmental issues for local authorities, companies, and with our industrial tool, we have a presence on the whole value chain. We offer integrated services for waste management, which enables us to provide full traceability, starting from logistics all the way to final waste management. At the core of our offering, we have enhancement, which means providing our clients with regenerated materials or low-carbon recycling energy.
In 2023, we've also entered the industrial water cycle, and we respond, therefore, to the needs of our clients with the challenges of access to resources or to discharging into natural environment. In our services, we have remediation and depollution of soil. We directly contribute to the objective of zero artificial use. Industrial wasteland is used to support urban development as opposed to using farming land. Our offering also includes risk prevention through our industrial maintenance services, chemical cleaning or sanitation. The model has strong visibility because our mission is at the heart of the challenges arising from the environmental plans, and we use our tools and know-how to this end. So we are in a growth sector linked to environmental transition, global warming, and protecting diversity.
We're also at the heart of industrial challenges arising from rare resources with the use of water and energy. As you know, our offering is based on three complementary areas of expertise: the circular economy and decarbonization, which is one third of our revenue; hazard management business, 20% of our revenue; and services, 45% of our revenue. All these businesses serve the environmental transition of our clients. They all have their own growth momentum, and I'd like to give you some example to illustrate our areas of expertise. Now, regarding circular economy and decarbonization, this is recycling, where we can set ourselves apart using critical entrants- from critical entrants.
For example, we have an example of a client in the pharmaceutical industry, with bromine, and we send this recycled resource back to the client with full traceability, and this enables us to take part in the environmental challenge. Regenerated bromine produces 20 times less GHG and uses up three times less of bromine than an imported ton. The circular economy is also the in energy enhancement. Our group is self-sufficient to 260% in terms of energy. In other words, we produce almost three times more energy than we actually use. For example, we have developed the first CSR boiler, which was inaugurated in 2017. This is the solid recuperation or recycling combustible or fuel. We use the-...
The fuel that can still—that's been used, but can still produce further energy, and this is used for the heating as urban system, and we provide heating to a local farming cooperative. Another example, in Salaise, our Trédi factory uses the heat arising from waste management, and we produce 600,000 tons of steam to the companies in Roussillon, which accounts for half of the energy needs of the platform. This enabled us to close down a coal plant, and this enables us to limit the use of fossil energy, and therefore, the greenhouse gas emissions.
110,000 tons are thus avoided each year in terms of emissions of GHG, which is the equivalent of a town such as Étampes, around 20,000 inhabitants. On our second area of expertise, managing hazardous waste decontamination, for example, we are present in niche markets with high value added, such as medical waste or in the management of dangerous waste. Hazardous waste, we have significant strength in specialized industrial gases. At Trédi Saint-Vulbas, the management of GHG enables us to restrict the emission of GHGs, 3.7 million tons, which is half the annual emissions of Lyon. So this management of hazardous waste also contributes to the goals of environmental transition or the energy transition.
In terms of services, we have launched the depollution site, the former depollution site on 11 hectares, and the remediation of this pollution will enable us to set up a new area while responding to the goal of zero artificial use of soil. We recently inaugurated the largest French site in France for environmental depollution with our subsidiary, which depollutes the site and ensures the transport and management of hazardous waste. We intervened in the oil slick in 1999, in Peru in 2022, and the decontamination of lead in the crypt of Notre-Dame de Paris, and the Lubrizol depollution in Rouen.
This activity is in synergy with the waste management tools of our group, and we provide our tools and our know-how to enable our clients to outsource all of their environmental problems, and that's what we call or that's part of our global offering. Our competitive strength is in our differentiating know-how. We are an expert with a long-term positioning on industrial clients. Our clients are mainly in the pharmaceutical, health, and energy industries, as well as commodities. They produce complex waste and therefore encounter technical challenges, and this is where we provide them with our know-how, which we put in service of the circular economy. We have a dual expertise, dual know-how in the management of hazardous waste and also control over this hazardous waste.
This is reassuring for our clients and enables us to avoid dispersing hazardous waste into the environment, which is positive for biodiversity and human health. Our technical know-how in terms of managing hazardous waste is there, so a part of the response to environmental challenges. In order to contribute to the energy transition of our clients, we have a strategy based on four pillars to provide the growth of the group. As experts, we're positioned on added value and the quest for excellence in execution. We are a specialized actor, and the group sets itself apart by its ability to submit differentiating offerings. We anticipate the environmental regulatory needs of our clients through our capacity to listen.
Our commercial strategy, seeking operating excellence, means that we look after our clients, we guarantee proper traceability when we manage their waste, and we base ourselves on flexible organization with a simplified decision-making process. We want to have a flexible organizational structure in order to be ever closer to our clients. We also have a cross-cutting organizational structure in order to implement synergies within the group, and we're constantly improving excellence in execution, and also to provide a guarantee to our clients in terms of resources and implementation, and also to enable the clients to meet their regulatory requirements, and to ensure their protect them from reputational risk.
We're constantly innovating as well, first of all, in order to improve our processes, improve productivity, to improve our safety, compliance, and to meet the needs of our clients, and to offer innovative solutions, and to anticipate regulatory change and be the player upholding best practices, which is what we've always done. And furthermore, we have an active external growth policy with two key drivers. First, quality, in order to broaden our offering by integrating new technology or know-how, and also a geographical thrust, which extends our geographic coverage to be closer to our clients, or a strategy based on new sites overseas in Europe. We're bolstering our existing presence, and further, we're building the broadest possible localing offering to accompany our clients.
And all this by maintaining strict financial discipline, optimizing operating performance, ensuring we have maximum free cash flow and a flexible balance sheet. Financial discipline is therefore a key pillar for this strategy. To go back on external growth, this is a pillar with two dimensions. First of all, extending the offering in terms of know-how and competence, for example, with the recent acquisitions in sanitation and industrial water management in France. Number two, internationally, with significant stakes in Latin America, Italy, and Southern Africa. Since 2017, the international share of our business has gone from 5% to 30%. We have moved ahead selectively with strict criteria.
In terms of presence, we have criteria based on environmental protection, and we seek to deploy our position to roll it out as experts, applying our quality standards. And our, in terms of targets, we're seeking platforms to deploy our business and to accompany our existing customers. Just to give you an example of our service offering extension for our clients, in 2022, 2023, we made acquisitions to supplement our offering in the field of circular economy, addressing issues of the management of industrial water and sanitation. Offer was built on the base of our in-house expertise, supplemented through acquisition. Nicolas will come back in greater detail on these businesses, which are a new growth driver. Internationally, we have an M&A strategy to supplement existing network.
In Northern Italy, we acquired the Furia platform to consolidate our commercial position. We're extending our offering to major industrial clients that are strategic, obviously, as a good fit with Mecomer, our other subsidiary in Northern Italy. The combination of Mecomer and Furia makes Veolia one of the significant players of hazardous waste in Northern Italy. We also acquired Rent-A-Drum in Namibia to continue our expansion in Southern Africa. We're relying on our expertise and tools in Southern Africa to best meet the needs of industrial clients in that territory. Lastly, we also acquired ESSAC in Peru, a company that allows to extend our footprint to remediation environmental urgency services, supplementing our existing offering.
Marco Paesano will tell you more about that in due course. International represents 30% of revenue today. We're positioned in economies with promising market, with a strong industrial fabric and growing environmental regulations. We can leverage our existing tools and expertise. So the growth in our business mix is a growth driver, as we see in our various businesses drive each other mutually. Our strategy rapidly grew the group to environmental services that went from 20% of revenue back in 2010 to 45% today. Services allow us to continue our logic of value-added offering, complementing our capacity offering.
It's a differentiating factor. It strengthens our expert positioning. The group also saw its offer extended in the circular economy business that linked to hazardous waste. The acquisition of All'Chem last year supplemented the activities and expertise of our Speichim subsidiary, solvent regeneration. This strategy accounts for the strong growth these past few years. All activities saw sustained organic growth rates of the order of 7% per year on average, and going forward, we anticipate that services and circular economy business will offer significant growth potential. That potential rests on regulatory changes, but above all, clients' needs in terms of response to addressing their green transition need, because our business is positioned at the heart of this challenge, as witnessed by a high rate of eligibility and alignment with the European Green Taxonomy.
The setting of non-financial targets that are ambitious by 2026 will allow us to strengthen still further our role as a sustainable economic player serving our clients. Pierre-Yves will set out the objectives. The group set itself to reduce the impact of our activities, well, as those of our clients on the climate, energy, water, or biodiversity. This strategy combines the growth of our activities on the three areas we've looked at together, which are the ecological transition, decarbonization, hazardous waste management, environmental services, and an ambitious and planned approach, allowing the group to strengthen its position as a key player in the green transition. Pierre-Yves, over to you.
Thanks, Maxime. Good morning to you all. Pierre-Yves Burlot in charge of sustainable development for Séché. As Maxime said, our business allows us to address ecological transition issues. Those of our clients will see that with the taxonomy analysis. You know, the European Commission published in June this year, the final version of taxonomy guidelines. So we analyzed on the basis of this final version, the European text that confirms the good positioning of Séché Group on the eligibility and revenue alignment criteria for the taxonomy. As you can see on this slide, 86% eligibility, 67% alignment. These rates are deemed good in respect to two comparables. The first comparables focusing on waste and water management sector.
We took two main players, sector players, shown here on the right of the Séché data and energy sector players, and you see that Séché has eligibility and alignment rates above its main peers in the sector. In terms of comparables, the European Commission deems that less than 10% of economic activities in Europe meet the alignment and European taxonomy. So on the basis of this taxonomy, Séché Environnement is a sustainable player serving the green transition. Our goal today is to strengthen still further that sustainable player status by setting new targets through 2026. These targets have various aims. The first is to reduce the impact of our clients who are involved in their value chain to supply various services to them.
As Maxime said, the goal is that these services have the highest possible value added on green transition businesses. Second goal is to anticipate CSRD, European regulation that will lead to more stringent non-financial reporting and transition plans for various environmental targets. We've already pledged to implement the main CSRD guidelines, and it's these transition plans that will be presented to you today with the 2026 horizon. These transition plans rest on targets defined by site. So the group goal across the various criteria, climate, energy, water, biodiversity, are the sum of the site targets planned by each of our entities, which affords credibility to our action plans and makes them very operational in their implement, starting with the climate commitments.
So to begin on climate, as you know, Séché has embarked on a decarbonization initiative. Two objectives, one by 2025, reduce our scopes one and two by 10% constant scope 2020. This target of a reduction of our GHGs was factored in to the SLB Sustainability-linked bond, published two years ago. Second target at 2030, -25% of our GHG emissions, and that target by 2030 is SBTi certified, aligned with the Paris Agreement. Today, action plans are being developed. Two main drivers: the first is to substitute fossil fuel with the low carbon from waste, and second key driver for Séché Group, that of combating diffuse methane leaks. Methane has an emission factor far greater than CO₂, 30 times higher. The goal is to reduce the methane leaks, to reduce GHGs of the company.
We're confident as to the successful implementation of these action plans and the trajectory that allow us to reach these targets by 2025 and 2030. And so the 2026 target confirms a target of -13% of GHGs. For the period beyond 2030, we're on R&D phases of capture and use of carbon. These R&D phases will be presented in due course by our director. Second target on the climate front, how are we going to decarbonize via our activities, the Scope 3 of our clients? As you know, Maxime said, Séché is positioned on the recycling of specific high-value materials. Of course, Séché does sorting, like the main sector players of packaging, cardboard, but the expertise focus on specific material, bromine, or solvents. Séché is the major international player in bromine recycling. Similarly, Séché, one of the main producers of regenerated solvents in Europe.
What specific this expertise on specific recycling is that specific recycling sharply reduces the carbon impact of our clients. For solvents, five times less emission as compared to virgin. So for bromine, 320 times less as compared to virgin bromine. When our clients choose our recycled inputs, they're decarbonizing their Scope 3 materials purchasing. Today, 2022, production linked to recycling circular economy has increased by 11%, avoided emissions of Séché with its clients. Today, the success of the various Séché Environnement capability, the Maxibrome initiative, the solvent, which won a circular economy award, and the appetite of our client for these recycled materials, makes us confident in reaching the 25% target of +40% avoided emissions in our clients. If the current trend is confirmed, we plan to reach 50% increase in avoided emissions in our clients' site, thanks to these circular economy activities.
Other activities currently being developed on these specific materials through the All'Chem value chain presented by indigo blue or acetophenone, that our R&D director, Sylvain, will tell you about. In conclusion, on climate issue, two goals, how we reduce our emissions that are -13% by 2026. How Séché is reducing its clients' emissions, that we're accelerating the current trend with a 50% increase by 2026. That's for climate. Moving now to energy. On energy issues, as you know, in a coordinated way with the support of the government, Séché has committed to reduce its energy commitment by 10% by 2025, in line with the energy efficiency plan launched by France. This reduction on energy consumption requires various levers, of course, optimization, efficiency, process change to consume less energy.
We're confident in reaching the -10% by 2025. We had a first impact last year with the first consumption reduction, -1%, which was a first in Séché. And so we're setting a target of -12% of our energy consumption by 2026. As a reminder, the target is to reach around 404 GWh energy consumed by 2026. This energy efficiency plan also contributes to reduce our GHGs. When we consume less energy, we emit less CO2. Similarly, how Séché commits for its clients. We have second goal, which is to increase energy production that's renewable and waste-derived. We follow a metric, which is energy self-sufficiency, the link between energy produced and energy consumed.
As Maxime said, we produce almost three times more energy than we consume, 2.7 times more in 2022. It's a metric that increases every year. Today, we're confident in reaching 300% in 2025 with an action plan that is being rolled out across various energy types. Produce more heat, steam, hot water, more waste-derived power, more biogas with biomethane injection in the network. And so this action plan allows us to consider a 2026 target of 310% to strengthen even further the balanced energy production by that date, with two main drivers: acceleration on the recovery of fatal energy, low temperature energy, and a second driver, which is the installation of solar panels on various large, extensive land-based facilities to increase further the volume of energy produced.
This, waste-derived energy, renewable energy, also allows us to reduce the GHGs of our clients when they replace fossil fuel with low carbon waste-derived energy. Here again, as with climate, two objectives on how Séché is pledging to reduce its consumption and to help its clients to decarbonize and to use low carbon waste-derived energy. Third, action important that's risen in scale these past few months, that of preserving water. Water conservation, here again, Séché in 2025 committed to reduce 10% of its water drawn water. It's ambitious. The government's asking by 2030, a commitment -10% for corporate Séché. Back then, also set out a bigger ambition than that of sector comparables, not requested by the government.
We're going to accelerate still further with minus by 26, -13% on water conservation, reduce water use. This is important, of course, in the context of water stress that we've experienced these past few months. But as Maxime said, Séché has deliberately committed to focus on industrial water. And the purpose here, through this water plan, that Séché is a showcase of everything done to reduce water consumption for our clients. An action plan of over 50 targets per site by water management and meters to digitize consumption, new, more efficient material, water reuse of growing prominence, process water, rainwater, and also process changes to move to zero in terms of water consumption with the bigger investment.
Once again, the goal is to demonstrate the full range of Séché Environnement, the area through rolling out solutions across our facilities. Final issue, the historic focus area for Séché biodiversity. Reminder, Séché embarked on its biodiversity strategy, 2023 through 2027. In June this year, this new strategy led to a doubling of covered sites. These were done with the French Biodiversity Officer, the nature and corporates for nature that's framed by the government. These action plans rolled out over five years with annual plans, were built with our external partners, the Bird Protection League, France Nature, the National History Museum, or the Robin Hood Association. In order for the strategy to be rolled out over five years, it is audited each year by an independent body that certifies our DPEF.
This audit is important because on climate matters, our goals and our diversity plan are associated with external financing. Our success in this area will impact our commitments on financing. Now, in terms of diversity, we proposed as a range of measures which have been set up by our diversity teams. We have six ecologists, which is unique in industrial companies. Strong know-how, which have enabled us to have very specific actions, 170 km of hedges, creating 80 ponds, know-how in differentiated species management and the establishment of wetlands. If you're interested in this, you can have a look on. You can come and visit our site.
So biodiversity permeates the man in the way in which Séché integrates its sites in the ecosystem, and we wanted biodiversity to be part of our value chain. As I've been saying, our financing is based on biodiversity criteria. We also work on upstream value chains, requiring our contractors to commit to biodiversity. As Maxime has said, and as David will be saying later, this is in order to enable us to use soil land that is a wasteland, rather than using farming land to reduce the pressure on the environment, and this enables Séché's clients to preserve biodiversity. We also act on the sites of our clients when they ask for our know-how to set up natural space, to create ponds, or to build hedges. We have increasing demand from our clients for this know-how, in parallel with our traditional offerings on waste management or water management.
Moving to, onto the recap, the summary of our group's commitments. I have a summary table here. As I said, Green Taxonomy positions the Séché group as a long-term player in the energy transition. And with our extra-financial goals, we are strengthening further this position. Our goal is to respond to the goal of our clients with adjustments to the energy transition. So I'll hand over to David, our Sales Director, who will be taking over.
Good morning, everyone. So first of all, I want to present 4 key factors that contribute to our sales, and then I'll be talking about our commercial outlook in France and overseas. So we have consistent growth in our revenues, and we're going to maintain setting up the Maxibrome in Paris. This is the result of several years of research by our R&D, establishing a unique circular economy system, which confirms our position as leaders and the reference partners in the improved treatment of hazardous waste and will enable us to have sustainable growth. We have major innovation challenges to which we respond, involving lithium and PFAS. Now, PFAS are synthetic chemical molecules, which are used widely in industry and also in consumer goods because they have a strong waterproofing capacity and are heat resistant. Sylvain Durécu will be talking more this afternoon on what we're doing here.
The group's capacity to respond to the needs of our clients and its energy dimension will be major factors in the years ahead. Regarding the service development, as presented by Maxime, the development of our service offering is a key accelerator of our growth. Our goal is to become a key player for all industrial companies. Our service offering is unique because it meets the outsourcing needs of companies that want to focus on their core business. We can support them on soil depollution, waste management, water, and also producing low carbon energy. We want to broaden this offering, and we're going to use our dedicated sales structure, Séché Développement, which provides a long-term cross-cutting approach between businesses and people. In order to support this, we're going to consolidate our position in France and overseas.
In France, the establishment of Séché Eau Industrielle has enhanced our know-how and given us visibility with our clients. Through the acquisition of the ARI, we've developed our sanitation offering in a strategic area for the group. And finally, we've inaugurated our operating capacity through, for emergency situations in response to the growing needs of our clients. Internationally, our recent acquisition in Peru will enable us to diversify offering in Peru. The third driver is from our ability to develop our capacity to process and enhance. With this strategy, we are pursuing a strong positioning in our, in waste management. We have strong growth that we've achieved in the regeneration and chemical synthesis, and also through the extension of our capacity in 2024.
We have also inaugurated this year a process for polluted soil and land in order to support the service business for depollution of land in the Rhône-Alpes region, and also we've doubled our bromine generation capacity. Regarding Italy, we have implemented at the beginning of the year our new platform for Mecomer for the pre-treatment of hazardous waste, and Furia will be presented by Marco, and this completes our industrial offering and gives us a strong position in northern Italy. In Spain, to continue with our decarbonization strategy, we're increasing our solvent regeneration capacity in response to local needs. In Southern Africa, South Africa, next year, we're going to have a new unit for processing industrial water, which will implement new technologies for water processing in order to process polluted products.
We have a new prefectural decree, which enable us in 2025 to process hazardous waste with high value added. The last point is on our capacity to anticipate our answers to environmental challenges. Regarding environmental challenges, this often has an impact on the need of our clients and on our business. I'll start off by quoting PFAS. PFAS are currently being scrutinized by public authorities in France and Europe. The French government has launched a plan on this particular area. The European bodies are working on a plan to limit the use of PFAS molecules in industry, and to apply strict waste criteria.
These PFAS molecules have been found; they're found everywhere in the soil and water, and they will require capturing technology in order for us to be able to meet our customer's needs through the water cycle and depollution of soil. Another point, the ZAN law to no longer be using natural areas by 2050, and there's a transition period whereby we're going to have to reduce by 50% our use of natural space. A large part of the industrial or property projects will have to reclaim industrial wasteland, and what we're anticipating is a development of the business of soil depollution arising from this new regulation on ZAN. Now, decarbonization; there are quite a few areas here. What's important for us is that we see a major change in procurement policy.
As Pierre-Yves was saying, our clients have to decarbonize their business, and our strong position and our growth in regeneration of solvents, and also for generation of low carbon fuel, puts us in a very strong position with the procurement departments in terms of the services we can offer. And the last point, energy efficiency. The government came out with an anti-drought decree, which will limit the use of water, and we also we already have major demands on demand on the improvement of processes, and also the reuse of used industrial water, and our positioning on water will enable us to respond to these requirements. Moving on to the sales outlook, starting off with France and local authority markets.
These markets account for a bit less than 17%-20% of our revenue. We're multi-regional, mostly regional player with a strategic presence, enabling us to meet local needs with local solutions. We have a strong emergence of calls for tender for the operating or building of energy enhancement sites. We have a very pragmatic approach to these opportunities, and we select the sites, as we've already done with Montauban, and the work will be completed, and we will be commissioning the factory very soon. Looking at the more traditional markets for storage, these markets are in a strong growth phase, and we will. The need for non-hazardous waste will enable us to keep increasing our tariffs on a per unit basis.
Regarding the industrial markets, trends in industrial markets, are uneven in 2024, depending, varied by sector. We have pharmaceuticals and, energy, which, had strong performance in 2023, with, a promising outlook for 2024. These will contribute strongly to the whole of our service business and also a regeneration and, processing. On metallurgy and chemicals, growth was slower this year, and our clients are looking for a flat first half. And finally, in the construction sector, as you know, it has slowed down quite significantly, and we don't see a strong outlook, for 2025. So in response to this, we have drivers. One of the first levers is that we have the ability, if necessary, to, re-internalize. We generate more volume than, waste management capacity.
So what we want. Our goal is to maintain a high saturation level of the use of our facilities by re-internalizing. And we also have a goal to achieve growth in areas where we have a low presence. And regarding the hazardous waste management business, in 2024, we are looking for a rise in unit prices of 3%-5%, which will enable us to counter inflationary pressures. I'm convinced that the regulatory deadlines that I presented earlier will generate strong medium-term to long-term growth drivers on the whole issue of PFAS management and work and water management. Looking internationally, briefly, the breakdown of our sales, we have three key areas of business, reflecting our business in France, energy, chemical, and environmental services, with two specific features overseas, no local authorities country to our French business.
We position our offering on hazardous waste and industry internationally, and also the mining sector, which is a specific feature of some countries, such as Peru or Chile, which are key sectors for these countries, in particular, in terms of service offering. Internationally, the Italian market, it's a key market, a key area of growth for the group. We have a specific sales strategy in order to develop our industrial offering based on our French business. The acquisition of Furia will increase our presence in the management of whole hazardous waste. We'll also become a key player in Northern Italy. On the rest of Europe, we have solutions for treating managing complex waste in gas, lithium, in response to regulatory requirements and the need to stock GHG gases in...
Our acquisitions in Southern Africa will enable us to roll out our offering in a familiar environment. This will enable us to accompany some of our clients in energy and mining who need quality service in Namibia. Regarding Interwaste, the investments I presented earlier, management of industrial water and also in response to the prefectural decree, will enable us in 2024, 2025 to grow the subsidiary in Latam. Our two key subsidiaries have a goal, which is to acquire new clients through delegated management with strong quality criteria. We're working on the management of the circular economy, and the rules and regulations require us to improve energy efficiency. We've already identified depollution projects in Chile and Peru for depollution of soil, which enable us to grow the revenue. Thank you very much. I'll hand over to Nicolas.
Thank you. Nicolas Rogeau, Head of Operations in Charge of Service Activities. I'm pleased to present our industrial water cycle. I'm pleased to do this. These are activities that we initiated a few years back. Here we are. We have the slide on screen, so I'll resume my flow. Sorry about that. So, as I said, I'm pleased to present these activities that we initiated within Séché a few years back, that we developed strongly since the recent acquisitions made from Veolia. Today, we're a major market player, and my goal is to present the purpose for Séché to develop the industrial water cycle business, talk to you about our skills, expertise, and then I'll tell you a bit about the outlook for us. Using the slide changer.
So it's true, the question's asking: Why has Séché embarked on industrial water cycle markets? It's pretty obvious. Two fundamental reasons why we embarked. It's a sovereignty issue for the group, 'cause all our industrial activities, more, the more legacy Séché, such as wastewater recovery, are directly affected by water issues, so it's important for the group to master the technology operation. We shouldn't depend on the competition. May sound obvious, but it needed to be done. That's the first major reason. Second important reason is that our major industrial customers wanted Séché to support them on reducing their environmental footprint of their business, and a key component of reducing the environmental footprint of our clients is water.
So what I've done on this slide is to summarize the service offering for our clients to assist them in reducing their environmental footprint. There are key issues. Talk of the resources, these are materials, land resources, energy, image, ecosystems, and of course, water. And so thus far, we were well positioned on the materials, resources, waste management, circular economy solutions on the land with decontamination activities. We're currently expanding on energy generation and low carbon energy supply. Well-positioned on the interventions front, but not positioned on the water front. That was a request that came clearly from our major clients. So it's against that backdrop that it's important for Séché to develop this industrial water cycle. I'll now present in greater detail what the industrial water cycle represents within Séché.
We're present across the value chain, upstream, downstream, like any industrial process needs water to manufacture, to produce, so need to be able to produce processed water. We're going to draw the water resource, treat it, make it fit for industrial use. That's upstream. Once it's used in process, it produces effluent, generally polluted, that needs to be treated. So the group has positioned services both upstream, that's we can roll out process water solution, but also downstream for effluent treatment. We also have this ability to manage the full water cycle, both upstream and downstream. And associated with all these effluent management, process water treatment, there's sanitation and maintenance activities. There are networks that connect everything we need to build to maintain these networks.
That's why it's important within the water cycle, we can invest on sanitation activities that are systematically used on this type of activity. So seen today, this is a substantial business for Séché. Over EUR 100 million in revenue this year. It's 680 people. We cover over 170 customer sites on water cycle, 21 branches in France on water cycle for industry, and 10 units that allows us to roll out network maintenance and sanitation. So we have a full range of expertise. So on the expertise front, what's important on the water cycle management is that high technological content, we need to be able to master this technological content and to offer a range of technologies to meet the need of the industry.
Unlike municipal, industrial water cycle management is purely a personalized customer base. There are very few systems that are reproducible from one facility to another. It is to deploy the right technologies to have the right solution, good engineering capability. If you can offer a solution, you need to roll it out to be able to build the installation and to operate it over time for the client. And of course, operation, we need to be able to to maintain these installations. It's this full range of expertise, this comprehensive suite of expertise with teams of Veolia from the acquisition and those of Séché. There was a big integration effort undertaken this year, leading to an efficient setup on water cycle management, combining all the necessary skills and expertise.
Séché designs, builds water treatment, effluent treatment, process, plants, and can operate all these facilities for its clients, and to maintain them to an acceptable level. What I also wanted to show you to illustrate this level of expertise, I wanted to show you a brief 3D animation that's just gone a short trip here. But what's interesting, it's not a very big facility, but one that clearly illustrates the needs of our industrial clients. This is a facility that we built that currently being commissioned, and the client is from the pharma industry, and these are micropollutants. The effluents that emerge from the industrial site contain active principles, and today, the government compels the industry to no longer discharge these micropollutants.
We had to implement a technical solution for the client to no longer discharge, release these micropollutants. This animation is just last three minutes. What's interesting is that we have a very designed building. It's sustainable. The shell is made of solar panels, and you've got inside the vessels to receive the raw and treated effluent. It's the process that's interesting. Here, we've implemented the latest high tech for effluent treatment. Have the bio treatment, but also membrane-based treatment, reverse osmosis, filtration water, and then activated carbon. And it's the concatenation of these technologies defined by our engineers that guarantees that there's no active principle discharge. These residues can then be treated within synergy that's leading to immediate obvious synergies. So you see, it's really the changes reflecting industry.
We're perhaps used to seeing major infrastructure by big water players, a lot of civil engineering from municipalities, and there are big facilities, but also, these types of facilities because needs are evolving. So the visit's coming to an end, but... I like this one. It's-- So that's the membrane-based technology. It's the heart, the core of the reactor. I think we can move on after that fascinating clip. Thank you. Next slide, the outlook. So told you why it's important to be positioned on the- this business. What lies behind this business, and it's important that there is business. This is a sizable market, industrial water cycle. It's a market that's outsourced to the tune of 15%. Industrialists internalize a lot- I mean, so there's a significant percentage linked to the outsourcing trend.
It's a market of EUR 1.8 billion, outsourced to the tune of EUR 275 million. Those are the 2021 figures. With the new needs currently on micropollutants, on reuse, of course, we expect this market to grow further. Underlying trends are there to drive this market. Outsourcing new issues, design and build new facilities to comply with more stringent requirements, design, operation. We're asked to operate these facilities. It makes sense to outsource when we change infrastructure facilities, growing regulatory requirements, ever stringent, and then water, limited water supply that's emerging and that has been expressed to the further government, that's responded with a water plan, 53 measures.
I don't know them all off part, I'll be honest with you, but the main measure is supporting the need to successfully manage water, to reduce pollution, all this automatically fueling the market need. We have a presence that's quite significant. We're quite a major player. We have market share, so we estimate to be significant, certain activities that are strategic for the group, materials, chemistry, chemicals, pharma. Pharma, a very resilient sector. And bottom right, the portfolio type, chemicals, pharma, metallurgy, our research and defense industry, resilient agri-food, new interesting sector, quite a lot to be done there and a few other sectors. But it successfully consolidates the group's position on its traditional markets. Then you got this map of France with all our contracts. So we have national coverage that's very significant and interesting.
So what's the outlook within Séché for us to take advantage of all these opportunities? We're in the integration phase. Integration is a transformation. We have ambitions to transform to make this activity more profitable. We've integrated a lot of contracts, an operational setup, a management system that needs to be completed. These are things that are going well, but it gives us a useful potential to rationalize and optimize the portfolio, to boost the profitability of these activities, putting them at a target level of the group on the service activities. So there's a substantive effort underway on that. Second key driver that we're working on is internalizing value. As I said, our industrial activities need to work on the water cycle. We haven't internalized between our industrial activities and the industrial water cycle business.
We have issues that rather than outsourcing those is used to our competitors potentially is really to internalize them. There's an interesting potential that we're designing it, so as to leverage it to the full. Within the service activities, I mentioned waste management, water cycle, of course, remediation, intervention. Within the service activities, well, there are possible synergies. I'll give you an example. You have a waste management contract on a big refinery, well, the operators of this type call upon sanitation providers rather than subcontracting, so we should internalize that type of service. Really, to internalize values, there are useful opportunities to work on, so we're working on those. We're currently quantifying the value internalization potential to roll it out.
Last interesting point, we already have a critical mass, but we plan to develop this activity further. Two key focus areas that we're currently working on: need for operations and maintenance contracts, an opportunity for additional non-contract services that increases your revenue base by about 15%. These are generally operations where we improve client infrastructure with spot operations. These are additional or ancillary value service operations. There's that potential to be fully tapped and exploited, and then cross-selling. Need to know that through our service activities in France, we're present daily across over 300 industrial sites. They all have water cycle needs, waste management, and so on and so forth. So we need to cross-sell, to leverage all these positions to roll out our service offering. And I'll end by describing an example, another pharma client.
We like pharma. It's a high-value, resilient sector. Here, well, as you can see, it's the input of a water business to the waste business. It's a pharma client. We're present through a maintenance contract of a facility. It's a methanizer, three-year contract, industrial effluent treatment plant operated by the Tours agency. It's going well. The client's happy with our quality of service. The client, he said, "Well, I know you do the water, you do waste management. We plan to outsource our waste management operations. Could you support us in this solution?" And what we did, well, quite simply, we answered, "Yes, Séché is happy to support you. Yeah, we'll introduce the specialist teams to you.
Yeah, we'll screen your needs, and we can make a proposal." The big advantage here was there was no tender. It was on an agreement basis. We won the contract. What does this mean for Séché: EUR 500,000 in growth and plus EUR 500,000 per year for the group. There'll be further examples. Waste contracts will yield opportunities for the water cycle, but we see that all as useful, creates a dynamic within our services. I think this strategy is right for Séché going forward. Thank you. I'm going to hand over next to Marco Paesano, who's International Sales Director. We've only spoken about France. I hope Marco will tell you about the international water cycle business. Over to you, Marco.
Buongiorno. Bonjour. I'm going to present the Italian market. I've got ahead of myself. Right. The Italian market counts in terms of size, the second-largest market for Séché after France, and the third largest after France and South Africa. Italy is a proximity market, a long-standing market. In 2019, we made our first major acquisition in northern Italy, Mecomer, next to Milan. This is in Lombardy, which is the largest industrial region in southern Europe. Mecomer is a center for the processing of all types of industrial hazardous waste from clients in the chemical sector, the energy sector, and the pharmaceutical sector. This first acquisition enabled us to become an active stakeholder in the Italian market, and to produce multiple proximity-based solutions to all the key industrial players in northern Italy. In five years, the...
Over the past five years, Mecomer has recorded strong growth with a strong resilience during the pandemic. Revenue has gone from EUR 47 million in 2019 to EUR 58 million in 2022, with strong prospects for the years ahead. We'll come back to this. And we have, the headcount has gone up from 100 to 150, and we, we're going to have record tonnage this year, a 150,000 tons. The second major phase for Mecomer, which finalized in June 2023, an extension, industrial extension plan. It was a major investment for Séché, approximately EUR 25 million. This investment will enable us to significantly boost our processing capacity and to respond to the growing demand from our clients. This is 200,000 tons.
The surface area of the platform was almost just tripled from 5,000 to almost 20,000 sq. m. We have commissioned a new facility for liquid waste, and we're able to process inflammable and toxic waste. We have tripled our capacity with 140,000 cubic meters. This is the strongest plant capacity in northern Italy. We have many new technological resources. We have a new laboratory. Internally, we have computerized weigh bridges, we have central fire detection and extinguishing systems. We have a new workshop for reconditioning reactive toxic chemicals, which is unique in its field. And we have two new mixing pits for sludge waste. Next, the platform has two regenerative thermal oxidizers, which is a novelty in Italy, and we're able to deal with all the waste.
We have new ATEX classified areas for reconditioning powdered waste and solvents. Now we're going to go a little bit further. We have a visit to the best-equipped plant in Italy. So that's for Mecomer. After Mecomer, we recently completed an acquisition in Italy. We spoke about this earlier. Maxime mentioned it. Furia offers strong complementarity with Mecomer geographically and technically. It's a family-owned company established in 1960. In 2022, it recorded revenues of approximately EUR 52 million, with 130 persons. Furia is based, as you can see on the map, in Caorso, in Emilia-Romagna. This is one of the most industrialized regions in Europe. We're still in northern Italy here, 45 minutes to the southeast of Milan and Mecomer. Furia is a platform for preparation of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
The surface area of the platform is approximately 14,450 sq. m., specializing in the preparation of solid waste, and it has an integrated laboratory certified by Accredia, which is the main accreditation agency in Italy. Of course, it has all the ISO certifications, quality, safety, and environment. The integration of Furia will consolidate it and strengthen the offering of Séché in specialized waste, with an offering for large industrial companies. With Furia, our positioning will be on complementary services and businesses on which we previously did not have a presence through Mecomer earlier. We have the construction site business, specializing in the rehabilitation of polluted sites and all the associated activities, excavation, demolition, decontamination. Furia has two mobile units with significant capacity, enable it to intervene on major sites.
We have emergency responses units, where we already have a strong expertise internationally. The other division is total waste management, with significant medium to long-term contracts for large corporate accounts. Furia has a very diversified portfolio with very well-known clients in the energy sector, energy, Enel, Italgas, and all these activities are implemented through the Caorso platform. Solidification, stabilization, physical and chemical treatment, soil washing, and all the sorting and screening activities. So this acquisition is a strategic phase for Séché Environnement. We're going to be offering our Italian customers fuller and stronger services, which will enable us to consolidate our position in northern Italy. With global revenues of EUR 117 million, Séché Italia is becoming a major player.
We are one of the top five players in Italy, and we among the top circle of leaders internationally, with a strong presence with all the industrial accounts in this market. Thank you very much. And now we will remain with the international business. We'll go a bit further with Shoba, who's going to present our business in Southern Africa. Thank you very much.
Growth strategy. Séché developed its footprint in the Southern African region in March 2019, through its acquisition of Interwaste in South Africa, Spill Tech in 2021, and Namibian-based Rent-A-Drum in 2023. Established today as the largest waste management company within the Southern Africa region and serving more than 4,000 customers with a turnover of over EUR 100 million. Séché, through its subsidiaries, offers a complementary and full range of holistic, integrated waste management services for the public and industrial sectors, with a specific care on the ecological transition and circular economy.
As a leader in integrated waste management services in South Africa, Interwaste is Séché's landmark acquisition in the region. We operate at the highest levels of compliance, and our holistic and integrated approach, combined with deep experience and specialized skills, enables us to tailor solutions to meet our clients' individual requirements. As part of our strategy to anticipate regulatory changes and the needs of our clients, Interwaste continues to expand and diversify its service offerings to clients and new sectors, leveraging the technical expertise and experience across the group. A contributing factor to the company's strong resilience during the pandemic was its diversified service offering to a wide range of industry sectors. Some of the larger sectors serviced include the oil and gas, mining, FMCG, chemical, pharmaceutical, industrial, logistics, paper and packaging, and public sectors.
Some of our key stats: clients, over 2.5 million tons of waste handled in 2023, with more than 500,000 tons diverted from landfill, 20 owned sites in the region, and operational on over 187 client sites... All sites are compliant with the requisite occupational health, safety, environmental, and legal requirements. Specialized sites hold ISO 45001, ISO 14001, and SQAS certifications. The businesses continue to deliver solid financial results despite the COVID-19 pandemic and through some difficult economic and market conditions over the past few years. To continue driving sustainable financial growth and profitability, we apply stringent cost and cash flow management, ongoing investments in business intelligence and digitization, operational optimization, competitive pricing, and innovative commercial models.
The acquisition of Spill Tech in 2021, a company that specializes in emergency spill response, industrial cleaning, hazardous waste management, and contaminated land rehabilitation, as well as marine-related services, created seamless industrial and geographical synergies within our portfolio of activities. Spill Tech stands as South Africa's leading spill response company and operates in a niche market, focusing on complex, hazardous waste cleaning, containment, and rehabilitation services, where specialized resources, such as highly trained staff or specialized equipment, are necessary. One of Spill Tech's unique characteristics is its ability to mobilize to the site of any spill or cleaning job in a matter of hours, anywhere within South Africa and Namibia. Key stats: Level one, Triple BEE. 270 employees. Regional footprint: presence in South Africa and Namibia. Vast industrial-based client portfolio: 1,812 clients in 2022. 20 sites between offices, depots, manufacture sites, workshops.
All sites are compliant with the requisite occupational health, safety, environmental, and legal requirements. Main sites operating under ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 certificates. The financial performance at Spill Tech is intimately linked to the regional industrial performance and specific cleanup operation opportunities generated by the market. The COVID-19 pandemic period showed some great resilience for the activity, with a peak of opportunities and performances, illustrating the abilities of Spill Tech to deal with major environmental incidents and transforming those into a revenue record-breaking year for 2022. 2023 sits in line with the pre-COVID level of activities and a transition year, allowing Spill Tech to develop its portfolio of activities in the Namibian market, as well as reinforcing its industrial footprint with significant nationwide spill responses contracts, shaping future long-term revenue for the company.
Mirroring Interwaste activities in South Africa, Rent-A-Drum is the leading waste management and circular economy company in Namibia, specialized in collection, recycling, and on-site total waste management activities for the public sector and industrial clients, creating further synergies and growth opportunities for the group in the region. Key stats: 100% Namibian staff-based company. 500 employees. Regional footprint: 5 branches nationwide, plus industrial total waste management teams on site with clients. More than 200 clients in 2022. 22,000 tons of recycled waste processed per year. First and only environmental in Namibia company sites operating under ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 certificates. Started in 1989 in Namibia, Rent-A-Drum is an established brand within the private household, recovery, and recycling waste market.
Through its long-term contract engagement with customers and offtaker network, these services guarantee a stable level of activity and revenue within the sector. In recent years, and particularly in 2023, the company has delivered double-digit average growth in the industrial sector. The industrial client base has grown substantially to more than 40% of Rent-A-Drum activity this year through the implementation of new total waste management services.
The South African operations are well-positioned for profitable and sustainable growth by leveraging their combined expertise and extensive footprint to offer clients a wider range of services to assist both local and global clients with their expansion plans in the region, as well as develop new services aligned to market needs.
As an example, for 2023, Rent-A-Drum in Namibia benefited from the introduction of Spill Tech into the country, facilitating access to a larger industrial portfolio and offering specific know-how for spill response and waste management remediation services activities to support their long-term existing total waste management contracts.
Our actions are guided by our values, and we constantly strive to ensure the safety and well-being of all those with whom we work. Creating a culture of zero harm not only serves those around us but fulfills our purpose of serving land and life.... We are fully committed and aligned to deliver on the Séché Group's climate policy, including the decarbonization target of 25% by 2030, water reduction by 10%, and we have two sites participating in the 2023-2027 Act for Nature Biodiversity Commitment.
Investing in community and social upliftment projects forms a key pillar of the business. The region, with its rich cultural diversity and historical backgrounds, faces numerous socioeconomic challenges that can be effectively addressed through targeted and sustainable community development initiatives. We have and continue to invest in a wide variety of programs to support the communities in which we operate.
South Africa is the second largest economy in Africa and has the most industrialized, technologically advanced, and diversified economy on the continent. The largest industry sectors include mining, energy, services, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. Namibia is a fast-growing economy today, with a strong focus on industrial, mining, energy, and tourism activities.
The size of the regional waste management industry is estimated to be ZAR 27 billion , or EUR 1.6 billion . South Africa and Namibia generates more than 127 million tons of waste per annum, with 90% of the waste still being disposed of to landfill. Waste management is governed by a broad set of relatively new environmental legislation, which is mostly based on European and Australian standards. It is a dynamic industry serviced by public and private entities. The continually evolving regulatory framework, requiring high standards of compliance, leads to strong development opportunities in the market.
Some of the major challenges include the diminishing capacity of landfill airspace across the region, limited infrastructure to support growing legislation and demand for alternative waste beneficiation, and the shortage of skills and expertise to deliver the required solutions. These conditions provide several exciting growth opportunities. For example, in South Africa, the ban of liquid waste from landfill disposal in August 2019 accelerated the need for a wider range of effluent treatment solutions and capabilities in the country. In 2022, the extended producer responsibility regulation was promulgated, making producers of certain identified products responsible for the entire life cycle of their products, including post-consumer management, ensuring that the end of life of such products is effectively and sustainably managed in order to increase diversion from landfill disposal.
In Namibia, the growing industry is leading to a full review of the current regulation based on South African standards to a new and adapted regulation that will be finalized in 2024 and integrate an industrial and hazardous waste management plan for the country.
Some key examples of Interwaste's successful adaptation to evolving legislation framework and the development of new services and solutions include the successful execution of a full-service, large site remediation project for one of the largest mines in the country, as well as numerous specialized projects for the oil and gas, chemical, manufacturing, and mining clients during the year. We received authorization for Class A landfill license at our Klinkerstorp Waste Management Facility in March 2023, which aligns to our strategy to develop a holistic and sustainable hazardous waste landfill solution in close vicinity to the Gauteng and Mpumalanga markets to deliver on our zero harm objectives and the development of more stringent liner systems and risk mitigation. The exciting development and commissioning of our first leachate and effluent treatment plant in 2023.
After a rigorous planning and technical evaluation phase, we are delighted to develop the first sustainable solution in South Africa to treat leachate from landfill sites, as well as an effluent treatment solution for hazardous liquid waste from industrial clients to avoid liquid waste being disposed of to landfills in line with regulation. This solution also supports our water reduction targets, as well as the overall circular economy focus of reusing resources. The ETP will recover 80% of the liquid for reuse in our operations.
The combination of the Interwaste, Spill Tech, and Rent-A-Drum expertise, backed by the depth of the greater Séché Group, secures our position as the leading provider of circular economy and specialized environmental solutions in Southern Africa. We're excited to embark on our investment strategy to further enhance our synergies, expertise, and market offering to create value for all stakeholders. We are driven by our purpose of serving land and life to safeguard the planet for future generations.
Well, merci, Shoba, for thank you very much, Shoba, for that very full presentation and for those very nice photos and footage. So we're finishing a little bit earlier. We didn't go to the end of the visit of the industrial waste facility. We'll resume at 10:45 sharp. Thank you very much for being with us for the first half. Thank you.
Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes.
Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils.
We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site, Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources.
As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution.
In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection.
On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites.
We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site, Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition.
Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of Solid Recovery Fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes.
Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils.
We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site, Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources.
As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution.
In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection.
On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites.
We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition.
Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous.... We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes.
Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than 4 hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils.
We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources.
As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution.
In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection.
On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources... As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes. Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites.
We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils. We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition.
Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources. As pioneers of solid recovery fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon energy source and manage the operation of your specific unit. For certain hazardous wastes, we have developed specific circular economy loops. Once regenerated, your solvents and brominated brines can be reused in your own industrial processes.
Our teams build and operate your wastewater treatment plant, produce new process water from your wastewater, and ensure that the treated waters comply with all environmental standards. The most impacted sludges are recovered, dried, and then taken to our specialized treatment sites. We perform inspection, maintenance, repairs, and all cleaning and unclogging operations for your sanitation network. To ensure the performance of your boilers, exchangers, and networks, we provide maintenance through decontamination and chemical cleaning, including high-pressure steam injection. In the event of an incident on your site, the priority is to act quickly to limit the risk of environmental pollution. In less than four hours, we deploy the human and material resources to secure the area, clean up the site, and handle the waste. Finally, enhance the value of your real estate assets by rehabilitating your polluted sites. Asbestos removal, decontamination, treatment, and valorization of polluted soils.
We support you from the dismantling of existing buildings to the restoration of the site's local biodiversity. To reduce your environmental impact, decarbonize your production, save water, or preserve biodiversity on your site. Séché Environnement, the global partner in your ecological transition. Circular economy, decarbonization, environmental services. For the ecological transition of your industrial site, we have the solutions. Your production process generates hazardous or non-hazardous waste, liquid, solid, or gaseous. We provide the containers and logistical solutions to handle them according to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. On our sites, we sort, then process your waste to extract the maximum amount of material and energy from them. We direct recyclable materials towards circular economy pathways and transform the remaining waste into energy. Looking to decarbonize your industrial processes? Use energy derived from waste instead of fossil resources.
As pioneers of Solid Recovery Fuel, we provide you with this new low-carbon-
Ladies and gentlemen, hello again, and thanks for being with us for the second part of today's Investor Day. W hich will be on the operation and financial outlook to 2026, and I will immediately hand over to our Director of R&D, Sylvain Durécu.
Thank you, Manuel. Sylvain Durécu, Head of R&D. I'm going to present our R&D strategy. First of all, a few reminders of our objectives on R&D. Three goals here. First of all, to develop the technologies of the future. What are the technologies to be implemented in order to meet our clients' requirements, mainly industrial clients? What are the medium-term projects to work on innovation regarding the waste of the future? And what are the disruptive technologies to implement to respond to the environmental challenges of the future? The second goal is working for our industrial customers.
This means implementing our know-how, working with our commercial teams to meet demand from the sales division, which will need our support in order to have a differentiating approach in order to distinguish us from the competition in technical, environmental terms and also in economic terms. The goal here is to make proposals that are win-win for the clients on the basis of the three criteria. Win-win for us, too, in order to have a growth in the results of our core businesses. The third goal is supporting the group's activities. So we'll have demand from our plants, improving processes. What do we need to do in order to meet regulatory requirements to limit our discharge? What do the resources need when the users do not necessarily have the know-how or the resources required?
Also, for us at R&D, it's an opportunity for our young team to learn the businesses. Learning on the ground is an excellent way of learning. Now, I'm going to set out a few projects that we're going to be implementing over the next three years to meet the first goal regarding our goals in terms of innovation. First of all, recycling of metals and strategic minerals with the requirements of the French government, recording the substances which are high criticality. As you can see at top right, you can see that lithium is has high criticality in terms of the development of batteries.
Lithium, in 2022, at global level, we used 120,000 tons per year, and by 2050, we'll be increasing to 1.3 million tons. So this means that we have a lot of work to be done in terms of recycling, because the regulatory requirements in Europe are going to change from 2027. There will be a mandatory requirement regarding the end of cycle of batteries, with a requirement for recycling of 50% going up to... And as a part of this, we'll have to re-include recycled lithium waste in these new batteries with the outlook of 6% by 2035.
The markets that we're targeting for the recycling of lithium are the deployment of the gigafactory, which is being built in France, in northern France, in particular, and also the markets from lithium effluents from these gigafactories. In the chemical industry, everything that is going to be used for manufacturing electrolytes, which will provide the conductivity in the batteries, these will produce a lithium-based effluent. So all these markets are captive markets over the next few months and years, with mandatory recycling requirements. I could also quote, in the mining sector, some activities that may emerge and which will generate requirements in terms of recycling in that market. Now, looking at fluorine. Fluorine is not shown on the graph, but it has a high criticality, similar to that of lithium.
In France, and even globally, there's a very high dependency on three countries, which account for 80% of the fluorine market: China, Mongolia, and Mexico. Séché has a strength on criticality. Looking at our capacity for, a lot of work has been done, and Séché may, in future, become a specialist in recycling, for fluorine. The relevant industries by the fluorine market are, the chemical industry, metallurgy, and the steel industry. Now, Pierre-Yves has mentioned this, looking at the reduction of our GHG emissions, for ourselves and for our clients.
The first point here, looking at the regulatory level, the EC, in the years ahead, will introduce for the waste market, a CO2 emission quota, and by 2028, 2030, regarding household waste, incineration of household waste, and 2030, 2040 for the incineration of hazardous waste. And for us, this means, looking ahead, anticipating these needs arising from regulatory change and minimizing our impact. So the first issue here on carbon capture, we're going to base ourselves on the feedback from our industrial experiments here in the regeneration of bromine. As part of this project, we are working on oxygen-enriched air, and this is what we want to develop in our plants, which is oxy-fuel combustion, recycling the smoke generation or gas, it's flue gas recirculation.
So it's a mix here, and the idea is to produce a model on the plants of the future, and also on our existing plants. The goal being to have on our flue gas gas that is highly concentrated in CO2, 90%-95% in terms of CO2 concentration, rather than on a standard combustion processes, where you have 10%-15% concentration. So it's much easier to work on GHG emissions, to work on concentrated gas rather than diluted gas. And a nitrogen ballast accounts for 90% of the volume of flue gas. We're gonna work on that in order to eliminate this nitrogen ballast.
The idea is to work on concentrated gas and CO2, which is easier to handle and also cheaper to handle in terms of the carbon capture of gas. The second issue is the enhancement of carbon and, and in particular, biogenic CO2, which has a neutral impact on global warming, but in future, the CO2 will generate major economic benefits. The goal through our work is to work with partners who have developed or who intend to develop, molecules based on CO2, in other words, biogenic CO2, and this could come from our methanization plants, where you have a surplus CO2 and methane. The goal from CO2 and methane is a dry reformatting. In other words, what are the organic molecules that are of interest, looking at maritime transport and air transport?
And what—how could we manufacture this using biogenic CO₂? We could also talk about methanization. What are the transformation procedures that we can implement using CO₂ and methane by manufacturing hydrogen, in order to come up with methanol that would be used in the maritime transport sector, and also sustainable aviation fuel, SAF, which could also be produced as part of these new activities. The biogas sector is important in terms of enhancement. What are the conditions for R&D, which will enable us to increase the methane content of biogas? The goal here being to work on the limiting factor in our storage facilities, and we can see that one of the limiting factors, in particular for the biogenic factor, is the water content.
So what we're planning is to work on a three-year horizon, to start the work on this, and to work on what we call the distribution of water in our storage facilities. These are technologies which involve tomography, where you have electrodes that we will establish on our sites with storage facilities of non-hazardous waste, in order to see what is the breakdown of water, what are the means required in order to re-inject water into the landscape, the scenery, in order to generate the production of biogas and to reinject methane into the network. Now, looking at the fourth item, which is mineral waste stabilization. Here, we're talking about storage of hazardous waste. The goal is to limit our carbon footprint.
What are the means and what is the waste that we could use in order to set up a new grid? For the footprint of CO2, the objective here is to develop new cement by replacing calcium and avoiding the use of CO2, sorry, of calcium, and to limit our carbon footprint. And finally, regarding our customers, as we said previously, as part of the acquisition of All'Chem in Montluçon, where we're currently working, these are strong achievements on two programs. Indigo blue is an artificial coloring used in the textile industry, which has a strong carbon footprint, 10% of global emissions. And artificial coloring has a 10% footprint as part of the global footprint of the textile industry.
So the benefit of working on an indigo blue, which is biosourced, which is manufactured naturally rather than artificially, is to have an interline production, which is in order to ramp up our production and to reduce the carbon footprint of the textile industry. The second project is acetophenone, which is a product which is used to create fragrances. And the goal, using the work we're conducting on a recently acquired entity by the group, is to have the recycling capacity for this unit, involving euphenol. What are the means to be implemented? And this is the work that we're conducting at present with the All'Chem teams and the Speichim teams, in order to come up with recycled acetophenone.
As has been said previously, on the basis of recycling and therefore reducing the client's carbon footprint, which use this acetophenone. Now, fluorides substances, looking at PFAS, and as you can see, we're talking about non-polymer substances. This was quoted as part of the regulatory changes through a decree of the 20th of June 2023, published this year. So there's now a regulatory control over non-polymeric fluoride substances. This is PVDF or PTFE, PTFE, which is Teflon. These molecules are not necessarily governed by controls in terms of discharge. They're not soluble in water, but they're non-polymer molecules. Some of them are soluble in water, and therefore they're governed by a specific regulation on the monitoring of 28 substances.
On this issue, there's a controversy on the ability. Well, this is information that's currently available in the financial literature, the scientific, the thermal deterioration of non-polymer substances. Since 2021, the group's been working on this issue. We're going to continue the demonstration of our hazardous waste incineration facilities on the ability to effectively destroy these substances, to address difficulties in the literature about the abilities of plants to destroy these molecules. So, work's already been done, in some of our plants, and we're going to continue the demonstration in our plants to meet future contracts. That was mentioned by David on this issue of PFAS markets. Now, the issue doesn't just concerned hazardous waste issues, but as was also mentioned, soil pollution on these perfluorinated molecules, they have a specificity. Some are soluble, others not.
So this is a specific issue on soil contamination, so several techniques can be considered depending on the solubility of these fluorinated substances. We can look at washing, extraction, stabilization techniques on these perfluorinated substances. We want to work on an avenue that would allow the destruction of these molecules directly on the basis of the soil matrix. Third issue that's currently underway, we initiated a joint project with academia to meet as part of water pollution through non-polymer PFAS, to see what can be implemented, both to concentrate these perfluorinated substances in a minimum volume, can be membrane-based technology that Nicolas was talking about. Micropollutants, we want to go further to the destruction phase. After concentration during a membrane phase, we want to work on the destruction phase for these perfluorinated molecules.
Of course, all these issues will fuel our service offerings, notably STEI value chain as Nicolas, new area of activity of Séché in water cycle, industrial water. All this work will enrich our service offering on the basis of these contracts. Thank you for your attention. Over to Franck.
Thank you, Sylvain. Good morning, Franck. We're in charge of industrial operations of Séché Group. So with industrial operations, we have two major objectives, customer satisfaction and service and equipment performance linked with organic growth, strong M&A growth. We put in place back in October 2022, a new setup within the group, six major divisions, special waste, non-hazardous waste, chemistry, industrial services, international supported transversely, a supply chain in charge of planning and transport, and integration of all support services.
The Investor Day is a good opportunity to thank all our people for contributing to this recent growth, and there are objectives that were presented in previous slides. That's to say, integration, the concern for us to welcome new people, France, internationally, it all happens in the first 90 days. Very important that they feel good working for us, well received, and highlight their value added. My thanks to the teams who were successfully involved in the onboarding process. In Pierre-Yves' presentation, you saw industrial requirements and changing in 2023, no longer required for short-term operations, but also work on energy, energy consumption, water consumption. Of course, we're asked to focus on biodiversity, and Séché teams have made that change very successfully. Final step I wanted to initiate through this matrix-based organization is synergistic opportunities. Today, we have a big synergy opportunity.
If communications go well within the organization, there are many contract opportunities that are outsourced that we're gonna re-internalize with our know-how. In summary, we have a 90% client portfolio expecting agility, flexibility from us, and more efficiency, complying with safety, rules, regulations in France and abroad. To target the best safety standards ensures industrial efficiency on Seveso site management. In parallel, we can protect our people's health, which is dear to us. We're uncompromising in this field, which requires regular site visit by management, every layer in the organization. Down the road, we're MASE certification for all our units. We already have most that are certified. We're continuing in that process. Obviously, it's to protect our people, but not only safety standards to work in industry.
If you don't have the safety results, if you're in a position to demonstrate your safety efficiency, you don't get a contract. It's crucially important to clearly understand that safety is key, and it's really the demonstration of our performance and a balance between the flow, processes, and equipment, and people. Well, obviously, what we apply in terms of safety also applies on the regulatory front. Here are a few examples we're able to generate with our teams on procedures focusing around nine vital rules, confined spaces, machines and tools, working at height. These are risk areas, chemical, biological risk, close to moving devices, lifting, weight transfers, hot point, energy, logging, manual handling. Around these vital rules, we have a shared processes for assessing the daily risk for all our people.
We see the results, the indicators, obviously important in managing industrial operations, where the incident frequency rate is trending heavily downwards, giving a strong signal to our clients and our employees. Expertise is the key to performance. Training within the group, international rollout, we don't just remain focused on France and the safety front. I'll give you some examples of how we optimize our treatment and the way we structure our processes. We've been agile, very, efficient with the recent acquisitions, where there were gaps identified on incoming companies, versus our, safety and regulatory approach. Both, as well as safety, we have a strong impact on regulatory, gaps. Obviously, our, requirement is zero, defects. We put in place, major site visits, internal audits, in order to monitor and check our-...
Industrial compliance, 19 audits in 2022, we're at 37 today. We trained auditors. We have a pathway for regulations that rolled out bottom up, not just top down. We get our people, our operators to take part, whatever their role, to achieve zero regulatory deviations, both in France and abroad. And it's part of living well together, both on site, but with our neighbors and the authorities of the countries concerned. It's crucially important that industrial networking of Séché is in good harmony and complies with regulations to bring that about. A few examples on the CapEx front. Industrial efficiency obviously means investment to obviously focus on safety and regulations.
30% of our CapEx are linked to regulatory and safety matters, but it's also to meet an expansion need for our capabilities or manage obsolescence and have maintenance cost trade-offs. Not to go too far, sometimes it's relevant to replace or invest. First of all, CapEx is part and parcel of profitability analysis beforehand by the investment committee. We have lively debates with Baptiste and his teams to know where we put our money and making sure that the return on investment is there for the group, and also meets with the client expectations. Shown here a few examples. DeNOx, EUR 1.8 for the upgrade of NOx treatment lines in Trédi Salaise are able to safely produce more steam for the Salaise facility. Loads of examples on the slide.
They speak for themselves, but this CapEx segment is part and parcel of the weekly governance of Séché. And then, of course, we have some examples of productivity improvement plans. Just want to focus on Speichim, Saint-Vulbas, new circular economy loop for acetonitrile regeneration, double capacities for the client, Corsica. Another example on solvent, DMF, dimethylformamide, 4,000-6,000 tons a year for a client that are gonna be rolled out. We have the examples of the incinerator at Montauban, 20% additional tons processed, +48% recovered thermal energy with new power generation of 17 GW. Several examples in terms of supply chain on better mastery of the waste flow from clients through to our recovery and processing centers. Important to have this traceability, logistics, done great effort in terms of collection and receipt collection to promote processing.
Through the harmonization and generation of new revenues, we can generate major productivity efficiencies, better traceability for our clients. So these are productivity examples that had a major impact on our facilities. We see the 900 hours of time saved at Trédi Salaise. That's over 8,000 tons of waste treated. A few international examples. We've spoken at length of water treatment, liquid waste. We see that by bringing optimization solutions or reductions, there are possibilities of productivity that are interesting international. The reuse of process water, 65% less water for incineration. It's an example. Synergies between various purchasing policies to obtain better prices on bigger volumes. We also have transport cost reduction opportunities with supply chain and logistic, try to make more operative and more efficient all the Séché Group flows.
Still on the supply chain, I just want to focus on the fact that we have here, short term to implement an operational, planning. Sales and operational planning is in place across the major global industrial standards. Sliding 24 months with commercial forecast to integrate upstream, the resource needs, and we'll come back to that in a moment. Also, CapEx requirements. Today, we tend far more to submit. We need to anticipate the 24-month vision by putting in place supply chain allows us to anticipate these points and to focus better on our CapEx, and it's part of our IT and digital transformation plan. We've strengthened our systems, notably for transport, with a new TMS, but also on the planning system. We're working with advanced planning system and flow simulations. All this with modern enablers, allows us to converge with the productivity opportunities....
We can't not mention our people. We have a team to which we're very attached within Séché, that's highly motivated. We see over time that on certain businesses, we have very real significant training needs, and obviously, it's better to do it ourselves. That's the best solution, to have a school of knowledge at Séché. School of knowledge based on a recognition, no academic training in some of our businesses. Clearly, post-World War II, quite a lot of effort done on training for incineration. That's disappeared. We have no longer a gateway to train people for incineration. We have people who must, as of now, undergo vocational training to deliver automation automatons within the group. We have four major families of businesses that are trained, the supervisors, maintenance technicians, it's the case, and platform chemical professionals.
For this, we have to support our new requirements, strengthen regulatory and safety culture presented at the outset of my intervention, and of course, we have to prepare people to operate new facilities. So we've decided to put in place a school of knowledge with the following ambition: support teams in mastering key skills, preparing the next generation to operate, maintain their facilities, to attract and, develop talents within the group. That's important for us, is, of course, internal mobility today. All our exposure internationally, South Africa, Chile, Peru, Italy, was done with homegrown people, trained with the right expertise, the right values, our culture, before rolling out locally with the local teams. And that's truly a focus area we want to maintain, that we're attached to.
Through very tangible examples, we've been able to grow people who entered junior, have now become senior and returned to France and assume greater responsibilities, pass on knowledge, ensure mastery methods. To promote our professions in schools, career fairs, it's with a very strained jobs market. Visit schools, share our knowledge, promote work study programs to instill our corporate culture. Define integration paths for new employees. To attract a youngster is necessarily short term, three years. He wants clarity on his career. We can offer other opportunities to him, define training paths to support employee development. We delved into our pool of seniors to supply this training, make sure that their knowledge is captured before they leave the company. I'm going to hand over to Baptiste for the financial trajectory. Thank you.
Merci, Franck. Thank you, Franck. So to whet your appetite, I will present the financial outlook for 2026, to pursue growth, improve operating profitability, and maximize free cash flow generation over the period. First of all, a quick flashback to our historical performance, with a chart here that shows the group's historical performance in recent years, which has been strong, +7% organic growth of our business, +10% organic growth in our operating margin. Over our EBITDA, we have a contributive growth, contributive revenues close to EUR 1 billion, and cash flow, a change in EBITDA of EUR 215 million-EUR 219 million, excluding 2023 acquisitions, which happened at the end of the year, mainly arising from the acquisition of Furia and ESSAC. My accent is not as good as Marco's. I'm sorry.
Now, this is an information-packed chart that you have here, but it shows how the group has performed, in terms-- in relation to GDP growth in the various countries, in relation to global growth, and what are current forecasts in these geographical areas. First of all, we went back to 2000-- from 2019 to today, looking ahead to 2026. So these are IMF figures. These are not Séché figures. We have the growth of the various countries, we have global growth, and global growth, of course, is not completely relevant for us because we don't have a presence around the world. So we've reweighted that. We've readjusted global growth on the basis of Séché weightings, which is 70% in France, 14% in South Africa, 7% in Latin America, 3% in Spain, 3% in Italy.
So we have the weightings, and in 2019, weighted growth on the Séché basis plus 4.6%. So you have the figures from 2019 to 2023. A few comments on this. Overall, on the basis of organic, past organic growth, Tereos is outperforming weighted global growth to the tune of 3%-4%. So Tereos is global growth readjusted +3% to +4%. Second important comment, Tereos has been a resilient company. In 2020, the year of the pandemic, with global growth that stood around -7.5, Tereos was down -2.5, and that year, we had EBITDA of +1%, which illustrates our capacity in those difficult times to be resilient and to control our cost.
Next, looking at the future, the IMF, looking at the sort of October 2023 outlook, is looking at lower growth in terms of forecast than historical growth rate, +1.4% in 2024, +1.7% in 2026. On that basis, we use growth of +5% annual growth over the period, which on average corresponds to what we've seen as the surplus organic growth in relation to growth forecast and in relation to the historical growth, weighted according to Tereos parameters. Next, we have performance levers. We've spoken about this this morning. We've tried, through our work, to put figures objectives on the basis of the performance that we can achieve. Three key drivers, which are fairly conventional, growing profitability of existing or new businesses.
At present, we have businesses which are underperforming in relation to the initial business plan or the profitability that we are hoping for. So this is putting profitability back at the expected level of performance, and in that respect, we can go into greater detail on this, but the activities have been mentioned. This concerns STEI, presented by Nicolas, and we're looking at +EUR 9 million on Europe in 2026. Secondly, industrial efficiency. Franck spoke to us about this. This is an ambitious program for industrial efficiency to improve the efficiency of our tools, to improve our products, which will enable us to release capacity, and this will improve profitability. This estimated impact, +EUR 5 million on the return on capital.
And then controlling our operating expenses, mainly in procurement, I'll go back on this, optimization and, savings, cost savings that should generate +EUR 17 million in Europe by 2026. Going back on the last point, which is reducing expenses and controlling costs, we're working, this procurement division is working on the basis of EUR 275 million expenditure. The idea is to go for EUR 20 million over three years, -7% on the 2022 cost base. What are the drivers or the tools for this to reduce cost? First of all, transport, 14% is, accounts for 14% of the expenditure. So this is not all of our spending.
It's spending items where there is a direct audited lever on which we feel we can apply a credible action plan by 2026. On transport, transportation, we think that we can reduce transportation costs by 13%, mainly with tenders on charters, sharing the assets and bins, more control in optimizing the journeys. The second aspect is raw materials and reagents. This involves energy. The goal is to have calls for tender from our suppliers, remove intermediaries, reduce intermediation margins. Thirdly, operating expenses, massifying expenditure, having calls for tender in a professional way, packaging, purchases, supplies. We're digitizing our procurement policy in order to have more attractive group prices rather than purely local prices.
Once you've said that, international business provides new sources of supply, new suppliers who are competitive and who can help us, globally to optimize the expenditure. EUR 20 million, in conventional terms, gradually increasing, ramping this up over 2024, 2025, 2026, in order to achieve the target of EUR 20 million by 2026. Bearing in mind that we've only factored EUR 17 million on the 20 that I've mentioned here. Next, looking at the financial trajectory, we needed a starting point, and on 2022, 2023, I wanted to dwell on the various items which have been non-recurring, but which have had an impact on our results in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, you will recall we had emergency contracts which were exceptional and non-recurring.
In this chart, we restated them with the EBITDA impact of EUR 8 million. The basic EBITDA, EUR 194 million. So this means that in 2023, we had identified two impacts where we've tried to quantify this on 2023. Non-recurring items, the first is the integration cost of STEI. We've spoken about this. IT costs, application system costs, outsourcing costs with Veolia, outsourcing costs on payroll, procurement, which are estimated overall at a non-recurring impact in of in 2023, of EUR 2 million. Next, significant impact of energy. You recall that energy in 2023 had index clauses based on 2022. So 2022 tariffs for energy were very high, of course. And this is a non-recurring item. Well, it's, it's non-systematic. In 2022, prices were high. They were much lower in 2023.
So there's an impact of EUR 9 million on EBITDA, which has a direct impact on 2023 EBITDA, and these are non-recurring items. That is not to say that in future we will not have exceptional items in future. That in future we won't have indexation clauses that will be positive for us. These are cyclical items which upset the vision that one has on the adjusted EBITDA, or you have to sort of depollute it, as it were, from these cyclical items. That being said, we come up with a change in revenues, EUR 986 million in 2023, adjusted for non-recurring items. Growth of +5%, which brings us to EUR 1.2 billion in 2026, which is our growth target.
In 2024, there'll be a scope effect. We've had on a full year, we have on a full year, EUR 65 million in 2024. It won't quite be like that, because in 2024, we're going to consolidate ESSAC and Furia in the last quarter. This is estimated at EUR 14 million. The difference between EUR 14 million, EUR 65 million will be a scope effect, which will have an impact on 2024. And next, in terms of, operating margin and adjusted operating margin, we're targeting a margin of 22%-23% for EBITDA by 2026, which means that we have a target, revenue of EUR 1.2 billion, which brings us to EBITDA of EUR 265 million-EUR 275 million, which means the average growth of EBITDA will be 9% on that basis.
As you can see, this is not very different from our historical trajectory, which means that by controlling our operating expenses, and this will come out even more in the recurring operating margin, we will come up with a growth of EBITDA, which will be broadly in line with our historical level. Which is even clearer, shows even more clearly in the current operating income, we're targeting EUR 132 million-EUR 144 million on the basis of EUR 1.2 billion in revenue, which is an operating margin of 11%-12%, which is a growth rate average per annum of 14%. So significant growth of the operating margin in the years ahead.
Of course, this is linked, arises from our good management, reflecting our good management and our good control of CapEx, industrial investment, which enables us to have growth in the operating margin, which will be significant. How can we rationalize this current operating income by 2026? As you can see, in 2023, we're showing operating margin adjusted, depolluted, quote, unquote, of 9.4%. So on the basis of 2026 revenue estimated at EUR 1.2 billion, this would bring us a constant margin at EUR 113 million. If we add the improvement of underperforming assets with industrial efficiency, the procurement plan, savings plan, we come up with EUR 144 million.
So de facto, by adding the increase of in our the growth in our business, estimated business, externally, and a little bit conservative perhaps, by adding our action plan for the current operating income, the improvement in underperforming assets, industrial efficiency, and the savings plan, we come up de facto with the operating income of EUR 144 million by 2026. The second very important item, once you've measured pro-profitability over the period, the next point is cash flow. Maximizing cash flow is very important for us, because credit is a very important item for the company. We want to keep a robust balance sheet with strong liquidity. There's several parameters impacting the cash flow. Of course, the EBITDA, we've just discussed this.
EBITDA is the indicator for operating cash flow, and you have to add to that the action plans, the management of WCR. We have been seeing a decline, a worsening performance of our WCR with the integration of STTR, cyberattack, sanitation. There will still be impacts by the end of 2023. We're working very hard, and our goal over the period, we're looking at 2024-2026, to compensate the declining need in WCR. And no worsening of WCR. We're improving it through better collection by 2024, with a normal full operation of invoicing, stronger recovery processes for outstanding receivables, day-to-day management with our commercial teams, and action plans arising from this. And the second point, the stability of CapEx for 2024-2026.
We have CapEx estimated at EUR 100-EUR 110 million at constant scope, and on a target basis, this is 9% by 2026 versus today, 10%, 2023. Seven percent recurring. CapEx to keep our industrial plants up and running. We haven't changed our criteria. And when there are growth opportunities which are profitable, as Franck was saying, in that case, then we invest less in terms of a percentage of revenues. But we have an activity mix which will be more steered towards services, which requires less use of capital. In 2023, we are in working order for this since we're going to have a level of CapEx, which will be approximately EUR 100 million by 2023.
On dividends, this doesn't have much impact on cash flow, but as you can see on the chart, to your—on the right of the chart, there's been a slight increase in the dividend payments over the period. So the dividend has gone from EUR 7.5 million - EUR 8.6 million, arising from the strong result in earnings per share, while ensuring that this level of dividend was sustainable over time in terms of cash flow.
This now brings us, once we've addressed the issue of EBITDA, of rehabilitation costs, industrial CapEx that we put 105, corporation tax, WCR estimate is zero, commitment of free cash flow post all these items above or equal to EUR 250 million cumulative over the period. This is, of course, pre-M&A, quite logically. Next, the issue of financial policy. There won't be many new items, but we have to reiterate a strong financial discipline focused on debt reduction and financial flexibility and strong liquidity. When we close 2023, we'll be close to a leverage close to 3x because of acquisitions made in 2023.
We haven't the full EBITDA of 2023, a calendar effects, because the acquisition done in the second half 2023, only one quarter of EBITDA. So we have a leverage of around 3, with both mechanically linked to the inclusion of annual EBITDA plus cash flow generation, a return to 2.7 times EBITDA as of 2024, with strict discipline. That's to say, we're aiming financial leverage below three within 12 months of acquisition when there's M&A. We can be on one of above 2.3, a return to below three within 12 months following the acquisitions. And a timeline that is smooth without any major maturities, no financing peak in the coming years. A liquidity level of EUR 190 million expected at the end of the year.
Current debt at EUR 119 million expected at the end of the year. The EUR 119 million, there's EUR 50 million linked to debt that was drawn on revolving facilities for the acquisition of Furia. This, of course, is set to be financed, and of course, we can always withdraw these facilities because the maturity of these, revolving loans, as many of you, was five plus one , plus one. Just to recap, the growth and financial profitability trajectory, the aim, as you'll understand, is to be both prudent and geared towards sustainable and profitable growth. A balance sheet that's both liquid and flexible, with a growth level, given the macroeconomic outlook, up of around +5% organically over the period, which would bring us to contributed revenue of the order of 1.2 billion in 2023.
Profitability, EBITDA target for 2023, around EUR 230 million. Adjusted operating profit, EUR 105 million. Increased adjusted EBITDA, +9% CAGR, 2024-2023. Adjusted EBIT +14% over the period, bring us in terms of EBITDA between 20%-22%. EBITDA between 11%-12% in 2026. Financial leverage below 2.7 as of 2024. Free cash flow generation in excess, EUR 250 million for the period as a whole. Thank you for your attention. Merci beaucoup, Baptiste.
Thank you, Baptiste, and above all, thank you to all of you for your attention. To conclude this morning, I'd like to confirm that the group is well positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities linked to sustainable development with a comprehensive offering for industrial, the economic players. This morning, we presented some growth focus areas with compelling non-financial ambition. At the heart of our DNA, our growth ambitions, both in France and internationally. In France, our historic market with circular economy loops, also energy recovery, and lastly, continuous reinvestment in our tools and an extended offering in services internationally, with our growth platforms continuing to ramp up.
All in all, with a strategy of innovation, we also presented the financial growth outlook for the business, sustainable and profitable over the next three years, with strong cash flow generation to maintain a strong balance sheet and to finance our future expansion. And the group, as you know, always said in my introduction, we do what we say and say what we do. We'll deliver on what we presented to you this morning. Over to you now, if you have questions, and I'll ask the various speakers of this morning to join me.
Yes, good morning, Nicolas Royot, Portzamparc. Quite a few questions. I'll just limit myself to three or four. The revenue split, how do you view it in 2026, France and international? International is about 30%, mentioned 5% organic. Can we consider there'll be more organic growth internationally than the France? That's the first question. Second, possibly on profitability. I've understood the math on the operating income, 9.4% estimated in 2023 to grow to 14.4 in 2026. But just to move towards the service mix, isn't that 9.4% today-- doesn't maybe reflect the mix in 2026? If you understand my question, otherwise I'll reformulate it.
On R&D, can we have an idea of the number of people working in R&D at Séché? Maybe just one last question. On effluent treatment plants, to understand, does Séché do the engineering construction, but do you own the facility? Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll begin and hand over then to Baptiste, followed by Sylvain. Internationally, you've understood, at least for greater international, we did some M&A deals. Now we have strong territorial coverage. We want to use these platforms as growth platforms, organic. Essentially, we're going to use our expertise on know-how to support local needs, local industrial clients with strong proximity. Yeah, we'll do a lot of organic growth, and then the quantified target, I'll let Baptiste pick up on that.
So internationally, you're right, we're expecting growth that will continue to be strong. And in the plan, we indicated we're expecting an international share at 32% in 2026. Given the acquisitions done, we were at June 30th, we were closer to 27%. R&D, we have 20 people working in partnership with great many institutions. We have an R&D budget, about 2% of revenue. Sylvain, do you want to add anything?
What I can say is that since the R&D center was set up, saw a photograph during my presentation, since 2017, we have a new R&D center in- we tripled the headcount, as Maxime just said. We're 18 people working currently in R&D, our own staff, but also people who are seconded from academia to conduct the various projects presented. Franck?
R&D, I think what's interesting to note is the input on a day-to-day basis, on a process, a lot of development, a lot of improvements to make. The young engineers working with us, on the ground, in the field, that's important to us. Your last question on industrial, effluent treatment, they belong to our clients, and we were on a, service contract, basis.
I think Franck answered, we just have an additional scenarios when those facilities are on our own industrial sites, then of course they belong to us. Have we answered all your... Yeah, there's the EBIT, but I'll, I'll answer. So the issue is ultimately, given the change in services and given that overall services are less capital intensive than the other activities, can we end up with an EBIT level that is distorted versus 9.4%, given a better profitability linked to the fact that there's less to appropriations to amortization and the growth of service activities? Is that the question? No, we've already factored it. It's less capital intensive on target margin levels that are lower than, such as hazardous waste management, even if it's 9.4%, doesn't really. It's not representative in terms of activity percentage, it's overall over time.
We can up the level of EBIT. Of course, it's midterm. We're talking 2026. That's the day after tomorrow. So as to offset the EBIT level that we might be led to reduce as percentage of revenue on other activities such as hazardous waste management. Have I answered your question? Answer yes.
Hello, Arnaud Palliez from CIC. I'll try and limit myself to three questions. The first on your contractual policy with industry, and just to measure the sensitivity of revenue to the economic cycle. These contracts are systematically indexed on the volumes treated or some on a lump sum basis, or provide for minimum in terms of revenue? That's my first question. Next, when you develop a new circular economy process, let's take bromine, bromine regeneration. On what IRR basis do you operate? What market size? Is there a minimum addressable markets as you before you decide to invest? That's the second aspect.
Could we have on bromine regeneration, how much that represents today in terms of revenue? And lastly, the final question on how you conduct your M&A policy. How do you identify targets? And, we understand that you're going to use your current platforms for organic growth internationally, but in your 2026 plan, do you wish to open up new geographies, new countries?
First, on the contracts, well, obviously, we had very different contract types between a treatment, processing, service contract, not the same service contracts, so duration one-three years, with revision schemes on the index based, linked to inflation, either wage inflation or raw materials. On services, they tend to be longer-term contracts, three-five years, even more, and when there's investment that's carried by the group, there we-...
Negotiate with two items, a fixed portion that guarantees the reimbursement of the CapEx over the duration of contract, and a variable portion that's linked to the industrial activity that can be on flows, effluents, or tonnage quantities. For bromine, on revenue trends, we're looking at a trajectory between EUR 5 million-EUR 6 million, sales included. In 2022, we're at the halfway mark. We doubled our capacity this year, and we're on a contract that's longer, five years with our first contributor. On the supply and recovery, it's a closed loop with both incoming and outgoing. As regards strategy on the M&A front, in fact, we remain in continuous watch mode to see if there are opportunities with either the acquisition of new skills, new expertise, new technology, or to supplement our geographical coverage.
To state, we have no sufficiently advanced target to date to disclose, and we have, of course, we apply major financial discipline for M&A. IRR, there was a question on the IRR. It's a good example because it's precisely the case that was mentioned by Franck, in that it's no different from another development CapEx. When there's a development CapEx, we have a BP that's presented, which we prioritize all the development opportunities. Part of the development opportunities, we had to secure the incomings and outcome with prices and being conservative, given uncertainties, contingencies, et cetera, how much it could generate. So we have an IRR. We compare that to our WACC. In the current case, we were on an IRR double digits, so there was no major question mark.
But of course, on that, we're specifically cautious, given the associated risks. That is, raw materials, price volatility, the ability to operate, because these are very cutting-edge technological skills, so... And we're not copied in this field. Logically, it's over time. Well, over time, that was hoped, even with a slowdown that was factored in, in terms of risk potential, we arrive at double-digit IRR, so we decided to go for it, given the envelope of development CapEx that was available, as mentioned previously. I'd just like to pick up on M&A. Just a quick point on M&A. We see clearly that we have a very dynamic M&A policy of late. That was mentioned. The priority is, of course, integration and transform these platforms with significant development. So we have priorities. We remain in watch mode.
We always have our ear to the ground to track opportunities, but we have our work cut out for us going forward.
First question, on the use of recycled products, you spoke about an increase of 17% since 2020. Do you have a specific target for recycling? Next, industrial water, you said that this is a very dynamic market, not really outsourced, only 15% outsourcing. Do you have any figures on the growth of this market, and what is the degree of outsourcing? And to get into the market, are you considering other acquisitions? EUR 100 million is a bit less than 10% of the group for revenues. Do you have ambitions to go beyond that? And the third question: looking at the margin, the mix in the margin, EBITDA and gross margin, could we hear a bit more about the contribution of France and international business? France has very high margins, 24%-25%, a bit less last year.
International was around 20%, a bit less due to acquisition, 16% in the first half. What is the margin for improvement here, and what is the margin mix for 2026? And, to respond to what Maxime said, EUR 150 million minimum of free cash flow by 2026, how do you envisage the reallocation of free cash flow? I've understood you for focusing more on organic growth, but what will be the allocation of free cash flow between now and 2026? Thank you.
Right. In our water efficiency use, we emphasize reuse, reuse of rainwater to reintegrate it into production rather than using water table water from other networks, and we have reuse through other processes. At present, we have a strong increase of recycling volumes with other processes, with the activity of STEI rolled out at group level, and by 2026, reuse of our processes is the main driver for reducing our water consumption, and we're targeting doubling of reuse by 2026. I wanted to say a few words about the implementation of the water efficiency plan of the government. Yeah, I underestimated our team's enthusiasm for this. We established a project quite quickly, and we went from 1- 40 projects.
These sources of cost savings really mean something to our teams, and what emerges is a lot of proposals and ideas, and this is very interesting. I think the societal aspect and the teamwork here are really key. Nicolas, on industrial water? Well, the momentum of the market, the increase in the outsourced part has growth of 45% per year estimated, and with the issues of reuse, we should be above that. And this is an important driver. We're seeing all sorts of requests from our industrial clients, which we didn't have until now, so it's moving in the right direction. Regarding growth, I think in France, we have market presence, which is very market share, which is very significant. We need to digest that. We need to rationalize and optimize it.
Growth, I would see more internationally, but of course, I don't want to be answering instead of Maxime on that. So what do we have? We've put EUR 120 million into the development plan. On margin between France and international business, we're not changing our strategy. You're quite right, we are continuing. We enjoyed when we had 20% margins, and internationally, we had a very exceptionally large contracts arising from the floods in South Africa with the Spill Tech work, and in Peru with the Lima oil slick. So 20% margin was underpinned structurally. So we're not changing our strategy. We're still targeting an increase in the margin to achieve 20%.
And to follow on from what we're saying this morning with synergies, the fact that we are going up in the value scale in South Africa, and we're continuing to see to aim for an improvement in margin on international business. In France, there are two aspects to take into consideration. We're coming to significant levels. We have room for maneuver to improve operating margin. We've even put figures on it, EUR 9 million for Europe, and there's some headwinds arising from higher inflation, increase in payroll, increase in spare parts, maintenance costs, which will have an impact on our brand. So we're not looking at a lower margins, but in, among the drivers that improve our operating margin, there's the international business, which is still a significant driver. We're not changing our strategy, and we think we can also improve the French business margins.
And reallocation of free cash, Maxime?
Well, it's important for us to generate cash flow. Having said that, there's no specific target identified for the time being, but we're always reinvesting in our tools and also always reinvesting in resources to accompany our growth, be it organic or external. Have we answered all your questions, yes?
A few questions on my part. Just to clarify on industrial water, your market share is EUR 120 million of the EUR 275 million of the market, so it's approximately a third? 1/3 . Looking at free cash flow, I didn't quite understand, EUR 250 million is the accumulated amount after the dividend? So the question then is, what's the dividend? So is there a policy, a regular increase in dividend payout? Have you integrated stability in dividend payments?
In the EUR 250 million, we've included different impacts, and dividend payout is part of free cash flow. On our dividend payment, dividend policy as such, per se, this arises, is linked to EPS. In recent years, in the slide that you have, I don't have the number of the slide, but—you have the trend in the dividend payment, which is linked to the earnings per share, the trend in earnings per share, which has been very significant, so the dividend has gone from 0.95 to 1 and to 1.10.
If your question logically is what will happen on the dividend, then we're going to be pragmatic in terms of EPS and free cash flow. Here, for example, in 2023, logically, given the amount we've announced as the expected EBITDA, this should logically lead to an increase in EPS for 2023. So, naturally, logically, we will be proposing to the board and to the shareholders meeting a slight increase in the dividend in line with what we have had in previous years, while enabling us to have a sustainable dividend payment in terms of investment and cash flow.
Two other questions. PFAS, on the PFAS, P-F-A-S. We are still looking at research for the time being. When will that be part of the Séché offering? And next, on lithium, what are you targeting today? Are you targeting the management of waste arising from recycling or pro-battery production, or from the extraction of lithium? But you are not in the recycling proper of batteries, where you have many projects that are underway, but you're not yet active in terms of recycling the actual lithium batteries.
So to answer, fluorine. At present, the work has started in 2021, and on the three themes that I outlined in the first part, which concerns our plant's capacity to destroy perfluorine, it's gonna go quite fast because we already have results in our factories. And what we're doing is a DRE, which means that we measure the degree of depollution of these substances.
In other words, we inject into a plant an established quantity of fluorine, looking at our ovens, furnaces, and we have technical guides which enable us to say on what basis we can efficiently destroy it. And the percentage we've achieved, destruction efficiency, we have to achieve 99.99%. But when you look at the inputs and outputs in terms of gas flow, we have to achieve 99.999%. So we already have results that show this efficiency level in the initial plants. So we have to continue, of course, because looking at the typology of the plants, this technology is only applicable to one plant.
It has to be rolled out to others, and we hope to have the best possible results as good as what we had on the first plant, in order to be able to respond to new markets. We're looking at water management. When you sequester the perfluorines in water, this is done through active coals, which will concentrate the pollution, and we have potential markets during 2024 on those businesses. Now, of course, on soil and water, as I said, there's some work that's underway on depollution. But on the water part, this is long-term work, and as I was saying earlier, existing technology is more absorption technology. What we want in future is concentration of perfluorine, and then breakdown in order to have...
The waste, hazardous waste part will come in 2024, and then after that, gradually, the other effluents will emerge. On your second question, lithium, for several years, we've been working on these, markets. We're working both on what, the, primary, batteries, lithium, non-rechargeable batteries, and then you've got the cells, the fuel cells, and the, the batteries that are rechargeable. So we already have contracts on that portion where we, we're not necessarily going, a recycling route. But, as things evolve on the regulatory, standpoint, as I said, with recycling levels that will be posted as of 2027, 2030, and reincorporate these, the lithium into batteries, we have a number of potential markets.
Firstly, as I cited, the portion on batteries, end-of-life batteries, that gradually, depending on the utilization rate of EV, EVs as of 2027, 2030, we'll have growth markets on recycling these end-of-life batteries. As I said i n respect of the emergence of gigafactories in north of France, we're gonna have some effluent coming to us as soon as those plants are operational. We also have the market on the electrolytes. Electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries, you have a chemical that ensures electric conductivity for the electric current transmission, power transmission, and the chemical companies to recycle the lithium portion. And as I said, as part of possible mining operations in France, we also have clients who are interested for that portion. The goal being to work on end-of-life cycle batteries, but across the lithium chain production as well as manufacturing residues. I hope I've answered your questions. Further questions?
Good morning. I have three questions from my side. The first concerns the fact that you meant an activity in metallurgy and chemicals follow during the course of 2024. Shouldn't we expect for that to be renegotiated by your clients who are affected by that economic slowdown? Second question concerns the water segment. I'd like to understand, do you have a technological expertise, a tech offering in the water segment, or is it just design, build, maintenance, operations? Do you have technologies in this segment to offer? Because you mentioned membranes, ozone, you've mentioned the UV technology. What is the reason that accounts for that? And my third question concerns possible synergies between your legacy offering and a water offering. Isn't there a risk for certain clients to avoid being overly dependent on Séché regarding waste treatment by picking a complete waste, solid, liquid offering?
Answer to your first, the slowdown of our clients in chemistry and metallurgy, there isn't so much price renegotiation, it's our ability to saturate our tools. I said earlier, we're fortunate in having a volume of waste to manage that exceeds our processing capacity. When there's part of the business, it slows, as announced by clients. Currently, we're asking them and their production capacity next year to draw up our load plan for our furnaces and scheduling. So it's our ability to implement an alternative solution to re-internalize our flows. We're not thinking of reducing our prices. We don't want to secure those volumes, absolutely, because we can plug the possible gap. As I said, we're really increasing our processing prices 3%-5% on the hazardous waste.
Next, on industry and the risk of the choice of the client who doesn't want to be caught in our comprehensive offering. Well, our offering is off the shelf. It's a choice, that we're not imposing anything. Either the client has the strategy to limit his number of suppliers, and the fact that we can offer him a full, change of management, traceability of waste, both internally, water waste management and our treatment value chains. Either he buys that or he's in a purchasing segmentation strategy. We're not imposing anything, but what we're seeing, our existing client portfolio, where these services don't exist, can generate additional demand, 'cause we're creating a new offering on the comprehensive market. If you source the market, we don't have that many competitors offering such a range of services.
On the technology, well, fortunately, today, we can do engineering and build without having our own technology. There's a lot of technology available on the market. The example I presented to you earlier, where you have a stack of technology, membrane, active, cold, biological treatment. So today, no difficulty for us to build tech solutions and to access the technology. On that, the market's open. There are a great many suppliers in Europe and elsewhere. So I know we're on a deal, we have to replace critical equipment for a client, and we found three, four suppliers, so no difficulty today on that front. I would add that within STEI, there's a technical department, very well represented, 30 cutting-edge engineers providing a differentiated service to the client t hat's widely appreciated.
The landing point, please, for the service activity by 2026, it's there's a ramp up, and it could also generate high growth of EBIT versus EBITDA, less capital. What be the mix service by 2026? Second average EBIT, EBITDA growth, given rate price inflation, we can have the projection, the forecast average, net income group share. That'll help us for the dividend. The final question, more short term, slightly more unpleasant. Landing point 2023, EUR 1 billion, 100% organic. A marked slowdown in Q4 versus seven-eight months, 8%, nine months. You're confident into 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2038. Why, why is that growth more sluggish? That's not an unkind question in any way.
Baptiste, so on first on service, so be careful in what was factored into the presentation. We're already on a pro forma, including STI, and we've also indicated what the target was with a slightly stronger growth on the water segment, 'cause we indicated the EUR 100 million. All this leads us, when we do the math, to grow by 1.5%-2% through 2026 on the service share. So in 2026, it's not a fundamental distortion of the split in the various activities. On EPS through 2026, well, I'm not gonna do your job fully either, because we're gonna be nice today. Knowing that, as I said on the results, financial results, we have a cost of debt that's broadly stable over the period, linked to the fact that we're a fixed rate and refinancings have taken place, so it has but a marginal impact.
On the tax rate, we're looking at a corporate tax rate that's broadly stable. There'll be slight cash flow impact once we have exhausted all the deferred tax assets, the DTAs, as of 2025, and that will have been captured by the overall change in the accumulated cash flow for the period 2024 through 2026. Next, on the kind of the more sluggish or softer part on Q4, we had already, back in 2024, a Q4 that was very strong versus Q3, versus Q2, versus Q1, so we're looking at a basis of comparison that's very strong. Then, they factor the Q4 revenue numbers, not very different from the Q3 revenue number, not that different from Q2 revenue in years, less impacted by revenue peaks, as we experienced in 2022 and in earlier years. So there are a few questions that are coming to us via the net.
These essentially questions that concern non-financial performance. I'm gonna call Pierre-Yves to speak to those from Amir Asgari from Oddo BHF.
There are a few, there are six such questions concern the one hand, GHG emissions, greenhouse. What is your target? Just focusing on the French scope. How representative is it in the group emission? Second, on the capture of biogas in facilities, do we have a target level in agreement with the total reduction plan for by 2026?
So the group's commitment on the French scope, scope one, two. Why that scope? Because it's of material importance for the group. It generates 90% of the group's GHG emissions, so that's what's being looked at, scrutinized as part of the SBTI strategy. In 2022, it was 88%, to be specific. Why this weighting, which is much bigger than the share of French revenues? Because a large part of our processing, our waste management capacity is in France. We have few facilities internationally to date. So that's why, at present, the commitment is on the French scope, because it's larger. Second point, various levers, various drivers to decarbonize Séché. The capture rate of biogas, limiting the leaks of methane.
At present, the Séché Group is ahead of other players in the sector. The government says there's 52%-50% of methane on the facilities. Séché has achieved already 85% of methane capture. This is due to our know-how and our good management of our facilities. So anything that's not released into the atmosphere is reused, so this is a profitable activity, and we want to further reduce the leaks to improve the capture rate, which is already at 85%, and we intend to divide by to half methane leaks. What are the main drivers for enhancing materials other than solvents or bromine, or combination of the two? Well, our commitment on decarbonization of our clients is based on the capacities we've discussed, solvents and bromine.
We've committed with industrial plans, commercial plans that have been presented. On the other themes, which will enable us to decarbonize, we're still in the R&D test phase, so we can't commit to figures for 2026. A question on biodiversity: What are the main impacts of our operations on biodiversity? Will you adopt the framework of TNFD as part of your biodiversity strategy? Well, what I should have specified when I spoke about the group's biodiversity strategy from June 2023, we did an interesting exercise, which was analyzing the double materiality on biodiversity. So CSRD is compelling companies to have a double materiality on all its impacts, and what we're doing is to ensure that the group strategy is focused on the group's pressure areas on nature in order to reduce that pressure.
So we have five pressure factors, which is the... And we've made commitments on each of these pressure factors on biodiversity, using reporting and analytical criteria that enable us to come closer to what's being requested by the TNFD body, and to be validated internationally. We're working on this SBTN, which is the equivalent on biodiversity, in order to have the rubber stamp internationally. On the social aspect, we regret that this was not dealt with today. Well, that's my fault. With your international growth, are you going to announce objectives for occupational health and hazards globally? And further to the presentation made by Franck, on what scope did these slides relate to regarding the frequency of accidents? Well, this was a global indicator for France and international business.
The occupational health policies rolled out internationally, of course, subject to the level of safety culture is not the same in South Africa and Latin America as in Europe, but we have this cross-fertilization of best practices, and the rollout of all our safety processes and health evaluation are the same internationally. And a last question: Have we done an exposure study on the sites exposed to hydraulic stress? Well, overall, we've conducted an analysis on the adaptation of our sites to climate change. Climate has two challenges: how to reduce GHG emissions, we presented our strategy, and the second point is global warming for the next 20 years, and how our facilities and those of our clients can be adjusted to take into account global warming. Hydraulic stress is one of the components of adaptation to climate change.
So when we conducted this analysis of adaptation to climate change, we worked with Bukara, the Bukara tool. We were able to evaluate not only the operating impact of the conduct of our sites towards a scenario of +1.5 degrees, but the unfavorable scenario, +3 degrees, to establish the resilience of our sites and our plan as a response to the scenario of adaptation to climate change. And to put it very simply, the reporting tools are less advanced on adaptation, and we've worked with them in the pilot phase. This is climate reporting, and we're going to be beta testers of this type of application from the end of 2023 and throughout 2024. So adaptation to climate change-