“Building a house is one of the most important decisions in our life and having it sustainable and healthy should be one of our prior concerns.”

Table of contents

The Idea/Concept................................................................................................................................... 3The product............................................................................................................................................ 4

1. Customer’s benefit..................................................................................................................... 42. Range of product.......................................................................................................................5

Market analysis....................................................................................................................................... 61. French real estate market: general trend...................................................................................62. French market of private individual’s houses: direct competitors..............................................63. Eco-housing market: a favorable context...................................................................................7

Strategy of the new venture.................................................................................................................... 81. Mission...................................................................................................................................... 82. Objectives.................................................................................................................................. 83. Core business............................................................................................................................ 84. Development strategy................................................................................................................85. Company structure.................................................................................................................... 96. Further development: Possibility of exploring new markets.....................................................10

Risk analysis and exit strategy.............................................................................................................111. Entry barriers........................................................................................................................... 112. Possible exit strategy:..............................................................................................................12

Marketing strategy................................................................................................................................ 13Financials............................................................................................................................................. 14Management team................................................................................................................................ 15

1. Current board.......................................................................................................................... 152. Missing members..................................................................................................................... 15

Appendix.............................................................................................................................................. 163. Questionnaire.......................................................................................................................... 164. Les tableaux excel................................................................................................................... 17

The Idea/Concept

The EcoBuilding Consulting Company consists in:

Proposing high quality advices and global solutions adapted to clients needs and budgets from initial project to final achievement based on a range of product with high architectural identity

Certify the respect for the HQE® standard in all its realization Creating a network of franchises on the French territory

Integrated solutions

Warranty of the respect forenvironmental standards

High quality services

High architectural identity

EcoBuildingConsultingCompany

The product

1. Customer’s benefitWe are a consulting that provides all-in-one solutions for building parts or entire ecological housings. The aim is to be an intermediary between the architect office by offering a broader range of expertise and products in everything that is related to ecological houses.We carried out a questionnaire in order to target precisely our potential new customers. We found out as main result that the awareness toward ecology is quite well acquired but that there is a lack of clear information of what is available on the market.The customer is currently lost among a lot of offers in the ecological housing segment. We therefore offer added value by putting together these split offers.

Unlike architects who do ecological housing “besides their normal job”, we propose a clear and unified structure to make the customer able to get a reasonable overview on what is today doable within the ecological housing segment. We have the knowledge thanks to cooperation with local architects and present a transparent set of solutions with 3 main products. And since price is often an issue, we have matched our product range to the money and level of interest of our customers. Highly customized, highly professional: here is the motto of our products.In all case, a range of expert is at the customer’s side to answer all possible questions and help him to carry out all the administrative procedure that occur, for example getting a financial support from the state for solar panels.

We want also to convince our customers of the cost effectiveness of our homes or equipment in terms of heating (thus addressing the surge in oil prices or the cost of electricity) both home and water-heating, on the insulation properties of the natural materials (which are in most cases more efficient than industrial ones). Moreover our homes provide a healthier environment to our costumers. Not only can we propose to use different materials but we can also give some insight on how to optimize the use of regular ones. We want our customers to feel there home is the first place they want to be in after work, during week-end or when inviting friends. This does not rely green aspects of our constructions but also by recognizing that clever designs already exist but are not yet exploited at there full capacity, for example functional kitchens where you are at ease when cooking and not fighting against the wall cupboard. Open spaces in the living room or tv room so that people feel of not being locked into a tiny box. A lot of other ideas have been proposed by architects and we intend to empower them.

Source : http://www.la-bonne-maison.com/

2. Range of productWe are positioned in a local market and offer additional value thanks to synergy between local and experts that are within the company. Here is our range of products:

Environmental friend: This is the first solution for people having a much tighter budget: Our team will listen to customer’s expectations for a whole house and propose solutions including design proposals (performing wall isolation, natural ventilation, terrace location, profit from sun benefits through good sizing of windows and location, possibly solar panels, etc). These advices will be provided in the first time by our architect and other experts of our team. In a second time, we will get in touch with one of our architect network who will realize the house and tune the proposal in order to offer a balance between an ecological friendly house respecting the HQE® standards and a good price.

Environmental close friend:For those who can afford more for the environment and for themselves:Environmental friend + additional features such as geothermic, earth cooling/warming tubes, photovoltaic panels, and double-skin façade could be added in order to drastically improve the energy efficiency of the building. The over-cost will be partly overcome by taking advantage from current legislation. The installation will be nevertheless profitable on the long term view.

Environmental top friend: This range of product address to people wanted to go beyond current standards and having quite important budget to realize the eco-house of their dream. The design will be good enough to make the house even energy productive thanks to the combination of renewable energies and appropriate use of materials.

Market analysis

1. French real estate market: general trendOur analysis is focused on France which is our target market. In France we have a sustainable demand for new houses, 20.9% last year which correspond to 562’000 houses which were allowed building permits. The real estate market is composed of approximatively 17’000 brokers and is generating 53 billion euros in 2003, 23% of which is generated by new houses this put our target market at around 12 billion euros1. The market is growing at a steady pace of 5% a year.

2. French market of private individual’s houses: direct competitorsThe French market for private individuals’ houses is above all regional with about 38002 different constructors on the French territory this is at our advantage in term of competition but is a negative point regarding our growth. The sector has a pretty good employment characteristic and everyone seems to be able to capture some market share, the difficult part being the growth to a larger scale than regional.

However, very few home builders for private individuals seem to be engaged for more eco-oriented buildings.Among the five bigger French home builders3 only the current leader Geoxia seems ready to follow that way without being fully involved yet.Furthermore, most of these companies lack for good reputation because of poor quality achievements and architectural identity.The interest for eco-houses and recourse to sustainable development logics (renewable energies and materials, better use of resources, etc…) being relatively new, no clear leadership is established yet.We do not compete directly with architects since we propose all-integrated solutions, architects are considered thus as partners.

1 The numbers are obtained from Crédit Foncier2 http://www.developpement-construction.com/txt_chiffres_cles_acteurs_maisons_individuelles.htm3 Crédit immobilier de France, Maisons Phénix, Maisons France Confort, Maisons Mikit (Source : http://www.developpement-construction.com/txt_chiffres_cles_acteurs_maisons_individuelles.htm)

3. Eco-housing market: a favorable context62% of Europeans are homeowners and 78% of French people would be ready to pay more in order to have an ecological house [Source].From a poll4 conducted in France 70% of the polled are ready to buy an ecological house if the government is helping them financially, the 25-34 year old are more enthusiastic with an 86% intention. This shows that there is a growing green mindset in France for the last few years.In parallel, new legislation and attractive credits greatly favour house building and the use of renewable energies.The French government has taken thus several disposals to help people access to house ownership and also other disposals to finance ecological housing. The French government for example deducts from your taxes a part of the price of ecological equipment as solar panels.Since we are targeting the ecological housing market we can benefit from both kinds of disposals. In the meantime, new standards such as the HQE standard (High Environmental Quality) begin to gain greater importance.The additional cost incurred to construct an ecological building is estimated around 5%5 but is largely balanced by energy savings during the life of the construction.

E 6

4 TNS Sofres réalisé pour l'Observatoire du logement du promoteur Nexity5 http://www.fiabitat.com/servp_cout.php6 INSEE & http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/Habitat.html#creditenergie

Development Strategy

1. MissionBuilding the ecological cost efficient house to help you better fit our world.The company is focusing on selling houses all equipped, with a product line fitted to the budget. The company also has in perspective to develop, through knowledge and experts in ecological housing, a consulting service for professional and householders on the different cost cut and environmental gain they can achieve through ecological equipments and will deliver the propositions we propose with our partners. We try to get a better environment by providing pollution-reduced solutions.

2. ObjectivesWe want to be leader in the ecological housing consulting in France. We thus want to create a smoothing layer between the huge number of contractors, equipment sellers and the final client, which is at an early stage of knowledge of the different possibilities that ecological constructions may offer. We want to communicate to our client and employees our passion for ecological solutions, which in our mind are not at a significant additional cost.

3. Core businessOur core business will be the construction and supervision of ecological houses. We will start our business in France in a region where the market for green houses is already active. We are a knowledge based company; we intend to be on top of all green technologies proven to be applicable to building construction and to take off all the hassle of regulatory requirements, standards of ecological construction, tax reduction request. People willing to go for ecological solutions are our first client base.

4. Development strategy

Early principlesOur knowledge will come from a detailed study of what the market has to offer, what is worth integrating into our company’s catalogue (indeed a lot of companies give green labels to their product even if it for minor reasons). If we can make a parallel with a similar service, it would with FNAC, which sells electronic devices at higher prices than other retailers but offer an unmatched test and advising service to customers. At the start we will not have the luxury of hiring experts in each domain that we cover, but our team will include an architect, for the rest we rely on our skills and passion to get inside the company the needed expertise.

First phase of developmentIn a first phase we will try to partner with other local architects, we do this to diversify the house designs that we design to better match customer’s taste and allow for growth. When we start the architect of our team will design the houses but as we get more customers we will outsource some part of the work. We will also try to get long standing agreements with equipment sellers of the region. We will propose in a first to play their sales force under the condition of reduced prices when selling through us. The marketing in this way will be profitable for both companies as they don’t pay us to do the work but at the same time we get reduced prices and we market our service. If we manage to partner with already well established architects and resellers we can gain from their reputation to make our company known. Here we intend to develop a critical size of client to be sustainable.

Second phase of developmentIn a second phase, we will move to neighboring regions through partnership in the same manner. We want our brand to be synonym of high quality and trust in the ecological field. To be able to grow ultimately to the nationwide scale we will establish a licensing charter to enable other consulting offices to open in part of the country where we are not yet present.

We are going to base our marketing argument mostly on the green aspect of our houses and solutions, our regulatory and standard knowledge therefore on our advising capabilities. But we do not want to play on the green wave state of mind solely.

We want also to convince our customers of the cost effectiveness of our homes or equipment in terms of heating (thus addressing the surge in oil prices or the cost of electricity) both home and water, on the natural insulation properties of the materials (which are in most cases are more efficient than industrial ones). Moreover our homes provide a healthier environment to our costumers. Not only can we propose to use different materials but we can also give some insight on how to optimize the use of regular ones. We want our customers to feel there home is the first place they want to be in after work, during week-end or when inviting friends. This does not rely green aspects of our constructions but also by recognizing that clever designs already exist but are not yet exploited at there full capacity, for example functional kitchens where you are at ease when cooking and not fighting against the wall cupboard. Open spaces in the living room or tv room so that people feel of not being locked into a tiny box. A lot of other ideas have been proposed by architects and we intend to empower them.

5. Company structure

Client = private individual

EcoBuilding Consulting CompanyRelationship with partners and suppliers

Project management

and monitoring

Sales – Client relationship

Marketing Research & Development

Partners and suppliersSuppliers of energetical

devices

Local building companies

Local architects Other research consultancies

Jurists

6. Further development: Possibility of exploring new markets

A second step could be to enter the renovation market to help people enhance their house with green equipments; we will then provide a complete diagnosis of the possible changes.A long term goal would be to address the company buildings market through the small and middle-sized companies. Companies are in our mind willing to go green but we don’t want in the first place to be in direct competition with major construction company which could adapt pretty quickly to the green market because of there financial resources and professional network.

Risk analysis and exit strategy

1. Entry barriers

Economies of scaleThe fact is that houses are not build in factories. The only possible economies of scale lie in capability of big building company to build the same house as we can see in modern housing development. Nevertheless, this kind of competitors is not our direct competitors. Our direct competitor would be rather architects.

Product differentiationThis entry barrier is in our favour because we bring a new concept on the market. Through our green houses, the customers will have a perception of uniqueness and satisfaction about his impact on the environment.

Capital requirementThis barrier can be huge in the building industry if we consider a constructor with workers and machines. Nevertheless, this is no relevant for us, because as consultants we only need a little office. The other costs of the capital requirement will be about the launch of our company which won’t be very excessive (a bit of local advertising, little cocktail to convince local architects…)

Switching costsWe can consider two sides: partnerships and customers. For both they are very important. Firstly, if our partners decide to break agreement, the will loose a lot of customers, furthermore, they won’t be able to use our concept directly because of reputation and the strength of our brand. Then, a very few customers build a house every weeks.

Access to distribution channelThis will be a real challenge. We have to construct our franchises’ network whereas big building companies have already a lot of contacts. That’s why the main role of partnership with architect will be essential. If we can’t make good partnerships, we won’t be able to grow out of regional start.

Cost disadvantages independent from scaleThese costs are directly linked to our differentiation: an eco-house is more expensive than a classical house. The cost advantage lies in the long term with energy saving for example.

Government policyThat barrier is good for us in the way that, recently in France, a lot of laws have been voted to encourage house building and especially eco-building. It exists now a lot of taxes credits if you buy green equipments. We will make these barriers important for possible other entrants by creating norms with government agencies.

ManagementThe wealth of the company is essentially based on human resources; particular attention will have to be taken on recruitment

Conclusion

Finally we make out several critical points to succeed in our entry strategy : Make good partnerships with local architects to create a good distribution channel and

convince masons and other “suppliers” to work with us. Architects will also a key for our credibility with agreements with government, in order not to be seen only as consultant, but also able to make build an eco-house.

In a more commercial view, our marketing will have to focus on the profitability of buying an eco-house associated to the environmental concern.

2. Possible exit strategy:

Since IPO seems rather difficult for a company like our, the most reasonable exit strategy seem to sell the business to another company present on the national market within 6 to 8 years. The leader of the market Geoxia could be interested in developing its eco-oriented branch by integrating the knowledge and skills developed by the EcoBuildingCompany, all the more than it has a rather aggressive expansion policy.

Marketing strategy

BrandingThe image of the company will be developed on both quality of advice and green aspect of our houses and solutions. Several means will be used to improve our visibility and presence on the market:

Basics

Means Resources neededPhase 1Word-to-mouth communication(happy clients, successful partnerships…)

0 €

Website 100€

Punctual actions on city places/ supermarkets / home improvement warehouses

1500€ (transportable stand of exhibition) + 500€/action (flyers, leaflets…)

Construction/building shows 5000€/show

Phase 2Houses of exhibition (60m2) 80.000€/house

Phase 3Advertising campaign 100.000€/campaign

Additional feature

A contract could be developed between house owners and the EcoBuildingCompany. In exchange with a 5% reduction of the house cost, people will accept to make their house a house of exhibition for other people during a period of 1 year for example. This will allow increasing easily the presence of the company on the French territory.

Financials

AssumptionsAs we want to be established in France, we have to take care of the French GDP growth rate : 2% in 2006 and there are forecasts about 1.9% for 2007 and 2.0% for 2008. Nevertheless, recent elections in France in addition to the favorable context of eco-building can lead to an increase of this rate. The growth rate of the real estate is 5% and thanks to the environmental and legal context in addition to our concept, we can assume a 12% growth rate in average after the first year. At the last month of the first year, our goal is to multiply by five the average of houses built per month during the three first months.In order to be the most critical and objective possible, we will consider a good and a bad scenario.

Good scenarioIn the good scenario, which will happen for sure, we make our objectives of growth. We create a franchise at the end of the fourth year with the current (year + 4) growth.We assume to sell on average 2 houses per month during the first three months (this will be detail in the sales model).

Bad scenarioIn this case, we will assume pessimistic results. We don’t take off, and stay in the average of the industry even though our start is not bad with a multiplication by 3 of our houses built per month during the three first months at the end of the year. That’s why we can create franchise and that our growth is low.

SalesWe deliver three ranges of product in function of the eco-equipment supplied with a price of 1300 €/m² on average. Thanks to our partnership with local professionals and the subventions given by ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie) or other government agencies we should obtain 10% of reduction (at least 8%) per m², thus we can assume different margins depending on the product. So, basically our offer will be as following :

Environmental friend : 1200 €/m² with a 5% margin included Environment close friend : 1300 €/m² with a 6% margin included Environmental top friend : 1450 €/m² with a 8% margin included

Cost structureIn addition to the cost production, we have several internal costs :

Advertising and promotion Making and keeping agreements with local professional Other And salaries!!!!!!

Management team

1. Current board

The currentl board is composed of 4 highly motivated people having followed the Entrepreneurship course in the Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship section of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where they gain some general knowledge on the “entrepreneurial world”.

CEO: Aurélien PetitAurélien Petit has an engineer diploma “Ingénieur Civil des Mines” from the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy”, in the section industrial engineering (supply chain management, optimization, data mining and analysis), he is currently specializing at the EPFL in management with the master in Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship. With an experience of 6 months as project manager in IT audit, he will be CEO and responsible for the coordination of agreements with local professionals or government agencies.Very interested in team work, during his student life, he organized a lot of concerts and partnerships with musical equipment supplier and concert place.

Marketing & Communication : Karin AuslenderKarin Auslender has a Master of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. She will be in charge with Marketing and Communication as well as for advice concerning all the electrical products (like solar cells). She has already worked for 2 months at Procter & Gamble and at Tissot S.A. (marketing and communication) and as such got knowledge on marketing issues. She participated actively in the electrical student organization and was in charge with the communication.

Workings + R&D : Vincent WurtzVincent Wurtz is graduated from Ecole des Mines de Nancy High School and is currently specializing in Structural Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department of EPFL. There he developed his technical skills as well as his sensitivity towards sustainable development and architecture. He already has a 2-months experience as an assistant engineer on construction site.As such, he would be responsible for the monitoring of workings, relationship with construction companies and could also develop new houses concepts in collaboration with the architect of the team.Keen on teamwork he took actively part on successful associative projects during his French stay.

Sales + Customer relationship: Amine Choukir

à compléter

2. Missing membersThree other members would be requested in order to complete the management team:

an architect ready to develop some general concepts of houses which will be the basis of the design made by the local partner-architect and able to assist the client in defining his needs

a jurist specialized in real estate questions an accountant which could deal with the financial part of projects

Appendix

3. Questionnaire

The EcoBuilding Consulting Company is something very new, that’s why, even if we know that notions like “ecology” or “sustainable development” are fashion. Nevertheless, we wanted to know if people were ready to make a big investment such a house in ecological way.

It’s obviously different to sort his rubbish or not to use plastic than build an house ! The goal of this questionnaire is to see in which extent people are ready to invest a big amount of money and also invest themselves for actual environment problems.

The questionnaire can be divided in three main parts :

Firstly, we want to know if people are sensitive to notion like “sustainable development” or more ecological technical notions like “solar water heater”.

Secondly, the subject is about the propensity of people to have the will to build an house.

Finally, we see if people would be ready to use our services.

In function of the answer of people, we will know more about their propensity to spend their budget for a house. It is very important to see whether with new problems about global warming or pollution, people are concretely interested in a kind of “sustainable” or “ecological” services for house building.

The fact is that our positioning is new in two ways :

The concept of EcoBuilding

The concept of a consulting service for house building

The result of the survey will allow us to know on which aspect we must emphasize towards the customers :

The citizen behaviour of EcoBuilding and the future of kids ?

The long term profitability ?

The advantage to have only one speaker

How will we analyze the results ?

The best option would be to order a analysis by a professional who would have helped us to do the questionnaire. He would use a powerful software like SAS or SPAD and would give us very critical results. But we are a start-up and my student license of SAS has expired… Finally, according to the three themes we will construct cluster of people (e.g. : yes, no, may be…) and we will try to link the different clusters.

That will allow us to distinguish kind of segments and it will be helpful for our marketing strategy. Obviously, it is a very primary and basic analysis, nevertheless it could be a good beginning.

4. Les tableaux excel