The responsibility of meeting client requirements, gaining trust, and reliably representing the company – it’s all part of Matthieu’s daily job. ‘Winning contracts from our bigger competitors requires us to be at our best at every level, all the time. It means engaging all the internal experts we need. Teamwork is the key: only together can we make every next proposal better than the last one. The result of this is that today we are winning contracts I could only have dreamed of several years ago.’
SIAM’s Transformation project
One of those newly acquired contracts centres on the wastewater treatment solution for the Syndicat intercommunal d'assainissement de Marne-la-Vallée (SIAM). The solution includes treating the wastewater of 400,000 people and producing renewable energy for 4,000 homes in the area. Just a stone’s throw from Paris, Marne-la-Vallée is a location Matthieu Comble knows very well: he can nearly see the station from his office window. ‘From the contract requirements, and listening to the SIAM’s expectations, it was obvious that sustainability and education are important to the client. So, we focused on transformation in three areas: technological, ecological, and educational. We went all out and included a whole new educational building in our proposal. In the building, we will have a movie on a 360-degree screen, an escape game with challenges, and interactive smartphone tools – all aimed at providing visitors with a unique learning experience. School classes can visit and discover the water cycle, dive into biodiversity and learn the importance of protecting the Marne River and saving energy.’
Reduce and renew energy by innovating
New technological possibilities for recycling water also come into the picture at Marne-la-Vallée. Matthieu Comble: ‘In this particular contract with SIAM, we use CarboPlus® for the reuse of water and to treat micropollutants in the water. We designed a unit that will be built for the methanization of sludge to create biogas. And on top of that, we use intelligent software that combines data on electricity consumption with waterflow and weather data to provide the right parameters so an operator can be as effective and proactive as possible. I don’t believe in innovation for the sake of innovation; it only makes sense to innovate if it really allows us to protect the water better, or to reduce the energy level of a plant.’
‘Water is worth fighting for’
In Mathieu Comble's vision, water may well be the most important thing on earth, as we all depend on it. And it is worth fighting for, he says. ‘Starting from my very first day at Saur, almost twenty years ago, I have met with a passion for protecting water everywhere. It is really at the heart of what we do here every day. Over time, the pressure on water resources has become more and more intense. In my opinion, innovation is the only way to better protect water. So, if you want to choose a good fight to put your energy and talents into, water is worth it!’
