Atalian – carbon accounting and decarbonization strategy

March 21, 2025

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  • Needl helped us find freelancers perfectly suited to our needs and our company thanks to its tailored, rich and diverse solution. This flexibility is essential for a company like ours — it allows us to optimize our budget, work with high-level senior experts, and meet tight deadlines.
    Alexandra Fichelson - Head of ESG - Atalian

Context & Challenges

As a leading European facility management group, Atalian faces growing pressure from clients and regulators to disclose and reduce its carbon footprint.While the company had already calculated its Scope 1 and 2 emissions for French sites, it needed to expand its carbon reporting to Scope 3 and define a science-based decarbonization pathway.

  • Sector: Facility Management – Cleaning, Technical Services, Security, Front Desk

  • Activity: International service provider for outsourced business operations

  • Revenues: > €2 billion

  • Employees: ~100,000 across 19 countries

Approach & Methodology

The project was structured into two core phases, with an optional third stage dedicated to long-term decarbonization strategy:

Methodology Design

Step 1

Description of step1

Data Support & Collection

Step 2

Continuous monitoring of data integration within the Group’s IS Technical and methodological support to internal teams during data collection Regular follow-up meetings with operational teams

Quality control and consistency checks

Step 3

Quality control and consistency checks across scopes 1, 2 and 3

Key Success Factors


  • Expertise in low-carbon strategy and carbon accounting, backed by certified Bilan Carbone and SBTi methodologies

  • Seamless coordination between Needl, and Atalian’s sustainability and IT teams

  • Strong emphasis on data integrity, regulatory compliance, and internal capacity building

  • Pragmatic, step-by-step approach enabling fast progress toward net-zero goals

Results & Impacts


  • Creation of a robust, standardized carbon-accounting framework covering Scopes 1–3 across all business units

  • Alignment of Atalian’s carbon reporting with CSRD and BEGES requirements

  • Strengthened internal governance and data quality on climate topics

  • Improved collaboration between operational, financial, and sustainability teams

  • A clear, data-driven pathway to decarbonization, empowering the Group to set science-based targets and communicate progress transparently