- 1Eligible SMEs and mid-cap companies with fewer than 500 employees, including micro-enterprises, in all sectors, including associations and the social and solidarity economy.
- 2Fixed fee of €10,000 excl. VAT: Bpifrance covers 40%, leaving €6,000 payable.
- 3A maximum of 10 months, in 3 phases: scope 1-2-3 assessment, quantified action plan, presentation to the executive committee.
- 4Apply in 30 minutes on the Bpifrance platform, approval in 2 to 4 weeks.
Diag Décarbon'Action: the facts
The Bpifrance × ADEME scheme for your first complete Bilan Carbone®, scopes 1, 2 and 3.
For an SME or mid-cap company, Diag Décarbon'Action is the simplest way to fund an initial complete Bilan Carbone®. The price is fixed at €10,000 excl. VAT, with a €4,000 grant from Bpifrance and ADEME: €6,000 excl. VAT remains payable. You receive a scope 1-2-3 assessment, a quantified action plan and a presentation to management, within a maximum of 10 months. This guide explains who it is for, what it funds, how to apply, the risks involved and what can follow.
1Diag Décarbon'Action in two minutes
Diag Décarbon'Action is a public programme run by Bpifrance and ADEME. It funds 40% of the cost of a complete Bilan Carbone® carried out by a listed provider. Unlike other decarbonisation grants, it requires no extensive application, call for projects or panel.
30 minutes to apply, a response within 2 to 4 weeks
The Bpifrance × ADEME scheme is open all year. You need an online application, your SIREN, your latest tax return documents and the name of your chosen listed provider.
- Measure your company's GHG emissions (scopes 1, 2 and 3).
- Develop your action plan to decarbonise your business.
- Engage your ecosystem by highlighting your commitment.
Companies with fewer than 500 employees, including micro-enterprises, with at least 1 year of activity and no GHG inventory in 5 years. High acceptance rate.
- Run by Bpifrance in partnership with ADEME
- List price of €10,000 excl. VAT, identical for all providers
- Grant of €4,000 (40%), paid to the provider
- €6,000 excl. VAT payable by the company
- An engagement lasting a maximum of 10 months in 3 phases
- Online application in 30 minutes, with a high acceptance rate
At the end of the engagement, 3 deliverables are handed to the company. This distinguishes the Diag from a simple footprint calculation: it requires an action plan, avoiding an assessment that ends up in a drawer.
- A complete Bilan Carbone® covering scopes 1, 2 and 3, using the ABC method (current version, known as V9)
- A quantified action plan, with opportunities prioritised by impact and feasibility
- A presentation to the executive committee and an externally usable report
2What Diag Décarbon'Action is for
For an SME that has never measured its carbon footprint, Diag Décarbon'Action serves 3 purposes: obtaining a credible figure, building an action plan that goes beyond intentions, and engaging management in quantified decisions. The final deliverable serves as a management tool to present to clients, investors, internal teams and sometimes customers starting to demand accountability.
What the Diag measures: scopes 1, 2 and 3
Diag Décarbon'Action covers all 3 scopes, distinguishing it from a simplified inventory.
- Fuels and combustion-engine fleet
- Buildings' natural gas
- Refrigerant leaks
- Electricity consumed
- Purchased heat and cooling
- Purchased goods and services
- Freight transport
- Product use and end of life
Scope 3 determines how useful the inventory is: a good provider refines it with physical data for critical categories.
The assessment covers the 3 scopes: on-site energy consumption (scope 1), purchased electricity and heat (scope 2), and all indirect categories often accounting for more than 80% of the total (scope 3: purchases, travel, goods transport, product end of life). Scope 3 determines the assessment's usefulness: a good provider refines it for critical categories using physical data, rather than settling for generic spend-based ratios.
3Companies eligible for Diag Décarbon'Action
The eligibility criteria are fairly broad: the vast majority of SMEs and mid-cap companies with fewer than 500 employees are eligible, including associations and social and solidarity economy organisations.
Are you eligible for Diag Décarbon'Action?
4 cumulative criteria. If you meet all 4, applying takes 30 minutes.
- Fewer than 500 employees, including micro-enterprises (the official programme factsheet sets no minimum headcount)
- All sectors: industry, services, commerce, construction, social and solidarity economy, associations, mutual societies
- Registered in France and in existence for at least 1 year
- No GHG assessment carried out in the past 5 years, through the Diag or otherwise, and no BEGES requirement (Article L. 229-25 of the Environmental Code)
- Each subsidiary with a distinct SIREN can apply for itself
The criterion most often excluding a company is recurrence: an entity that has carried out a GHG assessment, through the Diag or otherwise, in the past 5 years cannot apply. Subsidiaries of the same group can, however, apply separately if they have distinct SIRENs, which is useful for groups with multiple business units wanting to develop maturity gradually.
4The price: €6,000 excl. VAT after funding
Diag Décarbon'Action is one of the few public programmes with a fixed price: all listed providers charge €10,000 excl. VAT. Bpifrance covers 40% (€4,000), paid directly to the provider, and the company pays only the remaining €6,000 excl. VAT, generally in 2 instalments according to the provider's schedule.
What you pay, what Bpifrance covers
A €10,000 fee excluding VAT, funded at 40% by Bpifrance and ADEME: the amount payable is often lower than an annual carbon SaaS subscription.
Compared with the usual consultancy cost of a Bilan Carbone®, €10,000 to €30,000 excl. VAT depending on complexity and more likely €10,000 to €15,000 excl. VAT for a single-site SME, it offers very good value. It is often cheaper than an annual carbon SaaS subscription, for a deliverable including an action plan and presentation, where a self-service tool provides only a figure. The SaaS or consultancy choice therefore looks different when the Diag brings the consultancy to the same price level.
A complete Bilan Carbone® with an action plan for €6,000 excl. VAT, often less than an annual SaaS subscription.
5The process over a maximum of 10 months
Diag Décarbon'Action follows 3 successive phases over a maximum of 10 months, each with a specific objective, taking the assessment through to decisions.
The 3 phases of your assignment
A maximum of 10 months, from scoping to presentation to your executive committee.
Scope, internal lead, scopes 1-2-3 data collection.
60-70% of the company's workload.
Levers prioritised by impact and feasibility, quantified in tCO2e and investment.
Executive committee presentation, internal communication, BEGES publication if applicable.
Phase 1: data collection and footprint calculation (2 to 3 months)
This is the technical core of the engagement. The provider defines the organisational boundaries (which sites, subsidiaries) and operational boundaries (which scopes, what granularity). On the company side, an internal lead centralises collection: energy bills, consumption records, fleet data, purchase volumes, supplier information. Collection accounts for 60 to 70% of the company's workload, and the better the data are organised beforehand (management accounts, management tools), the faster this phase proceeds.
Phase 2: the action plan (1 to 2 months)
Based on the assessment results, the provider identifies reduction opportunities, ranks them by impact (tCO2e avoided) and feasibility (investment, timeframe, complexity), and builds a quantified plan. A good action plan does more than "reduce travel": it specifies how much, how, with what investment and for what saving. It distinguishes quick actions (a few months, low cost) from major investments (fleet replacement, energy renovation, supply chain redesign).
Phase 3: presentation and making use of the results (1 month)
Presentation to the executive committee or steering committee, internal communication and a summary for customers or suppliers. This phase is often rushed, although it anchors the subject in the organisation: an assessment presented only to the quality, safety and environment manager rarely changes anything, while a presentation to the executive committee with the right figures and decisions unlocks budgets.
6How to apply in 30 minutes
You apply online on the Bpifrance platform, and the form takes around thirty minutes to complete. The longest part is choosing your provider beforehand, because the platform asks you to name it when submitting the application.
- Step 1: identify a provider listed by Bpifrance and holding Bilan Carbone® certification (issued by the Institut de Formation Carbone)
- Step 2: arrange a free scoping call with this provider to check eligibility and ask your questions
- Step 3: complete the online form (company, motivation, chosen provider), with the provider's help if needed
- Step 4: wait for Bpifrance approval (2 to 4 weeks), then start; the acceptance rate is high for eligible SMEs
The scoping call also lets you assess the provider. If it sells the Diag in 20 minutes without asking about your sites, supply chain or available data, move on; one that takes 45 minutes to understand your context before discussing the method is a better choice.
7The risks of carrying out a Diag
The business leaders we support often ask what risks this assessment involves. Financially, legally and reputationally, the risk is low:
- Financially, the stakes remain moderate: €6,000 excl. VAT for a deliverable worth an average of €12,000 on the market. If the engagement goes badly, which is rare, the company loses a limited investment rather than a strategic budget
- Legally, the Diag commits you to nothing. The action plan is an internal management tool rather than an enforceable commitment, and creates no publication requirement: the programme is reserved for companies not subject to BEGES
- Reputationally, publishing an assessment rarely causes problems and instead becomes a positive signal for customers, partners and recruitment. Companies that feared outside scrutiny generally discover a figure neither heroic nor catastrophic, representative of their sector
The real risk is choosing your provider badly and obtaining a generic deliverable that will not support management. With a regulated price, it is the quality of support that varies: a provider running data collection workshops with operational teams obtains better data and stronger internal ownership than one emailing an Excel spreadsheet.
With an identical price across all listed providers, the consultancy is chosen on the quality of its support.
8After the Diag: natural next steps
Diag Décarbon'Action starts the process. Once the assessment is delivered, several next steps are possible depending on the company's profile and categories identified as critical.
The Diag's natural next steps
5 typical profiles and, for each, the work that logically follows the inventory.
- If upstream scope 3 is dominated by a few flagship products, a product life cycle assessment (LCA) breaks down a product's footprint and enables ecodesign of the range, for €8,000 to €15,000 per product, potentially co-funded by Bpifrance
- If the company becomes subject to BEGES, by exceeding 500 employees for example, its BEGES publication can draw on the method and data of the Bilan Carbone® carried out through the Diag
- If the company belongs to a group subject to CSRD or works for a client that is (since the Omnibus Directive, CSRD only targets companies with more than 1,000 employees and €450 million in turnover), the Diag material directly feeds their climate data requests under ESRS E1
- To go further on reduction, an operational action plan sets annual targets, leads for each opportunity and quarterly monitoring
- Industrial manufacturers should look at the Digital Product Passport and ESPR regulatory ecodesign, arriving between 2027 and 2030 depending on product families
In terms of grants, Diag Décarbon'Action funds the assessment itself. Other programmes can fund complementary engagements: Diag Éco-conception to investigate a product further, some regional grants, tax credits on certain investments. The same expenditure category cannot be subsidised 2 times: a regional grant for the same assessment therefore cannot be added to the Diag, and combining grants must be checked case by case with Bpifrance and the region.
9Key takeaways
Diag Décarbon'Action is one of the public programmes best tailored to an SME wanting a sound Bilan Carbone® without launching a tender or preparing a complex application: fixed price, reasonable amount payable, predictable duration, structured deliverables. Quality then depends mainly on choosing the provider.
- Eligible: companies with fewer than 500 employees, including micro-enterprises, in all sectors, including associations and the social and solidarity economy, with at least 1 year of activity and no GHG assessment in the past 5 years
- A €10,000 excl. VAT fixed fee with 40% covered, leaving €6,000 excl. VAT payable
- 12 days of work over a maximum of 10 months, in 3 phases (assessment, action plan, presentation)
- Outputs: a scope 1-2-3 Bilan Carbone®, a quantified action plan and a presentation to the executive committee
- A 30-minute online application on the Bpifrance platform, approved in 2 to 4 weeks
- Afterwards, depending on profile: product LCA, operational action plan, BEGES or responses to clients' CSRD requests
