The Center for Sustainable Materials is intended to help the CleanTech and green energy startups it hosts scale up more easily. It provides various services to help them put in place their industrial demonstrator faster, more cost-effectively and with greater reliability.
Startups can take advantage of best-in-class technical and manufacturing facilities as well as the specific expertise of the Michelin teams.
40,000 sq.m. of industrial space
8 companies established in 2025
700 jobs created in the long term
The Center for Sustainable Materials, which is managed and operated by Michelin, offers customizable industrial installations and provides support to enterprises at each stage of their setup right through to the launch of their operations.
Residents have access to the facilities, services and utilities of a large Michelin manufacturing site and can capitalize on the expertise of the teams and operators to develop their industrial demonstrators and ramp up swiftly.
The Center for Sustainable Materials differentiates itself by its unparalleled ability to bring together and work with a cluster of premium partners belonging to a collaborative and innovative ecosystem:
- Resident companies developing tangible solutions to meet sustainability requirements in the field of CleanTech and green energy.
- An open innovation biotech hub providing startups with access to precision fermentation capacities.
- Academic partners such as Clermont Auvergne University and the French National Scientific Research Center.
- Competitiveness clusters and accelerators: Axelera, Polymeris, Clermont Auvergne Innovation, Wilco.
The residents of the Center for Sustainable Materials are entitled to access the services offered by the other establishments of the Michelin Innovation Park - Cataroux: training in managerial skills from the Michelin Talent Campus and in industrial subjects from Hall 32, coworking spaces, coliving accommodation, the Le PIC food court and, from 2029, leisure and cultural activities organized in Le Quartier des Pistes.
The founders of the Center for Sustainable Materials were motivated by the desire to promote circular economy projects in the field of bio-based or recycled materials. The Center for Sustainable Materials is funded by five investors grouped in a real-estate company: Crédit Agricole Centre France, the Michelin Group, the Banque des
Territoires, the Caisse d’Epargne Auvergne Limousin and the Puy-de-Dôme Clermont Auvergne Metropole Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The first phase of development of the Center for Sustainable Materials kicked off in 2021 with the arrival of CARBIOS, a pioneer in designing and developing enzymatic recycling processes. Eight startups are currently working on an industrial project at the Center for Sustainable Materials.
By 2030, capacity will have grown three-fold, making it possible to support around twenty startups in their pre-industrial development phase and create 700 jobs.