Circular economy: a quartet from the School rewarded at the 2025 Forces AVENIR Gala
October 29, 2025
A group of students from the School won the university-level AVENIR Environment award at the 2025 Forces AVENIR Gala, which aims to recognize, honour and promote student commitment.
Three current students from the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program, Armel Collignon, Orlane Fouquet and Louis Félix Toupin, and 2025 BBA graduate Maëlie Fouquet excelled thanks to their VerrAvenir project.
Founded in 2024, this project was inspired by a simple observation: Quebec’s wine industry relies heavily on single-use bottles, leading to massive imports, high costs, and a significant environmental impact. Driven by a desire to reduce the carbon footprint of the local wine industry, and to provide an innovative solution, the team developed their concept.
What is VerrAvenir’s mission? “In collaboration with local restaurateurs and producers, we are giving wine bottles a second life,” state the four colleagues. “Besides promoting local reuse, reducing transportation-related emissions, and limiting landfill waste, we are contributing concretely to a circular, sustainable economy rooted in Quebec’s reality.”
Orlane Fouquet, Armel Collignon and Louis Félix Toupin. (Not in the picture : Maëlie Fouquet.)
In January 2025, the four young entrepreneurs joined the La base entrepreneuriale HEC Montréal incubator, as part of the Éclosion program. VerrAvenir aims to collect 10,000 used bottles by the end of 2025, and 72,000 in 2026, thereby preventing the generation of 39 tonnes of CO2, which is equal to driving 135,000 km by car.