Alisée, co-founder of Mollow: "I want to inspire rather than guilt-trip".

It takes a lot of courage to bang your fist, on LinkedIn, against a tourism industry that pollutes too much, a male-dominated inner circle in our institutions and government decisions that are too timid, at the age of 24. But if the Minister of the Economy needs to be given a dressing-down to transform travel, Alisée Pierrot won't be shy! Meet the co-founder of Mollow, a platform determined (as ever) to decarbonize tourism.  **Untz untz! Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?** I'm 24 years old and the co-founder of [Mollow](<https://www.mollow.eu/>), a platform that aims to **facilitate low-carbon travel** and sustainable mobility . I studied to become a**engineer** generalist, notably abroad. I gradually developed an environmental conscience. Definitely, increasing the productivity of a large company was not what I wanted. This questioning led me to choose a Master's degree in sustainable development, I really wanted to link my technical skills with the**climate emergency**. I thought I'd found it by working in a large CSR group, but I was frustrated not to be able to see the impact of my actions. I knew that a small project with a big impact was for me. I met Chiara, who was looking for beta-testers for Mollow. This project spoke to me enormously and I quickly joined her to develop it. Today, Mollow is \*\*+100 destinations accessible without plane or car \*\*in France and Europe, and **\+35,000 users every month!**  ## " In the beginning, quitting the plane was a bit of a mourning process" \*\*You created Mollow to "reinvent our imaginations of travel, and propose a positive vision of sobriety": why? \*\* I spent a lot of time **alone**, in ten or so European countries, as part of a student engineering association. These trips gave me a great deal of personal nourishment , and helped me to understand who I was and, ultimately, to understand others. But they also made **my ecological conscience blossom**. So I made the decision\*\* to stop flying\*\*. At first, it was a little **mourning**, as I had the feeling that I would no longer be able to indulge this passion. Mollow helped me understand that it was possible to travel differently, especially by train. I remembered the vacations in France that I'd loved as a child, often in the Alps. It was in realizing this that I realized we needed to **reinvent our imaginary** travels. I realized that to convince people, we needed to **inspire** them, not just make them feel guilty. \_ The magic of the aurora borealis in Sweden\_ \*\*What's your favorite train trip? \*\* ** Swedish Lapland**, for **my first night train**. A crazy atmosphere because I was with all my Erasmus friends. It's a relatively long journey. We left at 5pm and arrived at 10am. The whole time, it was pitch black. We disembarked in the middle of nowhere. On the quay, there was already several meters of snow. Three hours later, we were staying with **Samis**, the indigenous people of Lapland, waiting for the **Aurora borealis**, in a garden populated by reindeer. In short, it was exceptional! ## "On a bike, you're the master of your own adventure"  ** And your best bike trip?** I'm still a **novice** in bike travel, but I grew up in a\*\* road and mountain bike fan family\*\*. Above all, I was nurtured by all those simple trips to the Alps, which were \**crazy adventures*\* for me. I remember vacations when I was 7, when we'd set off with our **six bikes on the roof of the car**. For me, cycling to the lake was an adventure in itself! In retrospect, I think these vacations are just as fantastic as going to the other side of the world. We feel **free, masters of our own adventure**, proud of this accomplishment. What's more, cycling is accessible to all ages! As proof, my parents took up bikepacking at the age of 65 to combine their love of sport and nature!  **What role does cycling play in Mollow's mission?** For me, cycling is the \*\*best "adventure/carbon footprint" ratio. \*\*It's Mollow's mission to reduce the impact of transport, mobility and tourism. Yes, cycling doesn't take you very far, but the carbon footprint is almost 0. As soon as you get on a bike, it's already a small journey. For example, I recently discovered the \*\*Baie de Somme \*\*by[ renting a](<https://www.lokki.rent/loueur/velo-en-baie-de-somme>) bike for a weekend. It was a two-day break, ultra-disorientating. I didn't think about anything, just pedaling. It cost me next to nothing, but I came back with a lot of great memories. ## "In Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands, bicycle rental systems are accessible and very simple" ** How do bicycle travel and rail travel complement each other from a sustainable tourism perspective?** The most likely perspective, in my opinion, is that of the **last kilometer**. We can already reach a large number of cities by train. But the vast majority of people live far from these cities. So they need to be able to **decarbonized**, once they've arrived at the station, to get to their holiday or leisure destination. Bicycles can **solve this problem.** The problem is that today, it's still very complicated to take your bike on the train, not only because there isn't enough room in the carriages, but also because arriving at the station remains . However, I have observed some interesting solutions in \*\*Flemish \*\*Belgium and in the **Netherlands**. There are very simple and accessible systems for renting a quality bike, even for several days, directly at the station. Why not duplicate this in France? **How can the imagination revolutionize the tourism industry?** I think this is THE key to **revolutionizing travel**. Even today, when people think of this word, they systematically have in mind: s**able fin, airplanes, turquoise water, far away**. This imaginary is created by the images we see all day long, through **media, influencers, advertisements**. A study by [Greenpeace](<https://www.greenpeace.fr/>) demonstrated this again recently. The tourism industry is therefore highly polluting. It accounts for 11% of France's carbon footprint, largely due to **transport**, in particular the**airplane**. But what is tourism? It's about**getting away from it all**, having fun, satisfying our imaginations. So if we manage to replace these imaginations with travel stories **closer**, \*\*longer \*\*time, simpler things, longer in one and the same **place,** doing new **activities**, it's going to turn everything upside down. The tourism industry is simply responding to demand. ## " Things are changing. In three years' time, we'll be in a completely different reality" * Italy's shimmering colors* **Are you feeling optimistic about this mission?** It depends on the day. Sometimes, I can see that **things are changing**, not least because I'm lucky enough to discover new, innovative initiatives, with small or large budgets. But when I meet the **big world of tourism**, I realize the infinite distance still to be covered. When I hear, for example, that we need to push fair trade tourism to the farthest reaches of Africa, because it helps local populations and is virtuous, when we know that it's **not sustainable to make long-haul round trips every year**, it scares me. That said, over the last two years, there's been a **craze for the crazy train**. I'm a great believer in the snowball effect, and in three years' time, we'll be in another reality. ## "Yesterday, night trains were scary. Today, it's a big hit!"  **What concrete evidence is there that things are changing?** Only five years ago, the SNCF \**wanted to stop all night trains*\*. It has taken the gamble of relaunching a majority of them in 2021, and in 2022 and 2023, these are the trains on which ridership is \**increasing*\* the most, by far! Today, night trains are almost all \**full*\* 🔥. It's a journey that makes many people dream, whereas only yesterday it was frightening, including my own parents... *In Sweden, where Alisée lived for her engineering studies* ** How can we change these imaginations?** The **advertising**, of course, on the **industry** and **personalities**. For example, all the communication around **rugby** teams taking the train was very powerful, even if in terms of environmental impact, it weighed little. People say to themselves: My favorite celebrity is taking the train to France, instead of saying: "Look at me in my jet to Dubai, that'll change everything". And then there's **monsieur tout le monde**, you, me, the others. There's nothing stronger than your buddy who makes you dream by telling you about his incredible trip to the farthest reaches of Austria in the mountains by train and bike. You identify with it, it makes you want to... Inspired by the positive , it's very powerful, if you want real change, which, if you follow the Greenpeace figures, means flying only a few times in your life. ## " I believe in the power of positive inspiration, but we won't be able to do without regulation in the face of urgency"  **Do you think we'll be able to do without legal regulation if we manage to convince the masses through imagination?** Unfortunately, I don't think it will be enough in the face of climate urgency. It's a very complex subject, because it raises the question of **social justice**. What about a Frenchman, for example, who can't visit his ailing mother on the other side of the world? How do you judge which **flights are really important** and which are less so?  **What's your proudest achievement with Mollow?** Having created a large community of **decarbonated travelers** who show that it's possible and enjoyable to travel differently. When I meet people who tell me they went to Italy by train thanks to Mollow, I think it's great. **Do you have a message to pass on?** I'd like to stay on a note of hope . Trains and bicycles are exploding. We're seeing a lot more of them, people want them, and some government promises are being made. A **100 billion budget for rail**, the Rail pass, by next summer. It's far from ideal, but it's a very\*\* good first step\*\*.

 Music for long bike rides: [Viva La Vida - Coldplay](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4zdDXPYo0I>) Music for uphill rides: [Temperature - Sean Paul](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW2MmuA1nI4>) Reading to discover sustainable travel:[ Le monde en hitch, by Ludovic Hubler](<https://www.babelio.com/livres/Hubler-Le-monde-en-stop/837950>) (Le monde en hitch, by Ludovic Hubler) (not totally decarbonized, but focused on slow travel and meeting people!)