Leveraging climate science for coastal communities: interview with Nicolas Occhiminuti (EDHEC 2002) and Minh Trinh (EDHEC 1999), co-founders of Waves of Change

In January 2026, the EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI) – the entity that groups together all of EDHEC Business School’s climate-related research – forged a collaboration with Waves of Change, a public-interest association set up to help future-proof coastal communities and their ecosystems. Through this co-operation, the association will use the ECI’s work – particularly on physical climate risks such as rising sea levels and coastal erosion – to further its projects designed to assist areas vulnerable to climate change. 

Waves of Change was co-founded by two EDHEC alumni: Nicolas Occhiminuti (EDHEC 2002), now chief executive of the association, and Minh Trinh (EDHEC 1999), treasurer. In this interview, they discuss the origins of the project, its scope and their pride in contributing to the School’s climate research initiatives.

What prompted you to create Waves of Change?

Nicolas Occhiminuti: After 10 years working in the corporate digital transformation field, I wanted to apply my skills for the common good and particularly environmental transition. I’ve also got a personal link with Biarritz, the place where I first splashed about in the sea. I wanted to help preserve the region.

Minh Trinh: Back in 2018-2019, there still wasn’t much talk about impact in Europe. We noticed that scientists, investors, businesses, NGOs and entrepreneurs worked in silos, without any real interaction between them. We wanted to bring these worlds together in order to accelerate concrete environmental projects. Our first project was to create an international forum on a human scale, conducive to slow business and where the focus was on high-quality exchanges rather than on just amassing visiting cards. Thanks to our entrepreneurial experience, Nicolas and I spotted that there was a real opportunity to be had… and we took the plunge right in the middle of Covid! 

Nicolas Occhiminuti: The way we complemented each other as co-founders was a real factor in taking the plunge. We had different, but deeply synergistic, skills. Minh has solid expertise in financing and intellectual property. Patrick is specialised in energy transition, while Danielle – who we still call “Madam Ocean” – is a trained oceanographer and a scientific journalist. For my part, I contribute with my experience in marketing and innovation.

What achievements are you particularly proud of?

Minh Trinh: I’m really proud of our Coastal Impact Facility, a financing catalyst launched in April 2025. The goal is to make coastal projects more attractive and replicable on a large scale and to de-risk them – whether they concern water management, waste, energy transition, sustainable mobility or public health – and thereby attract both private and public investors. We’re aiming to drum up €500m of investments to respond to the challenges facing coastal communities and their ecosystems. In less than a year, we’ve already raised significant amounts, notably from AXA and the European Union. And of course, as an alumnus, our partnership with the ECI realises a dream for me, by allowing me to work with my School and thus multiply the impact of our projects.

Nicolas Occhiminuti: Our resilience, as symbolised by our annual international forum! Launched at the end of 2019 with 50 masked participants at the height of Covid, our forum has now become a major international event. We’re also proud of the loyalty shown by our partners and patrons who’ve accompanied us since the start. Lastly, a high point was our active participation in the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice in 2025. We organised four events for the conference, including the Ocean Impact Forum with EDHEC Alumni and EDHEC Business School on the School’s Nice campus.

Why did you choose to team up with the EDHEC Climate Institute?

Nicolas Occhiminuti: It was a natural step. After our joint event during UNOC, it was only logical to take things further. The ECI is unique in its ability to offer rigorous, applied, finance- and climate-oriented expertise.

Minh Trinh: At UNOC, I had the chance to talk with Emmanuel Métais, Dean of EDHEC and my former professor of strategy. He presented the ambitions of the EDHEC Climate Institute, which is an offshoot of the EDHEC Risk Institute. We have the same desire as the ECI, namely to bring climate researchers and scientists together with finance practitioners.

Our respective ecosystems are also highly complementary: EDHEC is firmly rooted in the financial and corporate spheres, while Waves of Change works closely with regions and communities. If we manage to get these two universes to converse, we can put finance professionals in contact with coastal communities and get them to discuss the resilience of coastal infrastructures. 

How is the partnership organised?

Minh Trinh: It’s organised around interventions involving both members of Waves of Change and the ECI, together with the launch of a joint chair devoted to coastal resilience. The partnership’s work will be made available to finance professionals and we will also be striving to foster relations between actors out in the field, infrastructure managers and investors.

Which aspects of the EDHEC Climate Institute’s research work do you want to harness?

Minh Trinh: We’re going to start by using the Institute’s recently launched ClimaTech database. It will enable managers of coastal assets to assess the vulnerability of their infrastructure. Our role will then be to assist these actors in appropriating this tool, so as to provide insight for their investment decisions. We also want to familiarise the start-ups we support with EDHEC’s work on physical risk, so that they can develop technologies aligned with the climate adaptation issues they face.  

Nicolas Occhiminuti: We’re going to leverage the centre’s research for our Coastguard Cities project, a flagship programme for adapting coastal cities and their infrastructure to climate risks and especially flooding. For example, we’ve chosen a pilot region where we’re currently developing urban planning methodologies which we plan to feed with the ECI’s ClimaTech database and expertise.

In March 2026, we’ll also be running a joint workshop on the subject at the annual ChangeNOW summit, in order to test and deploy these approaches on our seven verticals: water, waste & circularity, coastal adaptation, sustainable mobility, energy transition, tourism & local communities and biodiversity & public health.  

The chair’s activities also include the creation of a knowledge hub devoted to the regenerative blue or coastal economy. This hub is much more than a static platform bringing together data and case studies. Instead, it’s primarily a human ecosystem, designed to connect actors, harness the most appropriate expertise and support infrastructure and asset owners in their strategic decisions.

As EDHEC alumni, what does it mean to you to come back and work together with the School?

Nicolas Occhiminuti: It’s a way to close the circle. Contributing to the School’s development in a different way, via innovation and applied research was a dimension of the School that passed me by when I was a student, but which now means a lot more to me. And the fact that the partnership focuses on coastal areas – a legacy for future generations – is particularly symbolic.

Minh Trinh: I’m really proud of it. I imagined contributing to the School one day by recruiting interns, but I’m actually doing it by supporting one of the School’s strategic research centres, via a not-for-profit that I co-founded, on subjects that really mean a lot to me. I’m making a contribution for future generations, albeit at my scale, but one that I feel’s really important.