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Strategy Management and Institutional Effectiveness (SMIE) comprise different functions that work together to advance AUC’s mission and promote effective decision making.

Across these specializations, we offer a variety of services and products to support AUC academic and administrative units, as well as outside constituencies, with planning, assessment, accreditation, research and data analysis needs.

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Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship (BBE)

A successful economic future for Egypt and the Middle East is highly concerned with a basic understanding of the principles and practices of business as they apply to firms in a dynamic environment. The business administration curriculum provides students with a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences while enabling them to develop expertise in business management and practices. Major emphasis is placed on the role of business in Egypt and the Middle East. This new program is built on the previous BBA program, with additional emphasis on business integration and entrepreneurship to cater to the current market needs for graduates with holistic business knowledge & entrepreneurial skills.

Declaration Policy

The number of students accepted in the Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship program is limited and is filled through the declaration of major process. Students who seek to be admitted to the Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship program should apply in their third semester. Students seeking to declare the BBE program must have completed not less than 27 credit hours of study including the four courses listed below.

• ACCT 201/2001 - Financial Accounting (3 cr.)    
• ECON 201/2021 - Introduction to Macroeconomics (3 cr.)    or  ECON 202/2011 - Introduction to Microeconomics (3 cr.)    
• MACT 210/2222 - Statistics for Business (3 cr.)    
• BADM 203/2001 - Introduction to Business (3 cr.)    

Based on the available space, a limited number of students who have successfully completed these courses and who meet the declaration requirements as determined by the department will be accepted in the major. The selection of students into the BBE Major is competitive and will depend on the calculation of an equal weighted score between: I. Overall GPA The Overall GPA will be calculated using the following criteria: A minimum of 27 credit hours must be completed. All courses a student has completed will be included in the calculation, excluding, in certain cases, the course with the lowest grade*. * A student could be eligible to have his/her lowest grade excluded from the calculation of the Overall GPA if he/she has completed 30 or more credit hours. II. Major GPA The Major GPA based will be calculated using the following criteria: A minimum of 12 credit hours of courses related to the Business Major must be completed. All Business Major courses, including collateral courses, that the student has completed will be included in the calculation, excluding, in certain cases, the course with the lowest grade*. * A student could be eligible to have his/her lowest grade excluded from calculating the major related GPA if he/she has completed 15 or more credit hours.

Admission to the Business & Entrepreneurship major is competitive. Eligible students will be ranked and selected based on their weighted grade point average.

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Students must complete a minimum of 127 credit hours for the Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship degree in the following areas: I. Core Curriculum (37 credits), II. Collateral Requirements (18 credits), III. Business Core Requirements (45 credits), IV. Track Requirements (15 credits), V. General Electives (12 credits).

I. Core Curriculum (37 credits)

The remaining 3 credit hours required to satisfy the Core are fulfilled by completing the course  BADM 480/4001 - Business Planning and Strategy (3 cr.)   .

II. Collateral Requirements (18 credits)

All students seeking a Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship degree must complete the following collateral requirements:

• ACCT 201/2001 - Financial Accounting (3 cr.)
• ACCT 202/2002 - Managerial Accounting (3 cr.)
• ECON 201/2021 - Introduction to Macroeconomics (3 cr.)
• ECON 202/2011 - Introduction to Microeconomics (3 cr.)
• MACT 210/2222 - Statistics for Business (3 cr.)
• RHET 320/3210 - Business Communication (3 cr.)

III. Business Core Requirements (45 credits)

• BADM 203/2001 - Introduction to Business (3 cr.)
• BADM 301/3002 - International Business (3 cr.)
• BADM 300/3003 - Business Environment and Ethics (3 cr.)
• BADM 480/4001 - Business Planning and Strategy (3 cr.) *
• BADM 000/4999 - Internship and Assessment (0 cr.)
• ENTR 413/4102 - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (3 cr.)
• ENTR 000/4503 - Digital Strategy (3 cr.)
• FINC 303/2101 - Business Finance I (3 cr.)
• MGMT 311/3301 - Business Law (Commercial & Fiscal) (3 cr.)
• MGMT 404/4202 - Managing the Human Capital (3 cr.)
• MKTG 302/2101 - Principles of Marketing (3 cr.)
• MKTG 405/3201 - Marketing Research (3 cr.)
• MOIS 305/2101 - Introduction to Information Systems/Technology (3 cr.)
• OPMG 310/3201 - Operations for Competitive Advantage (3 cr.)
• OPMG 401/4301 - Supply Chain Management (3 cr.)
• BADM 000/4900 - Graduation Project (3 cr.)

* Business Planning and Strategy is the capstone course for this major.

IV. Track Requirements (15 credits)

Choose one Track from:

A. Entrepreneurship track

Choose 15 credits from the track:

• ENTR 417/4301 - Entrepreneurship Lab: Developing and Launching a New Venture (3 cr.)
• ENTR 419/4303 - Social Entrepreneurship (3 cr.)
• ENTR 418/4302 - Corporate Entrepreneurship (3 cr.)
• ENTR 420/4501 - Family Business (3 cr.)
• ENTR 421/4502 - Innovation and Technology (3 cr.)
• ENTR 470/4970 - Special Topics in Entrepreneurship (3 cr.)

B. Corporate Track

Choose 15 credits from the track with a max of 6 credits in each area:

• MGMT 470/4970 - Special Topics in Management (3 cr.) *

MKTG, FINC, ENTR, MICT electives (*)Different topics can be counted as different electives

V. General Electives (12 credits)

Co-op (3 cr.).

Students majoring within the School of Business who meet other relevant criteria are eligible to apply for the optional BUSC 000/4000 - Experiential Learning : CO-OP (3 cr.)    as part of their general electives. Selection is highly competitive, subject to limited capacity, and based on criteria set by the School of Business. Students enrolled in  BUSC 4000    are not permitted to concurrently enroll in any other course.

HR Strategic Partner

Transform hr strategy into business impact.

Enhance your strategic mindset, develop superior HR leadership skills, and drive business performance with our HR Strategic Partner program.

Course Info

*Blended programs combine both live online sessions and on-campus sessions. In exceptional circumstances, participants who cannot attend on-campus sessions will be accommodated. For inquiries, call 15592. ** Click here for the Detailed Schedule.   Schedules are subject to change. It is the participant’s responsibility to check the latest schedule on the website before enrollment.

In today's rapidly changing business landscape, HR Business Partnering emerges as a pivotal function, demanding individuals to be innovative, adaptable, and strategic.

Our HR Strategic Partner program is purposefully designed to arm HR professionals with the essential skills and mindset to excel as effective HR partners. The program aids in aligning HR strategy with business goals, enhancing communication abilities, managing conflicts, fostering trust and relationships, and leading teams and stakeholders effectively.

Upon completing the program, participants will possess the confidence and abilities to steer their organization's HR function proficiently, leading to enhanced performance, productivity, and profitability.

• Explore the evolution of HR and its diverse roles.
• Acquire strategic thinking and learn to connect business strategy with HR strategy.
• Develop key competencies for impactful HR leadership, including communication, conflict management, stakeholder management, and critical thinking.
• Apply knowledge and skills to analyze and solve business cases
• HR professionals tasked with developing and implementing HR strategies in line with the overall business strategy
• HR professionals seeking to improve their communication and collaboration skills to effectively partner with business leaders and stakeholders
• HR professionals aiming to learn how to identify and address HR-related challenges and opportunities impacting the organization's bottom line
• HR professionals interested in advancing their HR careers and assuming more strategic roles within their organizations
• Holders of the Advanced HR Certificate

Module 1 – People and Organizations New Mindset (1 session)

• Evolution of HR and how the mindset shifted, and the different roles of HR

Module 2 – Strategic Thinking and Business Strategy (4 sessions)

• How to link business strategy to HR strategy
• HR Added Value

Module 3 – Effective HR Leader Competencies (5 sessions)

• Competency Framework of HR
• Communication
• Influence & Conflict Management
• Trust – Stakeholder management – Building relationships

Admission Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree
• A minimum of four years of relevant work experience
• Proficiency in written and spoken English

Admission Process

• Original Bachelor’s degree certificate
• National Identification card (ID)/passport
• Fill in the application and upload the above PDF documents
• The Admissions Committee will review your application and contact you if needed
• You will receive an acceptance email specifying the next steps for online payment. Your registration is confirmed upon payment

For any inquiries regarding the application process, contact us at  15592  or by  email .

Upon successful completion of this program, participants can embark on their HR career progression journey towards earning the prestigious Strategic HR Diploma . To qualify for this esteemed certification, participants are required to complete the following programs successfully:

• Advanced HR Certificate

Organizational Culture Program

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*For payment options, refer to the payment section FAQs on our website or contact us on 15592.

AUC's School of Business Executive Education has joined  ValU , flexible payment plans for up to five years with the lowest interest rate. 

To cancel your registration in the program, please fill out this  form .

A full refund will be provided for cancellations made seven days or more before the start date of the course.

No refund will be provided for cancellations made six days or less before the start date of the course.

Refunds will be issued to the same payment method used to make the initial payment. Refunds to credit cards are processed within 30 days, provided that the participant has the actual credit card and the POS receipt or bank statement while requesting the refund.

Refunds of alliance programs are subject to the conditions of the alliance partner.

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Nissan launches The Arc business plan to drive value and enhance competitiveness and profitability

March 25, 2024

• Nissan targets additional 1-million-unit sales compared to fiscal year 2023 and operating profit margin of more than 6% by end of fiscal year 2026
• 30 new models to be launched by fiscal year 2026, of which 16 will be electrified
• 60% of internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger-vehicle models to be refreshed by fiscal year 2026
• EV competitiveness to be enhanced by reducing cost of next-generation EVs by 30% and achieving EV and ICE vehicle cost parity by fiscal year 2030
• Significant next-generation EV cost reduction to be achieved through grouped “family” development, with vehicle production under the approach starting in fiscal year 2027
• Strategic partnerships expanded into technology, product portfolio and software services
• Dividends and buybacks to target total shareholder return of more than 30%
• New business ventures to unlock a potential 2.5 trillion yen in additional revenues by fiscal year 2030
• Significant next-generation EV cost reduction to be achieved through grouped “family” development, with vehicle production under the approach starting in fiscal year 2027

YOKOHAMA, Japan: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, today launched The Arc, its new business plan to drive value and strengthen competitiveness. The plan is focused on a broad-based product offensive, increased electrification, new approaches to engineering and manufacturing, the adoption of new technologies, and the use of strategic partnerships to increase global unit sales and improve profitability.

The plan is positioned as a bridge between the Nissan NEXT business transformation plan running from fiscal* 2020 through fiscal 2023 and Nissan Ambition 2030 , the company’s long-term vision. The new plan is split into mid-term imperatives for fiscal years 2024 through 2026, and mid-long-term actions to be carried out through 2030.

Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer Makoto Uchida said: “The Arc plan shows our path to the future. It illustrates our continuous progression and ability to navigate changing market conditions. This plan will enable us to go further and faster in driving value and competitiveness. Faced with extreme market volatility, Nissan is taking decisive actions guided by the new plan to ensure sustainable growth and profitability.”

Under the two-part plan, Nissan will first take actions to ensure volume growth through a tailored regional strategy and prepare for an accelerated transition to EVs, supported by a balanced electrified/ICE product portfolio, volume growth in major markets and financial discipline. Through these initiatives Nissan aims to lift annual sales by 1 million units and increase its operating profit margin to more than 6%, both by the end of fiscal year 2026. This will pave the way for the second part of the plan aimed to enable the EV transition and realize long-term profitable growth, supported by smart partnerships, enhanced EV competitiveness, differentiated innovations and new revenue streams. By fiscal year 2030, Nissan sees a revenue potential of 2.5 trillion yen from new business opportunities.

Balanced product portfolio

Nissan plans to launch 30 new models over the next three years, of which 16 will be electrified, and 14 will be ICE models, to meet the diversified customer needs in markets where the pace of electrification differs. Nissan plans to launch a total of 34 electrified models from fiscal year 2024 and 2030 to cover all segments, with the model mix of electrified vehicles expected to account for 40% globally by fiscal year 2026 and rise to 60% by the end of the decade.

Ensuring market growth through a tailored regional strategy

In key regions and markets, Nissan’s actions by fiscal year 2026 (unless otherwise indicated) include:

• Increase across-region sales by 330,000 units (in fiscal year 2026 and compared to fiscal year 2023) and invest 200 million USD in integrated customer experience in the U.S.
• In the U.S. and Canada: Launch seven all-new models
• In the U.S.: Refresh 78% of passenger vehicle line-up for Nissan brand and launch e-POWER and plug-in hybrid models
• Refresh 73% of Nissan-brand models and launch eight new-energy vehicles (NEVs), including four Nissan-branded models
• Target 1-million-unit sales in fiscal year 2026, representing an increase of 200,000 units
• Start vehicle exports in 2025; Aim for 100,000 unit level
• Continue to optimize production capacity with local partners
• Refresh 80% of passenger model line-up, launching five all-new models
• Achieve a 70% electrified level in passenger vehicle line-up
• Increase sales by 90,000 units (compared to fiscal year 2023) to 600,000 units in fiscal year 2026

Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania:

• Increase across-region sales units by 300,000 units (in fiscal year 2026 and compared to fiscal year 2023)
• In Europe: Launch six all-new models; achieve 40% EV passenger-vehicle sales mix
• In the Middle East: Launch five all-new SUVs
• In India: Launch three all-new models and become a hub for exports, at a level of 100,000 units
• In Oceania: Launch a 1-ton pickup and introduce a C crossover EV
• In Africa: Launch two all-new SUVs and expand A-segment ICE vehicle

EV competitiveness

The product offensive will be supported by new development and manufacturing approaches aimed to make EVs more affordable and increase profitability. By developing EVs in families, integrating powertrains, utilizing next-generation modular manufacturing, group sourcing, and battery innovations, Nissan aims to reduce the cost of next-generation EVs by 30% (when compared to the current model Ariya crossover) and achieve cost-parity between EVs and ICE models by fiscal year 2030.

In the area of family development alone, the cost of subsequent vehicles – those developed based on the main vehicle in the family – can be reduced by 50%, the variation of trim parts reduced by 70% and development lead time shortened by four months. By adopting modular manufacturing, the vehicle production line will be shortened, reducing the production time per vehicle by 20%.

Under the Arc plan, more plants in Japan and overseas will adopt the Nissan Intelligent Factory concept, with the Oppama and Nissan Motor Kyushu plants in Japan, the Sunderland Plant in the UK and Canton and Smyrna plants in the U.S. starting the adoption from fiscal year 2026 through 2030. Meanwhile the EV36Zero production approach will be extended from Sunderland in the UK to plants including Canton, Decherd and Smyrna in the U.S., and Tochigi and Kyushu in Japan from fiscal year 2025 through 2028.

New technologies

The plan includes proposals to accelerate the evolution of vehicle intelligence technologies such as next-generation ProPILOT driver-assistance system, which realize door-to-door autonomous driving technology from on-highway to off-highway, private premises, and parking.

Nissan will offer enhanced NCM li-ion, LFP and all solid-state batteries to provide diversified EVs to meet different customer needs. Nissan will significantly enhance NCM li-ion batteries, reducing quick-charging time by 50% and increasing energy density by 50% compared to the Ariya. LFP batteries, to be developed and produced in Japan, will be launched that will reduce cost by 30% compared to the Sakura EV minivehicle. New EVs with enhanced NCM li-ion, LFP and all-solid-state batteries will be launched in fiscal year 2028.

Strategic partnerships

Nissan will harness strategic partnerships to stay competitive and offer a global portfolio of products and technology. Nissan will continue to leverage the alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors in Europe, LATAM, ASEAN and India. In China, Nissan will fully utilize its local assets to meet the needs of China and beyond; and explore new partnerships in Japan and the U.S. Batteries will be developed and sourced with partners to bring 135 gigawatt hours of global capacity.

Financial discipline to deliver resilient, profitable performance

Underpinning the plan is firm financial discipline, enabling stable CAPEX and R&D investment ratio versus net revenue of between 7% to 8% excluding battery capacity investment. Additionally, Nissan plans to invest more than 400 billion yen in battery capacity. Meanwhile, investment in electrification will increase progressively, becoming more than 70% by fiscal year 2026.

Managing these investments is aimed to allow delivering benefits to all stakeholders, with Nissan maintaining positive free cash flow before M&A – even after electrification investments. This is to secure total shareholder return at more than 30%. Nissan aims to maintain net cash at a healthy level of 1 trillion yen throughout the Arc plan period.

“Under this comprehensive plan we will enhance Nissan’s competitiveness and achieve sustainable profitability,” added Uchida. “Nissan is confident that it has what it takes to properly execute this plan, which will provide us with the firm foundation we need to bridge to our Nissan Ambition 2030 vision.”

*Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. fiscal years run from April 1 through March 31

Contact [email protected]

For more information about our products, services and commitment to sustainable mobility, visit nissan-global.com . You can also follow us on Facebook , Instagram , X and LinkedIn and see all our latest videos on YouTube .

• Press release - Nissan launches The Arc business plan to drive value and enhance competitiveness and profitability.pdf (116 KB)
• 2024 03 25 Nissan launches The Arc business plan - Presentation Slides_EN.pdf (79.26 MB)

Related Links

• The Arc：日産経営計画
• The Arc: Nissan Business Plan

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4 tax strategies for investors, regardless of who wins the presidency, according to UBS

• There are four strategies investors can adopt to manage tax liabilities, regardless of who wins the 2024 election, according to UBS.
• The firm says investors should diversify their tax statements and defer capital gains for as long as they can.
• They should also ramp up lifetime gifting now and find a trust and estate lawyer, UBS says.

Depending on who is sitting in the Oval Office for the next presidential term, fiscal policy is going to look pretty different, UBS said. But whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden wins, Americans can take steps now to shore up their tax strategies.

"Regardless of whom voters decide to return to office, the accumulated federal deficit is likely to serve as an ever larger constraint on future fiscal policy," UBS analysts wrote in a note. "As interest rates have risen, it has become progressively more expensive to finance the federal deficit."

Related stories

According to the analysts, there are four strategies investors can adopt to manage tax liabilities, regardless of who wins the 2024 general election.

First, investors can (1) diversify their tax treatments. That means distributing wealth across various accounts subject to different rules, like taxable ones, tax-deferred, or tax exempt, UBS said. Doing so will give investors more leeway by being able to choose which retirement fund to withdraw from depending on which is one is more tax-efficient in that year.

Second, investors should (2) defer capital gains for as long as they can, the analysts wrote. Instead of trying to cash in on investments and paying taxes on them today, investors could benefit from holding onto those investments which will make more money and face a smaller capital gains tax rate increase in the future.

Another strategy is (3) accelerating lifetime gifting . There is a certain amount of money you can give away tax-free, but that lifetime gift and estate tax exemption looks like it's going to be reduced, analysts said. So it's better to give away the money you want to parcel up sooner rather than later so you can avoid paying higher taxes on it.

Finally, investors can (4) get moving on estate planning . After the election results roll in, trust and estate lawyers will face a deluge of families seeking estate planning advice. That means investors will benefit from being proactive and getting started earlier, ensuring they have access to key resources beforehand, UBS said.

Watch: Donald Trump announces 2024 presidential run amid legal woes

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In France, the Future Is Arriving on a Barge

The Seine is becoming a test case for a European plan to cut carbon emissions by turning rivers into the new highways.

A barge filled with items for Franprix supermarkets in Paris made its way along the Seine, not far from the Eiffel Tower. Credit...

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By Liz Alderman

Photographs and Video by James Hill

Reported and photographed along the Seine, between Le Havre and Paris.

• March 26, 2024

As pale morning light flickered across the Seine, Capt. Freddy Badar steered his hulking river barge, Le Bosphore, past picturesque Normandy villages and snow-fringed woodlands, setting a course for Paris.

Onboard were containers packed with furniture, electronics and clothing loaded the night before from a cargo ship that had docked in Le Havre, the seaport in northern France. Had the cargo continued by road, 120 trucks would have clogged the highways. Using Le Bosphore and its crew of four prevented tons of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.

“The river is part of a wider solution for cleaner transport and the environment,” Captain Badar said, his eyes scanning other vessels carrying wares up and down the Seine. “But there’s much more that we could be doing.”

As the European Union steps up its battle against climate change, it needs to decarbonize freight transport , responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

To get there, it is turning back to a centuries-old solution: its rivers. With 23,000 miles of waterways spanning the European Union, officials see a huge potential to help take trucks — the biggest source of freight emissions — off roads. The European Green Deal , the European Union’s decarbonization blueprint, would turn rivers into highways and double barge traffic by 2050.

There’s a lot of room for improvement. Today, rivers carry less than 2 percent of Europe’s freight. By comparison, around 6.5 million trucks crisscross Europe’s roads, accounting for 80 percent of freight transport. Rail accounts for around 5 percent.

If rivers are to handle more traffic, much of Europe’s decades-old waterway infrastructure, including ports and locks, will need upgrading. A warming planet adds to the challenge: Droughts in recent years have grounded some transport on the Rhine, and pose risks to the Seine.

While the Seine isn’t the most heavily trafficked river in Europe — that is the Rhine, which flows through Germany and the Netherlands — the ambition is to turn it into one of the main experimental hubs for the climate transition.

“We are working on a transformation to get businesses to massively shift their logistics routes,” said Stéphane Raison, the president of France’s main port operator, Haropa, which is investing over 1 billion euros (or $1.1 billion) in the Seine effort.

Turning Toward the River

Before leaving Le Havre for Paris, as a heavy snow fell in the dark, Le Bosphore’s crew packed containers tightly into the cargo hold, checking a manifest as a gantry crane swung overhead.

Le Bosphore, part of a 110-barge fleet run by Sogestran, France’s largest river transport company, will head to Gennevilliers, a port five miles outside Paris that is a distribution hub for the capital region’s 12 million consumers. The trip will take around 30 hours.

The Seine could carry many more barges like Le Bosphore, which is longer than a soccer field and saves 18,000 truck trips a year between Le Havre and Paris. The government hopes to draw four times as much freight to the river as the 20 million metric tons it handles now each year.

To achieve that, Haropa has been accelerating an expansion of Le Havre port, which sits at the mouth of the Seine, in a bid to attract ships from the larger ports of Rotterdam in the Netherlands or Antwerp, Belgium. Cargo deposited at those ports is then driven to France on trucks.

At its five other port terminals on the Seine, Haropa is adding electrical stations that allow ships to plug in while docked, rather than running engines.

While much of Europe’s barge fleet is still powered by diesel, a small but growing portion is being adapted for biofuels. Electric boats are coming onto the market. Hydrogen-powered prototype barges are also being developed.

Companies like Ikea and river transport start-ups are helping to propel the movement. They are developing carbon-free last-mile delivery services to appeal to consumers — and to get ahead of strict environmental rules that European cities are imposing to limit heavy, polluting vehicles.

A Chain of ‘Cleaner Transport’

Eight hours after sailing from Le Havre, Le Bosphore pulled into Rouen, a major stop for river cargo to and from Paris. Around 10 a.m. a fresh four-person crew, led by Captain Badar, boarded for a weeklong shift, and the trip toward Paris resumed.

Barge traffic on the Seine has increased just 5 percent from a decade ago. While the government is trying to engineer an acceleration, “rivers have been neglected for too long,” said Captain Badar, the third generation of riverboat captains in his family. He is among a rare breed. Many riverboat captains in Europe are nearing retirement age, and there’s a shortage of qualified personnel, a problem that risks curbing the hoped-for growth in river traffic.

For centuries, Captain Badar noted, rivers were practically the only way to ferry goods through France: The ancient symbol of Paris is a boat. But waterways fell out of favor as trucks and trains dominated transport in the 20th century, especially after World War II, when highways and rail tracks expanded across the continent.

Governments support those industries “because they have powerful lobbies and unions,” Captain Badar said, navigating past a medieval castle built by Richard the Lionheart as the sun brightened the afternoon sky.

“Now we’re starting to talk about the environment, and it would be best to see the river as part of a wider chain of cleaner transport.”

France’s largest supermarket chain, Franprix, is ahead of the game. It has transported goods by barge for a decade to its 300 Parisian stores. Workers unload 42 containers each morning near the Eiffel Tower. That saves 3,600 truck trips a year on highways and has cut Franprix’s carbon emissions 20 percent, the company said.

Kitchen Cabinets and Coffee Beans

Le Bosphore pulled into Gennevilliers port the next morning before dawn, docking alongside other barges laden with wares for Parisian businesses. A crane unloaded three layers of containers from the hold, placing them on the pier, where forklifts stacked them to the side. Despite the voluminous cargo, Le Bosphore had consumed the fuel of only about four trucks on its entire trip.

Across the port, an experiment was underway to make the last mile of delivery more environmentally friendly: a hulking warehouse, set up in a 2022 deal between Haropa and Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, to create a carbon-neutral way to deliver goods using the Seine.

Pallets packed with Ikea kitchen cabinets and couches, ordered online less than 48 hours earlier, were loaded onto a barge that would take them to central Paris. There, they would be put onto electric trucks and delivered to customers.

The process isn’t completely decarbonized — the barge to central Paris burns fuel, as do the trucks from Ikea’s factories in Poland and Romania — but the arrangement allowed Ikea to take the equivalent of 6,000 trucks off Paris streets last year, said Emilie Carpels, director of Ikea’s river project.

Other ventures are aiming to be more cutting edge.

Europe’s first hydrogen-fueled river barge, the Zulu, is expected to start operating in the spring. Designed by Sogestran, it can carry up to 320 metric tons, or the contents of around 15 trucks. “We are moving toward a future of increasingly clean transport,” said Florian Levarey, the project director.

For Fludis, a French start-up, that future is already at hand. Its president, Gilles Manuelle, founded the company around two boats that run on electric batteries, and a fleet of electric delivery bikes.

Around 7 on a recent morning, a dozen crew members loaded one of the small barges with boxes of coffee beans, copier paper, kitchen towels and other goods to be delivered to French bistros and businesses. As the boat sped silently past the Louvre for its first drop-off, workers onboard loaded their bikes with orders, and sped onto the streets as soon as the captain docked.

“We’re starting off small,” Mr. Manuelle said. “But it’s little solutions like this that can grow much bigger, and help play a role in reversing global warming.”

Back in Gennevilliers, the crew of Le Bosphore filled the now-empty hold with French goods for export: flour, lumber, luxury handbags and Champagne. By 2 p.m. it would begin a cruise back to Le Havre, where the crew would unload and then start all over again.

“I’ve known for a long time that the river was the most ecological means of transport,” Captain Badar said, easing back into the helm. “Now we need for policymakers to really make it happen,” he added. “The potential is huge.”

Liz Alderman is the chief European business correspondent, writing about economic, social and policy developments around Europe. More about Liz Alderman

James Hill is a photographer working on a regular basis for The Times since 1993. He is currently based in Paris. More about James Hill

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