Chi va rapido, va sano e va lontano

A healthy mind makes a healthy body

Adopting an ESG approach is very often the result of a centralising rationale providing a top down impetus, because there’s a need to move quickly. This perspective is combined with a grassroots approach to raising awareness in the staff and integrating ESG into their daily work. The aim is to make ESG the natural way to think, and develop virtuous practices. Beyond that, the degree of complexity depends on the size of the company and the number of staff to be galvanised. It’s also about finding the time and resources to make a real difference. Because with ESG, management isn’t up to the mark. It means starting from scratch, and the firms surveyed are generating their own momentum.

So how do you communicate a ESG strategy to over 28,000 employees? That’s a daily preoccupation for Leroy Merlin’s CSR Strategy Steering Manager, Agathe Ruckebusch. To achieve this, the companies we interviewed seem to be adopting the same fairly conscious radical approach: centralisation. “When I arrived, the challenge was to create an ESG department at branch level,” says Moët-Hennessy’s Sandrine Sommer. “We had to capitalise on every action, structure them and provide a common vision.”

This pooling of a company’s ESG thinking facilitates at least two phenomena: bringing ESG activity closer to the management structure and defining a strategy. “I know companies that assign the ESG strategy to Human Resources – it’s totally mad!” says Tjeerd Krumpelman, Global Head of Reporting, Regulation and Stakeholder Management at ABN AMRO. “It should be decided at management level. If you think it’s an important issue, that’s the only place it should be.” And at Accor, the group’s Sustainable Development department reports to the Executive Committee. It is headed by Brune Poirson, former Secretary of State to the Minister for Ecological Transition and Solidarity.

The G in ESG is often in the limelight, and rests on “pillars”. Whether there are three, four or more of them, these “pillars” often arise from deciphering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They embody the group’s E & S activities and take on its DNA: “Stay”, “Eat” and “Explore” at Accor and “Living Soils Living Together” at Moët-Hennessy. Firmly supported by these solid foundations, the ESG strategy then spreads to the entire structure.

Symbolising this centralisation designed to distribute the group’s principles more effectively, the teams in charge of this sphere are relatively small. “I’d have bungled the job if I’d ended up with 150 people in the team,” says Sandrine Sommer. “I’m not intending to recruit a massive army. My concern is how the 8,000 people at Moët-Hennessy are going to integrate this aspect into their work. I’m convinced that all the business lines need to change drastically. So we need to train everyone.”

This training uses well-known tools like the Axa Climate School and the “Climate Fresco”, supplemented by companies with tailor-made measures. “Alongside the Climate Fresco, we have developed the ‘climate pitch’,” says Agathe Ruckebusch. “It’s a more agile digital tool that takes less time, enabling us to understand causes and consequences, and the actions that could be rolled out at Leroy Merlin.” This is an opportunity to make recommendations. Leroy Merlin has set up a challenge between its stores: a “positive competition” where “each one knows what it can do to contribute to the strategy in practical terms. They earn points and we reward them every month. Over 7,000 actions have been registered on the platform.”

I know companies that assign the ESG strategy to Human Resources – it’s totally mad!

Tjeerd Krumpelman, ABN AMRO

The strategy of embodiment

Magical thinking is over: just claiming to be “sustainable” doesn’t make a company so. Today’s sustainable companies have to provide repeated proof to appear legitimate in the eyes of their staff, stakeholders and society as a whole. To this end, businesses are developing different strategies. As we have seen, this involves measuring impact: figures have the power to convince and enable plans for improvement. Generally speaking, this also involves training. This has become the norm with all large companies. All employees are concerned, starting with the management teams.

“My priority is the managers,” says Agathe Ruckebusch, Head of Cultural Transformation at Leroy Merlin. “It’s vital for our 50 corporate leaders to develop their skills and put the challenges of adaptation and resilience into perspective.” For Tjeerd Krumpelman, Global Head of Reporting, Regulation and Stakeholder Management at ABN AMRO, executives need to be “much more” aware of E, S and G “than they are today”. The Chairman of the IFRS Foundation, which oversees the drafting of financial reporting standards, welcomes the initiatives of the European Central Bank (ECB) in this respect: “It tests new board members’ knowledge of ESG. Well, I have to admit that the exam isn’t very difficult, but the fact that the ECB is doing it is already a very good sign.” The Dutchman is very firm: “this type of transformation requires constant attention.”

Some companies are going even further. CGI has chosen to set an example. “Our strategy is to apply our solutions within the firm before marketing them,” says Audrey Pineau. “If we were to introduce digital solutions for our customers without taking the energy impact into account, some people would just take no notice of us. But if we apply them to ourselves before offering them these solutions, most of them show an interest.” CGI has become its own showcase. “It creates a virtuous circle we’re very proud of,” says Audrey Pineau. “It’s in our DNA, and we’ve done it with several other innovations. We think it’s a reliable way of providing quality and proximity.” The digital consultancy firm even allows itself the luxury of refusing to tender for certain projects: “We have calculated the impact of each SDG on each of the activities we address. This enables us to rate the projects we are considering. If a project fails to reach a given score, we don’t respond,” says Audrey Pineau calmly. “At the time, you might think you’re losing money, but if you look at it over the medium or long term, it’s a virtuous circle in which we all have a lot to gain. This enables us to raise awareness among our clients and show our members that we’re not just talking but actually taking action; it means that we don’t have to force any of our employees who disagree with our corporate values, and it allows us to retain our talents and attract new ones.” A sustainable company means no longer thinking in the short term.