A dynamic ecosystem full of opportunities

The sustainability of the organization occupies a large part of the thoughts of the business leader. To achieve this, he needs committed employees, involved suppliers, financial partners, interested investors and loyal customers.

It is therefore appropriate to engage in a structured dialogue with the various stakeholders in order to understand their objectives in terms of sustainable transition. By structured dialogue, we mean working and reflection sessions, questionnaires and surveys or co-creation workshops. Beyond the sharing of objectives and information, these meetings make it possible to generate productive collaboration by highlighting both risks and, above all, opportunities.

The growing expectations of all lead to expanded responsibility and are sources of business opportunities . Indeed, an ESG approach makes it possible to identify new customer segments or markets to serve, when it is not new products and services to develop.

The employees who work for you, the customers who buy your products or services, and the investors who inject capital into your business project want to know and understand how your organization reconciles and manages to balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of your activities.

For dialogue to be useful

The mindset in which management must engage with its stakeholders is that of creating shared value . The success of the approach is based on a sincere intention. Thus, it is no longer enough to have a caring, competent and inspiring management team: it is now essential to have measurable objectives that go beyond financial profit.

Customers are already asking for it or will soon be asking for it. Manufacturing quality products without offering an end-of-life repair or recovery service or proudly displaying your community involvement but deciding to outsource your customer service to reduce costs are examples that could leave your key stakeholders speechless.

Return on investment

The ESG framework helps guide teams’ thinking and identify issues that are both important to your business’s success and stakeholder engagement. Once identified, these priority issues require investment.

For example, a plant located on the edge of a river that overflows its banks in the spring may need to be relocated. This involves capital investment, but reduces the risk of production shutdown and potential loss of revenue . For example, setting up an additional end-of-life recovery service requires investment but generates revenue from new customers attracted by the proposition or from a retention rate of your current customers.

As with any investment project, a cost-benefit analysis and a calculation of the return on investment based on the usual payback period are worth doing beforehand. Relocating a factory in a crisis situation, interrupting its production for a few days or even weeks, gaining or losing market share, etc. can be transposed into potential costs and revenues.

In closing, I suggest you listen to Michael Porter, a famous Harvard professor and economist, in the TedTalk “ Why can companies succeed in solving social problems? ” According to him, organizations are best placed to address social and environmental issues and take charge of solving major problems such as climate change. His hypothesis is that a company that solves a problem benefits from it , which encourages it to continue on this path. This postulate fits perfectly with the definition of sustainable development, namely development that reconciles the environment, society and the economy. Knowing that organizations are best positioned and that they can make a profit from it, leaders have an interest in quickly committing to the path of sustainability by using the ESG framework, regardless of their size and the sector in which they operate.