Tous les articles postés par jfmathieu@epe-asso.org

23 February 2021

Upscaling Corporate Solutions for Biodiversity – February 2021

Strong societal expectations about nature conservation, international events for raising awareness among leaders in 2020-2021, animal-based epidemics linked to growing human pressure on natural ecosystems, and indisputable scientific findings on the collapse of biodiversity have led businesses over the last few years to include nature more decisively in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. Corporates have also become aware of the consequences and risks to them of potentially serious or systemic biodiversity erosion.

This report seeks to describe the actual levers and modes of action that are successfully being used by business, and also to identify the conditions for their scale-up: the point is how to take or pursue actions of a similar nature at different plants and sites, or in other sectors and businesses, without switching pressure from one environment or issue to another? This original publication, rich in examples, responds to it through 60 sharing of best practices.
See companies members: https://dev.epe-asso.org/en/our-members/

This publication is divided into three chapters:

Chapter 1 describes the mechanisms to avoid or reduce the pressures on biodiversity exerted by business, as listed in the IPBES summary report. These pressures are well known and measurable, even though their impacts vary depending on the sensitivity of the environments in which they occur. Stopping biodiversity erosion starts with reducing all such pressures. This is the first step of effective corporate action.

Chapter 2 presents solutions for recreating biodiversity-friendly spaces and conditions. This involves safeguarding areas where nature can spontaneously thrive, and from time to time stimulating or stepping up such action. The solutions are profoundly different according to the environments in which they are implemented. IUCN recommendations list three area categories for action: wilderness areas to be protected, productive areas to be exploited in a more biodiversity-friendly manner, and built-up areas where nature is to be reintroduced.

The third and last chapter deals with management methods and tools to promote the factoring of nature into economic decision-making. It draws in particular on the biodiversity management analysis performed by businesses supporting the act4nature cross-cutting commitments and Business for Nature.

7 September 2020

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY – September 2020

Building a sustainable recovery

Ecological transition and resilience:
keys to the post-covid-19 economic recovery

This study is the product of nearly 40 interviews with leaders of major French companies (CEOs, heads of the sustainable development, strategic management, corporate affairs, and operations departments, etc.).

It was carried out by BCG’s Paris office in partnership with the Association Française des Entreprises pour l’Environnement (EpE). Designed right at the start of lockdown, and thus at the start of the partial economic shut-down, the study aims to analyse the impact of the crisis on corporate operations from an environmental perspective, so as to identify the practices put in place and anticipate the effects of economic recovery plans.

Before the crisis, corporate strategies were undergoing transformation to address environmental challenges. To the need for this transformation is now added a new pressing need to build resilience in the face of Covid-19 and similar events that will follow in its wake.

How do we keep up the environmental momentum and take the long view in a tense and uncertain short-term economic context? How do we stay the course on ecological transition while adding the need for resilience? These are the questions BCG has sought to explore with EpE and major French companies.

20 March 2020

Factoring in environmental health issues facing businesses – October 2019

Couv EpE-Factoring-in-environmental-health-issues

French version

The globalization of the economy and the mass distribution of consumer goods have had the effect of lengthening value chains, making product traceability and knowledge of the composition and impacts of each component and substance both difficult and essential.
Eighteen EpE member companies wished to share in this publication their methods, practices and solutions for managing environmental health issues. Experts clarified the discussions and sharing of best practices.

The first section of this publication puts in perspective the factors that encourage businesses to integrate environmental health issues into their strategy and throughout the lifecycle of their products and services. It will explain in detail:
– The increasing societal expectations on the emerging issues of water, air and soil pollution facing businesses.
– The risks of a crisis and a disruption in production to be anticipated.
– The potential opportunities associated with a proactive approach. Some EpE member companies systematically integrate health and environmental risks as soon as they establish their research directions and especially explore innovations that promote health.
– Finally, anticipation and evolution of the law in a complicated legal framework due to the interdisciplinarity of the topic.

The second section describes three types of methods and management tools regarding environmental health risk:
– The first actions to address these issues are tools for analysing and measuring risks to be prioritised in environmental health.
– Employees awareness is another tool of risk management. It involves embedding health and the environment into corporate values and adopting risk reduction tools beyond what is required by regulations.
– Finally, external communication through existing and non-existing tools is one of the keys to restore trust between health actors and to develop collective solutions.

15 July 2019

ZEN 2050 – Imagining and building a carbon neutral France

French version

Commissioned by a group of companies from all sectors, the ZEN 2050 study explores the feasibility of carbon neutrality in France by 2050, in terms of the balance between emissions in metropolitan France and absorption through carbon sinks

It is an ambitious – and original – study in that it incorporates the physical, technical, economic and sociological aspects into a coherent and plausible whole. Thus it is neither a forecast, nor a corporate commitment, nor a prescriptive requirement. It concludes with a proposal from these companies to the other components of society (general public, government authorities and economic stakeholders), inviting them to define together the detailed actions required to undertake the transformation:

Carbon neutrality by 2050 is feasible, but requires unprecedented changes in our lifestyles and in the ways we use energy and technology to reduce our emissions.
This neutrality is compatible with diversified and comfortable lifestyles, economic growth, and job creation.
It can be achieved if all the stakeholders – public authorities, businesses and citizens – embrace that objective and decide together to act now to achieve this transformation.