2024-09-03 06:30:27
The 6th edition of the Summer Universities of the Economy of Tomorrow was held this Wednesday, August 28 in Paris on the theme REDIRECT. Despite the determination of the participants, the long-awaited transformation is struggling to take hold, faced with legislative, economic and cultural obstacles.
Companies are at the heart of ecological and social challenges, and must profoundly transform their practices to meet them. But in the current economic and political context, the ecological transformation of companies is struggling to gain traction. To revive the momentum, 3,000 entrepreneurs and managers met at the Impact France Movement’s Summer Universities of the Economy of Tomorrow at the Cité universitaire in Paris on Wednesday, August 28, on the theme of “Redirecting.”
The observation is initially bitter. Alexandra Palt, former director of social responsibility at L’Oréal and president of WWF France since June 2024, states: “We have been going backwards for some time. We have a recession in commitments and real transformation. This can be explained by various reasons: we went into very legal territory, which is necessary, but we have not managed to create a vision, an inspiration, to generate support around an economic model, a transition, a transformation.”
The ecological and social transformation of the economy calls for a profound revision of the current rules. Companies, even the most committed, cannot bear the burden of this transition alone. A more favorable legal framework, combined with incentive-based public policies, is essential to make this transformation viable. In this sense, the Summer Universities of the Economy of Tomorrow have recalled that redirecting the economy consists above all in redefining our relationship with growth, for the benefit of humans and respect for the planet.
A legal framework to be strengthened
Julia Faure, co-founder of the clothing brand Loom, points out that companies’ commitment to the transition often results in a sacrifice on margins and leads to a loss of competitiveness. There are not many economic rewards for doing well. The courage of the leader today is to say that, otherwise we remain in the illusion that the ecological transition will happen naturally, because companies make a lot of money by doing it. It is false. It is hard for companies. Almost all social and environmental efforts cost us.
Julia Faure thus calls on the leaders of impact companies to fight for the adoption of a legal framework that promotes this competitiveness. In particular, she defends the idea of adequate taxation to prevent the entry into the territory of products manufactured in “ deplorable environmental and social conditions ».
She even advocates the establishment of a minimum price for certain products, particularly clothing, in order to avoid competition based solely on price and thus limit the worst social and environmental practices. “This is the courage of leaders: of course we must make efforts, but we must also say how our efforts are limited by the framework and to what extent we need the law and politics to help us in this direction,” she summarizes.
Thierry Beaudet, President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), warns against the temptation to relegate ecological issues to the background. With Covid, the war in Ukraine, inflation and the far right on the verge of power, the hierarchy of dangers may change.he acknowledges. But this social and environmental progress could be imposed under duress with strong political will. This has already been done for key historic measures such as compulsory schooling, paid holidays, the requirement for parity, health standards, he states. He affirms: ” It all depends on the objective, on the dosage of the constraint. Constraint can recreate fairness by rewarding pioneers, by protecting our markets from unfair competition.”
Leadership allied to the collective
Ecological transformation also requires visionary leadership, ready to face the uncertainty of a new economic model. Pascal Demurger, CEO of MAIF and co-president of the Impact France Movement, calls for a redirection of practices, but also of mentalities. He is in favor of the remuneration of directors and executives being indexed on extra-financial criteria, such as the reduction of CO2 emissions, to align economic objectives with ecological needs. For him, incentives – more than constraints – could be an effective mode of regulation. “Incentive mechanisms are, for example, the subject of the conditionality of public aid, of the modulation of taxation according to the behavior of companies, he declares. I believe that incentives are a good way to regulate the market economy.”
But the leader and constraint or incentive are not everything. Céline Brucker, general director of L’Oréal France, warns : “We must put an end to the myth of the hero leader who has all the skills and all the knowledge. The challenge for a good leader is to assemble around him an extremely powerful collective of competent people to face growing complexity. The role of the leader is to lead this collective around a vision, a framework, priorities and to allocate resources.”
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