“Developing new offerings will become a matter of survival for companies.”
“Developing new offerings will become a matter of survival for companies.”
osapiens is the co-founder of the working group dedicated to ESG regulation and governance within the think tank “2030, Investir demain,” a joint initiative by the media outlets L’Agefi and ID l’Info Durable. The second workshop of this working group focused on analysing the opportunities generated by ESG governance: new markets, traceable and responsible products.
Read the interview with Vincent Canu, Managing Director of osapiens France.
At osapiens, are you seeing companies begin to rethink their business models in response to new sustainability regulations?
The emergence of regulations governing corporate sustainability practices—such as the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), the EU Taxonomy, and others—has triggered a wave of introspection within many organizations. Numerous business models are being redefined: usage-based billing models are being developed in place of traditional purchase-based models, and in some cases, entire product lines are being discontinued.
These regulations have brought several key issues to the forefront: traceability across supply chains, the carbon footprint of individual products, the long-term viability of predominantly fossil-based energy sources, and water availability in regions experiencing water stress, among others.
In this context, companies are increasingly focused on accessing reliable data to assess these challenges—because improvement is only possible when there is something measurable to improve.
In this context, are these reflections driven more by the need to comply with regulatory standards or by the pursuit of opportunities to develop new products or enter new markets?
For companies, compliance with new regulatory standards is primarily a requirement—and one that inevitably entails costs. As a result, businesses must explore how these additional costs can be offset by new sources of revenue. Their thinking therefore focuses on the potential return on investment of the adjustments to production methods that are being required of them. Implementing the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) involves analysing hundreds of data points and establishing new action plans. Improved traceability of production processes or reduced carbon emissions can serve as powerful marketing tools and enhance brand image. But more fundamentally, companies’ competitiveness will be increasingly tied to their environmental performance. Those with business models that consume the most resources in relation to planetary boundaries will be the least competitive—and ultimately, the most vulnerable. Developing new products and new ways of operating will become a matter of medium- to long-term survival.
What types of companies are the most advanced in these efforts? And how has their governance evolved as a result?
First of all, we observe that many companies no longer wish to go backwards—they do not challenge the regulatory developments. Within both large corporations and SMEs, some are undergoing profound transformation, while others remain reluctant to evolve. Among the most committed actors are large companies with the capacity to mobilize significant resources, but also highly innovative SMEs and mid-sized firms. When it comes to governance, however, the resources that large corporations can allocate make a real difference. Dedicated sustainability or environmental departments have been created—even if their influence varies from one company to another. SMEs are, objectively, less advanced, although they are also moving in that direction. Importantly, we are in a transition phase, and increasingly, even in the absence of a designated sustainability officer, these issues are gradually being integrated into all functions and departments across the company.
Shifting a development model requires investment. What sources of financing are available to companies?
The good news is that many investors, funds, and banks are actively seeking “green” projects to finance. The EU Taxonomy and the implementation of sustainable investment strategies among institutional investors mean that capital is being allocated to companies looking to reorient their business models toward those that support the environmental and energy transition. As a result, green projects are being met with strong interest from financial backers.
In this context, what is osapiens’ role in supporting companies?
Companies are faced with a multitude of fragmented, non-consolidated data. osapiens helps them collect and structure this information to make it easier to use. Compliance is not an end in itself. We aim to automate data flows so that users can focus on strategic thinking. Sustainability efforts must be reconciled with operational efficiency objectives. When it comes to value chains, for example, the goal may be to diversify suppliers in order to reduce dependencies. Company leaders are highly focused on identifying vulnerabilities to build more resilient value chains.
Content written by Florent Berthat.
