Let’s start a responsible revolution

How can we make sure sustainability is not just a ‘nice-to-have” but a pervasive commitment embedded at the very heart of purpose-led companies? 

I discussed this at the #SDGSummit2020 on the launch of the European Pact for Sustainable Industry to accelerate integration of SDGs by 2030. The Pact follows last year’s Call to Action when 380 CEOs across 24 European countries endorsed the transition towards more sustainable patterns and social inclusion.

Here’s the speech and vision I shared with +5000 agents of change at the Summit. Together, we need to go beyond; we need more leaders to act for a sustainable future!

Are you in? Drop me a comment below, I want to hear from you.

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I would like to start with a quote from Louise Glück, who just won the Nobel Prize for literature: “we look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.”

That’s so true. We see it in the enthusiasm of our children as they start experiencing the natural world; their intensity as they observe and care for the smallest pebble on the street. 

Our world is delicate. It’s fragile and the threats it faces are huge. Am I stating the obvious? Maybe. Do we need to keep repeating this, over and over again, until we all act accordingly? We absolutely do.

As adults, I think we can learn from kids – they are so open minded. We need to find ways to tap into our childhood curiosity to reinvent the world we live in. How? 

We must go beyond ESG and embrace a change of mindset

What’s at stake is nothing less than a shift in the way we lead our lives.

We are at the dawn of a responsible revolution. 

Consumers are looking to buy responsible products – 73% of generation Z customers are ready to pay more for sustainable items, according to a recent study. It’s a powerful market driver for Solvay, with increased demand on products as diverse as lightweighting, carbon-sober solutions for cleaner mobility, or simply solid shampoo.

Equally, 56% of millennials are willing to work for responsible companies that push sustainable values high. As a consequence, companies have already started to act more responsibly; we all see this wave of “Environmental, Social, Governance”, or ESG initiatives – businesses realizing that they need to act towards the common good.

By making sure that a company’s social, environmental strategy isn’t a simple add-on to day to day activities, a single Band-Aid on a business model. It needs to pervade every department, from Human Resources, to Sales, to Operations.

We need to go beyond creating value, and start creating purpose (and THUS create value). Keep constant awareness of our impact on climate, on our resources, and also on people. At Solvay, we have been living our Purpose through our ambitious Solvay One Planet program.  

As part of it we will not build new coal-powered plants and commit to phase out coal usage in energy production wherever renewable alternatives exist. We are also working to double the revenues generated in a circular economy by 2030 and this has already started through our partnership with Veolia, for example, as we are working to create a circular economy solution for electric vehicle batteries. And as announced two weeks ago, we continue to raise our sustainability ambition by going one step further, committing to review our 2030 objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Science Based Targets initiative.

It also means bringing everyone to the table - whatever their gender, background, social profile, ethnicity. More inclusive and diverse companies are simply performing better. At Solvay, employees are granted 16 weeks of parental leave, regardless of gender. 

That’s the new society and economy we’re walking into. It’s not profit on the one hand, and social impact on the other: it’s both, hand in hand, each working for the other. Profit AND social impact. Value AND purpose. 

The companies who don’t embrace this mindset, at the core of who they are, will soon no longer have a license to operate and therefore will disappear.

We need to reinvent - and we must do so together

It’s not only up to the UN and global organizations to offer framework solutions, as they have with the Science-based Targets Initiative and the Sustainable Development Goals. Although these are absolutely essential, we need a more global, long-term approach to trace the path for a shared horizon and compass. 

It’s also not only up to European Union to make this sustainable industry happen. But, since Frans Timmermans and fellow members of the European Commission joined the Summit, I do want to say this. The EU needs of course to raise the bar with legislation, but also to keep in mind that what’s urgent is fair competition with other continents. We need the EU to level the playing field, acting as a global player in a global framework. Europe has to become a beacon for sustainable policies. 

That’s how - together - we can call the Green Deal a success. 

Likewise, it’s not only up to the private sector to change the story, even as we provide the technology, the research and innovation to do so. 

If we are to uphold the Paris Agreement in the few years that we have left, if we are to meet SDGs by 2030, if we are to leave a healthier planet to our children, it’s up to all of us together, to bond and join forces. There is no “Building Back Better” without impactful partnerships.

So let us all champion this change of mindset. Chemistry is of course part of the solution: there is no recycling, no circular economy, no biobased materials, no progress without chemistry. I wouldn’t have joined Solvay if I didn’t think the chemical industry had a major role to play in progress - a greener progress that can benefit mankind.

But chemistry can’t do it alone. This is why we joined many initiatives - the EU Battery Alliance is one example.

Let us all set our minds to creating purpose, to letting it guide us and drive social innovation, value creation, as well as economic performance.

Let us all protect the earth - after all, we have only the one planet. And we all enjoy it!

Let us start this responsible revolution together. 

Watch the full SDG Summit 2020 session - The European Pact for Sustainable Industry: Making the Green Deal a Success