Shared Commitment

Biodiversity is collapsing. Climate change is accelerating, threatening entire populations and, at times, forcing exile. We are all affected by these huge environmental challenges, both collectively and individually.

What role should brands and companies play in all of this? And what about us CEOs? How can we step up to the challenge?

Over the last twelve years leading Guerlain, and now Hennessy, I’ve had the privilege to meet people who inspired me, and enabled me to take action and do my part - and sometimes a little bit more.

In particular, this happened at the Global Forest Summit, where I was honored to share Hennessy’s actions to support reforestation.

My conversations with Thomas Crowther from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Zurich and Nicole Schwab from 1.T, World Economic Forum gave me perspective on our actions. Meeting Jane Goodall also moved me deeply. Thank you again Stéphane Hallaire for the invitation!

I'm happy to champion - along with the Hennessy teams - a new program for the reforestation and restoration of natural ecosystems, within the Cognac region and throughout the world: Africa, China, the USA.

We are committed to planting 50 to 100 million trees in 10 years. This will have a positive impact on 400,000 people, through the creation of complementary revenue streams, and through the restoration of a huge biodiversity reserve, and the capturing of 7 to 15 million tons of CO2 over the next 30 years.

Finally: if we want to take this even further, we must organize together, commit together and act together.

This is why I created Imagine. Imagine is a new movement built around collective action, and addressing environmental issues through investment. This is not a new organization or a new foundation, but rather a “do-tank”, gathering economic actors from various industries and coordinating their actions. In fact, we believe companies should be key contributors to the financing of this colossal project. This is a human adventure. I really wish to share it with you.

Tribute to my Imagine fellows Gildas Bonnel, Sandrine Sommer and Stephane Hallaire

Read the french version here.