On 15^th October 2020, a conference jointly organised by WWF France and Audencia took place on our Paris campus and on-line, followed by several round tables and testimonials from economic players.

This event inaugurated by Inès Boppe, Head of Corporate Relations at WWF France, allowed Pierre Cannet, Director of Advocacy at WWF France, and Alexis Gazzo, an associate at EY, to present the results of their WWF study: “The world in the future: employment at the heart of a green recovery”.

This report particularly reveals that by 2022, a green recovery plan could support more than 1 million jobs (in full-time equivalent / FTE) in the sectors of energy retrofitting, renewable energies, sustainable transport, organic farming and sustainable tourism.

Additionally, all of France could benefit from this recovery plan, with more than 80% of supported jobs located outside the Île-de-France region.

During the two round tables, two topics were addressed:

• “Recovery and territorial anchoring: how do businesses plan to adapt their activities?”
• “Changing the agricultural & food model: the limits of the recovery plan”.

These discussion sessions were concluded by final remarks from Marie-Christine Korniloff, Associate Director of Corporate Relations for WWF France, calling upon businesses to commit to an ambitious ecological recovery anchored in France’s regions.

Audencia created the very first global research centre aimed at transforming accounting of tomorrow, by proposing multi-capital accounting suited to companies of all sizes. It is the new Multi-Capital Integrated Performance chair, backed by three high-profile founding partners, namely L’Oréal, Danone, PwC France & Maghreb. It also boasts support from Datamaran, InVivo, French audit institute l’Institut Français de l’Audit et du Contrôle Internes (IFACI) and French auditing body La Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes (CNCC).

At a time when businesses have an immense role to play in preparing for tomorrow’s world, this research centre aims to reinforce multi-capital evaluation and auditing systems through innovation, participating in international standardisation in the field and assisting transformation of teams and professions, in France and on the international stage.

Through its innovation, it aims to go beyond 100% financial accounting in order to reinforce the multi-capital systems of evaluating and auditing businesses (financial, social, environmental, cultural, etc.). Thanks to its network of experts and stakeholders, the chair participates in international standardisation in the domain. Furthermore, through publishing its works and collaborating with organisations, it is meeting the ambition of assisting transformation of the teams and professions concerned, notably within financial departments.

Under the auspices of the “Finance for innovation” chair, Benjamin Le Pendeven, its director, supervised the doctoral thesis of Vincenzo Buffa. This thesis addresses the topic of Social Impact Bonds. The work conducted aims to understand the development and consequences of these innovative tools that enable the emergence of prevention solutions regarding social or environmental issues. Among the research conducted features the quest to understand, thanks to the 18 Social Impact Bonds put in place on the international stage over at least the last two years, the conditions for scaling up to experiments funded within the framework of the SIBs.

This work has an impact on teaching (through developing knowledge shared with students, especially via lessons on Social Economy Financing) and on the methods of organisations (Vincenzo and Benjamin work with the chair’s sponsor, the Fonds B. fund, the public authorities, the French environment agency ADEME, investors and social project promotors involved in SIBs, etc.).

The Nantes urban area CSR platform, with which Audencia’s Positive Impact chair is associated as part of its partnership with the Nantes Métropole urban authorities, has just launched a new themed working group that will create an awareness-raising tool aimed at incorporating CSR into economic models and strategy for businesses from their creation onwards.

This working group is made up of economic networks in Nantes, entrepreneurship support structures, business incubators, public institutions, academic players, trade unions and associations.

Incorporating CSR from a company’s creation onwards makes it possible to establish a promising strategy over the long term. For example, it makes it possible to couple economic, social and environmental impacts with thinking specific to creation of a business (market research, financing, business plan, etc.). This tool allows three objectives to be reached:

• Informing directors of the major stakes of sustainable development and CSR.
• Convincing people of a CSR strategy’s advantages (risk prevention, global performance, employer brand, innovation, etc.).
• Equipping entrepreneurs for implementation of an integrated CSR strategy.