This year, Sophie Chassat, one of our partners, shared her analysis after the session on ‘The new social role of businesses’.
For Sophie, this role is primarily integrative: it involves bringing together all sustainability issues, whether environmental or social. Because everything is connected.
However, the current context is blurring priorities: the climate emergency sometimes seems to be put on hold in the face of inflation, social tensions and political fragmentation. But, as Sophie points out, it is senseless to pit the environment against social issues. One feeds into the other: in Aix, in 40-degree heat, everyone can appreciate what that heat means for their comfort – and even more so for the productivity of workers exposed to it. Studies show that above 13°C, performance declines and the social fabric is affected.
Sophie’s message following the panel discussion is clear: the role of businesses is to consider how these challenges are interlinked, not to establish a hierarchy for them.