Caroline Véran
Published on 21 August 2023
For the CSR agency Croissance Bleue, a commitment to social and environmental responsibility is a strength for any company, enabling it to activate and enhance the levers of sustainable growth. Interview with founder and director Caroline Véran on CSR that combines ethics and profitability.
What is your vision of CSR?
I’m convinced that the challenges of growth are first and foremost social and environmental. My vision of CSR is therefore neither idealistic nor moralistic, but one that combines ethics and profitability. I created Croissance Bleue to support companies wishing to integrate CSR issues and turn them into levers of performance and growth.
CSR also means tools for better risk management, a stronger employer brand, increased competitiveness and, above all, innovation and market success. In my view, CSR is not a side issue to the development and life of a company. It is a highly strategic interest that must be taken on board by managers themselves.
How do you support companies?
We work closely with management teams, CODIRs and COMEXs to understand their company’s project, and to structure and enhance existing CSR initiatives. We analyze their economic data and industry issues, in order to draw up CSR recommendations that are in line with the organization’s reality, its stakeholders and its market opportunities.
We then support the operational deployment of their CSR policy by setting up cross-functional governance and a grid of actions linked to the business plan. These will enable them to integrate more effectively the challenges of decarbonization, responsible purchasing, territorial anchoring, etc.
We also support organizations in their communications, an area too often neglected by managers. Many see it, wrongly, as an information tool to share what has been decided or done. But communication is a strategic tool to be used upstream as a lever for interaction and progress. The battle of societal transformation is won by developing living ecosystems. This can be done with customers, suppliers, the local entrepreneurial fabric, investors and public authorities.
Communication is a strategic tool to be used upstream as a lever for interaction and progress.
Who do you work with?
Our customers include groups operating in a wide range of sectors, such as Véolia Eau, Up, Data4, Rousselet and Carter-cash. We also work on infrastructure and regional projects, such as StatioNord’s project to reinvent the Gare du Nord. And we support SMEs that want to seize the opportunity offered by CSR to boost their performance.
We have launched the Atout RSE© pilot program to support them in this direction, in partnership with Bpifrance, the CPME, the MEDEF and professional federations.
What are the conditions for a successful CSR approach?
There is a real challenge in translating this into the customer journey, so that it quickly permeates the company’s value chain, and bears fruit in terms of loyalty, brand image and growth. It is therefore essential that 100% of the company’s employees take ownership of CSR issues. Sales staff, for example, won’t be able to sell products and services properly if they haven’t grasped the economic benefits of the approach.
The issue of 100% employee ownership of the company’s CSR challenges is therefore essential.
Why did you name your agency “Croissance Bleue”?
This philosophy is a reaction to red growth, which refers to low-cost industries. They destroy resources and organize precarious work. The term “green growth” was then used to designate business models that first integrated environmental regulations. But this kind of growth allowed limited production that was not accessible to the majority of consumers.
The logic of Croissance Bleue is far more transformative, centered on the circular economy and the sharing economy. It invites every company to develop an activity that regenerates resources and uses.
The logic of Croissance Bleue is far more transformative.