Environment, impact... now it's time for action

While the health crisis has changed the way we work, it has also underlined the importance of physical spaces for exchanging ideas, collaborating... and getting involved. Now more than ever, companies of all sizes are concerned about their impact on the environment.

This year's Paris Workplace is devoted to the social and environmental impact of companies and their offices. Why was this the right moment?

After many months spent dealing with the emergency health crisis and the impact on their business, Today's companies are keen to take decisions about their future.. So we wanted to give them a long-term perspective and trends. This desire to assume social and environmental responsibility obviously predates the Covid-19 crisis. But just as the episodes of confinement blurred the boundary between professional and personal life, they also brought employees' almost intimate concern for their environment into the workplace.

How do you define "impact offices"?

The office with impact is one that gives employees the means to act in favour of the environment, to show solidarity. Today, this requirement is no longer simply driven by companies' necessary CSR policies, but is a demand on the part of employees. We had anticipated this demand before the health crisis, when we were designing the Biome building, a building refurbished using low-carbon and reused materials, with new green spaces and an opening onto the neighbourhood... All these elements must be part of the specifications for such a project, and this is increasingly true today.

What role has Covid played in this approach to the impact of offices?

These days, we have to "show our green credentials", because companies are looking very closely at these issues: beyond the environmental certifications, is the catering offer really responsible, and how comfortable will it be for my employees? In the space of a few months, we have seen a change in mentality, both in terms of construction and operation.. As we have all seen, Covid-19 has also had an impact on mobility. The use of bicycles in the city is exploding, and this is reflected in the fact that parking spaces adapted to soft mobility are increasing fivefold in tertiary buildings. And everyone's asking for them!

We're talking about climate emergencies and crises: in a few years' time, what will be the role of the company, and more specifically the office, in meeting these challenges?

Our study shows that the office is not yet seen as the main place for action in favour of the environment and society. What strikes me is that the big companies are leading the way, and tomorrow everyone will have to follow suit. Employees pay a great deal of attention to what their employer is doing, and often ask them about their CSR activities as early as the job interview. We need action, not just policies ! It's up to companies to find sincere causes, in line with their expertise and raison d'être, so that they can bring real added value to their commitment.

We bring in a lot of experts: what have you learnt from these meetings?

What can be seen from the various interviews we have conducted is that everyone can get involved. Some have made it the core of their business, such as Yann Bucaille and his Cafés Joyeux, Amélie Dumont of the start-up Phénix or Guillaume Rossignol of the NGO JRI. Others, like Eutopia, are integrating these commitments into more traditional activities such as finance. And today, even very large companies - we interviewed senior executives from Vivendi and Aéma in particular - are showing us that they can be agents of change in very concrete ways. This is also one of the lessons of the last few months: companies have maintained a very strong link with their employees, supporting them at the height of the storm, and today they are putting in the resources to make a wider commitment to society.