Gestion environnementale et sociale

La gestion environnementale et sociale fait référence à l'approche adoptée par les organisations concernant leur impact environnemental et social.

Aujourd'hui, de nombreuses entreprises intègrent la responsabilité sociale des entreprises, la valeur partagée stratégique et les rapports standards dans leurs processus habituels. Certaines d'entre elles considèrent le développement durable et l'agenda des Objectifs de développement durable comme faisant partie de leur stratégie.

Une nouvelle perspective

Le modèle Opale renforce l'organisation en matière de développement durable, car les impacts sociaux et environnementaux font partie de la vie quotidienne. Du point de vue de l'évolution Opale, tout commence par la justesse intérieure.

En tant qu'employés, il se peut que nous ayons de véritables préoccupations au sujet de l'environnement et du milieu dans lequel nous travaillons. Le pouvoir étant décentralisé au sein des organisations Opale, certaines initiatives environnementales et sociales peuvent être initiées par des personnes motivées unissant leurs forces quelle que soit leur position au sein de l'organisation.

Quand nous avons un sentiment de plénitude, nous ressentons le besoin de contribuer au rétablissement de notre rapport brisé à la vie sous toutes ses formes.

L'organisation Opale tend vers le zéro déchet, la zéro toxicité et le zéro impact sur les écosystèmes.

Actuellement, certaines initiatives comme le mouvement B Corp et l'holacratie offrent des pistes intéressantes en matière de leadership pour les organisations Opale.

Les approches en matière de gestion environnementale et sociale ont évolué au fil du temps, passant de la façon dont une ressource peut être utilisée ou exploitée à celle dont elle peut être utile.

Les organisations Rouge

Le paradigme Rouge repose sur une gestion sociale basée sur le pouvoir. L'organisation est soumise à la nature et à l'environnement, susceptibles de lui imposer des rythmes tribaux. L'organisation Rouge considère l'environnement à travers le filtre du potentiel d'utilisation. Quels sont les aspects de l'environnement que nous pouvons exploiter, afin de développer notre capacité à survivre et à prospérer ?

Les organisations Ambre

Les organisations fonctionnant selon le paradigme de l'ambre sont généralement autonomes, isolées du reste du monde et gérées de manière hiérarchique. Ce modèle privilégie les individus dont le statut est basé sur la naissance, l'éducation et le genre. L'environnement est considéré comme un élément prévisible et les organisations cherchent des moyens de le contrôler dans leur propre intérêt, par exemple dans le cadre de projets d'irrigation.

Le paradigme Ambre est à l'origine des premières civilisations avancées du monde. La stabilité des structures et la mise en place de processus sur le long terme ont permis un changement sans précédent de la structure sociale et de son potentiel.

Les organisations Orange

L'organisation centrée sur les objectifs du paradigme Orange se concentre sur la résolution de problèmes tangibles. La croissance est une conséquence de la réussite de vos objectifs, avec un excédent de ressources (profit). Si les objectifs ne sont pas atteints, l'organisation est vouée à disparaître avec le temps. Il existe une croyance selon laquelle les organisations les plus puissantes et les plus performantes sont celles qui tirent leur épingle du jeu.

Au sein des organisations Orange, les initiatives sociales et environnementales visent généralement à garantir le respect des obligations légales. Cela ne signifie pas nécessairement que les organisations Orange rejettent les valeurs liées à ces causes. C'est simplement que ces organisations ne justifient la prise de décisions bénéfiques pour la société et l'environnement que si ces actions contribuent également aux objectifs de l'organisation. Dans le cas du modèle Orange, de telles initiatives nécessiteraient en effet une organisation propre, avec des objectifs incluant ces buts.

Some Orange organizations have embraced practices of Corporate Social Responsibility constructively. Some contributions have been remarkable. Orange organizations frequently use their CSR initiatives to support their brand image through marketing.

Green organizations

The Green paradigm considers the community (and by extension, the environment) as a stakeholder in the business. The pluralistic drive in Green means that it is important not only to be successful as an organization, but also to lift others up so that they also can be more successful.

Dialogue with stakeholders is part of green organizations and, at the time, one of the core issues in CSR strategies

The organization's mission is likely to include social responsibility. For example, Green organizations might work with suppliers in developing countries to maintain humane working conditions. They may focus on their carbon foot-print or strive to make products and packaging recyclable.

Teal organizations

Teal organizations see themselves as part of a living system. That includes not only the organization itself but also the environment around it. Therefore, Teal organizations often take action to improve also their surroundings:

  • Social and environmental responsibility arises from what is sensed to be “the right thing to do,” based on organizational values.
  • Significant steps are taken to reduce waste, toxicity, and other impacts on the biosphere.
  • New practices may spring from anywhere in the organization.
  • Cost need not be the prime determining factor.

As society as a whole shifts toward the Evolutionary-Teal paradigm, we may see more legal experiments along the line of Holacracy’s constitution and B-Corps. In the final chapter of his book, Laloux speculates about an even more profound change: Perhaps in a Teal society, we would no longer think in terms of ownership, but in terms of stewardship? Such a shift would have profound implications in terms of legal ownership of organizations. Only time will tell if and how such a scenario will play out.

En pratique

How environmental and social practices arise

Environmental and social practices arise from a sense of personal and corporate integrity.

The guiding question is: What is the right thing to do?

Initiative is distributed throughout the organization. Anyone can sense what is needed, and raise it.

Values before profit

Teal organizations strive to manage environmental and social practices ahead of profits. As AES said in a public hearing: “If the company perceives a conflict between ... values and profits, it will try to adhere to its values - even if doing so might result in diminished profits or foregone opportunities”.

Organization and environment are interdependent

The metaphor of a Teal organization as a living organism, with its own purpose and intent, extends to the environment. Both organization and the environment it lives in are considered to be part of a living system. As such, the organization is dependent on its environment and the social structures that affect it. That is, the organization cannot thrive without a healthy environment.

Teal organizations therefore often take a systemic approach to improve the environment or social structures in which the organization is active, especially when that environment is necessary to achieve the purpose of the organization.

Sustainability before short term gains

The theme of sustainability which is common in other Teal practices is also prominent in the area of environmental and social management. Teal insists on a long-term sustainable approach to delivering value. One of the reasons is that Teal feels that exploitation of life itself for short-term financial gain is immoral. Putting future potential of purpose at risk is considered reckless and the wrong thing to do.

Teal often takes proactive measures to improve the environment and social aspects of its surroundings for the long term - in order to increase sustainability of purpose ― even if there may not be payoffs in the immediate term.

Distributed initiatives

Power is decentralized: passionate people can initiate activity from anywhere in the organization.

When Patagonia moved its warehouse to Reno, four employees noticed that most of Nevada’s wild land was not protected wilderness. They sparked an initiative that resulted in 1.2 million acres of wilderness being protected.

Integrated into the business

Teal organizations do not (normally) have separate units for Corporate Social Responsibility. Buurtzorg adds new services in response to emerging social needs sensed by nurses, e.g. to help Alzheimer’s patients handle domestic chores.

Foire Aux Questions

Encourage conversations that allow employees to raise their concerns. Create an environment that champions new practices. Social and environmental initiatives emerge when these values are aligned with the purpose of the organization.

Via the advice process, initiatives can be assessed for fit with values and evolutionary purpose first. Other criteria might include impact, urgency and affordability.

Self-management works to balance spending in line with values and purpose. Employees’ own integrity and sense of self-censorship work together to ensure that spending is in alignment. Just as Teal organizations do not measure accountability according to multiple bottom lines, self-management guides spending within business capacity. Teal organizations sense and respond. Budgets are used to make decisions; not to control variances.

Cas concrets d'organisations

A mission-driven enterprise

After being certified as a “B Corp” or Benefit Corporation in 2015, Camif chose to open a new era and become a pioneer “mission-driven enterprise” in France which means that by law:

  • The purpose of the company, called its “mission,” is defined and inscribed in legal statutes.
  • A form of commitment: the statutes formally commit the shareholders, and are accompanied by conditions to be met in order to abolish or modify the mission (generally obtaining 2/3 votes of each class of shares).
  • Control mechanisms associated with the mission, through the implementation of a reporting system, the rights of shareholders and third parties (or stakeholders*), as well as adapted governance mechanisms, accompany this legal system and ensure its control.

A concrete consequence of this commitment to mission is the boycott of Black Friday. Camif.fr closed its site on Nov. 24, 2017 for the first time to raise awareness of responsible consumption. An invitation is made to each one this day to make a step aside, to take distance on the habits of overconsumption. And to take times to think about adopting new behaviors like recycling, reusing.

With La Place https://www.camif.fr/laplace/, Camif proposes alternatives to overconsumption and aims to promote local products. La Place is a platform that brings together all the players in the responsible economy, repair, recycling or the social and solidarity economy.

(*) consumers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, local stakeholders

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    Notes et references