The summit in Davos is the annual occasion for government leaders and the world’s largest companies to get together to discuss the challenges of globalisation. This year, around 3000 people gathered around the theme of “participative capitalism”. ENGIE was there with Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman of the Board of Directors, Paolo Almirante, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Gwenaelle Avice-Huet, Executive Vice President in charge of the Renewables Global Business Line, to promote the zero-carbon transition and a business model based on the Triple P approach: Planet, People, Profit.
Jean-Pierre Clamadieu was in attendance and reminded those present that ENGIE had halved its carbon emissions in three years, while at the same time returning to growth.
“We have transformed our energy mix, almost completely phasing out coal and investing massively in renewables. One of the Group’s major areas of growth is helping people and industry to consume less, and to consume the energy that they need more effectively.”
Gwenaelle Avice-Huet was invited to Davos in her capacity as a Young Global Leader. Honoured by the World Economic Forum in 2018, she has now been asked to spend five years working as part of a network with a hundred global leaders who “are shaping politics, society and the world around them”, in the words of Klaus Schwab, the Forum’s founder. This year the group is focusing on biodiversity: “An invigorating discussion with Professor Schwab about ways of building a more sustainable and inclusive world. I am beginning this event full of optimism: ‘Together, we can change the face of the world’, Gwenaelle Avice-Huet said in a tweet.
An editorial co-signed by Isabelle Kocher to call business leaders to action
Addressing the leaders attending the summit in Davos, Isabelle Kocher called upon business leaders to take action to support the zero-carbon transition via an editorial co-signed with Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and founder of the Imagine association. Referencing our view of a new economic model based on the “Triple P” approach – Planet, People, Profit for a positive impact – she provided a reminder of just how important it is to transform leadership in order to respond to climate challenges.
“As business leaders, we must spearhead the transformation of industrial production, secure green and well-paid jobs and leverage the effect of virtuous public policies. We can only do this by transforming the way we lead and operate.”