100 pioneering French businesses join ‘impact revolution’ on new platform

The French government today launched a new online platform to help businesses take their place in the “impact revolution”. 

The Impact platform, impact.gouv.fr, was announced this morning at the ChangeNow Summit, which is taking place online and being broadcast from Paris from 27-29 May. 

Olivia Grégoire, the French government’s minister for the social, solidarity and responsible economy, said that the platform would help French companies measure and improve their environmental, social and governance performance.

Olivia Grégoire, the French minister for the social, solidarity and responsible economy: "Impact is the magic word"

“Companies are facing a double demand from customers but also from regulators,” said Grégoire, emphasising that both groups of stakeholders expected companies to behave more responsibly. 

“Their ability to remain sustainable and competitive will depend on their ability to provide relevant data and relevant evidence of their impact,” she said. “Impact here is the magic word...We are living in an impact revolution.”

The platform would also help French businesses prepare for Europe’s forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, said Grégoire. This new legislation is expected to take effect in 2024 and will require all large companies and all listed small and medium sized enterprises to report their sustainability performance in line with new European Union standards. It is expected to affect 50,000 companies.

• Read what EU commissioner Mairead McGuiness said about the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive earlier this month

The Impact platform had been developed over the past 10 months in partnership with the private sector, said Grégoire. There are currently 100 “pioneers” signed up, including large firms such as Danone, Grant Thornton and Accor, alongside small businesses “like local bakers”.

The platform includes 47 indicators covering gender equality, wage differentials and greenhouse gas emissions, among many more.

“The cornerstone is my conviction that you can’t improve what you can’t measure,” said Grégoire. 

The data will be made openly available. “Transparency is the best tool for bringing change,” said Grégoire.

Speaking after the minister, Sir Ronald Cohen, chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, offered his congratulations on the initiative. He said: “We have moved from awareness and understanding of impact and now to its measurement.”

Header photo: Olivia Grégoire with the Change Now session chair, Marina Niforos of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations, alongside a display of the Impact platform