Corporate sustainability: bringing economic value into the conversation

Objectifying the economic value of companies’ sustainable commitments

“In a context of tight budget constraints and profound economic transformations, this study provides an analytical framework to better assess the economic value of companies’ social and environmental actions. It offers useful guidance for both businesses and public authorities to support their decision-making and direct investments,” says Caroline Neyron, Managing Director of Impact France.

Companies today are operating in a rapidly changing environment. On one side, extrafinancial reporting is becoming increasingly standardized, and stakeholders expect more transparency and stronger commitments. On the other, major geopolitical and economic uncertainties are leading to a rollback of certain regulatory requirements and increasing pressure on public finances.

Companies therefore face a dual challenge: continuing their sustainable transformation while demonstrating the societal value of their commitments. Although these commitments are increasingly well documented, their translation into economic value for society remains fragmented and not sufficiently clear for private and public decisionmakers.

The ambition of the study is to offer companies and public authorities a framework and initial methodological tools to assess social and environmental actions through the societal costs they help avoid.

Seven case studies, seven drivers of value creation

The study provides an indepth analysis of seven actions carried out by six companies (Veolia, Bel, Sogaris, L’Occitane en Provence, La Poste, and Harmonie Mutuelle), covering the following areas:

• Environmental issues (greenhouse gas emission reduction
• Energy transition
• Water resource preservation)
• Social issues: employment and inclusion in the labour market

The actions span diverse scopes, from industrial or logistics sites to national or international initiatives.

For each case study, the analysis focuses on two key questions:

• What societal costs are avoided thanks to the action implemented by the company?
• What would these avoided costs represent if more companies adopted similar actions?

Two levels of results were therefore assessed:

• The costs avoided directly due to the company’s action, measured at the level of the site or defined perimeter
• The costs avoided in a collective scenario, modelling what a sectorwide, territorial or national rollout could generate

The results show that the actions analyzed already yield significant savings for society, ranging from several hundred thousand euros to several billion euros depending on the scope. Taken together, the cases demonstrate that scaling up these practices could help avoid tens of billions of euros in societal costs each year, at national or even international level.

Methodological framework

The study relies on a rigorous and transparent methodology based on clearly stated and deliberately conservative assumptions, documented sources, and comparison scenarios. Monetization is used as an objectification tool, when data quality allows, without aiming to convert all impacts exhaustively.

The analysis focuses on the costs avoided for society, rather than on companies’ return on investment, in order to make visible economic impacts that remain insufficiently considered in public decision-making. The results should therefore be interpreted as orders of magnitude designed to inform debate and guide decision-making, within an exploratory exercise grounded in case studies.