Sandrine Grumberg is a sustainability consultant at Demain Autrement. In this interview, she tells us more about the importance of a well-defined mission and how startups can capitalise on embedding SDGs in their companies.
What led you to found Demain Autrement?
I used to work within procurements for over a decade but left everything behind to set up Demain Autrement. I realised that the true impact of a company is more than its procurements and that the governance and overall strategies played an important role too. I discovered sustainable procurement strategies which led me to discover SDGs and ESG, both of which I have integrated in my consulting work. For the past three years, I’ve been located in the Innovation Hub Dudelange to raise the competency, attention and support that companies can receive to better define their sustainable strategies.
What do you want to achieve with Demain Autrement?
The main goal is to help companies have a clearer vision on their mission. Today, companies are defined by their mission and how their financial performance related to it. However, a lot of companies have limited budgets, especially startups, so they might not know how to position themselves.
Why is it important for startups to have a well thought through mission?
I think startups need to have a clearly formulated mission that is embedded in the company’s work and culture as early as possible because if they wait too long it becomes more costly and difficult to translate it into concrete actions and it may confuse employees too.
While missions may look like a simple concept at first, linking them to key SDGs and ESG criteria allows companies to create action plans and actually follow through on their ambitions. This will become especially important when they have to raise money because now they will not only be able to talk about their company in terms of financial performance but also tie that to ESG language.
How does Demain Autrement differentiate itself from other environmental consultancies?
Through the simplicity of our approach. Nowadays, there are more and more tools to work with but some of them are too complex or time-consuming to use. By using SDGs as the main criteria, Demain Autrement stays efficient and helps companies make their strategies actionable and relevant.
I help businesses of all sizes link their current vision with their long-term vision and ensure that their SDG vision is embedded in everything they do. I help them embed concepts such as carbon neutrality and circular economy, both of which are gaining in importance as companies’ legal obligations to contribute to the energy transition are changing.
Following through on SDG-heavy missions is often more costly than cutting corners. How should startups tackle these costs?
While such missions might be more costly upfront, I believe that they are cheaper in the long run and increase the values of companies because they have a sustainable business case. Also, SMEs are well supported by the government when it comes to such topics. Fit 4 Sustainability, a new programme by the ministry of economy and Luxinnovation gives companies up to 70% of co-funding for assessments of their company’s environmental impact as well as advice from experienced and neutral experts. I have been accredited by Luxinnovation so this also includes working with Demain Autrement.
