In an article published by Forbes, Pierre Maugery-Pons, Partner at EFESO Management Consultants examines how businesses are navigating environmental challenges in an unstable world.
The start of 2025 marks a pivotal moment in the way companies are embracing sustainable development.
In Europe, regulatory frameworks are beginning to soften with the introduction of the “Omnibus” package, signaling a reassessment of the Green Deal’s ambitions. Meanwhile, the outlook in the United States is growing more uncertain with the resurgence of Trumpism, where the very term “sustainable” is vanishing from the government’s vocabulary. Does this represent the early signs of widespread disengagement—or, conversely, the emergence of a more mature and pragmatic approach?
Geopolitical uncertainty as a strategic booster
The global geopolitical landscape is becoming increasingly complex.
Access to natural resources is now the focus of growing international competition. Trade wars are weighing heavily on global exchanges and supply chains, exposing the vulnerabilities and dependencies of the world’s largest economic zone. Today, companies face a reality that extends far beyond climate change alone.
In this context, the regulatory streamlining introduced by the “Omnibus” package—along with the revision of the CSRD and CS3D directives—should not be seen as a step backward, but rather as a phase of consolidation.
Europe is aiming to make sustainability requirements more coherent and easier to interpret, without diminishing their impact. This is not about easing the effort, but about moving away from a logic of piling on rules. The goal is to help companies focus their efforts on truly transformative levers.
Sustainable development is no longer expected to be driven solely by governments, but increasingly by the value chains themselves. In this new paradigm, it is the markets, customers, and citizens who are setting the direction.
From compliance to resilience: a structural shift
The most advanced companies will not simply aim to meet regulatory minimums. Instead, they will embed environmental and circular economy principles at the core of their strategic decision-making. This marks a fundamental shift in perspective—one where resilience becomes a central value. Businesses are now compelled to rethink their supply chains, anticipate climate-related physical risks, and adopt new approaches to managing the increasing scarcity of natural resources.
The ecological transition therefore ceases to be an externality. It becomes a direct response to operational challenges, a performance lever, a component of industrial risk. And paradoxically, the more unstable the global environment becomes, the more necessary this change of attitude becomes.
Rethinking performance: is industrial ecology back in favor?
It would be an illusion to believe that the environmental transition is on the verge of extinction. It is redefining itself. It is being reorganized around more operational principles, more in tune with economic realities. Within this new framework, levers that have long been secondary are coming back to the fore. Industrial ecology, which favors a territorial and virtuous approach to industrial production frameworks, is an effective practice for reconciling economic performance and resource sobriety.
By enabling systemic optimization of material, energy, water and waste flows between production units, this approach offers a powerful lever for sustainable performance. Once confined to a few experiments, it is now becoming a concrete response to the pressures on resources, the need to relocate certain stages of production, and the requirement to reduce emissions to turn economic uncertainty into a springboard for organizational and technological innovation. There is every reason to believe that industrial ecology will become a central pillar of environmental strategy for French and European companies in the years ahead.
Towards a New Pact of Responsibility
The question is no longer whether companies should commit to the transition, but how they will do so in a fragmented world. Climate change, resource depletion, and pressure on ecosystems will remain unavoidable constraints. But addressing them can no longer rely solely on governments. Businesses must step up—not out of obligation, but because their long-term viability depends on it.
What if this era of instability were not a threat, but the catalyst for a new pact—one that is more realistic, more strategic, and more industrial?
For the full article in French, please visit Forbes
