The latest IPCC report released this August, predicted that current trends will lead to more extreme weather including floods and heat waves; both types of events that can heavily influence our food supply and health. So it is increasingly important for businesses to re-align their strategies to meet the Agenda 2030 Sustainability Goals. Companies are placed at very different levels on this path, some are beginning their journey, others are on their way, and many are still in the starting blocks. Morgane Meignen is the Senior Consultant and Founder of CSC Consulting and her mission is to guide companies in the transition to becoming a more sustainable business. 

Morgane Meignen has always felt strongly about taking care of the environment. She recalls from a young age being the “sustainable one” at school, where attitudes towards climate change were quite different from today. Her interest led her to study at a Business School in France to pursue her desire to bring more sustainable practices to the business world. After her six month Erasmus exchange in Sweden, she moved back to France to finish her studies but held onto the hope of one day returning. 

Upon graduation, Morgane Meignen found her place as a Corporate Sustainability Manager for a French civil engineering company – BRL Groupe in Nîmes. This involved establishing KPIs, setting priorities and defining strategy. An opportunity to return to Sweden presented itself through British consulting company K2 Corporate Mobility in Malmö, and she joined the team as a Business Administration Consultant, involving herself in the internal CSR programs. Through this cross-sectional position, Morgane Meignen gained expert knowledge in business needs and stakeholder management. A year ago, amidst the uncertainties of Covid-19, Morgane decided to take the step of launching her own company: CSC Consulting. 

Starting a company is never easy, especially during a pandemic. Traditional networking around breakfast or fika was no longer an option. Instead, she decided to further her professional skills with the online course Business for SDGs™ to legitimise her expertise in business and sustainability. Organised by Vati of Sweden, one of the first consultancies in the world giving certification on integrating the SDGs into business strategy, this course provides Change Agents with “a working knowledge of how to use the SDGs as a tool to design business strategy around and how to embed the SDGs in business strategy”. This is where Morgane Meignen met course leader and founder of Vati of Sweden, Eva Vati. Vati has been working alongside the United Nations for over a decade, is an official Ambassador and Advocate for TeachSDGs, and serves as a business mentor and sits on the advisory board for several of the United Nations Agencies. From their shared visions and values, arose a successful business partnership. 

Morgane Meignen has since consulted for Fjällraven – a leading Swedish outdoors company, also known for its iconic square backpack; to assess their existing sustainability strategy, handing over a full analysis and recommendations on what was already in place, and setting KPIs to achieve their goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025. You can already see the results of this through the improved communication strategy highlighting Fjällraven’s sustainability measures, with notably more accessible information and transparency on their website, effectively preventing greenwashing actions and accusations.   

But how can a Sustainability Consultant guide brands in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals? What Morgane Meignen focuses on is the regulated ISO 26 000 framework and uses it to help businesses set out their sustainability strategy. This framework is the corporate social risk standard. It is not a certifiable framework but a verifiable one, and Morgane works within that verification process. Her extensive knowledge about this certification makes her able to prepare teams and businesses for an audit for verification which must then be carried out by an independent third-party for authentication.

To work within this framework, companies must create a self-declaration, which is a country specific process. Sweden’s self-declaration is based on integrating the Agenda 2030 SDGs. Practically speaking, there are 50 questions that companies must assess, and an audit is then carried out to verify this information to combat greenwashing.

The self-declaration has the advantage of setting a guideline to CSR reporting, which is by law required for companies of a certain size and/or turnover. This guide is the best there is in helping companies identify their areas of impact and opening dialogue with their stakeholders, as these key aspects of sustainability reporting are necessary steps in the ISO 26 000 process.  The comprehensive assessment questions allow for an in-depth reflection which is the essence of setting pertinent KPIs and creating a strategy addressing both social and environmental sustainability.

Morgane Meignen’s role is to guide companies through the ISO 26 000 standard, and through this process, create the basis for the sustainability report and point out strategic pathways to increased sustainability in business.

Setting out on the sustainability road can be quite scary; unit economics favours those who put profit in front of the people and the planet. What Morgane Meignen proposes however is a balance between the three.

“Laws are getting stricter and stricter about what companies can do, and it will, hopefully soon, become impossible for businesses to uphold models that do not take societal responsibility seriously.” 

So, whether you are already on your way, or just getting started with sustainability, feel free to reach out to Morgane Meignen at CSC Consulting for an expert outlook on how to move forward in a sustainable and strategic way. 

For more information about CSC Consulting, visit the website here  

You can also reach out to Morgane Meignen by email