Living CSR
Reduce to the vital minimum, contribute for what remains, then regenerate living systems and the social fabric.
A regenerative CSR approach seeks to bring activity back under the ecological ceiling without dropping below the social floor: first you reduce your impacts, then you contribute for what remains, and then you help living systems and the territory regenerate.
The ecological ceiling and the social foundation draw the space where an activity can hold, without exhausting the living world or leaving people out.
These nine processes keep Earth habitable. Seven are already crossed according to the 2025 scientific assessment. On a roadmap, find which ones your activity really touches, from your activities and sites through to the value chain, and measure first what can be measured.
Count the emissions of your sites and of transport, as well as the energy and the footprint of the building. Climate = tonnes of emissions to reduce first, then contributions for what remains.
Name what still lives on site: hedge, pond, species. Estimate the footprint of your infrastructure and of your value chain. You will then know your impacts and how to act on the biosphere.
What area do you occupy, seal or have converted, including at your suppliers?
Measure the litres taken and the water that is not recycled. Which of it is warmed, and which of it is polluted.
Where do the nutrients come from, where do they go, and who receives the excess downstream?
Your CO₂ reaches the sea even when you are far from the shore. Tie it to the climate you already count.
These are the particles from your combustion and your processes. Reduce them at the source as far as possible. Can they become coproducts, or be recycled?
Look for ozone-depleting substances in the fluids and solvents you still buy. Try to find less harmful substitutes when that is feasible.
If you cannot say where a molecule or a non-biodegradable material you manufacture ends up, replacing it belongs on your roadmap.
The social foundation is the inner ring of the doughnut: it is what people need in order to live. A roadmap that eases the climate by shifting the cost onto a wage, a season or a supplier leaves the safe space. Ask yourself who will carry the changes you are about to propose.
Who lacks water on the territory when you draw yours?
One more sheet does not green a balance sheet by weakening food circuits that are already fragile.
What risks do you place on your employees: heat, dust, products, hours? Is your occupational risk assessment complete and up to date?
Time to learn the trade that is changing belongs on the roadmap, not beside it.
The change must leave a wage and a season that can be lived. Otherwise it will not hold.
Does your value chain pass through a conflict, a broken right, a disputed land? Does it involve mistreatment, the destruction of crops, or child labour?
Who decides on the site? A roadmap written without involving the people who work there remains a promise from management.
Who gains and who loses when you reduce some activities? The impact must not fall only on the same people.
See who carries the invisible work of the change: support, seasons, hours.
Does your activity displace populations, house employees poorly, or make some places unlivable?
Name the ties the roadmap strengthens: neighbourhood, trades, associations, peoples.
Lowering your bill must not cut off access for the people who need it.
A lever is not a box to tick on a wish list. For each of these levers, ask yourself what you stop, what you change in how you produce, and what you regenerate. Decarbonising without reconnecting to the living risks staying superficial.
Reduce the combustion of the process and of transport as far as possible before you fund a contribution.
Start again from the soil, the hedge, the water and the species already there. That is the first move.
Begin with what you no longer make, then with what comes back as material.
Stopping an activity that cannot fit in the doughnut is a decision, not a failure.
Look on the territory for who already measures and who already repairs, and take the step with them.
The gain of the person who decides must point the same way as the drop in impact. Otherwise the roadmap takes you backwards instead of forwards.
First avoid and reduce pressure on water, soil, climate and people. What changes is what gets measured.
Fund traceable projects, near the site and along the value chain, for what could not yet be reduced. An additional and lasting contribution, never an excuse not to reduce.
Restore living systems and the social floor of the territory, beyond what has been avoided or compensated.
« A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not to grow. »
Start by mapping what you are: sites, trades, value chain. Then estimate the impacts. Many tools exist online, notably the Impact Score.
Living systems include people. Seasons, wages, local skill and what we choose to stop belong on the roadmap. How do you bring them along? Experience is the best answer, your companions will tell you!
It is a corporate responsibility approach that does not stop at limiting the damage. Having reduced its impacts and contributed for the remainder, the organisation restores habitats and social ties in its territory: hedges, soils, water, jobs, skills.
Since 27 September 2026, European Directive 2024/825 prohibits claiming that a product is neutral or has a reduced impact thanks to offsetting. We therefore speak of contribution: funding traceable, additional projects without using them to claim neutrality.
Since the Omnibus directive published in February 2026, mandatory CSRD reporting applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than €450 million in turnover. Others can use the voluntary VSME standard, which customers and banks often ask for.
Nothing. The method, the guides, the forum, the directory and the roadmap are free. Companions state their own terms: some help as volunteers, others as paid service providers. Voluntary contributions fund the development and hosting of the platform.
Your roadmap builds on these questions, sorts the actions into three phases and connects you with the actors in your territory.
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