l'enjeu majeur De l'événementiel - GL events

Cover story.23
Patronage
Charles Hedrich:
An adventurer
supported by
GL events
As part of the company’s patronage
operations, GL events is providing
support for the sportsman and
adventurer, Charles Hedrich, in his
latest challenge. Charles Hedrich hails
from Lyon and has set himself the
challenge of going around the world,
via the North and South Poles, using
only renewable energy sources..
> Hedrich is a fan of unusual sports
events and has just done a world’s
first: since 6 June, he and his
colleague, Arnaud Tortel, have become the first
men to ever travel from the North Pole to
Greenland using only pulkas and kayaks. The
original plan for this 51-year-old Lyonnais,
father of three boys and a former officer in the
Merchant Navy, was to travel from the North
Pole to the South Pole using only renewable
energy sources such as wind, water and solar
energy. He set out from the North Pole in early
April and planned to reach the South Pole in
early January 2010. “This has never been done
before, it will be a world’s first,” he says. But
the weather conditions made it impossible for
him to cross Greenland. “Global warming is
such that we came across an open ice floe, as
far as the eye could see. This was totally
unexpected, including for the ice specialists
who were monitoring our progress…”, says
Charles Hedrich. With his iron will, this highly
unusual sportsman decided that he would not
let this stop him. He will take up his expedition
again in April 2010, starting from where he
stopped last time and still without using the
slightest amount of fossil fuel. “Doing this trip
in two stages is, of course, less exhilarating for
me, but I’m trying to look at it as just a stopover…”.
This is a man who is used to seeing
challenges through to their conclusion. Since
devoting himself to extreme sports in 2002
following the sale of the company that he
succeeded in floating on the stock market in
1997, he has been incredibly active. After the
Paris-Dakar motorcycle race in 2003 (6 th place
in the 400 m 3 category), he sailed solo around
the world, with no stop-overs and no assistance,
in 2005. Then, on 17 May 2006, he climbed
Mount Everest and its 8,848 metres using the
Tibetan route. More recently, in January 2007,
Charles Hedrich beat the world record for
rowing across the Atlantic, in 36 days and 6
hours, before doing a 550 km solo autonomous
hike, at the end of 2008, in Antarctica. With the
support of his various partners, including
GL events, who were one of the first and who
have invited him to share his experiences at the
renewable energy sources trade show, Charles
Hedrich shows no sign of stopping now.
For further information:
www.charleshedrich.com.
Interview with
Nicole Notat
CEO of Vigeo
“Sustainable development is not
synonymous with restrictions, but
rather with opportunities”
Nicole Notat is the former secretary
general of one of France’s most
important trade unions, the CFDT.
Today, she is the CEO of Vigeo, a
corporate responsibility rating agency,
which audits the largest French
and European companies in terms
of their Social and Environmental
Responsibility (SER). This privileged
observation point provides her with
a unique overview of the sustainable
development situation in France.
Interview.
>
When and how did the world
of business really encounter
the question of sustainable
development?
Nicole Notat – For me, the trigger was in 2002,
in Johannesburg, during the World Summit on
Sustainable Development. At this summit, the
environment, social inequality and economic
development were all at the forefront of public
opinion. And it was at the same event that
Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of
the United Nations, started to put pressure
on businesses and that businesses started to
feel concerned about such matters. Especially
those that are most exposed, who understood
that if the question of sustainable development
was ignored, they were the ones who would be
shot down by public opinion or the media.
Out of conviction, or out of necessity, the
world of business thus started to move. It was
all the more inclined to do so as regulatory
pressure gained momentum at the start of
the 2000s, for example with the “loi NRE” (new
economic regulations law), which has obliged
all companies listed on the Stock Exchange
to publish information concerning their SER
policy.
You just mentioned “SER”. What exactly
do these three letters stand for?
NN – In the face of the challenge that
sustainable development represents for the
planet and our future generations, it is now
necessary to invent and build a new economy
and a new type of growth. Collectivities,
companies, citizens, consumers, everyone is
involved and every individual should commit to
the concept. For companies, this commitment
takes the concrete form of what is known
as Social and Environmental Responsibility
(SER). At Vigeo, we still insist on the fact that
companies must not consider this process
as a restriction, but rather as an opportunity.
Similarly, we also insist on the fact that SER
should not be seen as a “good deed”, but
instead as a boost for global performance.
Do you feel that progress is being
made in this respect?
NN – Absolutely! In the early 2000s, a
company’s approach to SER was often limited
to nothing more than a “Values charter”.
With the company’s values thus displayed
in black and white, everyone assumed that
the corresponding actions would follow. Of
course, we all know that things do not happen
as easily as that. Since then, a new level has
been attained by many companies, who have
integrated sustainable development into the
very heart of their strategy, their production
processes and their organisation. The fact that
the employees themselves have also adhered
to the importance of sustainable development
has also played a part in this evolution.
To conclude, what message would you
like to send to company directors
who have a vague desire to commit
themselves to an SER approach?
NN – To start with, and at the risk of repeating
myself, all company directors should bear in
mind that committing to this approach will
provide opportunities in terms of development,
performance, reputation or attractiveness with
regard to the various publics concerned.
That said, they should also be aware that
sustainable development is not a magic potion.
In other words, things will not all come together
harmoniously overnight. There will necessarily
be trade-offs to make, certain types of rigidity
to overcome, projects that will need to be
staggered over time, and so on. Finally, although
the directors’ commitment is decisive for the
success of the approach, implementing real
“SER management”, which can, in particular,
involve the creation of specially designated
missions, and appropriating teams (at all levels
of the hierarchy) are also essential conditions
for success.
Respect
the Earth
Charles Hedrich aims to be honest in his
approach. He is, above all, an extreme
sportsman. For him, environmental
concerns come in second place. But rowing
across the Atlantic in 2008 was a sort of
trigger: “When you see all the plastic bags
in the sea, when you realise that there are
less and less fish, you have to have some
kind of reaction. I want to keep on doing my
own thing and not become over-zealous,
but, through my sporting activities, I have
the opportunity
to raise people’s
awareness of
what is really
happening to our
planet today.”
With his association, “Respectons la Terre”,
Charles Hedrich has thus decided to use
adventure sports as a means of approaching
issues of a more general nature, such as the
use of natural or renewable energy sources,
preserving plant and animal biodiversity,
and so on.
For further information:
www.respectonslaterre.org
Octobre/October 2009 - GL events magazine