HAVAS

Sustainability is a fundamental element of the present and future strategy for the Havas Group for four concrete reasons:

1 — Havas helps sharing

Havas prides itself on being a vibrant network of creative and rigorous professionals, acutely aware of the physical and social environments within which they operate and to which they contribute: a team that has a strong sense of community and understands the importance of collaborating and sharing. We believe that communications would not exist without the notion of sharing, which is after all the original meaning of communication, and this shapes Havas’ vision of its profession. Therefore sharing the challenges that exist in our social and natural environments is an intrinsic part of Havas and as sustainability is at the top of those challenges, it naturally becomes one of our top priorities.

2 — Sustainability is more than a trend

We firmly believe that sustainability is not a fad or a trend which will fade over time. Even the current economic climate cannot eclipse the growing importance of these issues. Since the Industrial Revolution we have become obsessed with the notion of material expansion at all costs and convinced ourselves that progress involved divorcing ourselves further and further from the natural world; we must now reconnect with the myriad of eco-systems around us, and recognise that nature and the environment represent the ultimate limit to growth. Thanks to the progress of science and mankind, we are now able to aspire to economic growth that is in harmony with natural resources. Our own studies on consumer behaviour prove that in practically all markets, consumers subscribe to this way of thinking and tend to prefer companies, products and brands which are sustainable. This is an immutable fact.

3 — Key for consumers

We believe sustainability represents the single largest opportunity for forward thinking businesses today. Our ongoing commitment to market- leading research in this area shows that consumers increasingly see sustainability as a highly aspirational goal and are looking to reward companies for taking a lead in solving environmental and social challenges.

4 — Key for advertisers

Thus we recognise that sustainability is a key issue for our clients. Clients across every sector are now either highly engaged or under mounting pressure to instigate significant changes in the name of sustainability – and that includes the many partners they have across all supply chains, including communication agencies. We believe sustainability is fast becoming a defining feature for businesses and for those that fail to adapt, the only outcome will be failure. Havas already carries out a wealth of initiatives at local level and we strongly believe this is an effective way to ensure our efforts are materially relevant to the communities and societies in which we operate: we do not believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach to sustainability.

However, we recognise that this is a long journey for everyone and as a group, we must continue to lead and raise the bar further for our industry.

From a commercial perspective, we will continue to help our clients recognise the importance in creating authentic and compelling messages around sustainability and continuously guard against the perils of green washing. We will advise clients, with the help of our industry-first tools, as to the environmental and social ramifications of their communication campaigns so as to create a more integrated and inclusive decision-making process for our clients and our account teams.

But more than this, to us, responsibility also means that the communications we originate and distribute for our clients’ needs has beneficial human outcomes, and amplifies consumers’ capabilities.

In a connected world where dictated monologue is being replaced with invited dialogue, and where co-creation and collaboration are paramount, we have to ensure our work not only informs, but also enriches. Only by making communications useful can we be sure to nourish and not deplete the social, human, and intellectual capital of the consumers who are part of it, and offer a truly sustainable product and service to our clients. It is key that we are coordinated and integrated as a group, with specialist knowledge and expertise readily available across the organisation. To this end we have put in place a sustainability committee made up of members drawn from across the group and markets to oversee and integrate the actions undertaken by all the managers and agencies of the group. As a result, we are instigating initiatives to ensure all our teams are not only aware of the challenges ahead, but the opportunities too. We believe the key to progress in this area rests not with embedding more sustainable practices, but with embedding sustainable thinking – not just within our organisation, but within all consumers.

Fernando Rodés Vilà