Growing awareness about planetary boundaries. Planetary overshoot should be stopped, also in the boardroom

Karen, can you start by telling us a bit more about yourself?

I am a curious individual who enjoys learning and understanding how individuals and societies functions. In my youth, I have lived in France and the United States. I completed my studies in the U.S. and enjoyed the fact that I could study business while taking classes from the liberal arts college. I specialized in accounting. I liked the logic and the fact that with numbers I could have a global view of a business.

When did you start to change your thinking?

A few years ago, I became board member of Wervel, this Belgian non-for-profit is a pioneer in thinking about agriculture and viable food systems. Like many individuals, I was very influenced by its founder Luk Vankrunkelsven, who passed away in September but left an enormous legacy.

A new world opened to me. I attended courses, webinars and read the IPCC report. I was also influenced by the floods which happened in the South of Belgium in the summer of 2021.

I became a new person and truly felt the fragility of our planet. I attended business events and felt that the scientific aspect was not integrated in these forums. Many of us know that there will be profound changes due to the climate crisis. The 2023 is on track for being the third warmest year on record in Belgium. We are seeing heat waves, flooding, hurricanes, etc…

Besides Wervel, do you have other board mandates?

Yes, I am Board Member at Compagnie du Bois Sauvage, a Belgian holding company. I am happy to have started this new phase in my career.

What do you perceive to be your specific added value to a board?

I have held leadership roles in many very well-run companies. In additions with my sound financial expertise, I can shed light on results and how they can be communicated to the outside world. In addition, the sustainability knowledge I have gained is of tremendous benefit for companies addressing these issues.

Let’s switch to your core competence now. Does sustainability receive enough attention in the boardroom?

No, I do not think it does. Like many businesspeople, I was trained with economics concepts such as growth, profit, and shareholder return. Planetary boundaries or sustainable development as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (as defined 1987 Brundtland report ´Our Common Future`) were not part of my studies back then.

But times have changed, we are gaining awareness that industrial countries have been living above their means. Planetary overshoot will lead to many crises in the future.

Karen, with all this doom and gloom, how do you remain positive ?

I admit it is heavy at times. Beginning of December, I walked in Brussels for the Climate March on a cold and gray Sunday. I saw a lot of serious and solemn people who took this march to heart. Others have another way of expressing their emotions by chanting. So community building is an important antidote for me.

I felt that there was a need to discuss these topics within the network of GUBERNA (Certified) Directors. At the beginning, I reached out to GUBERNA Directors having an interest in sustainability and we formed a committee of 11 people. Nicolas Coomans, Research Associate at GUBERNA is also a member. We have met many times over the past year.

This Committee organised an interactive event last November. What was the purpose and how was this new concept received by the GUBERNA Directors community?

I had a dream of creating an interactive event where Board Members could share their expertise amongst the network. With our Sounding Board Committee, we prepared two business cases with sustainability challenges for the participants to address as if they were part of the Board of Directors for the companies presented in the cases. The participants worked in small groups and then shared their learnings amongst the larger group. Nicolas summarised the learnings afterwards.

We received tons of positive feedback from participants about the content and the networking opportunity. In fact, this GUBERNA event reached the highest satisfaction score in 2023! You can read the summary of the event on the GUBERNA website.

The climate crisis and the resulting polycrises are topics in full expansion. We are looking at a new world requiring a radical mind shift. There is still much to learn, also at board level. Such interactive events are incredibly useful. We are looking forward to continuing them.

On LinkedIn, I discovered that you also founded your own company.
What is the purpose of your company GoAct?

GoAct stands for Governance in Action: we hold awareness and educational sessions amongst board members and executives to get them started on their sustainability journey. As board members, we have an obligation to address the unprecedented political, societal, and technical challenge that our companies will face. One needs to apply a climate lens to each proposed board decision.

Companies are also embarking on compliance journey for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. But we know that reporting will not be enough to truly transform a business. The context the business is operating and diminishing resources (raw materials, water, …) is often not addressed.

I believe that Corporate Boards within their governance mandate must take this on.

How do you look back at the GUBERNA education programs?

The program gave me the confidence and understanding on how I could convert my long experience as an executive towards the responsibilities and expectations of being a board member. The networking aspect has also been very beneficial and some exchanges within the network have culminated in business opportunities.

As we come to the end of the interview, we would like to invite you for a final statement?

I think we need bolder leadership to address the climate crisis. I am calling on all listeners to appreciate all living beings and our planet. Now is the time to step up as individuals, as directors, we need to be agent of change, we know what the problem is, solutions are numerous, there will be opportunities, working together, we can create a better world. The time is now.

Thank you very much, Karen. This is a clear call to action for all of us. We trust that each of you starts to think on how we can save our planet.