Danone shareholders approved Friday more than 99% of the adoption by the food industry of the status of“Mission enterprise” which enjoins him to go beyond the search for profitability by pursuing “Social, societal and environmental objectives”.
“It’s a plebiscite, thank you, a huge thank you”, reacted the CEO of the group Emmanuel Faber, before the 99.42% approval. This is a first for a CAC 40 company.
The notion of “Mission company”, introduced by the Growth Pact law promulgated a year ago, allows a commercial enterprise to integrate social and environmental objectives into its statutes to which it will devote resources and monitoring.
“Many doubted (…) and still doubt that the Pacte law could be applied because finance would oppose it, the shareholders would oppose it”, estimated the CEO of the group at the end of the General Assembly, on France Info, welcoming that “All of Danone’s small shareholders, all of the large, largest shareholders, American, French and English funds” have testified to the contrary.
A growth model “Profitable and sustainable”
The company therefore integrates into its “Profitable and sustainable growth model” the objectives of“Improve health”, especially “Through a portfolio of healthier products”, of “Preserving the planet and renewing its resources”, or to better involve employees in decisions.
During the assembly, Emmanuel Faber presented the ten members of the mission committee set up to monitor the execution of these objectives. These include, alongside a Danone employee, Emma Lahmer, former WTO director general Pascal Lamy and the former finance minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, currently president of the Global Alliance for vaccines and vaccinations (Gavi).
Emmanuel Faber: “At Danone, one person, one voice, one action”
Emmanuel Faber also recalled his “Desire to see ourselves capable of inventing, of reinventing a living business model. A company at the service of a living economy, not of a finance deemed implacable, of an economy which would only be the game of disembodied cogs, but an economy which embodies the human being, which serves the human being. Finance that serves the economy that serves men ”.
A call to an additional step
However, this change in Danone’s status is not sufficient in the eyes of the NGO Oxfam and the Mouvement des entrepreneurs sociales (Mouves). In an open letter to Emmanuel Faber, published Thursday, they acknowledge that he did “Proof that a company can progress: the share of profits paid to shareholders has decreased, the differences between your compensation and that of an employee of the Danone group have started to decrease, more women have joined the governing bodies and the proportion of employee directors increased ”.
While Danone has set the cash dividend for the 2019 financial year at € 2.10 per share, Oxfam and Le Mouves invite it to take another step: “We urge you to make the structuring commitment to include in your objectives the cap on profits paid to shareholders to allocate the sums in question to a fund dedicated to the social and ecological transition of your business.” “
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