“Today, the economy is ecology: without awareness, businesses are doomed to collapse.”

Let's knit, unknit, reknit, the phraseology about the slow path towards environmental transition has been heavily influenced by the world of knitwear for the past two years, sometimes right side up, sometimes wrong side up! Fortunately, in the reality of business life, things are different. For one simple reason: facts are stubborn. Global warming is accelerating – the first "heat alert" in history in Alaska, at the beginning of June! – adaptation is unavoidable, the depletion of resources has become obvious to all leaders, as evidenced by the warlike speeches devoted to the subsoil of Greenland, Canada, Ukraine, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, to name only the most publicized.

Some of the "unraveling" of even recent regulations is justified by their excessive complexity. One thinks of the CSRD ("Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive") and its thousands of data categories, for example. The ongoing re-knitting will involve a welcome simplification. Others are explained more by contingencies that we will generously call "political," but do not necessarily touch on the essentials.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to throw the baby out with the bathwater and dangerous not to address the supplier value chain! For example, the CS3D ("Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive"), a dreadful acronym that can be simply translated as "enhanced duty of care", is currently weakly defended by Brussels and attacked by a growing number of states and, unfortunately, leaders, including France and Germany.

Modified, no doubt, streamlined for sure, but not eliminated! Why? Because the transition is not an option and it never happens alone. Without upstream and downstream suppliers, this famous scope 3 of carbon, of adaptation, there is no salvation! Blind "supply chains" talk about price and volume, not quality, impact, and sustainability. Therefore, there is no future.

CS3D is a vital, almost fatal, approach. Know your partners, build a value ecosystem, a collective to better source your supplies, eco-design your products, optimize your flows and processes. Complete the transaction with a nourishing cooperation to innovate and invest together. This isn't ecology; it's sound management. And without it, there's no leader, no growth, but a terrible game of the mistigri: each stage of the value chain seeks to pass the bad card to the next...

Without this regulation-traceability-vigilance which could and even should have been self-regulation, it is the reign of opacity, with the risk of child labor, Uighur slavery, incorporated plastic that we believe is recycled, wood that we did not think came from deforestation, brominated plastics in counterfeit toys, in short, violent boomerangs.

And the alternative to self-regulation or regulation is simple: the courts. Examples are multiplying, involving La Poste, TotalEnergies, Arkema, Daikin, Danone, Casino, BNP Paribas, and even Apple: the legal liability of companies and their managers is now engaged when environmental or social criteria are ignored, even by subsidiaries of subsidiaries, on the other side of the world. Case law in these areas is strengthening worldwide every day.

The judge is not necessarily the best equipped to deal with these issues. Nor are legal sanctions necessarily the most appropriate way to "help" companies make the transition.

Today, economics is ecology: without taking circularity and sustainable development into account, businesses are doomed to collapse in the short, medium, or long term. Regulation is always better than litigation. Here, more than anywhere else, it's better to prevent accurately than to risk falling and then recovering badly.