Pauline Bouquart: Turning Compliance into Competitive Advantage
At a time when corporate sustainability is being redefined by regulation, stakeholder pressure, and resource instability, few voices are as clear and practical as Pauline Bouquart, Manager in the Climate Change and Sustainability Services department at EY in Brussels. Working at the forefront of Europe’s climate and sustainability agenda, Pauline has become a trusted advisor to companies navigating the evolving ESG landscape. In this interview, Pauline shares concrete lessons from her work that show how sustainability managers can lead with clarity and conviction. From CSRD compliance to circular economy strategies and stakeholder engagement, her perspective is a roadmap for building both reports and resilience.
CSRD: A Mandate for Impact, Not Just Metrics
Pauline doesn’t mince words when it comes to CSRD. For her, it’s more than a framework, it’s a call to action for companies to integrate sustainability at the core of their strategy and make their business future-proof. “While the new Omnibus proposal may reduce the number of companies required to report, it’s crucial to remember that the ambition behind CSRD is to go beyond reporting—to foster long-term value creation and promote truly sustainable business performance. Reporting without concrete and sustained actions will appear as greenwashing, and this could result in serious consequences. According to the Green Claims Directive, the EU can fine up to 4% annual turnover (in the country(ies) concerned by the claim) for infringing enforced rules on claims substantiation. Concretely, it means that a company stating vague, misleading or unfounded information about their products’ environmental characteristics can be fined.”
Her insight hits a critical pain point: the widening gap between reporting and reality. With 63% of consumers skeptical about sustainability claims (Journal of Business Ethics, 2022), Pauline underscores that compliance alone isn’t enough. Without measurable, verifiable action, the reputational risks are just as real as the regulatory ones.
Building Circularity from the Ground Up
Pauline’s expertise in environment and circular systems management is rooted in both practice and policy. Her background in advising on packaging, decarbonization, and extended producer responsibility allows her to guide companies beyond surface-level sustainability. “Companies must implement resilient and long-term sustainable action plans. This goes far beyond just meeting compliance requirements. Companies that proactively plan and act will be able to anticipate risks, seize emerging opportunities, and systematically reduce their negative impacts.” Her message is timely. With nearly half of executives reporting annual supply chain disruptions (McKinsey, 2023), Pauline urges sustainability teams to understand where their dependencies lie, especially in sourcing critical materials, and how to switch to more circular materials. In such globalized value chains, common efforts within an industry can help in achieving economies of scale.
She points to France’s eco-design requirements for packaging as a case where most companies chose a collective approach. “We always co-create with our clients,” she says, highlighting her belief that internal teams hold the keys to adapting operations. It’s this grounded, partnership-based mindset that sets Pauline’s approach apart.
Clarity Through Materiality, Not Just Ambition
If there’s one concept Pauline returns to repeatedly, it’s the importance of knowing your impacts, risks and opportunities, especially in terms of circular economy. She views double materiality, now required under CSRD, not as a burden, but as a strategic starting point to identify areas where a company can be less resource dependent. “The double materiality assessment required by the CSRD helps companies to identify both how they impact the environment (inside-out) and how environmental and social trends affect their financial performance (outside-in).”
Her approach encourages companies to look beyond isolated metrics and take a long-term view. This includes setting realistic targets, engaging stakeholders, and building internal capacity to lead the change. “Companies must set KPIs across short, medium, and long-term horizons, and monitor their progress continuously. And just as important: communicate.”
Supporting data confirms her point. According to Harvard Business Review (2021), companies that align financial and non-financial metrics are more likely to achieve long-term profitability. Pauline connects this with customer trust, especially in consumer-facing sectors: “Consumers need time to understand new systems and adapt their behaviors accordingly. That takes time and communication.”
From this perspective, sustainability isn’t just about tracking emissions. It’s about educating customers, aligning internal teams, and embedding a mindset of continuous improvement.
Leading with Depth and Direction
Pauline Bouquart doesn’t just talk about sustainability, she builds it, one organization at a time. Through her work at EY, she’s helping businesses embrace sustainability not as an obligation, but as an opportunity for transformation. Whether guiding a materiality assessment, advising on collective circularity initiatives, or helping clients reduce their environmental impact, Pauline brings clarity to complexity.
Her advice is clear: start with what you know, engage the right people, use the tools where they help, but most of all, build with intention. “The ambition behind CSRD is to go beyond reporting, to foster long-term value creation and promote truly sustainable business performance.” Sustainability managers looking to move from reactive to future-ready would do well to follow Pauline’s lead.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any company.
