Interview •
People, planet, profit Dr Audrey-Flore Ngomsik explains why sustainability in business is about much more than ‘saving the planet’ ✶ By Paula Dear
Photos by Bart Dewaele
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wo decades ago, back when “nobody cared”, Dr Audrey-Flore Ngomsik was already applying sustainability to science. Initially taking an environmental slant, she used her knowledge – including a PhD in physical and analytical chemistry – to help companies de-pollute, later developing ways for them to prevent pollution at source.
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– but for Dr Ngomsik they are one and the same and boil down to this: looking after people and the planet may well be the right thing to do, but it’s also the profitable one.
Influenced by her father’s job as a judge, then as an advocate for people working in poor conditions, as a manager and leader Dr Ngomsik says she has always focused on getting the culture right for the organisation’s employees.
The Parisian scientist, whose work and wanderlust has taken her to Malaysia, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland, has brought her experience from the academic and corporate worlds to SMEs via her new Brussels-based firm Trianon Scientific Communication, a management consulting agency specialising in CSR. Co-founded with a partner, the company offers to help businesses “incorporate CSR into their DNA” and increase earnings as a result.
Early in her career the dots were joined and she realised that the concept of sustainability goes beyond making ambitious speeches. Buzzwords now swirl around the sustainability sphere – be it corporate social responsibility (CSR), green innovation, diversity and inclusion or ethical business practices
Her passion for diversity and inclusion – and, more importantly, belonging – has also seen her become active in the Brussels Binder, a collective of women experts that aims to improve the gender balance in policy debates. She talks to ING’s Dave Deruytter about some of the things she’s found in Belgium, including
expat time • summer • 2021
