Embedding ESG across 890 offices

We spoke with Sandrine Cormier, CSR Project Manager at France Travail, for the fourth episode of Tapio Talks. Starting her career focusing on the social side of ESG, she now oversees the organisation’s entire CSR strategy.

With over 10 years of experience in the field, Sandrine is guiding France Travail towards a clear target: reducing CO₂ emissions by 35% by 2030. The organisation carried out its latest carbon report with Tapio to achieve this, ensuring a solid foundation for action.

But how can a national organisation with 58,000 employees and more than 890 offices make this happen? Sandrine shares valuable insights in this conversation.

The basics of employee engagement: top-down strategy, bottom-up ideas

Reaching such an ambitious goal requires strong direction from management. But that alone won’t do the job.

As Sandrine explains, “It can’t just be a top-down exercise. For our sustainability strategy to be effective, it must also be owned by the people who live it daily.”

France Travail combines a national strategy with strong local involvement. Each region has CSR correspondents, and every agency has its own ambassador. Their role is twofold: cascading the national strategy down while surfacing local ideas that can be scaled nationally.

One of Sandrine’s favourite examples came from a local agency that reorganised teleworking schedules. By aligning remote work days, colleagues living in the same area could carpool more efficiently. “It’s a simple idea, but it works—and it didn’t require budget or new infrastructure,” she says.

To further boost engagement, France Travail also uses competition as a lever. Each year, the organisation runs a CSR Trophy to reward local initiatives. On the energy front, offices can now compare their consumption on shared dashboards, encouraging agencies to challenge themselves and learn from each other’s progress.

Mobility: a challenge in coordinating many stakeholders

One of the hardest categories to tackle is mobility, a large share of France Travail’s carbon footprint.

The challenge stems from the number of stakeholders involved:

• 58,000 employees
• job seekers visiting agencies
• partners and suppliers
• other visitors across the network

While digitalisation and remote work have already reduced professional travel, commuting, and visitor journeys are more complex to influence. “We encourage public transport, carpooling, or cycling, but not everyone has easy access. Remote video calls are also essential in our mobility strategy,” Sandrine notes.

The real challenge is coordinating all these actors while staying true to France Travail’s core mission of supporting job seekers.

Procurement: working with suppliers still at the start of the journey

Procurement represents another major challenge, particularly because 90% of France Travail’s purchases are intellectual services. It is challenging to gather physical data that allows for precise carbon accounting.

Sandrine and her team are focusing on two fronts:

• improving data: moving from monetary ratios to more physical measures
• engaging suppliers: many small and medium enterprises aren’t yet required by law to report on sustainability

When asked about suppliers’ level of engagement, Sandrine explains, “They’re often interested but don’t know where to start and aren’t as mature as we are. Our role as a public institution is to guide them, so their progress benefits them and us.”.  

Energy: a lever for early progress

Energy was a more straightforward starting point than mobility and procurement. France Travail had already integrated carbon accounting since 2011, and national energy efficiency targets added momentum. Clear actions and visible results helped build employee buy-in.

Key measures included:

• limiting heating to 19°C in winter and cooling to 26°C in summer
• consolidating staff on fewer floors during high-telework days
• switching to LED lighting
• assigning regional energy coordinators to monitor and support sites
• publishing monthly consumption per site and comparing it to regional averages
  

These actions delivered tangible results: electricity use was cut by 16.8% between 2021 and 2023, surpassing national expectations.

Conclusion: change takes time

After a decade in environmental CSR, Sandrine’s most significant lesson has been patience.

“When you start, you want everything to go fast. But change isn’t linear. People need time to understand, adapt, and shift habits. Sometimes there are steps forward and sometimes backwards. The key is to stay on course, accompany rather than push, and celebrate the progress.”

Her pragmatic, inclusive, and patient approach shows how a public institution as large as France Travail can transform ambitious goals into real, lasting change.