Author : Vincent Duffau
Earth Action has entrusted Vincent with the mission of infusing a new dynamic into our development. As a catalyst, he will foster the deployment of our expertise to make it more accessible and impactful for those shaping their future. By guiding our clients in transforming their environmental commitments into tangible actions, we are building lasting, trust-based relationships dedicated to their overall performance.
Your background spans several industrial and cultural sectors, from construction to watchmaking and collaboration with institutions and public administrations. How have these experiences shaped your understanding of sustainability challenges across value chains?
My intentionally diverse career has revealed that sustainability challenges are universal yet deeply contextual across value chains. How does one transition from procurement leadership in multinationals to PR strategies for the future Vaud tramway, then to business development in luxury industries? The common thread is a constant focus on realigning support teams with the company’s mission. These shifts have profoundly shaped me. In the private sector, we restructured support functions to address risks together with our production ecosystems: shocks like raw material shortages or evolving regulations demand collective resilience, where actors share responsibilities, impacts, and gains. Public experience highlighted for me the essential cohesion between projects, stakeholders, and territories to forge sustainable global strategies. In essence, production ecosystems are living entities: they integrate, innovate, make choices, and advance together — and it is precisely this collective dynamic that makes sustainability strategies real and lasting.
You have strong expertise in procurement, traceability and supplier–client relationships. Why do you think traceability and supplier engagement are becoming essential for the quality and reliability of environmental data, and more generally for effective sustainability strategies?
Traceability has been an exciting milestone, ideally complementing my supply chain career. Its systematic potential goes hand in hand with concrete challenges: identification, supplier involvement, large-scale verification, and interoperability. In globalized sectors like construction, food, automotive, or textiles, it serves as a guarantee of quality and an equitable distribution of costs and responsibilities. Its deployment, with the transparency it requires, proves more complex in certain segments due to product nature or stakeholder confidentiality needs. As we say: “traceability is the backbone of sustainability.” It reveals the true links in value chains and enables honest reporting—what truly is, not what we might wish. With adequate granularity, it fuels genuinely operational strategies: verified datasets beyond mere declarations — essential for DPP/PEF, and robust carbon footprints — but above all actionable to drive ecodesign and steer procurement decisions. In these cohesive systems, actors co-produce reliable data over time — far beyond isolated efforts. This is precisely where the complementarity between supplier data collection and mastery of emission factors — Earth Action’s core expertise — makes all the difference. My sector-specific experience — watchmaking, construction, public administrations — has taught me that every industry has its own codes and levers. That industry knowledge is what makes supplier engagement credible, data reliable, and footprints operational. This goes well beyond environmental impact: it is about risk management and supply chain resilience. It’s a deeply human profession. Surprisingly, solid people are still behind the computers. I forged strong relationships with clients and partners there.
What attracted you to join Earth Action, and what do you hope to bring to the team and its projects?
Relationships built through projects often lead to unexpected collaborations. That is how Julien Boucher, then my client and now CEO of Earth Action, invited me to help develop the company’s activities — a role we refined during our runs and ski touring outings! I enthusiastically seized the opportunity to dive into sustainability diagnostics and strategies from a business perspective: how to turn regulatory constraints into opportunities and business models — and how to make environmental strategies truly operational within companies. I am drawn to fostering the kind of “translation” that builds bridges between sustainability experts, procurement teams and leadership, drives engagement, and leads to concrete decisions. EA’s teams master recognized methodologies, as shown by their widely praised From Pack to Plate report. They already benefit from a diverse community, with a strong level of trust and goodwill. My experience in public relations will help that community grow in maturity by creating dynamics and synergies. I especially value Pascal Meyer’s advice (Qoqa founder), where he described the patient building of the qoqasians community — a sounding board and an endless source of energy and ideas. At the end of an extended parental leave, discussions I had with EA’s entire management team quickly revealed a shared desire to work together. I am deeply grateful to them for their commitment.
Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see to drive more impactful environmental action among supply chains?
It’s a delicate time for companies, marked by a strong environmental setback. Data-driven sustainability strategies are emerging as key pillars of risk management: Scope 3 mapping, operational carbon footprints and LCAs, supplier ecosystem documentation, and CSRD-compliant modeling. Major firms are investing heavily to safeguard capital and supply chains, aligning sustainability with business value. This is a focus area for me, as it is for Earth Action. I’m thrilled to advance together on it.