Sustainability has changed.
From image-driven to
business-driven.
As reporting obligations, external assessments and stakeholder expectations continue to pile up, we help companies structure their ESG approach so it becomes manageable, prioritised and genuinely material.
We see the same gap every day: ESG teams spend their time producing information, when their real role should be to inform decisions and help transform the business. Our ambition is to rebalance that equation.
The founding team
BeMaterial was built on a simple conviction: a topic as cross-functional as ESG requires complementary perspectives. That mix allows us to work both on the substance of the issues and on the way they are embedded in the organisation.
Romain holds a PhD in sustainable finance and brings deep expertise in ESG issues and their integration into economic and financial analysis. His research has focused on the evolution of investment practices and the growing weight of sustainability criteria in financial decision-making. At BeMaterial, he designs the methodologies and tools that allow ESG issues to be handled with rigour and efficiency, especially through automation and AI. His objective is simple: turn the complexity of ESG frameworks into clear, reliable methods companies can actually use.
Founder of NSW Conseil, Nathanaël has been supporting executives, teams and investors since 2016 in embedding CSR and ESG issues into business models. As a former in-house CSR lead and ESG manager in private equity, he combines financial discipline with an operational view of sustainability. At BeMaterial, he helps turn ESG projects into concrete levers of economic performance. His approach is grounded in field realities, operational constraints and the human dynamics that make transformation work.
With a background in M&A advisory, François brings a financial and strategic lens to ESG issues. Accustomed to analysing business models, risks and value-creation paths, he approaches sustainability as a decision-making and trade-off issue for executives. At BeMaterial, he helps companies build ESG approaches that are genuinely connected to their economic priorities: clarifying what matters, integrating financial materiality and putting robust, manageable frameworks in place. His method applies the analytical discipline of corporate finance to ESG so it becomes a real management and decision tool.
What we see
Across our respective careers, the three of us have witnessed the same shift.
Whether in consulting, sustainable finance or corporate finance, the same reality has become increasingly clear.
ESG issues now play a much more central role in company life.
They are no longer just communication or compliance topics.
They now affect very concrete dimensions of business performance:
- access to key tenders
- expectations from investors and lenders
- the management of operational risk
- the overall perception of a company's robustness
In other words: CSR has become a competitiveness issue.
CSR still treated as a reporting exercise
And yet, in many organisations, CSR is still experienced as a burdensome exercise.
It often takes the form of a stream of external demands.
Client questionnaires
ESG assessments (EcoVadis...)
CSR reports
Investor requests
Regulatory requirements
A lot of effort to produce information
But rarely a clear sense of priorities
A lot of effort to produce information
But rarely a clear sense of priorities
The result: CSR gradually becomes disconnected from strategy and from the company's real economic priorities.
The vision behind BeMaterial
At BeMaterial, we start from a simple belief.
CSR must be connected to the company's economic priorities.
When it is treated purely as a reporting exercise, CSR absorbs a lot of effort without necessarily creating value for the business.
Our approach is to put materiality back at the heart of the process. In other words: identify the ESG issues that genuinely influence the company's performance, risk profile and trajectory.
In practice, that means:
- structuring ESG information and requirements
- identifying the issues that truly deserve priority
- focusing effort where it creates the most impact
In other words: making sustainability genuinely material.