The podcast begins with a brief introduction of Aliénor Schillio, the founder of Nêge Paris, a brand that sells pyjamas of high quality and that are environmentally friendly throughout the production chain.

Summary of the discussion about the role of an entrepreneur with Aliénor:

• When asked how she defines a responsible entrepreneur, she explained that it is an entrepreneur that pays attention to their impact and look for alternative options to respect the environment.
• How to lead a sustainable project? Aliénor considers that the most important element is transparency to verify the positivity of its impact (thanks to easily accessible info).
• How to differentiate from other compagnies who use greenwashing? Once again, the transparency and clarity of the information given to the consumer is key.
• Does an entrepreneur need to align their every day life with their work value ? To Aliénor, yes, otherwise it would not make any sense.
• When did she come up with the idea of creating a sustainable brand ? Her ecological conscience as born after she graduated, and it came little by little during her career when she was working in big companies that had not that kind of conscience. She considers that those companies do not take CSR into account, it is not a priority. When the company faces problems, CSR falls behind the health of the company. To Aliénor, you can have more impact when you are CEO (because you give a direction for the company) instead of an employee working towards that goal.
• What was Nêge’s first process of creation? They first chose the fiber and the workshops. The fiber needed to work in terms of comfort and respect of the environment ; and for the workshops, they established a list of other sustainable brands’ workshops, chose the country they wanted, visited the workshops and evaluated how innovative they were in terms of respect of the environment, energy use, etc.
• How do they evaluate their impact ? They do it through their products, thanks to specified websites (they evaluate the impact of a given product). Currently they are not evaluating the global impact of the company (too small = no headquarters for ex)
• Does she have advice for any entrepreneur wanting to create a sustainable business ? Aliénor stresses the importance of compromise: it is not possible to be 100% sustainable and create value for the company. So another element is patience, as it generally takes 2 to 3 years to be profitable. Another advice she gives is to discuss with alumni and people who work in the sector we’re interested in so that we get a better understanding on where we can work to have a positive impact.

https://www.nege-paris.com/