An economist by training, Philippine de T’Serclaes has been working in the sustainability sector for nearly 25 years. She started her career in finance at Rothschild & Co, after which she joined JPMorgan Chase, before moving to the International Energy Agency (IEA) as a Senior Finance Policy Analyst, where her interest in sustainability was deepened. 

After five years at the IEA and a PhD in Economics, Philippine joined Schneider Electric in Hong Kong, where among executive roles, she oversaw strategic partnerships. In 2022, she joined Dassault Systèmes as the Chief Sustainability Officer. 

“My career journey has always been driven by the idea of impact,” she says. “Having worked in finance at Rothschild & Co on emerging markets in North Africa and Eastern Europe, I've seen first-hand the effect that the lack of energy access has on people, and the real consequences of climate change on access to resources.”

She shares her journey with Sustainability Magazine.

Why did you choose to work in the sustainability sphere?

The importance of sustainability has been prevalent throughout my career.  Energy, climate change, and the greater role of sustainability on intergenerational well-being and access to resources emerged at every step of the way, and inspired me to seek opportunities where I could make the most impact.

My professional background has enabled me to consider sustainability from many angles. Early in my career, my perspectives were through the lens of finance and public service; looking at how policies help create the right markets to enable the deployment of clean energy technologies. Recently, my focus has shifted to a business perspective, considering how technologies can help drive value across industries. This is my mission today as Chief Sustainability Officer at the global science and technology company Dassault Systèmes, which provides solutions to help customers accelerate their sustainability journeys. I joined the company two years ago and, in just the last six months I have seen a significant evolution in customer objectives and a better understanding of how virtual twins can help them achieve these.

Given Dassault Systèmes’ mission of harmonizing product, nature and life, in my role as CSO, I am perfectly positioned to play a large role in advancing that mission for us and for our customers.

What do you love about your job?

Dassault Systèmes’ solutions are used across 12 industries, in three sectors of the economy. This includes the manufacturing sector, which represents 70% of our revenues.  Our virtual twin technology has transformed how industry designs, produces, distributes and dismantles many kinds of products; everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles. We provide customers with the solutions and expertise that enable them to increase efficiency, reduce material use, improve logistics, reduce waste, and make an impact. In our 2020 study with Accenture, we found that virtual twin technology can help industry reduce CO₂ emissions by 7.5 gigatons. 

And this represents what I love about my job.  The infinite possibilities to make a difference.  Knowing that our technology can have such an impact on sustainability, and interacting with a diverse ecosystem to achieve it.  

As CSO, I work closely with our executive leadership and with the board of directors as well as with ambassadors at every level of the company who understand the importance and value of sustainability, and are engaged and empowered to act across all functions of the organisation. These stakeholders bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences to our activities.  Here at Dassault Systèmes, I continue to be amazed by the passion and knowledge we have for revealing the power of virtual twins to help accelerate sustainable transformations.

In my role, I am also regularly in contact with key stakeholders such as investors, business leaders and associations.  Versatility and flexibility are valuable skills for collaborating with them, as well as fostering relationships with NGOs, academic institutions and policy makers to ensure that, as trends, policies and regulations shift, we are prepared to help our customers anticipate the changes and adapt their businesses.

What would you say are the biggest challenges and opportunities for a CSO?

Today, it is well-known, and also backed by analyst and investor commentary, that sustainability is ‘the’ license to operate.  If companies don't become sustainable, they won't be able to operate within a few years.

However, while many companies care about sustainability, they don’t necessarily know how to transform their business, what steps to take, or which solutions will help them accelerate their efforts to achieve these goals.  This is especially relevant for small and medium sized enterprises.  

And herein lies the challenge for CSO’s:  the role of CSO can vary from industry to industry – where some focus on communications or compliance, and others focus on business – the core role of CSO is one of transformation and change management. Placing sustainability at the center of a company’s strategy sends a message to the entire enterprise that sustainability is a must-have.  As CSOs, we have the unique opportunity to leverage our mission to become more sustainable and transform our businesses into ones that are more people- centric, future-thinking and efficient.

Can you give me an overview of Dassault Systèmes’ sustainability strategy?

Dassault Systèmes’ corporate purpose is to harmonize product, nature and life.  Sustainability is part of our DNA, integrated into our strategy, and embedded in what we say and what we do.

As a science-based company, we measure and quantify the world around us, and reveal the invisible to our customers through virtual twin experiences.  These virtual twins enable customers to visualise products, processes, and experiences, and improve them in the virtual world before producing them physically.

To drive our sustainability strategy, we’ve adopted a two-prong approach centered on our footprint and our handprint. We want to be exemplary- our footprint represents everything we do as a company.  We've set strong science-based targets for ourselves: 

• 35% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2027
• 20% reduction in Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions — business travel and employee commuting — by 2027
• 50% of our suppliers to have emissions reduction goals in line with science-based targets by 2025

I’m really proud of what we have achieved here — even more so in the context of significant company growth -- and the fact that we have resubmitted our goals to SBTi to take into account our acquisition of the clinical trials solutions provider Medidata in 2018.  We really are ‘walking the talk’.

Our handprint represents what we do for our customers, and the best impact we make. Prompted by evolving regulations, we audited and quantified the impact that our solutions had on the CO₂ abatements of our customers. This was a major enterprise-wide project that involved auditing approximately 20 case studies with a third-party certifier. We quantitatively demonstrated how implementing virtual twins can help customers optimise their designs and their weight material ratio to limit scrap, and reduce the number of physical prototypes needed. The contribution to CO₂ abatement was 2.5 times our current footprint. 

A different audit showed that 33% of our aligned revenue in 2023, representing more than €2bn (US$2.1bn), was achieved from sustainable business. In the last six months, we’ve seen a large increase in customers asking for our solutions and expertise to help drive their sustainability - virtual twins deliver a real impact and represent a great opportunity.

Looking to the future, what progress do you hope to see towards net zero?

I hope the next few years will be defined by significant improvements in sustainability.  This can be achieved if companies across the entire spectrum of the economy leverage virtual twin technology to improve inefficiencies and suboptimal processes in their enterprises and value networks across sectors—manufacturing, infrastructure and life science.

The road to net zero requires sustainable innovation.  We will continue to encourage by providing our solutions, as well as by fostering new ways of thinking and supporting startups. Several years ago, Dassault Systèmes created its 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, an open innovation laboratory and startup accelerator program to nurture disruptive projects that positively impact society, and help them scale up new solutions; over the years we have scaled some great projects incubated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab.

What advice would you give to other sustainability leaders?

I’ve been working in the field of sustainability and climate change for more than 25 years. 20 years ago, public awareness of sustainability issues was low.  Today, this is no longer the case, but this heightened awareness has also made many people anxious and uncertain on how to act.

We live in a turbulent world where people can be sidetracked by many kinds of problems.  Sustainability leaders should strive to make this awareness real and keep it actionable, but also remain hopeful. The task at hand is daunting, but we can do it. We have the solutions, the innovation and the understanding of how the world works to help improve the way it functions – we just need to turn hope into action.

To read the full story in the magazine, click HERE.

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