What does an international CSR strategy that actually works look like?

A robust international sustainability strategy cannot be reduced to translating a headquarters document into several languages. It requires substantive work: mapping the issues specific to each context, consulting stakeholders where they are, and finding the common thread that will bring coherence to often very disparate realities. This is the work E&H carries out with clients committed to multi-country CSR approaches, drawing on over 20 years of experience and more than 35 international projects completed.

Double materiality at the scale of an international group

The double materiality is now at the heart of the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the new sustainability reporting requirements. For a company operating across several countries, the exercise is particularly complex: the company’s impacts on society and the environment vary by geography, and the ESG risks it faces depend on local regulations, social contexts and the expectations of stakeholders in each territory.

E&H Consulting’s approach to these international projects combines rigorous methodology with genuine participation: desk research and prospective analysis, interviews with experts and representatives from each subsidiary, workshops and stakeholder dialogue processes across multiple countries. The goal is to produce a materiality analysis that is both fact-based and credible in the eyes of local teams.

For Groupe Lefebvre, operating in 7 countries, E&H supported the formalization of a complete ESG Impact strategy, mobilizing over 1,300 stakeholders through the consultation process. The project combined CSRD compliance, identification of ESG risks and opportunities, and the construction of a concrete action plan, involving both the Executive Committee and subsidiary management teams at each key stage. Read the Groupe Lefebvre case (french version).

CSR strategy and action plans: from global frameworks to local deployment

Once material topics have been identified, having already integrated the international dimension, the advisory work consists of helping our clients build a CSR strategy that is both ambitious and realistic. One that sets a clear direction while leaving room for the necessary local adaptations. This is not a simple equation.

International companies face a permanent tension between global coherence and local relevance. Too much centralization and subsidiaries feel disconnected, unable to embody commitments that do not match their reality. Too much decentralization and the CSR approach loses its structuring character, fragmenting into a collection of disparate initiatives with no common thread.

E&H’s approach is to co-build with senior leadership teams a shared strategic framework, a set of strong commitments and common indicators, while giving subsidiaries real autonomy in defining and declining their priorities and action plans. This cascading governance model ensures both coherence in the ESG narrative and operational relevance of the actions taken on the ground.

B Corp certification: involving international entities in a collective transformation

International CSR projects are genuine collective transformation journeys, reconciling ambition, operational complexity and stakeholder engagement. The case of Groupe Clarins, which E&H supported through its B Corp certification process, is an inspiring example of a multi-entity rollout. It required rigorous structuring, both on data consolidation and governance, as well as strong top management mobilization to translate strategic intent into concrete action. Success rested on tailored support combining central oversight, local relays and shared practices, creating coherence across very different cultural and regulatory contexts spanning Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. More than a compliance or certification exercise, the project generated lasting impact: stronger employee engagement, increased attractiveness and genuine transformation of the value chain, placing the company on a path of continuous learning and shared value creation. Learn more about the Clarins case.

Purpose: aligning entities around a shared vision

Another compelling case is UPERIO, which E&H supported in structuring its sustainability transformation and aligning its entities around a common vision. Present in 8 countries and the result of several rapid acquisitions, the group needed to both consolidate its culture and lay the foundations for a coherent CSR strategy on an international scale. We designed and facilitated a collaborative process involving leadership and multicultural teams, including seminars, co-construction workshops in English, and sessions with the Executive Committee and Board, to bring to life a shared Purpose, « Rising together to build a better world », and translate it into concrete commitments, operational objectives and performance indicators. This approach demonstrates our ability to engage complex organisations in structuring collective dynamics and to deploy aligned, actionable CSR roadmaps internationally. See the UPERIO case.

When CSR becomes a driver of innovation

A recent project that speaks directly to companies searching for growth levers in a challenging economic environment was conducted with AUMOVIO Engineering Solutions, an automotive engineering group operating across several global markets. The question we were asked was different from the one we usually hear: not « how do we continue doing what we do more responsibly », but « how do we make sustainability a driver of business development and innovation? »

The project combined an analysis of ESG risks and opportunities across AUMOVIO’s target markets, a cross-referencing of this data with the ESG dynamics and challenges of the sectors the group wants to address, and a two half-day ideation workshop that generated over 100 ideas grouped into 15 thematic areas of concrete ESG impact projects. This approach, which we have called “ESG Business Innovation”, demonstrates that ecological and social transition can be a shared value driver for companies that engage with it ambitiously and in depth. Learn more about the AUMOVIO case.

The key: an advisory team that understands local ESG and business realities

Leading an international CSR advisory project cannot be improvised. It requires a team capable of navigating between European and non-European regulations, understanding local business and ESG contexts, handling cultural nuances in working sessions, and maintaining methodological consistency over several months and multiple time zones.

E&H draws on its own teams and, when needed, on a network of consultants and partners present in many countries, notably through its membership of the Ecocert Group, an international player operating in 26 countries. This ability to anchor projects locally, drawing on genuine knowledge of the local context, while maintaining coherent oversight, is one of the firm’s distinctive strengths.

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