Can Business Repair What Society Struggles to Fix?
We are extremely good at measuring revenue, profit, growth and return on investment. Should we be equally rigorous about measuring what a company improves, protects, repairs or leaves behind?
That question sat at the heart of this episode of The Lisa Burke Show, with four Luxembourg entrepreneurs using business to tackle wasted energy in buildings, hidden disability, affordable housing and litter.
Purpose written into the company
At the centre of the conversation is Luxembourg's Société d'Impact Sociétal, or SIS: a legal structure for companies whose social or environmental purpose is written into the organisation itself. An SIS still has to win clients, generate revenue, employ people and grow. It also has to measure and report its impact. What happens when purpose is given the same seriousness as profit?
Four stories
Virginie Ducommun, founder of Indoor Forest, spent more than 20 years in marketing before moving into smart buildings. Her starting point is simple: measure first. Wireless sensors can reveal where buildings are consuming electricity and water without major structural work. We also talked about Luxembourg's habit of demolishing buildings that may still have decades of useful life.
Data is gold. Before you do anything, you need to know what's happening.
Jana Degrott, founder of Real Impact Hub, works on accessibility and hidden disability, a commitment that is deeply personal because her brother has a hidden disability. Real Impact Hub represents the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme in Luxembourg, a discreet signal that someone may need more time, patience or support, without having to explain a diagnosis.
Joe Schmit, co-founder of Simpact, has spent more than 15 years in Luxembourg real estate and now develops affordable housing with municipalities and public and private partners. As he put it, the housing market does not follow the growth. And housing connects to almost everything else: schools, transport, public services and whether talent stays.
César Gonzalez Fernandez started by picking up litter because it bothered him. One bag became another, and that small act grew into Clean Something For Nothing, an app and global community recording cleanups by location, volume and weight. At the time we spoke, they were approaching one million kilograms collected.
Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
A bigger question
This conversation goes far beyond the definition of an SIS. It asks about the future of capitalism, entrepreneurship and public value. What should we expect a successful company to contribute to society? I would love to hear your view.
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