PhD – Clara Golse – Implementing a corporate purpose

The thesis focuses on GRTgaz (now NaTran), a gas network operator engaged in an ecological transformation while fulfilling public service missions. Since 2020, the company has adopted an ambitious corporate purpose (raison d’être), tracks its social and environmental performance on a par with its economic results, and plans to entrust a stakeholder committee with assessing its strategy in light of this purpose.

How can security of supply and access to energy be guaranteed, including in times of crisis, while redeploying assets towards renewable gases? Conventional CSR tools deal poorly with such tensions. The thesis hypothesises that conflicts between objectives stem not from the objectives themselves but from the available levers of action: overcoming them requires jointly revisiting objectives, indicators and activities. The research studies three levels: strategy, design (R&D and foresight teams) and governance (definition and assessment of purpose-related objectives, dialogue with stakeholders).