Serge Younes is Global Head of Sustainability at Invest Industrial. With a PhD in renewable energy and decades of commercial experience, he brings a technical and commercial grounding that shapes how he works with portfolio companies. In this episode, he joins Jenn to talk about what it actually takes to make sustainability land in a business and what the head of sustainability role might look like in ten years' time.
Earn the Right to Be in the Room
Serge's approach to engaging portfolio companies starts with a simple idea: get yourself invited to the party. That means resisting the urge to arrive with a long list of priorities and instead asking the questions that matter to the business. Once a management team sees that you understand their business and are there to help rather than police, the conversation changes entirely.
Go and See For Yourself
Data and spreadsheets will only tell you so much. Serge spends a significant amount of time on site with portfolio companies, walking factory floors, eating in canteens, and talking to operations teams. It’s how you learn where energy is being wasted and where there are opportunities that nobody has thought to flag because they were never framed as a sustainability issue.
Think Beyond Your Own Holding Period
The useful question is not what the business looks like when you sell it, but what it looks like for the buyer after that, and the one after that. Building resilience and long-term value into a company now means thinking well beyond the current fund cycle.