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CSO is not an easy job. Especially today, in a context of hyper connectivity, social media and abundance of information.

CSOs are bombarded with info from suppliers and it’s easy for the CSOs to hook on the wagon thinking they’re doing the right thing, but then, when they dip into the real world, they get to hear another story and receive other feedback from their consumers than expected.

Imagine a new CSO with no experience in packaging, who must advise the board on the corporate packaging strategy and choices. It would be easy for the new CSO to make a beginner’s mistake. One of the reason is that plastic packaging is on one hand an extremely technical (rational) matter from a corporate point of view, but on the other hand when we look at the population, people are more emotional about plastic and don’t distinguish between PE, PP, PS, PVC, recycled content, recyclable, bioplastic, injection molding, etc. For them it’s just the same…. plastic.

Trends is another important factor for CSOs. Should the CSO surf on a new wave or trend or should he wait it out for one more season? What is a trend? There’s a nuance between the producers trends and the consumers trends.

The jargon used by the corporate and political world sounds like ‘sustainability, decarbonization, carbon footprint, LCA, bio-based, carbon credits, bioplastic, plastic credits, emission trading, net zero, sustainable aviation fuel, green deal, ESG objectives, eco design, etc. In the best case, the population has no clue what you’re talking about, in the worse case, they’ll identify this as corporate greenwashing. Consumers (and people) are judging and perceiving your company through other criteria than the traditional corporate sustainability KPIs.

That’s why CSO must be a stressful job.

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