Commitment is at the heart of their business. These men and women are inspired by the world to act differently and sustainably, making their environment a channel for expression, creativity, innovation and solidarity. Finance, culture, crafts, industry and the media are just some of the fields embodied by these personalities, who agreed to take part in the Proust questionnaire in La Mèche mode. What are their enduring secrets? As far as you’re concerned, they’re spilling the beans.
Production: Cornland Studio
After obtaining a Master’s degree in International Relations, Marie spent the first 15 years of her career in the luxury goods industry, particularly watchmaking and jewelry. There, she built up her experience in international store management, marketing, strategy, product development and brand creation.
In 2018, she co-founded a watch brand within a major Swiss group, offering a committed and responsible vision of business. This experience enabled him to refocus on the planet, put himself at its service and explore new perspectives in terms of management and governance. She has broadened her vision of the company’s role within its ecosystem, and has chosen to become a catalyst for the transformation towards a society that acts for a more responsible and sustainable economy.
Marie founded La Mèche en 2020, an ecosystem dedicated to impact, whose mission is to inform, connect and support change-makers, citizens and organizations, through a consulting agency, a media outlet, a social network and events. She is now dedicated to this paradigm shift towards which we must all converge, and works daily to ensure that people and organizations become aware of their power to act, and that the corporate world becomes a positive force, leaving a better world for future generations.
“Albert Einstein said that you can’t solve a problem with the same way of thinking that created it. The world preparing for tomorrow must reinvent its codes of consumption, marketing, communication, management, law, seduction, production, living together… Tomorrow’s world must rediscover the balance between what it consumes and nature’s capacity to renew its resources. This world will be biocentric, regenerative and equitable.”
Transcription
Who are you and what do you do in life?
My name is Marie and I’m the creator of La Mèche, which is a digital platform dedicated to impact and whose mission is to inform individuals and organizations, to create a ecosystem that brings these two spheres together to generate collaboration, information, education and action.
What’s your current state of mind?
Optimistic like most of the time in my life. I prefer to see the positive side of things because I think it’s more of a driving force than pessimism or defeatism. So very optimistic but still realistic because we have big challenges ahead of us.
What triggered your desire to get involved?
I was lucky enough to grow up in the countryside, so I was very close to nature and aware of its importance. It was passed on to me by my parents and grandparents. But the real trigger for a strong commitment, which today has become my life’s mission in a professional capacity, was a few years ago when I had the opportunity to co-create a brand and reinvent the way we did things. It was a watch brand and we had the opportunity to reinvent the way watches were made and to propose another paradigm, to offer something different, more conscious and more reasoned. That was the trigger for me to say “this is my mission”. I’ve been looking for it for a long time, but I’ve finally found it, and I’m delighted.
How does this commitment manifest itself on a daily basis?
Personally, I’d say it’s really a journey because you become aware and then little by little you integrate behaviors, changes, improvements and it’s really a learning process every day. I try to be aware every day of my actions and the impact they can have. And one of the missions of La Mèche is to shed light, to shed light and to inform people. I want to make sure that people are informed, that they are educated and that more and more embrace this awareness and take action.
How do you integrate the notion of sustainability into your work or this project?
It’s really for me at every stage. If we now talk more about business it’s really across the entire value chain that there are things to do and that we need to put some awareness into: right from the conception of things, whether that is a product or a project, right through to its delivery and right through to its end-of-life. It’s a process of reflection to begin with, it’s a way of thinking and of always designing with an awareness of the consequences and trying obviously to have as little impact as possible. On a personal level as well as on a professional level, without describing exactly what I do, is to try to have as little impact as possible and to have as much positive impact as possible.
What are the biggest challenges facing ?
In general and in my past experience it’s the change of mindset and I think it’s the biggest challenge today for society to succeed in creating a new society with new values. The change of culture both within companies and in the home, the idea to do a reboot of our processor and to think about things differently.
What does preserving the planet mean to you?
Preserving the planet means offering a future to the generations to come, taking responsibility for what we’ve been able to do, and then doing everything we can to ensure that future generations not only exist, but can live the life we’ve been able to live, and enjoy it as much as we have. Obviously, once again in a reasoned way, with a different way of consuming and conceiving consumption and society.
How can you help the environment?
Getting around by bike does me good in every sense of the word, because it gives me exercise and makes me feel free, and at the same time it gives me that “feel good” sensation of not being burning petrol.
What would your green or sustainable motto be?
I don’t really have a motto, it’s what I apply every day, this notion of responsibility, awareness and then reflection on the consequences of our actions and what that implies for others. It’s really this notion of just opening up to others and not being solely focused on oneself and one’s own well-being. This collective awareness is very important to me, and that’s what I want to achieve, is to help this collective awareness grow.
What’s your idea of happiness?
Over the years I’ve evolved. My idea of happiness a few years ago was tomorrow’s happiness, the happiness that’s just around the corner, the happiness to come that we always imagine will be perfect! Today is really about the present moment, living present moments to the full and making the most of them.
Your idea of pleasure?
Share it!
What can we do at an individual level to make a difference?
Enormously! I fully respect the fact that there are different levels of commitment. There’s the systemic level, where the stakes are high and regulations need to be put in place, and governments obviously have a major role to play. That’s where it’s at, but it’s at every level: at company level, at industry level, and at individual level. It’s important for people to understand, and I don’t think most people are aware of the power they can have over the evolution of brands, products and consumption patterns. If tomorrow the whole of Switzerland, or Europe for that matter, decides to stop buying fast fashion, to stop buying a 10-franc t-shirt every two weeks, what’s going to happen? There’s bound to be a rethink. It’s happening, but it’s happening quite slowly, and I think that individuals often underestimate the power they can have on the evolution of things as individuals. It’s a bit easy to say “yes, but at my level if I do something it’s no use”. No, it’s really the sum of everyone’s actions that’s going to get us there in the end.
What is your utopia?
My utopia is a real utopia! I think it’s terribly unfair. Everyone should be able to eat, sleep and be happy, and not just be able to meet their basic needs, but also to live a life, have beautiful stories, meet nice people, and much more trivial things too. My utopia is that there should be much more equality. I find it really terrible to see that the more needy you are, the more negative things and events become. It really is my absolute dream.
And now, in a more realistic way, the three indispensable things to change the world?
I’d say collaboration, and at all levels. I think that even today, there is still too much compartmentalization between government authorities, industry, business in general and individuals, because solutions have to be found together and must take into account the constraints and problems of each. It’s only by listening to each other that we’ll be able to find solutions. There’s also humility, and that’s important because I don’t think that’s a trait at all in today’s capitalist world. So less egotism, more humility, much more empathy, and maybe that’s how we’ll get there.
What would tomorrow’s world and its communities look like?
For me, tomorrow’s world will have changed its codes. He’ll have changed his codes of consumption, communication, marketing, business and finance, and he’ll have understood that if we carry on as we are, we won’t make it, and that’s important. Coming back to the question of mindset, we really need to change our mindset. And then more benevolence and solidarity and less egocentricity and selfishness. I think this propensity to want everything for oneself, to want to get the most out of society without taking others into account, is a huge problem. I hope that tomorrow’s communities will be more sensitive and that we’ll also come to understand that humans are part of the whole, but not the master of it all.
We’d love to hear your inspiring stories! If you’d like to try your hand at the Proust questionnaire, or share your experience, commitment, tips or gripes, go to the “Share with us ” discussion forum on the La Mèche platform, here:
