Engie — A line of conduct in motion for a living code of ethics

Promoting a corporate code of ethics is always a tricky task. Even more so when the organisation promoting it is present in more than 30 countries and employs more than 100,000 talents. Such a code must be sufficiently encompassing for everyone to be able to relate to it, yet precise enough to be actionable in all circumstances. Engie had the brilliant idea of steering away from a moralistic justification of its ethical code to link it directly to the Group’s purpose. The Group decided to make compliance with its code of ethics a step towards achieving its raison d’être. 

And they came to us to help them convey this message internally and externally.

The code of ethics is a 30 pages long document. To make this content as actionable as possible, we suggested creating a video covering the five key principles of the code and a digital platform exploring these principles in detail using a pop-up system.

Of course, we’re very familiar with the rules of internal and external communications. And we’re used to working with corporate meaning chains, spanning from a company’s purpose to its promise, through to its mission, vision, and values statements. The challenge in this case was to combine a strong message of Zero Tolerance to breaches of the code, with a tone conducive to creating a sense of shared responsibility.

We started with some serious iteration and landed on two creative concepts. The first one, pragmatic, depicted the dos and don’ts on either side of a line of conduct not to be crossed. The second one, more poetic, portrayed a bubble that would rally all stakeholders around a common vision: One Ethics, One Engie. Our client had a preference for the former, but liked the sense of community that transpired from the latter. Together, we decided to blend these two concepts into one. We imagined a ground view, deploying the five main principles of the code of ethics along a line of conduct, and a bird’s-eye view showing the line becoming a circle and inviting all stakeholders to take responsibility.

Last, but not least, the visual concept of the video and the platform had to allow thousands of employees and stakeholders to relate to the symbolism used. We therefore decided to illustrate abstract characters and use universally recognisable signs to ensure the inclusive nature of our productions.

The Engie headquarters sent a communication kit to all countries, including the teaser video, the video and the platform we produced, as well as the pdf of the code. These four elements were intended to lead the public’s attention to an increasingly high level of detail, starting with the teaser, moving on to the selected information on the main video and platform, and ending with the large-scale vision of the 30-pager. 

The kit was actively disseminated on the internal sharepoint and is since then available on engie.com.