Alexandre Van Ooteghem Responsible investment, ESG and foresight

I have looked at finance from several vantage points: institutional investor, auditor, head of research, consultant, lecturer and practitioner-researcher.

One question runs through my experience: how does an organisation, and an investor in particular, build a decision when data is imperfect, rules keep changing and the future remains uncertain?

My work is less about ESG as a regulatory category than about the frameworks that turn a responsible intention into decisions, practices, data, evidence and the capacity to act.

ESG data, through its very technicality, builds a situated narrative that can transform reality.

I developed FINéCOS to work precisely at this intersection: understanding systems, qualifying evidence and helping organisations build robust decisions in changing environments.

Since 2021, I have been working as an auditor for AFNOR Certification on the standard of the French SRI label (Label ISR).

My assignments cover ESG methodologies, asset selection processes, governance, controls, shareholder engagement, reporting and the consistency between stated objectives and their actual implementation.

This auditing practice has gradually shaped the way I work:

1. intention
2. method
3. decision
4. data
5. control
6. evidence

Alongside this, my consulting work covers SRI due diligence, methodology reviews, the quality of non-financial data and the auditability of ESG frameworks.

A claim is only worth something if it can be linked to a method, a decision and a piece of evidence.

SRI audit and French SRI label preparation →

Trained at the Cnam (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers) in foresight, innovation and organisational transformation, I work on how organisations build their decisions in uncertain environments.

This approach draws in particular on scenarios, weak signals, systems analysis, stakeholder dynamics, rules, controversies and dependencies.

My approach generally follows five steps:

1. UnderstandThe problem, its context, the stakeholders, the rules and the available data.
2. DocumentIdentify sources, assess their robustness and build a shared basis for analysis.
3. Put into perspectiveCompare practices, identify dependencies, controversies, gaps and possible futures.
4. BuildFormalise a suitable method, strategy, process or framework.
5. Hand overMake the results understandable, auditable and usable by those who will carry them forward.

I teach at the Cnam and at Université Paris Dauphine on responsible finance, decision-making, uncertainty and organisational transformation.

At the Cnam, I teach in particular in the “Risks, crises and decision-making” course, drawing on real cases of organisational transformation.

I also run workshops, foresight exercises and collective intelligence sessions with teams and groups.

Knowledge sharing also takes the form of open resources: FINéCOS develops and publishes tools on sustainable finance, climate, biodiversity and foresight.