Transition: ESSEC Students Get Ready For the Climate Track

The pillars of ESSEC’s new strategy, Rise, include the #Together initiative, supervised by Anne-Claire Pache (E94), and which is seeking to accelerate the school’s social and environmental transition. Flagship measures already in place include: the creation of the Climate Track for students on all of our programmes. Professor Thierry Sibieude is here to tell us more.

ESSEC Alumni: The Climate Track begins with the Rentrée Climat. What does it involve?

Thierry Sibieude: The Rentrée Climat involves all 2,000 students who join our courses every year (Grande École, BBA, specialist masters). It combines a morning dedicated to the Fresque du Climat (a series of workshops that explain the challenges of climate change by drawing on the findings of the IPCC along with some collective intelligence and creativity) and an afternoon spent taking action, with talks from activist stakeholders and brainstorming workshops. More than 150 alumni got on board this year to help coordinate the event: a big thank you to all of them! 

EA: What are the next stages in the Climate Track? 

T. Sibieude: All of our students also attend a compulsory MOOC – Enterprise and Climate Change – developed by ESSEC in partnership with a consulting firm, Carbone 4 (the course is also accessible to all on Coursera, and ESSEC Alumni will pay for certification for all lifetime members and annual subscribers who register via alumni-learning@essec.edu). The experience includes coursework corrected by your peers, and an essay on the subject.

The Grande École course also includes the compulsory “Responsible Leadership” online module, taught by Professor Adrian Zicari, which takes a more in-depth look at corporate social and environmental responsibility, illustrated with examples of companies that are making a major effort taken from the “Belles histoires d’entreprises à impact (Great stories of companies doing more)” that I have just launched myself on ESSEC Impact Initiative.

EA: Beyond the Climate Track, does ESSEC offer any other courses on social and environmental issues?

T. Sibieude: ESSEC has offered elective courses covering these issues for many years now, particularly as part of our chairs, with the Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship Chair, founded in 2002, at the top of the list. With regard to the environment, we have teamed up with Professor Bernard Leca (D10) and Deloitte Sustainable Development, to launch a seminar examining the climate change strategy and reporting practices of forty CAC 40 companies, which was attended by 47 students last spring. There’s huge demand from the next generation!

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser (E10), ESSEC Alumni Content Manager

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