How do you train "responsible financiers" today?
Finance must become a major lever for the environmental transition. Our programs are designed with this in mind and are based on a virtuous triptych: academic excellence, hybridization of knowledge and professional approach.
Whether it's our master's degree or our MScs, our finance students benefit from the expertise of more than 50 teacher-researchers and the cutting-edge work we carry out at EDHEC-Risk Climate, our research centre dedicated to climate finance, or at EDHECinfra, which issues recommendations on sustainable infrastructure.
The scientific contribution of our partner institutions is also a major asset in the training of responsible leaders in finance. I am thinking more particularly of our partnership with École des Mines ParisTech, with whom we created, in 2021, a master's degree in climate finance "Climate Change & Sustainable Finance".
Finally, our programs are enriched by the experience of professionals in the sector who regularly intervene with our students and give them the essential keys to understand the role of finance in the face of the climate emergency.
Today, a growing number of our graduates choose the path of sustainable finance and hold strategic positions: responsible investment advisor, ESG analyst or impact fund manager.
In general, how do business schools take into account the ecological transition?
The subject of ecological transition burst onto the agenda of the grandes écoles in a spectacular way from 2018 with the "Manifesto for an ecological awakening" amplifiedby the speeches of the "bifurcators" during graduation ceremonies.
To tackle these issues, business schools have a tremendous asset: the richness and diversity of the experiences they offer to their future graduates: educational courses, associations, campus life, internships or exchanges abroad. This ability to teach and bring societal transformations to life is one of the strengths of the grandes écoles model. Knowing that trade, as a fundamental institution of our societies, is an extremely powerful lever for impact and transformation of the world.
If I look at EDHEC, we have redesigned our programs to train our students in environmental issues through our marketing, management, law and finance courses. In 2022, we founded a €20 million research centre dedicated to sustainable finance "EDHEC-Risk Climate" and in 2021 created an educational programme to teach planetary boundaries to our 700 first-time entrants. More broadly, our MSc Creative Business & Social Innovation, based on a unique combination of teachings in the fields of social innovation and culture, encourages young people to converge career and societal impact.
In business schools, young people's awareness of environmental and social challenges goes far beyond academic training. Campuses, for example, are veritable laboratories for ecological transition. At Edhec, the Share & Care Campus project, developed with our students, promotes soft mobility, renewable energies and environmental protection, in particular the rare species of our Roubaix campus.
Business schools demonstrate their ecological commitment through the field experiences they offer their students such as internships, international exchanges and associative life. Career services are increasingly supporting young people in their search for CSR-related professional opportunities. At Edhec, our Career Center regularly organises workshops on professions with a social and environmental impact. The same goes for experiences abroad that offer students the opportunity to get involved in international projects with a societal vocation. This is the meaning of the Global Impact Programmes on which we are currently working in collaboration with NGOs and global partners.
Under the impetus of schools, associations are also moving towards a better consideration of ecological issues. In addition to the rise of associations entirely dedicated to these issues, such as EDHEC Develop, others have taken on a real environmental dimension. This year, the EDHEC Cruise Race association has placed the response to the climate challenge at the heart of the raison d'être of its famous regatta, thus helping to raise awareness among 2,000 European students about good ecological practices.
Will the value of a school tomorrow also be on the ability to take into account impact, inclusion, ecology?
In a world where the scale of transformation is upsetting established benchmarks, schools will have to demonstrate their social utility. Tomorrow's decision-makers will be called upon to pave the way for a new model of reasoned and more inclusive society. Faced with this challenge, business schools have a central role to play in bringing social and environmental issues to the heart of their educational project and research. It is about training a new generation of managers who will also be enlightened citizens, aware that our world is fragile and driven by the desire to regenerate it.
Beyond their educational mission, schools must be able to foster a "desire for impact" among young people by integrating levers for reflection and action around major societal issues such as inclusion, diversity or environmental transition. Through their multidisciplinary approach and their ability to produce collective, they have all the necessary assets to meet the challenge. EDHEC's signature "Make an Impact", adopted 10 years ago, takes on its full meaning. It is an invitation to act and change the world!
