EDHEC organises its first Sustainability Week
EDHEC Business School hosted its first Sustainability Week on all its French campuses (Nice, Paris, Lille) between 22 and 26 January 2024. Numerous initiatives (conferences with the School’s professors/researchers, 2tonnes climate workshops or gender-based violence workshops and a recruitment fair devoted to CSR positions) combined to raise awareness of societal and environmental issues among EDHEC students and staff. The week’s events extended the School’s commitments in the areas of sustainable development policy and responsibility, as confirmed by the DD&RS sustainable development and social responsibility label obtained by the School at the end of December. Read on for a round-up of the different initiatives.
Conferences on inclusive language, the carbon footprint of blockbuster exhibitions and the positive impact of the methods and data originating from our applied climate research, etc. EDHEC professors gave participating staff and students the benefit of their insight to help them understand these contemporary subjects. Another highlight of the week was the first edition of the CSR Fair, a student recruitment event during which firms like Quitoque, Ardian, Bonduelle and Savencia offered networking sessions for positions related to responsibility issues. The companies also took part in a series of round tables in which they shared their good practices in the fields of ecology, inclusion and equal opportunities with students.
For their part, EDHEC staff had the chance to attend different workshops. The Lille and Paris campuses hosted a 2tonnes workshop, an initiative designed to help participants find solutions for reducing their carbon footprint. In Paris, Executive Education participants and campus employees took part in a plastic waste management conference led by Stéphane Canonne, Director of EDHEC Executive Education. A Fresque de l’Océan workshop was also held on the Nice campus, the aim being to help staff better understand the oceans and the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, while also providing practical solutions for action. The Gender-Based Violence: Act and Stop SGBV! workshop, which is mandatory for all new EDHEC students, was offered to the School’s staff for the first time, on all three campuses. This initiative seeks to identify sexist and sexual behaviours, to teach participants how to act in a suitable manner to prevent such behaviours and to help others in the event that they occur.
Lastly, the communal areas of EDHEC’s campuses were the scene for various initiatives, such as a circular village in Lille (bike sales and repairs, second-hand clothing sale, stands run by EDHEC student associations dedicated to responsibility issues, etc.), vegetarian meals priced at €1 in the Lille and Nice cafeterias, and the organisation of guided visits to discover the flora and fauna of the Lille campus grounds.
