that we have expertise in developing knowledge, skills, competencies and, I would even say, passion on these topics. So, we have to establish these relationships. “We also need to bring companies closer to our students. We need to get them in the classrooms and collaborating on projects; that way, they can listen to students’ expectations and share what they need in terms of graduate skills.” How might the classroom approach need to change in relation to company talks and industry exposure? “We have mostly had a top-down approach to how companies interact with students where they simply give a talk about what they do and answer questions. This kind of discourse doesn’t work anymore because students want more – they’re questioning what companies are doing and they want to be part of the change. They don’t just want a company to tell them: ‘This is our strategy’ or ‘this is why we’re great’. They want to know what’s really happening and how they can play their part when they graduate. Imagining different pedagogical approaches where they see behind the scenes of corporate storytelling is crucial.” Does the biggest shortfall on sustainability relate more to issues of awareness or technical knowledge right now? “I think it’s both. An issue of awareness remains – there are still people who are not convinced this is a major problem. There’s big work to be done, but with that comes a big challenge that relates more to the hard sciences of what climate change is. “We can talk about upskilling all we want, but we need to explain the science behind it, so people understand what that means and the implications it has for their business – both the risks and the opportunities. Just talking about achieving net zero and telling them this is their new objective and how they’re going to be measured doesn’t work.” You coordinate Iéseg’s People-Planet-Profit project – can you tell us more about it? “This is a mandatory consulting project at bachelor’s level, meaning about 1,250 students do it at the same time, so it’s massive. For a full term, we split students into groups and match them with a company for a sustainability project. About 18 months ago, this became an interdisciplinary project. During the same term, students now have six different courses, such
as digital innovation, sustainability and financial analysis, and they need to integrate what they learn in all those disciplines into the project. The aim is to show students sustainability is not a standalone discipline.” How many companies have you worked with in delivering this project and what kind of sizes and sectors are involved? “The project has been running since 2016 and we’ve worked with more than 35 companies, from huge multinationals to smaller family businesses and start-ups. We’ve also started to work with Certified B Corporations because we signed a partnership with the non-profit B Lab network. “A source of differentiation in this project is that we also work with cities. Some students get assigned to small cities in the areas of Paris and Lille. These students work on urban issues of sustainability, rather than corporate issues. We are a management school and that also involves public management.” You also help run the Grand Challenges MBA module. How does this differ from the undergraduate project? “The Grand Challenges module is broader and is where we can really go through the big issues in sustainability today, such as understanding climate change and the implications for companies and society. We do this through small blocks of courses on key topics and then go on a learning expedition to discover how sustainability is being implemented in a specific region. The students then undertake an ‘integrative project’ and work on a transformation plan. “The aim here is to bring together the sustainability skills they’ve learned through the different modules in “We need to get everyone in the classroom and it needs to start with the governance and leadership because these changes cannot take place without them”
22 Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2023
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online