Many students feel strongly about caring about the climate change, but don’t know what to do about it or where to start to get involved with sustainability. Many of them feel hopeless or frustrated—and for good reason. Worrying about a planet on fire – with ongoing crises of all kinds – has become mainstream.
91 percent of students want to learn more about sustainability and see their institutions taking action for sustainable development, according to a survey released by the National Union of Students, a Key Partner of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on ESD.
The “Greta effect” has seen an unprecedented rise in student activism and has impacted several industries such as travel, branding, or supply chain management.
There’s no secret that Gen Z students are eagerly looking for ways to climate proof their higher education studies to meet the new realities we are facing with global climate change.
But there are many things that students can do to learn more about the intersection between sustainability and business. Here are a few opportunities to explore at EMLV business school.
CSR Education with the MiM programme
Under the guidance of the Global Compact and PRME principles, the EMLV Grande Ecole program is oriented towards human, corporate, social and environmental responsibility.
Many of the classes in the Master in Management program’s core curriculum integrate training sessions on environmental and ecological issues, ethics, inclusion and diversity, and sustainable technologies.
De Vinci Higher Education devotes several cross-disciplinary hackathon weeks throughout the year to raise student awareness of CSR-related issues.
Supply Chain CSR career path
The MSc Supply Chain Management programme provides students with practical learning and hands-on experiences mixing businesses’ impact on stakeholders and the environment and latest engineering industrial trends taught at ESILV.
The programme introduces students to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in supply chain and covers practical, real world topics such as: skills management, process & methods, tools and data intelligence.
Sustainability-focused student clubs
Participating in a student organization that wants to make a positive impact on the world not only equips you with the right knowledge and skills, but also helps you broaden your network and open doors to unexpected careers in sustainable companies and nonprofit organizations.
Devinci Durable serves as a platform for Devinci Higher Education students to speak with a unified voice, educate, and take collective action toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
The student society organizes workshops, clean walks and other on- or off-campus activities to raise awareness about waste and plastic pollution.
Embracing the low tech attitude
The “low tech” attitude is at work on the campus. Since 2020, Devinci Higher Education has been organizing four major week-long hackathons on topics such as:
- Artificial intelligence in the service of the general interest
- Digital hyperconnection and data hypertransparency
- Digital sobriety in times of Covid
- The use of low-tech
Each of these interdisciplinary bootcamps brings together the 1,200 students of the same class from the three schools in the cluster: ESILV, EMLV and IIM.
At the Devinci Innovation Center – the innovation laboratory of Devinci higher education – the desirable future is through resilience. This is even the name given to one of its departments, the Resilient Futures group, which works on disruptive innovations for a more sustainable society.
An example of sustainable innovation: growing kombucha, a mushroom that can be an alternative to leather.
