Q1 2021-2022 Activity Update

We turned three!

We celebrated our third birthday and will now be stepping into our acceleration phase! Our team is looking forward to more achievements and collaborations to continue integrating sustainability at the school and within the INSEAD community.

We launched a new opinion paper series to connect INSEAD knowledge on business and society with current issues

Featured on the INSEAD Knowledge page, the opinion papers discuss and share thought leadership around responsible ways of doing business. Read about the relationship between equality and climate change, and why allyship is vital to gender balance.

We welcomed our 2 Hoffmann WEF Fellows Mel Hua and Felipe Vizzoto working on the Circular Economy and Sustainable Food Systems

Our two Hoffmann Fellows are part of the two-year fellowship programme in partnership with the World Economic Forum. Mel Hua and Felipe Vizzoto will take an active role in shaping the world of tomorrow and developing crucial links between research and the school. Find out more about the Fellowship.

We argued why investing in nature is a competitive advantage for businesses.

At the IUCN Congress in Marseille, André Hoffmann and Katell Le Goulven shed light on why investing in the natural world is crucial to sustainable and sustained prosperity. The key takeaways are published on the World Economic Forum page, which can be read here. 

We went to COP26 as part of the Business Schools for Climate Leadership collective to launch a practical toolkit for business leaders

INSEAD is one of the two founding members of the Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BSCL). The BSCL is a collective of eight business schools committed to work together to raise awareness of the issues, challenges and actions needed to help businesses tackle climate change.

In the run up to COP26, all eight leading business schools collaborated on the publication of a toolkit, which was launched at the Sustainable Innovation Forum in Glasgow on November 10. The Climate Leadership toolkit is available for download. 

We held our third SDG Week with 6 student clubs and over 1700 registrants on how to bring SDGs in businesses

For the third year in a row, the Hoffmann Institute and INSEAD student clubs, with support from Accenture Strategy, held the 3-day SDG Week to understand how business can drive the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event saw over 1,700 registrants for 10 sessions.

Co-designed with MIM students and five MBA student clubs, the 2021 edition explored getting started on the sustainability journey and redefining capitalism to catalysing systemic change, along with sessions on gender equality, impact investment and more.

This year also featured an on-campus exhibition on Sahara and human adaptability to climate changes, which was open to the Fontainebleau community, and was especially curated for SDG Week 2021 from the Becker collection of the Association Arts Premiers de Peuples Minoritaires based in Saignon. Read the wrap-up story of the event, and watch the sessions. 

We joined the UN HeForShe Alliance with concrete commitments at the school level to boost gender equity

In September 2021, Dean Ilian Mihov announced INSEAD as a member of the UN Women #HeForShe Alliance, thus committing to a gender balanced board by 2023, as part of the school’s ongoing commitment to gender balance.

Find out more about INSEAD’s commitment, watch Ilian’s interview on how this commitment translates into real terms, and read this INSEAD Knowledge article on why allyship is the key to gender balance. 

We launched season 2 of our Mission to Change podcast focusing on climate change and biodiversity with Harrison Ford.

More changemakers, and more conversations for season 2 of Mission to Change, but now with a focus on environmental and biodiversity solutions. Listen to the introduction of our next season featuring Harrison Ford, and find out more about sustainability sourcing with Agata Smeets, and restoring coral reefs with Dr. Megan Morikawa. 

We held the Conferences de l’INSEAD for the 34^th year in a row to share our research with the local community

The “Conférences de l’INSEAD” is an annual programme of five evening presentations in French – followed by a debate – on issues of contemporary relevance likely to have a significant impact on society and on people. Henri-Claude de Bettignies started the Conférences de l’INSEAD in 1987, and thousands of people from the local community of Fontainebleau and its region have attended this series. Find out more about this round of sessions.

We celebrated the Community Impact Challenge (CIC) becoming an official Accelerator of the UN Race to Zero Campaign.

The CIC volunteers, including the net zero experts and the facilitators, supported over 100 companies in their initial journey, and over 50 organisations (and counting!) made the Race to Zero pledge with the help of CIC, committing to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. With this, CIC has been granted the official Accelerator status as part of the United Nations’ Race To Zero Campaign. Find out more about CIC, and sign up for Race to Zero! 

We held a conversation on the economic upheaval and the wealth of nations.

Alongside INSEAD Lifelong Learning, we organised a conversation with INSEAD Professor Philippe Aghion, Catherine Mann (external member of the Bank of England) and Ayhan Kose (Chief Economist, The World Bank), and moderated by Professor John Fernald, as they discussed themes like inequality, environmental crisis and more, from Professor Aghion’s new book, The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations. Watch the session. 

We published eight stories on driving sustainability at the school

From articles and cases on sustainability, stitching a summer of sustainable fashion, safeguarding biodiversity with business education, to empowering lives with AI assistive technology, read the stories on how the school is putting social and environmental progress at the core of it’s functions and education.