ESCP Business School in Berlin and the United Nations Environment Programme sign a partnership agreement incorporating sustainable living concepts into business school curricula.
The ESCP Business School in Berlin and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are announcing a strategic partnership to integrate sustainable living approaches into business school curricula to create the new business models – and the leaders – that are needed as the world builds back better.
The United Nations Environment Programme, the world’s leading environmental agenda-setter, and ESCP Business School in Berlin joined forces to develop and promote a ‘people-lens’ to sustainability to harness the power of people to live better and lighter. The partnership will translate concepts like circularity and sustainable consumption into business models that provide more viable, attractive sustainable living choices for people. In 2020-2021 teaching modules, business ideas co-created alongside students, and interactive events (e.g. challenges and campaigns) will be piloted.
At the heart of the collaboration is UNEP’s Sustainable Lifestyles framework, which encourages evidence-based everyday individual choices and actions contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The partnership focuses on the Master (MSc) in Sustainability Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme which prepares students to solve global social and environmental problems with a business school education and an entrepreneurial mindset.
“To partner with the United Nations Environment Programme is a great honour and incredible opportunity for our students getting access to the latest insights and activities to promote more sustainable lifestyles and living on a global level,” said Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplan, Rector of ESCP Business School in Berlin.
“In a world stretched thin for resources and under the threat of climate change and biodiversity loss, our future depends on how we manage nature as part of how we build back better,” commented Steven Stone, Chief of Resource and Markets Branch, Economy Division at UNEP. “Working with tomorrow’s entrepreneurs is critical to co-create the new business models that can address the needs of everyone to live healthier and more responsibly. The partnership will contribute to boost efforts and solutions for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.”
ESCP Business School in Berlin with UNEP technical support will finalize an advanced educational module for delivery in the upcoming academic year, and students in their first year of the Sustainability Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme will be trained to build and present new business ideas, plans and models that directly contribute to realising the SDGs. Topics addressed in this practice-oriented curriculum segment include sustainable concepts in the living domains of food, mobility, housing, and finance sectors.
The partnership connects the respective strengths of these two international organisations. ESCP Business School is a multicampus business school with a European spirit and an international outlook focused on reorienting today’s students towards a more responsible and sustainable world of business. UNEP is recognised as the authoritative champion for the global environment, acting in many ways to improve people’s quality of life without endangering that of future generations.
Acting jointly will allow both ESCP Business School in Berlin and UNEP to further their larger shared goals of achieving the SDGs.
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