Through Ma Petite Planète, an alumnus-founded eco-challenge, 1,500 ESCP students are turning green choices into action — and having fun, too.
What if changing the world could start in the palm of your hand? This month, Master in Management (MiM) students completed the latest edition of ‘Ma Petite Planète’ (MPP): a mobile-based sustainability challenge that turns climate action into a fun, team-based experience.
The challenge ran from 29 September to 20 October 2025, asking participants to complete real-world eco-actions as they competed for prizes. Each action earned points for their league, fostering camaraderie and accountability. This semester, 133 ESCP participants completed 2,510 challenges, saving an estimated 2.2 million litres of water, 198 kg of waste, and over 10 tonnes of CO₂e. The Paul Watson league was crowned Best League at the MPP celebration ceremony in Paris on 23 October!
Co-founded by ESCP alumnus Clément Debosque, MPP has already run 32 editions of the challenge, gathering more than 630,000 participants worldwide. At ESCP, it has grown from a humble cohort of just over 200 students and has since expanded, with 1500 students expected to join the challenge this academic year.
Jump to interview with MPP Co-founder Clément Debosque
MPP x ESCP: Embedding sustainable consumption habits into learning
Tackling rising global sustainability challenges like resource overuse, pollution, and inequality requires action from governments, companies, and consumers alike. For ESCP, the challenge has been preparing students to lead responsibly in this context.
In 2021, ESCP Professor Julien Schmitt developed a new sustainability course within the MiM programme. He decided to integrate the MPP challenge to help students move beyond theory:
“I felt that, for students to truly grasp the tensions and dilemmas behind the drastic changes required for the future, they needed to experience these challenges firsthand. I wanted to go beyond the simple transmission of theoretical knowledge. I was looking for a way to make students experience in their daily lives what it really means to shift toward more sustainable consumption patterns. The MPP challenge struck me as the perfect tool to achieve this.”
Since its introduction, the MPP challenge at ESCP has expanded beyond the MiM specialisation. It is now part of the Bachelor in Management core Sustainability course and the MSc in Marketing. ESCP students will participate again next semester, with plans to expand participation across programmes and campuses.
The challenge is just one of the ways that sustainability is embedded into the curriculum at ESCP where 100% of students receive sustainability training. “At ESCP, there is a strong conviction that climate change reshapes business globally, and students must anticipate shifts in consumer behaviour to become stronger leaders,” Schmitt adds.
INTERVIEW WITH CLÉMENT DEBOSQUE, ESCP ALUMNUS AND CO-FOUNDER OF MPP
What first sparked your interest in sustainability, and how did that passion develop during your time at ESCP?
When I arrived at ESCP, I discovered Ticket for Change, an initiative founded by ESCP alumni Joséphine Boucher and Matthieu Dardaillon to inspire and train changemakers. It was through this initiative that I was first introduced to social entrepreneurship.
During my gap year, I spent six months working with a social entrepreneur in the Philippines, an experience that revealed the powerful impact individuals can have. This convinced me to dedicate myself to meaningful projects. Upon returning to ESCP for my Master 2, I co-founded La Fourmilière, an NGO that makes volunteering as fun and accessible as meeting friends for a drink.
How did the idea for Ma Petite Planète start?
It began in August 2019 with a simple Google Sheets prototype: 10 friends completing about 20 eco-challenges. I’m not a coder, so I built a low-code version to test quickly in real life. Thanks to this approach, I could iterate fast based on players’ feedback. Two people I met through La Fourmilière joined me, and together we founded the NGO Ma Petite Planète in March 2020.
How has Ma Petite Planète evolved over the years and who uses it today?
The first version targeted the general public—friends and families playing together. Soon, participants asked to play with their colleagues. That’s when we realised the potential to work with companies and public institutions, helping them raise awareness, train employees, foster team spirit, and support CSR goals.
Designed as a team-building activity and offered in five languages, MPP enables employees to develop real expertise on the topic of sustainability. To date, more than 850 organisations have already experienced it. In 2021, we also launched a school version. So far, 630,000 players have completed 7.7 million eco-challenges.
What has surprised you most about the way people engage with the challenge?
People need incentives to act sustainably. Our society is not designed to be eco-friendly by default. Engagement happens when participants:
- play in teams,
- can showcase their actions in a group,
- and receive recognition (points, badges, eco-gifts).
How did the collaboration with ESCP start, and what does it mean to you as an alumnus?
I’ve been part of the ESCP Transition Network since its creation in 2020. There, I met Julien Schmitt during a Climate Fresk sustainability workshop for new students. I shared the idea of MPP with him, and together with ESCP Professor Nathalie Prime’s students, we launched the first cohort at ESCP. I’m proud that MPP now engages ESCP students on a large scale. Future leaders exposed to these challenges will carry a sustainable mindset into their careers.
What advice would you give to ESCP students who want to launch something meaningful of their own?
- Focus on solving a real societal problem—don’t invent a new need.
- Share your project openly. From day one, MPP’s ambition was to reach millions of players and create systemic impact. Vision and ambition attract talent.
- Surround yourself with people who are better than you, and if possible, co-found the project. The journey is more rewarding—and more resilient—when shared, because entrepreneurship is rarely easy.
In conversation with
Clément Debosque ESCP alumnus and Co-founder of MPPCampuses