ACT for Impact

HEC Paris is one of the founding members of Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL), a group of eight European business schools : Cambridge Judge Business School, IE Business School, IESE Business School, International Institute for Management Development (IMD), INSEAD, London Business School, and Said Business School at the University of Oxford have joined together to help business leaders combat the climate crisis facing the planet.

Coming from the across Europe, this initiative acknowledges the importance and urgency of the climate crisis and the need for business schools to act.  Together with our 7 academic partners, we have agreed to join force to incite, support, and mobilize our many stakeholders to protect humanity.  

As a first step, BS4CL has mined the deep and broad expertise across the schools and :

• produced a Climate Leadership Toolkit for executives that has been launched at COP26.
• hosted a series of webinars to help executives get up to speed on the climate crisis—and to arm them with questions to move their organizations on a path not only to mitigating the adverse impacts of their businesses on the planet, but also to better appreciating the business risks and opportunities ahead. 

Business Schools Must Do More to Address the Climate Crisis, Concepción Galdón, Knut Haanaes, Daniel Halbheer, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Katell Le Goulven, Mike Rosenberg, Peter Tufano, and Amelia Whitelaw, Harvard Business Review, Feb. 2022

As organizations with missions to improve the practice of management, business schools must do much more to raise awareness of climate change in the business community

That is why, in 2021, Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL) was born.

This thought leadership partnership brings together eight European business schools whose shared mission is to generate, disseminate and amplify evidence-based research, actionable insights and thought leadership for corporate executives, students, educators and policymakers.

Download the report

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), founded at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, consists of ten schools across North America and Western Europe working jointly to accelerate the progress of “massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies” in a variety of industries: artificial intelligence, health, space, fintech—and climate. 

Founded in 2020 in partnership with HEC Paris, CDL-Paris works with climate-orientated startups to help them commercialize solutions designed to preserve and protect the natural world. Each year, 25 highly scalable startups are admitted to the program. Using an objectives-based approach, the CDL’s mentors help companies cut through distractions and focus on meeting critical short-term goals.

Established by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School of Management, the CDL has welcomed 1,000 entrepreneurs representing over 70 countries since its inception in 2012. CDL-Paris is being led by Thomas Astebro, Professor of Entrepreneurship at HEC Paris, and facilitated by Sebastian Becker, Associate Professor in Accounting & Management Control and Hélène Musikas, Education Track Associate Professor in Strategy & Business Policy

HECTAR is an accelerator developed with the HEC Paris incubator in the field of Agri Tech, Food Tech and Regenerative Agriculture. The goal is to provide solutions to counter environmental, social and economic challenges and to ensure the success of the agricultural transition. Its accompanied startups benefit from the entire HEC Paris entrepreneurship ecosystem: students, professors, alumni and sponsors.

Read more about the launch of HECTAR

Esp’R is the environmental association of the HEC Grande Ecole Programme. With more than 70 active members, it is one of the biggest clubs on campus. Their goal is to raise awareness on environmental issues among students, teachers, and staff. They have a broad range of action, from managing a grocery store selling local and organic products to promoting alternative career paths and working with HEC’s board to change our courses. 

Read the ESP'R Manifesto

HEC Green Economy Club and a group of young Alumni joined forces in 2022 to create HEC Transition, an association which supports HEC community, Alumni, students and professors, towards a fair and sustainable world.

Know more about the club