2023 Positive Impact Rating: IÉSEG ranked as a “Transforming School” for the 3rd consecutive year
06/14/2023
In 2023, the importance of creating a societal impact has become obvious for companies as well as for management schools. ESG reports have become a new norm, and accrediting agencies like AACSB and EQUIS require societal impact reports from schools when evaluating them. They are thus invited to demonstrate their societal impact on the world and society.
PIR was initiated in 2020 by a group of concerned business school experts and has been founded by the endorsers WWF, Oxfam International and the UNGC Switzerland, with the active support of the funders VIVA Idea and The Institute for Business Sustainability (IBS). It is set up to be led by international student organizations, including oikos, SOS, AIESEC International and others, to ensure that the PIR captures the student voice in each school. PIR is the only organization that allows students around the world to assess their Schools on how they perceive their positive impact on the planet.
In addition to being an assessment of the impact of the Schools by the students, the Positive Impact Rating is also positioned as a way to share best practices proposed by the Schools (for example, IÉSEG has exposed how the School involves its students to accelerate change) and to hear what students want or no longer want from their schools. For this 4th edition, more than 12,000 students from 71 schools around the world answered the survey and therefore expressed their expectations.
Unveiled during the 2023 UN PRME* Global Forum, the 2023 Positive Impact Rating entitled “Accelerating the societal impact of business schools” positions IÉSEG among the “Transforming Schools” – the second best category – and thus rewards the School for its societal impact and its long-term commitment to sustainability, both in terms of its governance and its teaching, of the involvement of students, graduates and all of its stakeholders.
For Maria CASTILLO, Director of Social and Environmental Impact at IÉSEG, “being ranked as a “Transforming School” by the 2023 Positive Impact Rating is a fair recognition of all the work done in recent years to strengthen the integration of CSR and its impact on the strategy and on all of IÉSEG’s activities. The School was also ranked 4th among the most committed French business schools to the ecological transition by a top French ranking dedicated to CSR (ChangeNow – Les Echos Start) in 2022, and 1st for its strategy and exemplarity. In the coming years, we will also accelerate the implementation of our CSR strategy, a major pillar of the School’s strategic plan for 2027. In particular, we launched this year a training in Sustainable Development and Diversity involving all of the School’s employees, a key step for everyone to take part in upskilling tomorrow’s leaders in the best possible way so that they know how to measure and control the economical, social, societal and environmental impacts of their decisions”.
* PRME : Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) – the United Nations’ Six Principles engaging business and management schools to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals.