Thursday, March 31, 2022 is without a doubt the perfect symbol of Grenoble Ecole de Management's (GEM) commitment to the ecological, societal and economic transition in 2022. Four major events are taking place on that particular day dedicated to the climate emergency and the actions to undertake in order to impulse a more sustainable future.
While Grenoble Ecole de Management has signed the The Call of Grenoble for an IPCC for Environmental Health" on March 19, 2022, with 54 scientists, politicians and NGO members, the school organizes several major events on March 31, 2022, to concretize its commitments as a Société A Mission (equivalent to a US Benefit Corporation).
A collaborative climate fresk by GEM staff
In order to internally spread GEM's raison d'être and its five objectives as well as to favor their implementation into its daily activities, it is essential that every GEM's stakeholders share a common culture. That is the reason why the Climate Fresk workshop of March 31, 2022 was offered to the staff of the school. The objective of such a collaborative project is to ensure that all employees receive a solid and shared knowledge, to better understand this complexe subject and to act.
The Climate Fresk, recognized in Academic and Professional environments, is the tool that GEM retained for its collective intelligence dimension that allows a good understanding of the topic, based on GIEC's (Inter-governmental group of experts in climate change) data. Note that Climate Fresk workshops are also weekly offered to GEM students as part of their Sustainability Act and Think Badges.
GEM 'Mission Committee': first meeting on 31/3/2022
The PACTE law has created a new governance body within companies which adopted the Societé A Mission status, such as Grenoble Ecole de Management, so called "Mission Committee".
Its role is to monitor and evaluate the proper execution of the mission defined in the company's legal statutes. For the first time since obtaining this status, GEM is holding a face-to-face meeting of its Mission Committee on Thursday 31 March 2022.
This team composed of a dozen people has to ensure a high level of requirement and effort in GEM's mission, as well as to follow-up on its consistency, and to experiment it, in order to enrich the deployment of the five statutory objectives and their operational implementation.
Chaired by Olivier Blum, GEM ALUMNI 1993, Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer at Schneider Electric, the Mission Committee is multidisciplinary. It brings together representatives of the various internal and external stakeholders of GEM: a student, an alumnus, an employee, as well as experts in the transition from Academics, Business and Public Authorities. They will meet 3 to 4 times a year, during a 3 years mandate.
Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat ("Businesses for Climate Convention"): 12 companies from Grenoble area meet at GEM
On Thursday March 31, 2022, Grenoble Ecole de Management is organizing a 3rd day of work for the Executive Committees of the 12 companies in the Isère region that are involved in the Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat. These 12 local companies involved in this major initiative are: ARaymond; Caterpillar; Cetup; GEM; Keria; Mastergrid; MTB; Petzl; Photoweb; Poma; Radiall; Rossignol.
The aim of this Grenoble meeting at GEM, with 150 people attending, is to strengthen the links between the COMEXs of these local major economic players by sharing best practices, to build a bold and impactful roadmap, and to create a model of collaboration that can be replicated in other regions. The main concern is to conciliate economic, social and environmental performance.
Similar meetings will be held at GEM throughout 2022. The idea - beyond having these meetings taking place in Grenoble - is for the Isère community to promote a pilot action methodology within the CEC, for other regional members all around France. The goal is to create local dynamics throughout the country and thus, accelerate the transition locally then nationally.
Student Week for Ecology and Solidarity
Held from March 23 to 30 throughout France, the Student Week for Ecology and Solidarity (SEES) is a precious time for students to meet with actors committed to more sustainable and supportive campuses and society. ImpAct, GEM's student association dedicated to sustainable development, is relaying the SEES on the Grenoble Ecole de Management campus through the organization of various events and by encouraging the students’ mobilization on the issues of ecological transition and solidarity that our society, and higher education, must address
Some highlights of the week:
- The GEM ESS Contest is a competition organized by ImpAct during which young companies working on the themes of the ecological and solidarity transition come at GEM to present their business problematics to which, any student from higher education in France interested in CSR, can try to answer.
- Exhibition of Engaged Works of Art with Artagem (manual arts pole of the Art Zone, GEM Arts Office)
- A workshop to transform used skis into trendy shelves, organized by ImpAct's Upcycling team
- "France under an ecological mandate" Grand Oral by Julien Bayou, National Secretary of Europe Ecologie Les Verts (French Ecological Party), at Grenoble Ecole de Management on March 30, 2022, to answer student's questions about ecology in politics.
About de GEM Société à mission
As the first Business School with a Mission in March 2021, GEM has chosen, through its raison d'être, to address, through education and research, the major challenges of the ecological, societal and economic transition. Its five strategic objectives, the pillars of its action, are ethics and integrity, equality between people, education for all, economic peace and the ecological transition.
