On Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th April, KEDGE students studying for the MSc Sustainable Finance were given the opportunity to travel to Munich in Germany for their annual study tour.
What is a study-tour?
Study tours are designed to expose students to as many elements of the course as possible. In this instance, students from the sustainable finance programme got to engage with industry professionals, to participate in group activities, and reflect on academic content in the real world.
What was the objective of the business trip?
- Students got a glance of what the insurance and asset management sectors do in the field of sustainable finance in Germany.
- Strategy and data analysis are two important elements to combat the degradation of biodiversity and climate change. The companies visited play an important role in both.
- To understand that what insurance companies and data providers do is complementary to the offer of the sustainable finance programme.
Which businesses were involved in the process?
- ClimatePartner: ClimatePartner supports companies in climate action. They help calculate and reduce carbon emissions and finance climate projects.
KEDGE's students were welcomed by Vera Geis and Capucine Vion both Sustainability Consultant and Romain Bécaud, Commercial Sustainability Manager at ClimatePartner to discuss the core business of the company and several related issues such as: data (and often lack thereof), IT services, methodology, greenwashing, balance sheets, scopes 1, 2 and the thus far unmandatory scope 3, regulations, climate change. - IDS GmbH – Analysis and Reporting Services: IDS unlocks the value of data for the global investment industry. The main role of the company is in data intelligence, main provider of Allianz.
There was some interesting presentations of the company’s ‘raison d’être’ by Bruno Moesch, how ESG is integrated in the firm’s business model by Dr. Martin Bauer, how ESG reporting is done by Dr. Elisabeth Winter, how ESG investment is carried out by Valentina Gregorčič, as well as some ongoing trends in climate physical risks and how they are measured by Sandra Gschnaller. - Allianz: Allianz is a diverse community of experts delivering outstanding insurance and asset management products in more than 70 countries. They are actuaries, advisors and service agents; underwriters, lawyers, marketing and technology experts.
The master students of sustainable finance and their Academic Director, Luis Reyes Ortiz were welcomed by Nasir Mehrzad Balach, HR for Allianz and Alexandra Blicking, Global Sustainability at Allianz on their famous Schwabing campus in Munich. They had the opportunity to get some insights on the esg topics from Katja Wurm, Senior Manager - P&C Insurance in Global Sustainability at Allianz and to discuss career opportunities it offers, its efforts to contribute to sustainability, and its offices.
Get to know more about the MSc in Sustainable Finance
These interesting speeches were eye-opening, gave us all a very good idea of what Allianz and its clients currently deal with, and the challenges associated with handling data useful to achieve the low-carbon transition (hopefully on time). In doing so, they reminded us that 'you can’t manage what you can’t measure'.
