MSc Sustainability programme highlights
Students are challenged at many stages of the "sustainability factories". They have to imagine tomorrow's scenarios in prototyping loops, and then present them at the halfway stage and at the final sustainability factory. They are coached throughout the course by tutors, company sponsors and the programme director. This approach allows to develop their knowledge of transformation issues, to reinforce the fundamental notions linked to sustainability issues, and to acquire the soft skills necessary to co-construct transformation projects with several stakeholders, resulting in a sustainable business transformation.
All courses are taught in English. The course material used (business simulations, case studies) covers international issues, providing a global perspective of sustainability issues.
Students also have exposure to this dimension with international speakers and professors and a multicultural atmosphere on campus and in their internship.
This programme benefits from the inputs of KEDGE Sustainability Centre of Excellence, conducting interdisciplinary research into the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of organizations at various levels of analysis. With 24 academics and 6 PhD students, it is one of the largest European research and higher education centres dedicated to corporate sustainability.
Core values such as inclusiveness are central to the curriculum as well as to the school' s vision. Among the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, some are directly related to inclusivity. At KEDGE, inclusivity means fighting all forms of discrimination such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, geographical and social origin, disability but also territory (rural versus urban for example). Supporting inclusivity also implies taking actions both internally (students, employees and professors) and externally, by considering its entire ecosystem in its territories.
The programme approach perfectly captures the school's culture of sustainable development through several initiatives. The Green Plan is the reference of "Sustainability Development" in French superior education. It is both a self-diagnosis guide and a dashboard, as well as a strategic guide for the actions of the institutions. For more than ten years, the school has been following the progress in the implementation of its sustainable development strategy in line with the six principles for managing responsible education supported by the United Nations (UN PRME).
Key skills developed in the Sustainability Management programme
The courses include 5 different modules: Sustainability Factories, Introduction to Sustainability, Collaboration for Transformation, Change for Transformation and Management & Tools. This highly comprehensive learning empowers graduates to orchestrate resources across corporate boundaries, and to successfully manage organisations in dynamic and changing social environments. The programme also provides them with the mindset that makes the difference between the past and the future: a mindset of sustainable collaboration.
Students are exposed to a variety of stakeholders and gain a comprehensive understanding of specific new tools for leading business transformation in a dedicated module:
- Circular economy
- Sustainable Market Methods
- Responding to Climate Change
- Sustainable Finance
- Reporting for Sustainability
KEDGE Business Transformation for Sustainability MSc students are able to access Le Wagon teaching method, one of the best coding schools in Europe. With this 30-hour training, they become familiar with Data Science and learn to code, build web applications and collaborate with developers. This illustrates the programme's innovative positioning strategy.
Circular Economy Collage
This 3-hour collaborative workshop examines our current economic model, highlights its impacts and explores a different model using fewer resources, designs out waste and respects the planet's limits. Participants are working in small groups with the help of a set of cards and brainstorm ideas to shift away from our economy towards a more sustainable and circular model.
Students are exposed to experiential learning throughout the programme with an in-company internship, and an NGO mission.
- Company: 4-month training to practice value creation with 4 dimensions: value creation, stakeholder relations, steering, operational management and the tranformation process.
- NGO: Experience in an NGO to understand the issues of sustainability in business.