INSEAD is continuing to walk the talk with sustainability as we celebrate a recently awarded EcoVadis Gold Medal.
Transforming business education, to ensure sustainability is at the core, is a long journey. Following INSEAD’s long standing commitment to develop responsible business leaders, the school is actively engaged in promoting sustainability initiatives. These initiatives are reflected in how we teach sustainability topics to our MBA students, how we fund sustainability research cases, how we actively engage and promote sustainability activities, as well as in the way we operate as an international business school with campuses across different continents. For all these sustainability initiatives INSEAD was recently awarded an EcoVadis Gold Medal!
EcoVadis is the world’s leading and most trusted provider of business sustainability evaluations for supply chains. Founded in 2007, EcoVadis supports a global network of more than 90,000 companies evaluating how well an organization integrates Sustainability/CSR principles into its management system under four topics: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement.
INSEAD’s latest assessment by EcoVadis registered an overall score of 69 out of 100, granting us a Gold Medal award. This score ranks INSEAD in the top 5% of all organizations and the top 3% of all higher education institutions evaluated. This score not only distinguishes our performance on Sustainability, but also highlights our continued improvement, after achieving scorecards of 38 points in 2014, 52 points in 2018, and 63 points in 2020. Anne Gaelle Gonet, Global Procurement Director spoke on what the medal means to those that are working to deliver such changes:
“EcoVadis’ Gold Medal comes as a valuable recognition of our efforts in practising sustainable procurement, developing partnerships with suppliers who positively impact the environment and society. It also motivates us to continue reinforcing our risk assessment and due diligence frameworks.”
Examining their results in detail reveals that that their practices on ‘Environment’ and ‘Labour and Human Rights’ have been regarded as their strongest pillars. This comes as no surprise given certain key environmental milestones that have been met this year, notably with the installation of new energy efficient HVAC systems, INSEAD’s 67% carbon reduction pledge, or the Green Mark Platinum award INSEAD received for its Asia Campus in Singapore. The Green Mark Platinum award is the highest distinction to be handed out by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the industry regulator in Singapore. Factors taken into consideration include the purchasing of Renewable Energy Certificates that guarantee that the campus operates with 100% renewable energy.
INSEAD’s efforts in social areas were also key to improving the ‘Labour and Human Rights’ category. This included enhancing their promotion of diversity equity and inclusion, taking measure to prevent discrimination and harassment, and their commitment to a hybrid flexible working policy.
INSEAD has come a long way walking the Sustainability talk in the last couple of years, yet there is always room for further improvement such as consolidating practices on waste management, recycling, on-campus transportation, and infrastructure renewal.
INSEAD continues to work with internationally recognized sustainability standards and framework, as well as third party assessments such as EcoVadis. These assessments inform us of their strengths and other areas of improvement, as well as help us make the right strategic decisions in order to make INSEAD a sustainable school for the world.
Curious to understand, in more detail, how INSEAD is walking the talk on sustainability? Read their latest Sustainability Report.