EDHEC joins the Coalition for Environmentally Sustainable Artificial Intelligence

This article was first published on the edhec.edu website - 18/06/2025 

On 10 June 2025, during the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) held in Nice, France’s Minister for Ecological Transition announced EDHEC Business School’s entry to the Coalition for Environmentally Sustainable Artificial Intelligence. 

EDHEC Business School has signed up to the Coalition for Environmentally Sustainable Artificial Intelligence, a global initiative launched in Paris in February 2025 during the AI Action Summit. The School’s entry to the Coalition was officially announced by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s Minister for Ecological Transition, as part of the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice. This international diplomatic event devoted to protecting the world’s oceans featured active participation from EDHEC and its researchers.

Working for environmentally sustainable AI

The Coalition for Environmentally Sustainable Artificial results from an initiative spearheaded by the French government — via the Ministry for Ecological Transition —, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It brings together public institutions, companies, NGOs and academics all intent on making the use of artificial intelligence consistent with environmental transition.

In pursuit of this objective, the Coalition focuses its efforts on practical actions geared to placing artificial intelligence on a sustainable path. It advocates using AI with discernment and applying it particularly for cases where it generates real environmental and social value. It is also striving to reduce AI’s environmental footprint, by promoting rigorous methods for measuring its environmental impacts, along with life cycle analysis frameworks and the development of sober algorithms. Lastly, the Coalition emphasises the need to align AI with the common good, by paying particular attention to its consequences on vulnerable communities and fragile ecosystems.