Make an Impact for Good: EDHEC Alumni UK Sustainability Programme

Launched by passionate members of the EDHEC Alumni UK Board in 2023, "Make an Impact for Good" is an ambitious programme of three main activities aimed at raising awareness on the sustainability challenges, connecting generations to find solutions and ultimately making an impact for good on society.

What are the three programme activities?

             1. A series of top-quality events, promoted by the French Embassy in the UK 

To highlight the challenges of sustainability, the programme has been designing an annual series of top-quality events covering a wide range of sustainability issues including: 

• The role of the individual in the transition 
• Sustainable finance
• The circular economy
• Accelerating the green energy transition
  
  

The team was grateful to be able to draw on the expertise from: 

• The EDHEC Alumni UK community and its extended network 
• EDHEC Business School’s two centres of excellence in climate finance research – the EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute (ERCII) and the EDHEC Infra & Private Assets Research Institute) 
• Nord France Invest who kindly sponsored the 2023-2024 series

Thanks to a hybrid format – both on EDHEC’s London campus and online, the audience included EDHEC Alumni based in London but also from around the word, as well as EDHEC students from Lille and Nice.

To increase the impact of the programme, the team applied to the hackathon run by the French Embassy in the UK in May 2024. We are proud to say that the series of events was selected and will then benefit from the Embassy's support to reach out to the entire France Alumni community in the UK who are Alumni from the following schools: AgroParisTech, Centrale Supelec, Celsa, ESCP, EM Normandie, ESSEC, HEC, INSP, Polytechnique, Sciences Po and Sorbonne Université.

             2. A mentoring programme between UK Alumni and students bringing concrete change

 
To connect generations and bring concrete change in the field of sustainability, the team has launched in 2023 a mentoring programme connecting EDHEC Alumni UK decisions-makers who are facing a problem related to sustainability within their organisation with EDHEC MSc students who have the latest knowledge and resources to investigate the question and provide recommendations as part of their master’s thesis.

Targeted students are from EDHEC’s following sustainability-focused MSc programmes:

• The MSc in Climate Change and Sustainable Finance – taught in EDHEC Nice 
• The MSc in Global & Sustainable Business – taught in EDHEC Lille
  
  

The 2023 launch of the mentoring programme was successful with alumni from Mazars, Citi, LVMH and IK Partners who responded to our call for input, put their trust in our programme and successfully mentored four teams of MSc students.

For 2024-2025, the team is looking for 5 to 6 Alumni committed mentors to:

• Suggest a topic in the field of sustainability with business and academic angles – in other words, there must be a research-oriented perspective to the problem for students to come up with a proper methodology
• Provide the right data  
• Be available for a one-hour monthly meeting to give advice and feedback  
• Support the students online when their present their results in May
  
  

Please apply here to submit a project: ukboard@alumni.edhec.edu 

             3. A new bursary scheme demonstrating the generosity of our community 

In partnership with the EDHEC UK Foundation, the “Make an Impact for Good” team also launched a new bursary dedicated to EDHEC students who meet bursary criteria and work on sustainability-focused projects.

The bursary was launched in 2023 at the annual EDHEC RDV London and collected £3,000 which benefitted two EDHEC students.

In 2024, the team set the target at £5K and was amazed at the generosity of the EDHEC Alumni community who gave a total amount of £6,854.

Special thanks to our sponsoring donors this year: Laurence Alexandre, Helene Brichet-Herbinet, Alexis de Mones, Mathilde Suberbere and Estelle Levacher.

How can you get involved? 

• Speak at our events 
• Become a mentor
• Donate to the bursary 
• Attend our events 
• Join the team 

Whatever you feel like contributing, please feel free to reach out to discuss it: ukboard@alumni.edhec.edu. We would be delighted to have a chat with you! 

The "Make an Impact for Good" team from the EDHEC Alumni UK Board