GRI and top European business school team up on sustainability training
Published date: 02 March 2022
Partnership with IÉSEG gives students the opportunity to become GRI Certified Sustainability Professionals
GRI has welcomed an agreement with the France-based IÉSEG Business School of Management, to help Masters students become certified sustainability professionals during their studies.
The new partnership, announced last week, means all those completing the MSc in Management for Sustainability can participate in the GRI Professional Certification Program – the accredited training route for sustainability reporting practitioners.
The collaboration with IÉSEG comes at an opportune time, as the EU is progressing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – legislation that introduces new requirements for sustainability disclosure, which will apply to over 50,000 companies in the EU from the 2023 reporting year onwards.
The Professional Certification Program will be integrated into the curriculum of the MSc program and enable students to learn relevant aspects of sustainability reporting. The partnership recognizes that the IÉSEG students will gain a competitive edge in the job market, by being able to demonstrate their expertise in corporate sustainability through a trusted qualification.
We are delighted to enter into this innovative collaboration with IÉSEG School of Management. Integrating the GRI Professional Certification Program with the MSc in Management for Sustainability will help ensure that students develop a comprehensive understanding of the importance of corporate accountability for sustainability impacts. The partnership illustrates IÉSEG’s commitment to addressing the growing needs in Europe for business professionals that have a strong understanding of sustainability reporting, as supported by GRI’s world-leading standards."
Mirjam Groten, GRI Chief Business Development OfficerI’m very proud that IÉSEG is the first Business School in Europe to sign such a partnership with the Global Reporting Initiative. Our MSc in Management for Sustainability aims at equipping our students with the fundamental science, technology and policy know-how for meeting all sustainability challenges, combined with a very good command of management and strategy insights and tools. The partnership with GRI is ideal. It will give our students the right tools to make an impact.”
Caroline Roussel, vice-Dean of IÉSEG School of ManagementThis is GRI’s first academic partnership that provides MSc students with enrolment in the Professional Certification Program (which in 2021 was successfully completed by over 500 sustainability professionals). With 7,000 students across campuses in Lille and Paris, IÉSEG School of Management regularly features among the world’s leading management schools.