World's Leading Sustainability Standards Setter and Top Business School Team Up
GRI-IÉSEG partnership gives students opportunity to become 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.
Mirjam Groten, GRI Chief Business Development Officer, said:
“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.”
As Caroline Roussel, vice-Dean of IÉSEG School of Management, explained:
“I’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.”
This is GRI’s first academic partnership under the Professional Certification Program. In 2021, the program was successfully completed by over 500 sustainability professionals. It involves a series of courses, completed online, with certification that can be renewed annually with additional training. Watch a video summary or access this flyer to learn more.
With 7,000 students across campuses in Lille and Paris, IÉSEG School of Management regularly features among the world’s leading management schools.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing the global common language to report those impacts. The GRI Standards are developed through a multi-stakeholder process and provided as a free public good.
