For over ten years, IFP School has made Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility a core part of its strategy. By virtue of its mission, IFP School must lead by example in this area.
To obtain recognition and certification of its actions, the School has embarked on the SD&SR labeling process and has just appointed Perrine Babin, a lecturer at the Processes for Energy and Chemicals Center, as Coordinator of the SD&SR label. She will be replacing Alain Auriault who is retiring.
With regard to CSR, Perrine explains the motivations and actions to be fostered in order to obtain the SD&SR label.
1. What is the SD&SR label and why is IFP School seeking it?
The Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility label (label Développement Durable et Responsabilité Sociétale - DD&RS) was created in 2015 by a dozen Universities and Grandes Écoles, the “Conférence des Grandes Écoles” (CGE), the Conference of University Presidents (CPU), the Ministry in charge of Sustainable Development, the Ministry in charge of Higher Education and the Network of Students for an Ecological and Socially Responsible Society (Réseau des Étudiants pour une Société Écologique et Solidaire - RESES).
This labeling scheme aims to highlight the actions and commitment of French higher education and research establishments to sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.
The SD&SR label is based on a national reference framework (formerly known as the Green Plan), a self-diagnostic tool resulting from Article 55 of the “Grenelle Environment Roundtable“. A comprehensive label incorporating the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and structured around five axes: strategy and governance, education and training, research and innovation, and environment and social policy. It is awarded for a period of four years.
IFP School is strongly committed to the ecological transition. It presents the various climatic and societal challenges of tomorrow to future generations of engineers — who are more and more engaged in the environmental cause. This commitment involves integrating sustainable development and social responsibility into the School's strategy, operations and program content. Through this labeling process, the School is committed to continuing its transformation and improving its structure to train the engineers who will build tomorrow's net-zero carbon world.
This label is also in line with IFP School's continuous improvement approach, which mobilizes a large number of internal players (teachers, lecturers, administrative staff and students).
Last but not least, obtaining this label will further highlight the School's commitment and enhance its visibility and attractiveness, constituting a guarantee of quality for applicants and companies alike.
2. What are your new responsibilities as SD&SR Label Coordinator?
My first task will be to fill in the application form to be certified and submit it by the summer 2023 deadline. Once we have been certified, I'll have to drive the project and ensure the daily management and coordination of the SD&SR team, a group of dedicated colleagues from a variety of backgrounds who volunteered to be on the project.
In practice, each year I'll present the School's Steering Committee/Management Committee with an SD&SR action plan and budget. I'll be responsible for ensuring that the various objectives that were set, are actually met, and for providing regular updates and KPIs.
I'll also represent the School in dealings with the SD&SR community (CGE, CDEFI, CIRSES and student organizations) and relay information back to the School.
3. How is IFP School getting organized to obtain this label?
We hope to submit our application this summer, so that it can be assessed at the October 2023 session. To succeed, we have set up a task force and called in a specialized firm to help us with the process.
Our priority over the coming weeks is to meet the requirements of each axis in terms of KPIs and provide the reference documents attesting to the work that has already been accomplished. Once that has been done, we'll be able to define our action plan and objectives for the coming years.
At the same time, we want to get all our stakeholders involved, and particularly our students, to both ensure the sustainability of the actions carried out in the past and define future ones.
4. Can you give us some examples of actions already carried out within the School around sustainable development and social responsibility?
Several actions and projects have already been set up at IFP School.
To name but a few... In terms of training, all our programs have been revised over the past few years to cover the challenges and arbitrations students will face when managing the energy transition. For the current graduating class, besides the fundamentals which also apply to new energies (40% of the syllabus), half the lessons are on new energy technologies.
For example, to illustrate my point, two groups of students from the Energy and Processes and Processes and Polymers programs took part in the "Fresque du plastique” (Plastic Fresco) collaborative workshop we organized this year. It was a first for IFP School! The workshop led students to reflect on possible solutions at both an individual and societal level. It also made them think, as future graduates, about the role they will play within the industries in which they will be working.
The School's Governing Representatives have also decided to get its administrative and teaching staff involved in climate issues, by scheduling a "2 tons" workshop during the back-to-school seminar at the end of August. The aim is to help us identify the individual and collective levers we can use to facilitate our transition to a low-carbon society, and how each and every one of us can contribute to this goal.
Regarding research, our Scientific Advisor to the Dean ensures that our four Research and Teaching Chairs all include themes dedicated to the energy transition, namely carbon management (CarMa chair), electric, autonomous and connected vehicles (ECAV chair), electricity and the digital transition (ETD chair), and the thermodynamics of aqueous solvents used in recycling processes (EleTher chair). However, there is still work to be done to ensure that our research projects incorporate SD&SR criteria. For example, inter- and trans-disciplinary dimensions could be better integrated into our future projects.
In line with the "Environment" axis of the SD&SR label, the School has committed, since the beginning of the school year, to limiting as much as possible the CO2 emissions linked to air travel by lecturers and students (for the latter, when doing their field trips and placements).
Distance learning courses are now systematically offered to lecturers living abroad, provided that the quality of the teaching is not compromised. In addition, whenever possible, traveling by train is preferred. Finally, we are working on the introduction of a "CO2 emissions" indicator. Our efforts have already paid off: we have recorded a 48% drop in CO2 emissions over the 2022-2023 academic year!
On a more global scale, the first Greenhouse Gas Balance Sheet (GHGBS) is currently being carried out with the contribution of our students. This assessment will enable us to draw up an action plan to reduce our GHG emissions.
Among our day-to-day actions, I would also mention the fact that we have effectively put an end to handing out plastic water bottles on our campus and have distributed reusable water bottles to all students and staff.
Finally, I'd like to underline the commitment of our students to Sustainable Development over the past few years, from simply exploring the idea to actually accomplishing concrete actions (e.g.: campaigns on eco-friendly practices and reducing plastic waste, producing a sustainable development guide, collecting clothes to be given to the Emmaüs charity shop in Nanterre, etc.). This year, as part of the "Sustainable Campus Initiative" group, students suggested that the environmental impact of the meals served in the campus restaurant be displayed; this matter is currently under investigation.
To be continued…
Interview conducted by Meyling Siu