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IÉSEG School of Management has been awarded top honors in the 2025 PRME Education Awards, recognizing the School’s bold and comprehensive approach to embedding sustainability into all dimensions of its operations.

The PRME Education Awards, led by the UN Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, celebrate excellence in advancing responsible management education through teaching, research, student engagement and organizational transformation.

This year’s awards recognized faculty and initiatives from institutions in Australia, Finland, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. A total of 61 submissions from 14 countries were reviewed by a panel composed of PRME Secretariat members and academic leaders, who assessed projects across five criteria, including innovation, relevance, integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and measurable impact.

Among the winners is IÉSEG, whose submission of the Transition 2026 initiative received the highest score in the Organizational Practices category. The project was praised for its institutional scope, replicability and strong alignment with PRME’s Principles and the SDGs.

“This initiative represents a transformative and comprehensive effort to embed sustainability at the very core of our business school’s identity—spanning teaching, research, and organizational practices“, says Dean Caroline ROUSSEL. “Through Transition 2026, our School has undergone a fundamental shift, ensuring that sustainability is not just an aspiration but an embedded practice across all aspects of our institution. I believe this initiative embodies the 7 PRME principles and serves as a model for other institutions seeking systemic, long-term change.”

A Deep Transformation Across All Levels of the School

Launched in 2022, Transition 2026 is a transversal, whole-school strategy designed to systemically integrate sustainability across all aspects of IÉSEG’s academic and operational model. The initiative is grounded in the conviction that a business school must embody the very principles it teaches.

“Transition 2026 embraces PRME’s 7 principles and has been a driving force in the transformation of all of our School’s activities—from teaching, to research, and to our operational and institutional practices,” explained Maria CASTILLO, Director of Strategic Projects Development. “We strongly believe that learning happens in and outside of the classroom and that we must lead by example.”

A key pillar of the initiative was a 7-module mandatory training program completed by all faculty and administrative staff, covering climate change, planetary boundaries, net zero, diversity and inclusion, and social inequalities. “The main goal of the training was to ensure everyone had the same baseline understanding of sustainability and its relevance to our activities,” notes Maria CASTILLO. “This step was essential in getting everyone onboard and creating an environment of collective ownership and accountability.”

Following the training, all departments and directions engaged in workshops to develop three-year sustainability roadmaps, including revised course structures, new KPIs, and targeted actions. These roadmaps were formally presented to the School’s Board of Directors in March 2025.

“I am delighted to see all teams taking responsibility for their sustainability goals by writing their own roadmap following this ambitious training program. They are proactive in implementing sustainable measures, certainly more ambitious than what we would have decided ourselves. These roadmaps are built around concrete actions, with three-year targets, key performance indicators, and clearly identified project leaders. They also include a realistic implementation schedule based on a fair assessment of the impact and efforts of each proposed project, to prioritize high-impact projects”, says Dean Caroline ROUSSEL.

Concrete Results in Teaching and Student Learning

The Transition 2026 initiative has already led to significant revisions in curriculum design and student learning pathways. The new “student sustainability journey” now includes a sustainability introductory seminar in year 1; courses on “Sustainability & Business” and “Environmental & Energy Economics” in year 2; a mandatory course in Business Ethics in year 3 and a “Change Management for Sustainability” course in year 4, including the Sulitest TASK assessment

“From just one course and project in 2020, we now offer a full pathway that touches every student, regardless of their specialization,” says Maria CASTILLO. “All majors and minors include sustainability-focused electives, and all core courses are being reviewed to integrate relevant sustainability skills, from sustainable finance to responsible marketing.”

The academic transformation is guided by international frameworks such as the SDGs, the UN Global Compact Principles, the EU GreenComp, and accreditation learning objectives.

In addition to its academic overhaul, the School also implemented organizational reforms that strengthen its sustainability commitments. These include a dedicated sustainability journal list to encourage research in this field; a partnership with B Lab France; a robust Climate Action Plan, co-created with students, alumni, faculty, and staff and a new internal policies covering mobility, purchasing, energy, waste management, and IT.

“To truly model what we teach, we embedded sustainability into our school’s DNA,” Maria CASTILLO emphasizes. “That’s what Transition 2026 represents: a system-wide shift grounded in shared ownership, cross-functional collaboration, and long-term impact.”

A Model for Others in Responsible Management Education

By fully aligning institutional practices with the values taught in the classroom, IÉSEG’s Transition 2026 initiative offers a compelling model for other institutions seeking to advance the SDGs and PRME Principles.

“At IÉSEG, our initial focus on reviewing academic content soon revealed the need for coherence across all school activities,” Maria CASTILLO explained. “Driving this transformation required a network of champions from across the school. Professors, staff, students, and alumni have played a key role over the past five years, forming a strong, diverse coalition that continues to accelerate meaningful, institution-wide change.”

This PRME Education Award marks an important milestone for IÉSEG – and an invitation to continue shaping the future of responsible management education at a global level.