HEC MONTRÉAL RELEASES ITS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS ACTION PLAN

HEC Montréal presented its action plan for sustainable development (SD), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics to its community.

The action plan was released in the Amphithéâtre Banque Nationale on Wednesday, March 29 in the presence of Federico Pasin, Director of HEC Montréal, and before the staff and faculty members of the School. Senator Rosa Galvez, one of Canada’s leading experts in pollution control and its effect on human health, who was also present at the event, gave a speech that highlighted the importance of university leadership in accelerating the transition to a sustainable economy.

Supporting the School’s new mission

In 2020, HEC Montréal released its 2020-2023 strategic plan and its new mission: Building on our excellence in teaching and research, HEC Montréal is a French-language institution that is open to the world and solidly rooted in Quebec society, that trains management leaders who make a responsible contribution to the success of organizations and to the sustainable development of society at large.

In order to achieve these objectives, the School has set up a priority project to create an ecosystem in sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and organizational ethics. Following consultations with stakeholders and a thorough analysis of its needs, the School has developed an action plan for this purpose.

The action plan is a framework for achieving its strategic planning objectives and responding to the issues and needs identified in consultations. This is a tool that provides a definition of HEC Montréal’s process, specifies the desired outcomes, and provides a means of monitoring and verifying these outcomes.

Establishment of four large operational streams

This action plan is a means for HEC Montréal to strengthen its position as an influential player in major social issues regarding SD-CSR-Ethics. For instance, the School will prioritize cross-functional learning and the integration of environmentally responsible themes in its courses, the expansion of knowledge and transfer activities, and it will also promote the development of synergies between its community members, in order to exploit the full potential of its ecosystem. The School has proposed four large operational streams for taking action and bringing about transformation in all its activities:

• Strengthen our governance
• Take exemplary actions
• Strengthen and support our projects
• Create and transfer knowledge

The exercise that the School is embarking upon is far from being a one-off event that is carved in stone, since participation from the entire HEC Montréal community is required to determine the actions that will be best suited to their needs and most likely to have concrete effects.

Appointment of Luciano Barin Cruz as Director, Sustainable Transition Office

HEC Montréal used the release of this action plan to formally announce the appointment of Luciano Barin Cruz to the post of Director, Sustainable Transition Office, position he holds since December 2022. He will replace Johanne Turbide as head of the Sustainable Development Office, renamed the Sustainable Transition Office.

This progress as well as the appointment of Luciano Barin Cruz are accompanied by a renewed mandate which aims to embed sustainable management even more effectively into the study programs, research and knowledge transfer activities, and organizational practices of the School.

ABOUT LUCIANO BARIN CRUZ

Luciano Barin Cruz has been a professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montréal since 2009. He has a PhD in Business Administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and another PhD in the same discipline from Université Jean Moulin Lyon III (France). Director and co-founder of the IDEOS hub, his research projects focus on sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and social impact.

Article Credits: HEC Montereal