ESSEC, The CoBS, and Harvard Business School Co-Publish a Special Issue Magazine on Climate Change

ESSEC Business School, a co-founder of the Council on Business & Society (CoBS), has partnered with the Harvard Business School Institute for Business in Global Society to publish a special issue magazine on Climate Change. CoBS, established in 2011 by ESSEC alongside other leading global business schools, is an international alliance dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and sustainable business practices. This publication reflects their joint commitment to addressing urgent climate issues through education and thought leadership.

Climate Change – the most pressing issue of our times – and the theme of a Harvard Business School roundtable in Paris late October. What better for ESSEC and its partner schools to accompany the event that brought together academia, policy makers and business leaders than to co-publish a special issue magazine for the occasion.

This marks recognition for the alliance co-founded by ESSEC in 2001. Visionary for its time, the CoBS mission was to promote research and teaching in responsible leadership, and as early as 2016, sustainability became a key additional topic to CSR. Now counting 11 member business schools covering Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, North and South America, the alliance offers a global voice on world issues that also integrates unique local and regional perspectives to the debate.

ESSEC professors Adrian Zicari and Arthur Gautier feature in this groundbreaking publication Climate Change: Strategies for advancing the green transition alongside Harvard faculty and those from other CoBS partner schools.

In a research-based article – Social and Environmental Accounting: Measuring sustainability – ESSEC Prof. Zicari tackles the complex issue of putting a value on the impact people and their organisations have society and the planet, ethics in finance, and reporting as a contributor to positive change. Prof. Arthur Gautier, Executive Director of the ESSEC Philanthropy Chair, with his article Climate Change: A new and unavoidable cause for philanthropy explores the recent upsurge in philanthropic interest for this urgent cause, tackling awareness and the role of philanthropic pioneers in leading the way.

Available on download from the Council on Business & Society, this special issue Harvard-ESSEC-CoBS magazine features 96 pages of transformative insights, from the collective wisdom of 31 distinguished faculty and expert practitioners, organized in 3 sections:

Facing Climate Change: Companies, Leadership, and Society
The Role of Legislation and Green Finance in Climate Action
Innovative Industry Solutions to Combat Climate Change

ESSEC and the CoBS hope this will be the first of many future co-developed initiatives with Harvard Business School BiGS.