Sustainability Report 2021

EMBA

EMBA

The IMD EMBA program aims to “develop reflective, global leaders, who lead with personal responsibility and integrity, having a positive impact on their businesses and society”. Sustainability is integrated in the curriculum’s core courses, electives, and Discovery Expeditions.

EMBAs inspired to spark a recycling circular economy

As part of their EMBA, participants taking part in elea Professor of Social Innovation Vanina Farber’s “A Primer in Impact Investing and ESG Integration” module learned how to foster positive impact through business and investment decisions. The course, which includes a group project to apply impact solutions to a real-world challenge, seeks to change mindsets and drive change to build a more sustainable economy.

One group focused their business expertise – as well as their new learnings – on a recycling start-up in Mexico, Umlauf, founded by Zair Dominguez, the brother of EMBA participant Zabdiel Dominguez. Umlauf’s goal is to connect the whole chain, from manufacturers and retailers to consumers, shops and recycling plants, to build a user-friendly circular economy for consumer goods packaging.

“This is a problem that affects every country, every region and every town, but the benefits of a circular economy are enormous,” Zabdiel explained.

EMBAs inspired to spark a recycling circular economy

Joining the dots to form a circle

Umlauf’s formative business model and recycling app had a gap in how to effectively engage people with its services – a factor that was crucial in building a scalable solution. Drawing on their broad range of expertise, such as finance, digital transformation and supply chain, the EMBAs further developed the app – which scans products to explain how to recycle them – as part of a solution to build an aligned and incentivized ecosystem of partners. The team added new features to Umlauf’s app, such as gamification for engagement and an interface to connect the full ecosystem, as well as cryptocurrency rewards to manage incentives and encourage participation. The team’s green currency system rewards pickers, collectors and end users, leveraging the existing recycling ecosystem in Mexico in which fast moving consumer goods companies already pay for plastic. Completing the circle, partner neighborhood “Mom and Pop” shops accept green currency as payment for groceries and provide information on how many children are picking plastic for income to inform anti-child labor policies.

EMBA Discovery Expeditions

EMBA participants gained first-hand experience in areas such as social innovation, sustainable development, and bottom-of-the-pyramid business models, through Discovery Expeditions to emerging markets, including Kenya and Peru.

Kenya

During the EMBA Discovery Expedition to Kenya, led by Professor Leif Sjöblom, participants explored business opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid. They worked closely with local entrepreneurs to promote and grow their for-profit businesses which also benefit the local community. During the six-day trip, participants worked with cheese, sanitation, bodaboda (motorcycle taxi) and spice businesses to learn about the local business context and challenges.

EMBAs discover Kenya’s entrepreneurial culture
EMBAs discover Kenya’s entrepreneurial culture
We were able to convince ourselves how a flower farm with 600 employees is committed to the sustainable production of mother plants, based on contributing to six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Integrated pest management and reducing pesticides (minus 75% in one year) are just as much a part of it as its own natural purification plant and daycare plus education for the children of the employees.
Marcel Wüthrich, Roche Diagnostics, IMD EMBA candidate 2022

Peru

EMBA participants explore impact investing in Peru
EMBA participants explore impact investing in Peru

The EMBA Discovery Expedition to Peru was recognized as one of four finalists in the GBSN and EFMD Going Beyond Awards. The awards highlight and share programs and initiatives that strengthen society, demonstrate community impact and embody the spirit of inclusive and sustainable development.

Peru

The goal of the week-long Impact Investing Discovery Expedition, led by Professor Vanina Farber, the newly-appointed Dean of the EMBA and holder of the elea Chair for Social Innovation, is for the EMBAs to conduct due diligence to make investment recommendations on Peruvian social enterprises to international and local impact investors. What are the novel and impactful market solutions brought by the Peruvian social enterprises that are worth investing in?

For many of the participants, their business experience had been in a purely commercial environment. The first session opened their eyes to how impact investment can both create positive financial returns and also change the fabric of societies. To understand the Peruvian context, EMBA participants learn about the diverse nature of Peruvian society and its macroeconomic environment from a broad range of speakers, site visits and cultural experiences.

Alonso Segura, a former Minister of Economy and Finance, set the stage to understand the Peruvian model of growth and its place in the broader Latin American region. Despite political turmoil, corruption scandals and the pandemic, he said, Peru can be seen as a success story in the region with more than 20 years of sustained growth and poverty reduction.

Jose Carlos Ugaz, who has been fighting corruption in Peru for many years, explored the systemic lack of institutional strength in Peru and what this means for its stability.

Piero Ghezzi, a former Minister of Production, spoke about the role of private and public capital, and the relationship between informal and formal business structures.

Mercedes Araoz, an economist and former Vice President of Peru, focused on the dichotomy of the Peruvian opportunity – that there were challenges but also a sense of optimism about the future.

The participants then met social enterprises to assess the viability, scalability and impact of their business models.. This required building trust with entrepreneurs and getting a sense for whether they would be good candidates for impact investment. They focused their due diligence on Nanas y Amas, D1, Sinba, Doktus and Villa Andina.

Next, the participants learned about the mindset of an impact investor.

Adrian Ackeret, CFO of the elea Foundation – a philanthropic impact investment organization – presented the live case study of inkaMoss. Jorfe Farfan, an impact investor at Bamboo Capital in Switzerland, explained different financial instruments with a special focus on equity financing for social enterprises. Natasha Barantseva from ANDES Impact Partners, shared the importance of debt financing, and spoke about gender lens investing and the emerging role of women as impact investors and entrepreneurs.

To further understand the Peruvian context, the EMBAs learned about the Peruvian specialty drink Pisco, tasted locally-produced chocolate at a Book Vivant store, participated in hip hop classes for at-risk youth and visited the traditional artist community of Sarhua, a UNESCO heritage project. They also met successful corporate leaders who focus on social impact in sustainable fashion, tourism and agriculture, such as Alonso Burgos and Andres Chaves Cuzzi from KUNA, José Koechlin von Stein from Inkaterra and Rosario Bazan from Danper.

The expedition culminated in the teams’ presentations to an investor panel, which evaluated their investment proposals and provided feedback. At a closing event, special guest speaker Francisco Sagasti, former President of Peru (2020-2021), highlighted the role of business and impact investing in making a real difference.