The Innovative Business School

76  Sameh Abadir et al. • IMD regularly supports alumni-founded organizations with so- cial impact: • IMD regularly supports GIVEWATTS, a non-profit organiza- tion co-founded by IMDMBA alumnus (2008) Jesper Hörnberg. Givewatts brings clean and safe energy to people in developing countries, allowing children to complete their studies. • In 2019 IMD’s Seasons Greetings campaign supported Hem- lata. Founded by EMBA alumna (2016) Smita Grutter, Hemlata funds scholarships, food, medical care, and accommodation, enabling young women in India to attain higher education. • The alumni-led Bellerive Impact Fund drives largescale change by pooling resources and skills from the IMD Business School (Switzerland) Alumni Network. It supports entrepreneurs and invests in projects which contribute to achieve the UN SDGs. The Fund aims to prioritize projects which use technology as enabler for their products and services. The impact of sustainability at IMD is best measured by IMD ability to develop a new generation of business leaders capable of managing the complex challenges of the 21st century. 2019 MBA candidate, Lukasz Kaczynski, reflects on his own journey: Sustainability can be an integral part of the business operations, a competitive advantage, not a mere philanthropy or CSR activity. During my MBA, I learnt – for example – how Nestle is contrib- uting to sustainable palm oil production. That was very inspira- tional. I see myself looking for ways to put sustainability into the core of business decisions in my future career. IMD engages with more than 9,000 business leaders annually in different degree, open and custom programs. We can have expo- nential impact by integrating social and environmental considera- tions in their frame of analysis and decision making,” underlined Natalia Olynec, Sustainability Partner at IMD. “It’s a great op- portunity and responsibility as a leading global business school. Sustainability in Family Business Award In its sustainability efforts, IMD is, however, going beyond educating thought leaders, conducting research, and embedding sustainability in its own operations: IMD is also building a community of sustainable Copyright Material – Provided by Taylor & Francis Not for Redistribution