Festival Maintenant! / “B Corp Live Experience”

Louvain-La-Neuve, Mons

More than 500 students from the Louvain School of Management took part to the first day of the Festival Maintenant! at the Aula Magna. This event provided the opportunity to launch the “B Corp Live Experience”, as part of their course in Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Festival Maintenant! was a five-day event held in Louvain-la-Neuve from 25 to 29.09.19 consisting in debates, conferences, workshops, spectacles, movies and concerts about social-ecological transition initiatives. The Festival Maintenant! aims at proposing tangible solutions towards the transition to a more conscious and responsible world.

On 25.09.19, LSM students attended multiple presentations about entrepreneurship and transition. Topics included the introduction of economical stakes related to the transition, a discussion on circular economy, elevator pitches from 6 innovative projects and a presentation of B Corporation, a certification granted to companies successfully integrating social and environmental aspects in their business processes. At the end of the day, students attended a conference from Rob Hopkins on the power of imagination and his book “From what is to what if...”, a call for action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world.

The B Corp Live Experience

After learning about B Corp certifications and how companies can do business “as a force for good”, the students had the opportunity to meet 17 companies representatives who are considering and willing to make efforts to obtain the B Corp certification. These companies include start-ups and SMEs working in a variety of sectors, animated by a shared vision: doing better for their employees, their customers, the community and the environment.

This meeting was the launch of the “B Corp Live Experience”, a new project created as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility course and organized by the teachers Carlos Desmet and Vincent Truyens and the assistants Sabrina Courtois, Maxime Goffin, Mahmoud Al-Shaibie, Gautier Tricot with the support of Bouchra Zaidouni. For a month, students will closely work with partner companies to assess their performance in terms of social and environmental impact and provide them with recommendations and tangible solutions to further improve their score and increase their chances to earn the B Corp certification. The project will be concluded by the end of October, when companies will be invited to learn about students’ recommendations.

 

Article written by Sabrina Courtois

Publié le 24 octobre 2019