ESCP Green Hackathon: shaping a more Sustainable Future

AlixPartners has challenged ESCP students with a Green Hackathon. They were invited to contribute their ideas on how to create an ecological, sustainable and green future. The student teams had just a few hours to propose an innovative project tackling green and environmental issues.

AlixPartners has worked with clients around the world for nearly forty years, helping businesses respond to challenges when everything is on the line – from urgent performance improvement to complex restructuring, from risk mitigation to accelerated transformation.

“What has always inspired me about our firm is how our people go straight to the heart of the problem or opportunity. Our social responsibility is the sum total of our contribution to society: all the ways we take decisions within our own business, how we work with each other, and with our clients against a common set of values. Our local market teams educate each other about ways we can reduce our carbon footprint both at work and at home”, said Cindy Godwin, Head of Social Responsibility at AlixPartners.

The challenge set for the Green Hackathon was to create an innovative project based on a more sustainable future.

ESCP students had three hours to prepare a 15-second video explaining their ideas and a PDF page detailing the practical requirements to transform concept into reality. The results were judged by a jury consisting of Cindy Godwin, Marieke Otto, Brooke Hopkins, Caterina Campagna Weiss, Alberto Cola, Alfredo Naldi, Alisa Sydow and Francesco Rattalino.

The jury was impressed by the quality and value of the projects proposed by the 16 ESCP student teams and decided to award prizes to two of them: GEA, made up of Elisa Actis, Chiara Galimberti, Eugenio Molinatti, Valentina Molino and Daphné Reggiani, and Recycled Dudes, whose members were Costanza Bergamo, Claudio De Rubertis, Vittoria Fastelli and Joshua Wilks.

GEA presented AlixGreenTransition, a contest for start-ups. The idea was that B-series start-ups globally operating in specific sectors can apply on the AlixPartners website to be supported by the firm and guided through a sustainable transformation and to establish a competitive advantage. The purpose was to set a successful sustainable transition to inspire future clients to opt for a socially impactful business model.

The Green Network Project, by the Recycled Dudes, wanted to create a ‘green employee experience’ by proposing a Carbon Footprint Tracking mobile application for office and organisational use. Designed for the workforce at large, it provides a holistic measure of crucial sustainability indicators at the firm - CO2 emissions, plastic waste produced, energy use, food and water waste - focusing on transport and resource utilisation. Depending on the industry in which client companies operate and set targets aligned with ESG investment and UN SDG criteria, the app would tailor goals and standards.

The winning teams have been awarded an Inspirational Mentorship Session with high-performance professionals from AlixPartners that will inspire ESCP students with their experience and tips on how to set and achieve professional goals.

“I’m proud to work for a firm that focuses on innovation around sustainability. We must have innovation to find the right formula for a sustainable future. We can all make easy changes and should, but contributing to innovation is necessary to solve the complex problems we have yet to even know about”, declared Brooke Hopkins, Managing Director at AlixPartners US.

“AlixPartners specializes in ‘When It Really Matters’ situations and urgent, high-impact cases. From a global perspective, shaping a sustainable future is as critical as it gets, and it is great to work for a firm that was literally built for these kind of circumstances”, said Marieke Otto, Vice President at AlixPartners Germany.

The first ESCP Green Hackathon, in partnership with AlixPartners, was organised by the Student Experience Service and the Career Service of Turin Campus.

Special thanks to all the participants, and congrats to the two winning teams for your achievement and innovative ideas.