McTavish Street, Montreal, Quebec

Sustainability at Desautels

Fostering the sustainability- and solution-oriented leaders that the world currently needs

Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. At the Desautels Faculty of Management, we are committed to advancing management for sustainability through our teaching, research, community engagement, and operations.

United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME)

United Nations PRME

Desautels has been an official signatory of the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PMRE) since July 2017. The faculty joins leading business and management schools globally in working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Responsible Research for Business and Management (RRBM)

RRBM

Desautels is an institutional partner of Responsible Research for Business and Management (RRBM) to advance and promote responsible research in business and management for a better world.

Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI)

A cross-faculty venture that mobilizes academics, students, industry, and policy leaders to build actionable solutions that businesses can use to successfully transition to a sustainable economy.

McGill University Sustainability

Sustainability at McGill

The McGill University Climate & Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025 includes three bold objectives that Desautels can play a role in supporting: achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, becoming zero-waste by 2035, and receiving a platinum sustainability rating by 2030.


Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at Desautels

Developing a respectful, diverse, and inclusive culture is key to ensuring that everyone who passes through our doors feels safe, welcome, valued, and heard. The Desautels Faculty of Management is committed to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion to better serve our community.


Student Involvement

Desautels students self-organize and create impressive venues for knowledge exchange, experimentation, and solution making. These activities drive the culture of change within the university and beyond as students graduate and take on careers in all sectors in Montreal, Canada, and globally.

Desautels Sustainability Network

Desautels Sustainability Network

The Desautels Sustainability Network (DSN) connects BCom students across clubs, groups, and institutions to promote a culture of sustainable action within McGill University and in the Montreal community. DSN aims to educate and bring awareness to current sustainability challenges and influence the next generation of business leaders.
 

  • Case CompetitionsDesautels students compete in and organize case competitions throughout the year, many of which involve problem solving around sustainability challenges.
  • McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC): The World's largest university challenge where hundreds of students from all over the world meet with industry leaders and propose financial solutions to complex societal issues.
  • PennyDrops: A student-run registered non-profit organization that champions financial literacy among Canadian youth.
  • Enactus McGill: Striving to improve quality of life through social entrepreneurship, using social businesses to address community needs.
  • McGill Social Business Network (MSBN): Formerly known as MyVision, the MSBN promotes impact-driven business, with a goal of building the social business community at McGill.
  • Montreal Social Value Fund: Aims to create positive social and environmental impact in the Montreal community by investing in local social enterprises, enterprising non-profits, and cooperatives.
  • Desautels Women in Business: Provides women interested in pursuing a career in management with workshops, speakers, networking opportunities, and various other tools to prepare them for success in the corporate world.
  • Desautels Graduate Women’s Association: Aims to maximize the professional development of female students and alumni of Desautels’ graduate programs through strategic engagement with the McGill community and broader Montreal networks.
  • Net Impact (Desautels chapter): Net Impact is a network of more than 11,000 new generation leaders committed to using the power of business to improve the world.

Academics & Programs

We create educational frameworks, materials, processes, and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

Undergraduate

BCom Program

Desautels embeds sustainability, ethics, and responsible management education in all academic programs.

BCom Managing for Sustainability Major (30 credits): Focuses on combining management and business knowledge with a solid understanding of the interlinked economic, social, and ecological challenges of achieving sustainability.

BCom Managing for Sustainability Concentration (15 credits): Focuses on the conceptual and analytical skills needed to formulate and implement organizational policies contributing to ecologically sustainable and socially responsible economic development.

Graduate

MBA Program: Includes several courses that enable sustainability awareness-building and learning, emphasizing a sustainable mindset and “durable development”.

Master of Management in Finance (MMF) Program: Curriculum integrates advanced financial concepts and quantitative methods with real-world business practices, with courses emphasizing ethical and responsible conduct in the finance and accounting realms.

Master of Management in Retailing (MMR) Program: The program approaches retail management from an integrated perspective, based on customer’s journey—understanding, attracting, and satisfying retail customers as well as managing for sustainability.

Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management (GMSCM) Program: The GMSCM program offers a double degree, from McGill University and Zhejiang University, and targets high-potential managers in manufacturing, services and logistics industries, and entrepreneurs.

PhD Program: Students have access to supervisors and elective courses in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Current research topics include managing innovation, corporate social responsibility, diversity and social equality, and strategies for sustainable development.

Executive

McGill-HEC Montréal Executive MBA (EMBA): Issue-driven learning for seasoned executives, with an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to leadership and management that builds on their managerial experience.

International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL): Participants are encouraged to explore the various social institutions within the healthcare field and the interactions that arise with economic, political, and social forces.

International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM): A dynamic work-connected program focusing on the mindsets managers need to lead global organizations, including global non-profits and foundations.

Women Entrepreneurs and Leadership Program: The program aims to propel women in business, help them develop long-lasting relationships, and create a network of women who will continue to learn and support each other.

We incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

Integrated Management Student Fellowship (IMSF) Showcase Day 2022

Integrated Management Student Fellowship (IMSF)

An experiential leadership development program designed to help BCom students prepare for impactful and fulfilling careers by developing new skills through research and action projects.

McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship

McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship

The Centre accompanies McGill startups throughout the entire entrepreneurship journey—from the initial ideation stage to validation, launch and acceleration, and to its initial public offering.


Partnerships

The Faculty's long-standing relationships with top global executives and employers, in addition to global and local social enterprises, provide students with in-class learning opportunities and practical experience. 

Retail innovation lab

Retail Innovation Lab

The retail innovation lab offers omni-channel retail activities in a live and open setting, allowing students, researchers, and industry partners to explore diverse aspects of a retail operation.

McGill Personal Financial Essentials

McGill Personal Finance Essentials (MPFE)

In collaboration with RBC Future Launch and The Globe and Mail, MPFE is a free online personal finance course aimed at creating equal access to financial literacy for all Canadians. 

McGill Not-For-Profit-Consulting

McGill Not-For-Profit Consulting

The program provides opportunities for committed students to gain real-world consulting experience in supportive environments, with a goal of making a positive impact in the community.


Research

Desautels prides itself on bringing together scholars with a broad range of expertise who collaborate across disciplines to address complex issues, such as sustainability transitions, social impact of technology, risk management, sustainable value chains, and the intersection of food, agriculture, and population health.

Henry Mintzberg

Sustainability Literacy Test

Professor Henry Mintzberg is widely considered one of the most influential management thinkers in the world. To measure and improve sustainability literacy worldwide, Professor Mintzberg has also worked in collaboration with UN PRME and KEDGE Business School to launch the Sustainability Literacy Test (Sulitest) and, in particular, the Rebalancing Society module.

 

Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM)

The Institute supports cross-disciplinary teaching and leverages faculty research in innovative integrated research, teaching, and outreach activities and inspires young leaders to think innovatively and make informed, responsible decisions. It also encourages the understanding that value includes social and ecological concerns beyond economic considerations. 

Delve

Delve is the official thought leadership platform of the McGill Desautels Faculty of Management. Delve takes some of the most consequential economic, social, and ecological faculty research topics and translates them into insights.

Integrated Management Symposium Series

The Integrated Management Symposium Series features conversations between prominent McGill academics and world leaders in their fields, addressing the significant ecological, social, and economic challenges facing today’s societies. 

  • Integrated Management Fellows Program: Provides undergraduates with further research experience and mentorship on faculty-led projects.
  • Impact Internship (currently on hold): BCom students have the opportunity to apply knowledge gained in the classroom and personal experience to professional settings with social and environmental impact projects.
     

McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE)

The MCCHE is a world leader in promoting the development of a novel, integrative approach to science, policy, and innovation for solutions to complex nutrition and health challenges. The MCCHE seeks to fundamentally transform individual and community diets, lifestyles, markets, and health systems through better health and economic convergence.

  • Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES): Funds LINkIN-Ghana, a McGill University-University of Ghana program to strengthen the capacity of researchers who work with farmers, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and local institutions to develop solutions for agriculture-based issues and food and nutrition security.
  • Manulife Prize
     

Faculty Research

Desautels is exceptionally proud of the achievements of our faculty members in research and teaching. Our goal is to continue supporting the faculty’s research efforts at the highest levels, linking research with real-world issues affecting value creation, societal impact, and all pillars of sustainability.

 

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