Students, staff and professors spent two days in May exploring one of school’s most compelling assets — the HEC Paris campus. Green Campus Days introduced us to the biodiversity of our 341-acre environment, and all the natural wonder and beauty that it entails.

The event’s carefully cultivated workshops included guided walking tours that meandered through HEC’s expansive forest, prairie, wetlands and caves (we didn’t know all that existed either!). The school’s official apiculturist, Alain Bébon, invited us to sample some fresh-from-the-comb honey. He also showed off HEC’s eight hives, each home to an estimated 32,000 bees.

Among the many highlights of the two-day event was a Green Finance discussion. The rapidly growing investment strategy of supporting “green” projects is now estimated to include over $31 trillion in assets worldwide. A viewing of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s latest film, Legacy, also took place.

Still, Green Campus Days couldn’t help but deepen our appeciation of the HEC campus. The event introduced us to the first project financed by the HEC Sustainability Fund—the school’s new pedagogical garden. The entire campus community is invited to spend time tending its herbs, vegetables and flowers. You can also relax at the space’s open-air deck, café and petanque court, festively lit at night by strands of bistro lights.

 

The space is also open for yoga and other wellness initiatives. It is entirely run on a volunteer basis–a notebook left in the greenhouse details the gardening that needs to be done. The project reflects the commitment of Stéphanie Gouchault, Lucas Ferro, the student-led ESP’R association, Amar Taki and Anne-Prelle Delhumeau. It was built with the help of the Sustainable Campus Committee, with particular support from the Society & Organizations Institute.

 

 

 

Read more about the history of HEC Paris, including how the school was relocated to Jouy-en-Josas, and discover the springtime beauty of our award-winning campus in these two blog posts.