On September 30, Esade kindly hosted this year’s CLO Roundtable in Barcelona, exploring the topic ‘If sustainability is the answer, what is the question for corporate learning?’.

Josep Franch, Esade’s Dean for Executive Education and Martin Moehrle, Director for Corporate Services at EFMD, kicked the event off by pointing at the size of the sustainability challenge and by sharing the results of a survey among the EFMD corporate network. Most responding companies have a clearly articulated sustainability strategy that covers all ESG issues and is supported by clear objectives and metrics.

Objectives related to people and culture focus on DEI/ gender diversity, learning hours, health & safety and human rights and are broadly embedded in all relevant talent practices. When it comes to corporate learning, general awareness programs were cited most often, followed by the inclusion of sustainability aspects in existing programs and the launch of targeted programs to develop specific skills. The launch of programs to drive ESG-specific strategy and innovation seems to be still rare.

When integrating sustainability considerations into their own operation, corporate learning functions mostly focus on limiting related travel but say that more could be done. The challenges that were cited included generating momentum given an increasing ESG bureaucracy, along with dedicating enough resources to this new area, securing sponsorship by senior management and measuring impact.

Cristina Gimenez Thomsen, Esade’s Director of Identity & Mission, shared the School’s journey toward a sustainability strategy that engaged all its stakeholder groups and yielded this year its first sustainability and impact report, several sustainability master programs, and a significant increase in dedicated faculty.

Embedding sustainability across stakeholder ecosystems

At the following corporate insights session, three cases were presented. First, Carmen Fernandez Alvarez, Director of Executive Talent and Culture at Naturgy, explained the energy company’s plan to achieve net zero emission by 2050 and gender parity by 2030 and its massive up- and reskilling initiative to build capabilities in renewable businesses and enable its workforce to master this transition.

Valentina Satarova, head of ERG Corporate University, presented the case that won this year an Excellence in Practice award from EFMD. The Kazakh mining and metals company trained more than one thousand truck drivers who work in open-pit mines under challenging conditions. Through training on a simulator, fuel consumption got reduced by 30% and tire wear by 70%. In addition, truck driver readiness increased by 60%.

Last, Francesc Sistach, CEO of Specialisterne, shared his social organisation’s success in getting neurodiverse (mostly autistic) people into employment by focusing on their abilities and not on their disabilities by providing them job-readiness trainings and helping hiring organisations to become neuroinclusive.

Lisa Hehenberger, Valentina De Marchi and Marc Vilanova, all three members of the Esade faculty, discussed each a highly relevant aspect of sustainability: Marc deep-dived into the tenacity it takes to change organisational culture so that sustainability moves from a peripheral factor to a filter through which to refine strategy execution to finally becoming a filter through which to define strategy, whereas Lisa focused on the generation and measurement of social impact and Valentina on sustainability and regeneration in global value chains.

These most inspiring inputs were a perfect segue into the breakout sessions that aimed at defining the building blocks of a corporate learning agenda on sustainability: the groups highlighted the importance of shared accountability across the enterprise, of moving from awareness raising and compliance to commitment and problem-solving, and of educating clients and co-creation within ecosystems to put sustainability in the centre of strategising and innovation.

For additional insights, announcements and perspectives about Sustainability Initiatives, visit the conversation here.