Firstly, our recruitment figures prove that the strategic direction we took in creating Gaia was the right one! There is a real buzz around what we are creating and we are building on this strength to keep looking further ahead. 2023 was a year of consolidation with reinforcement of teaching content proposed to students on the Grande Ecole program, firstly within the framework of the Gaia master 1 with an ever-increasing wealth of content and contributors, but also for students present in Brazil as part of the mobility they benefited from via the program. This is reflected by the contacts and partnerships forged locally in relation to the key themes of agro-ecology and in particular agro-forestry as well as the cocoa industry. At the same time, we have supported the transformation of the APTE SM which has become “Action for Ecological Transition” (rather than energy transition) for a stronger Gaia flavor, driven by issues that go beyond the framework of energy. Last year also allowed us to strengthen our offer for our Executive Education learners, especially via the ecological and social transition course or also the CSR Ambassador scheme backed by Crédit Agricole, to enable these professional targets to develop a responsible vision that is essential in today’s world. At the same time, within our institution itself, we have set up significant support for our faculty members, via a new edition of the Gaia bootcamp and therefore in the production of case studies in response to targeted business issues, as well as on-line training courses, pedagogical retreats to provide support regarding the transformation of their materials, dedicated research projects and not forgetting the initiation of the GIFT program in close collaboration with the Academic & Research Department so that lecturer-researchers may all incorporate these stakes into the content which they teach (to find out more, see Academic & Research Director Thibaut Bardon’s interview).

This point is at the very heart of the Gaia school’s purpose, so it would be difficult to separate our CSR commitments from our department. However, in addition to all the points set out in the report and in the projections for the coming years, we support various responsible policies within the team, aware that our role is to set an example in all these areas, starting with our mobility policy: we only use bicycles, public transport and trains for our travel. Despite many requests, we did not make any air travel, or even refused to do so, preferring instead to speak remotely. Regarding gender equality, we have more women than men in the team. At all our events, we use and consume local produce. From both a professional and personal point of view, we try to be as irreproachable as possible, aware of the global stakes involved in the content we offer and of the power of setting an example.

For 2024, we are committed to continuing to support our training programs for faculty members through the various programs mentioned above. At the same time, we are carrying out a wide range of teaching projects: as a result, all MSc students will have a compulsory minimum of 24 hours of Gaia lectures on their courses as well as 24 hours of “Soft Skills” lectures to gain better understanding of societal and legal stakes. In total, we will be proposing 48 hours of lectures to our students as part their MSc courses. We are also going to contribute to a new improved version of a MOOC with the Positive Impact Chair. Finally, we are also going to reinforce our communication via the social networks externally but also to our employees, students and alumni, with, for example, a dedicated section in the newsletter that they receive several times per year. Thereafter, we have several more or less large-scale projects at the planning stage: we are seeking to develop a research chair, we will be providing another batch of 24 hours of lectures based on ecological and social transition to first year students on the Grande Ecole program and we will be jointly creating a Gaia bootcamp for students, without forgetting a project incorporating a hackathon on transition. Lastly, development projects are also underway in connection with a possible future MBA. In short, 2024 will be a year that witnesses considerable acceleration for Gaia.