Corporate Social Responsibility

Understanding CSR with a tour of Oxford Botanic Garden

Students who pick the "Understanding Climate Change" elective in U3 go on a guided tour of the mythical Oxford Botanic Garden, one of the most ancient botanic gardens in the world with the specialist Lauren Baker, holder of a PhD in wheat genetics and global food security. She helps students to understand the consequences of climate change and link the visit with general CSR issues.

Studying CSR for your professional future

Today, CSR is an issue for most companies. If you launch a business without thinking about CSR before, you might face obstacles that you wouldn't expect.

Here's an example of how it can have a real impact on a company, and how you can find solutions :

Because of climate change, most coffee varieties (including the most popular one, arabica) could go extinct by 2050. Starbucks, huge consumer of coffee, developed a plan to face the climate and coffee crisis. The most interesting point is the fact that Starbucks' agronomy team developed six new arabica tree varietals that could resist climate change. Starbuck's plan is to give away the seeds to the farmers and suppliers for free, to face and get through the general coffee crisis.

Attending a conference on sustainable development

2 Guest speakers:

• Laëtitia Larue, consultant at Antenna Sustainability. She told students how she helps large companies in London developing their sustainability strategy.
• Arijit Mallick, CFO at Vertex Hydrogen and Deputy CFO at Essar Oil UK. He explained how his company develops hydrogen systems for very large fossil fuel companies.

CSR is also included in programmes

U1: New Trends and Green Marketing, Business and Sustainable Development Goals, Business Ethics.

U3: Understanding climate change.

Responsible Project: Students work in collaboration with a company on their sustainability strategy.

Students volunteer for charities they pick in UK, we have a particular partnership with Oxfam, working closely with people who face climate change-related problems directly.