EiM launches second ESG report
We are delighted to share EiM’s 2021-2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report—our second report on our continued efforts to pioneer education for a sustainable future, inspire generations of learners to Live Worldwise, and make a positive impact for people and the planet. As a global leader in ethical, responsible, and sustainable education, we are committed to developing, measuring, and maintaining sustainable practices within our schools and operations across our group.
We are committed to meaningful and relevant learning that nurtures students as global citizens.
"To us, educating the whole child means enabling students to understand themselves as individuals and as part of the wider world around them. We want to provide a learning ecosystem that will see them make a positive impact now and in the future on their parents, school communities, and beyond. The goal of ‘Live Worldwise’ underpins our approach to holistic education, and we aim to see it continue to grow and strengthen each year."
Lesley Meyer
Chief Education Officer and Group Executive Board Member, EiM
In fulfilling our commitment to meaningful and relevant learning that nurtures students as global citizens, we have doubled down on Learning as one of our ESG focuses in four major areas: educating the whole child, embedding sustainability and global citizenship, education technology and pedagogy, and community experiences.
We have created a five-year education strategy that highlights ten goals spanning all aspects of a holistic education for our family of schools. We introduce and leverage tools including Global Citizenship Competencies and School Progress Indicators in everyday aspects of school life and learning to advance sustainability education. We continue to innovate our educational technologies and teaching methods to enrich learning experiences and have made significant progress in groupwide programmes including D3, Pioneering Spirit Grant, and CreaTech, as well as language learning offerings by Wo Hui Mandarin. We have enhanced students’ connection to the EiM’s local and global communities by introducing learning programmes such as Ignite: Switzerland and Worldwise Events.
We are committed to taking concrete actions to reduce our environmental footprint and raise people’s awareness of living in harmony with the planet.
"Our mission is to design and build sustainable schools that provide our students and staff with healthy and safe campus environments that enhance their collective wellbeing. We utilise many green building technologies and select sustainable building materials and high-efficiency, energy-saving equipment during the campus construction project development. These help the schools to reduce their carbon emissions and support their long-term sustainable development. We believe that a sustainable school is beneficial to the wellbeing and the growth of our students, and to the delivery of a holistic education."
Orla Brady
Group Director, Building Construction & Design, EiM
This report highlights the concrete actions we have taken to reduce our environmental footprint and raise people’s awareness of living in harmony with the planet in six particular areas: carbon, energy and water, waste, food, campus, and supply chain.
Some notable achievements include: continuing our Carbon Roadmap project and completing the greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting of 10 schools in our family; standardising our energy and water management policies; adopting the e-sign system groupwide to cut paper use and reduce waste; expanding plant-based choices and supporting localised food sourcing and eco-friendly food packaging; multiple schools having received green building certifications; adopting sustainable initiatives in the supply chain, such as purchasing uniforms that are ethical and have components of recycled material fabrics.
We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and supportive community that grows together with us.
"At EiM, there is nothing more important than the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community. EiM aims to support every student and staff member’s mental, physical, emotional, and social health. For EiM, a positive approach to wellbeing is all-encompassing, taking into account emotional health, physical health, mental health, sense of purpose, positive relationships, learning environments, structures, and policies."
Karen Yung
At EiM, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and supportive community that grows with us. We are proud of our consistent endeavour to be a value-driven employer that prioritises professional learning, health and wellbeing, and community engagement.
Through our Professional Learning and Development Policy, we continue to provide a variety of high-quality, blended professional learning opportunities for our staff and encourage them to pursue professional and career development. We are strengthening our holistic approach to health and wellbeing by setting up a Wellbeing Strategic Working Group.
Group and developing a framework and audit tool for sharing best practises and continual improvement. We strive to create stronger community connections through platforms and programmes that engage staff, parents, alumni, and the wider community.
We are committed to improving and building strong organisational structures and systems.
"We are constantly optimising our processes and systems to build a governance system that is both inclusive and comprehensive, integrating ESG principles into our processes with the support of increasingly sophisticated technological applications."
Louisa Lu
To deliver on our goals and commitments, it requires clearly defined roles and responsibilities at all levels of the organisation, as well as a clear decision-making process. The report specifies our groupwide efforts in enhancing ESG management, responding to COVID, safeguarding, responsible sourcing, ERP system deployment, cybersecurity, and data privacy.
In 2021/22 we formalised our ESG Core Working Group to keep optimising our ESG governance structure to enhance accountability and implementation of our ESG agenda. We took proactive actions to protect the mental health of our community during COVID. Our comprehensive safeguarding framework ensures that safeguarding and child protection are at the forefront and the responsibility of everyone who works with children. We initiated the new Responsible Sourcing programme to incorporate value-driven sustainable practises into sourcing and procurement. We will start deploying the Dynamics 365 system in head offices and two pilot schools to allow group-wide full digital management to better ensure compliance and efficiency. We adopt a proactive approach to cybersecurity and data protection by consistently enhancing policies, procedures, training, and system architecture.
EiM has evolved rapidly to a holistic and inclusive strategy for sustainability, global citizenship, ESG, and beyond. This strategy has allowed us to pave the way for ESG to become not just something we do but part of who we are. Looking ahead, there is more that we can do and we have identified areas for progress. Driven by the aspiration to pioneer education for a sustainable future, our schools have always strived to provide purpose-driven learning experiences that are guided by a deep sense of connection to people and the planet. We hope this report can catalyse change across the education sector, encouraging more education providers and schools to make equitable, environmental, and ethical contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Central to our success is all stakeholders in EiM playing their part, be they staff, teachers, students, parents, our global partners, or the wider community as a whole. We would like to say thank you to everyone who has joined us on this important journey to ensure EiM makes its contribution in pioneering education for a sustainable and healthy future.
