Centrale Nantes' commitments to sustainable development

Adoption of Centrale Nantes' sustainable development action plan in July 2021

Centrale Nantes' sustainable development action plan sets out objectives in terms of governance, teaching and training, research, environmental management, social impact and local communities.

This action plan is the result of a co-construction process initiated at the beginning of the year with the Sustainable Development representatives - staff, students and alumni - and with the Sustainable Development Department. Broken down into 5 priorities, 15 objectives and 38 actions, the action plan was unanimously approved by the Board of Governors on 1 July 2021 and concerns all of the institution's stakeholders: students, departments, staff, teachers, researchers, student associations as well as our partners.
 

• Download Centrale Nantes' 2021 - 2025 sustainable development action plan
• Download the summary of the Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility action plan

Centrale Nantes' Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Master Plan

The action plan (above) serves as the institution's sustainable development and social responsibility master plan, as required by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2023.

Teaching and Training - Grenoble Accord - Centrale Nantes commits to raising awareness or training 100% of its students and staff

By signing this agreement, initiated by the COP2 Student Forum to step up socio-ecological transition in higher education and research, Centrale Nantes has committed itself to:

• as a school: to raise awareness among 100% of its students in their first year and to include in their curriculum a course on understanding the issues with a systemic approach; to evaluate the curriculum and to make changes with regard to the specialisations taught, during the next revision of the curriculum
• as an employer: provide training to 100% of its staff.

Download the Grenoble Accord signed by Centrale Nantes in July 2021
 

Awareness-raising workshops on sustainable development

Centrale Nantes is committed to offering 100% of staff (including teachers) and students awareness workshops on the challenges of ecological and societal transition by 1 July 2023: climate, digital, ocean, diversity, 2tonnes, etc., in the form of Collage-type workshops, based on scientific research. By early 2023, 300 staff had been trained.

Teaching and Training - 6 commitments of the Ecoles Centrale Group for the engineering programme

The Ecoles Centrale Group (GEC) and the Groupe InterCentrales pour la Transition Ecologique (GITE) worked on the issue of training which led the management and the Academic Affairs Departments of the Ecoles Centrales to adopted 6 joint commitments:
 

1. Include training activities on socio-environmental issues in the core curriculum of the engineering programme
2. Offer a list of elective courses in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
3. Introduce mandatory lectures on sustainable development and social responsibility issues into the curriculum
4. Tag projects within the curriculum according to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
5. Recognise civic engagement or community involvement in relation to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (through certificates, course units, ECTS credits, etc.)
6. Co-sign the biodiversity charter on campus

 

Teaching and Training - Promote the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of scientific culture

Centrale Nantes is committed to promoting the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of scientific culture by disseminating knowledge and raising awareness of research topics amongst the general public.
To this end, several outreach activities are carried out with the general public:

• As part of student training and its role in disseminating knowledge, Centrale Nantes hosts and broadcasts lectures by leading figures on campus and by faculty, particularly on topics related to sustainable development. Learn more
• Every year, the school opens its doors to the general public for the National Science Fair to showcase its campus and its research and experimentation facilities.
• Meet Our Researchers: Centrale Nantes offers a series of videos to meet the school's researchers and learn more about their work

Social Policy - Commitment to Diversity and Equality

The Equality and Diversity Committee is addressing five main themes: gender equality, disability, international, secularism, LGBTQI+.

As part of its commitment to gender equality, the school adopted a Gender Equality Action Plan in 2021 (an updated version is underway in 2024) which focuses on four main areas:

• Preventing and addressing pay and career gaps
• Ensuring equal access to jobs and responsibilities
• Promoting work-life balance
• Combating sexist and sexual violence, harassment and gender-based discrimination

The LS2N Laboratory has set up an Equality and Diversity task force to carry out specific actions within the laboratory and to encourage more women to pursue scientific and digital careers.

As a mark of its commitment to CSR and its desire to promote diversity and prevent discrimination, Centrale Nantes signed, in 2021, Autre Cercle Charter of Commitment. Autre Cercle is a French association that works for LGBT+ rights.

In January 2022, Centrale Nantes committed to taking action against everyday sexism in the workplace and signed up to #StOpE. Signatory organisations are committed to making a lasting reduction in everyday sexism in the workplace by deploying the actions of the eight priority commitments over time. Over 150 organisations gave joined the #StOpE initiative.

In September 2022, Centrale Nantes renewed its commitment by signing the cpas1option Charter by the school's Management team and the BDE, with 8 principles for safe enjoyment in order to detect and prevent - by training those involved -, identify and respond to combat discrimination and violence in the context of events organised by student associations.

In addition, Centrale Nantes has set up a support and reporting service (restricted access), for all students who are victims of or witnesses to harassment, sexist and/or sexual violence or instances of discrimination, racism, etc.

Social impact and local communities

Centrale Nantes supports eco-responsible industry and in 2020 signed the manifesto "For an eco-responsible industry" proposed by the EMC2 competitiveness cluster. The EMC2 cluster is a ‘European competitiveness cluster for manufacturing technologies’. It supports start-ups, SMEs, ETIs, major groups and academics on the path to clean production.

The manifesto sets out a commitment to "sober and ecologically respectful industry (...) which will place the human being at the heart of its considerations in order to tackle health and societal issues." This industry will have to be "efficient and innovative to meet the challenges of competitiveness and competition; resolutely collaborative and supportive to accompany the regions and sectors and strategic to meet the challenges of sovereignty" alongside the industrial companies in the west of France.

Download the manifesto

Centrale Nantes's commitments since 2006

Centrale Nantes has been incorporating sustainable development into its strategy and projects since 2006.
In 2020, the appointment of a Director of Sustainable Development, the creation of a network of Sustainable Development representatives and the creation of the Sustainable Development Department have boosted the implementation of this strategy and support for student, staff and partner projects.