Sustainability@AMS

Download the sustainability report here.

Sustainability is firmly embedded in our mission: “Antwerp Management School (AMS) is an international business school preparing future managers and leaders for key roles in the global business community. We partner with our customers in creating sustainable value by cultivating talent to become Global Citizens, mastering the art of making decisions and leading people.”

Central to this mission is our vision on leadership. We believe that successful leaders should operate and make decisions with a global mindset and consistently consider their impact on society from a stakeholder perspective. These leadership values are the foundations of our educational programs. We want to educate present and future managers and leaders not of the world but FOR the world. Our baseline says it all: “Opening minds to impact the world”.

Discover our 5 master classes sustainable transformation

We not only put sustainability at the core of our educational programs, we also integrate sustainability into our own campus operations and business strategy. To do so, we are in constant dialogue with internal and external stakeholders. Together, we define our concrete topics, challenges, and opportunities. Thus, we drive our sustainability agenda forward, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. These SDG’s present opportunities to strengthen our operations and programs as well as to contribute to society.

AMS likewise subscribes to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME). In 2013, AMS became a member of the United Nations Global Compact and held the secretariat of the Belgian Chapter in 2014 and 2015. AMS was Chair for the steering group of the PRME France-Benelux Chapter from 2017 till 2020.

Read more about AMS and PRME here

AMS is not only a champion of sustainability in an international context but puts sustainability on the local agenda too. Thus, AMS is co-founder of The Antwerp Partnership for Sustainability, a partnership between knowledge institutions, companies and governments in Antwerp that have expertise in sustainable development. The partnership wants to pool expertise across disciplines and be a forum, catalyst and window for sustainability in all its facets: sociological, ecological, economic, and technological.

AMS also joined the Belgian Alliance for Climate Action that was launched in October 2020. With this commitment we want to refine and strengthen our objectives in line with the established scientific frameworks necessary for the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Alliance offers excellent opportunities to learn from each other. This shared knowledge will help us achieve our ambition to be fully climate neutral by 2030.

Research in Sustainability

→ Enabling knowledge impact

AMS has multiple Chairs on themes such as

• Sustainable Transformation
• Sustainable Education
• Creating Sustainable Careers.

These Chairs not only enhance knowledge creation through a lens of sustainability, but they also lead to tangible projects. The Chairs collaborate with local organizations and businesses to implement insights in real life, thus fostering awareness of the need for sustainable development and generating practical solutions.

Education and Sustainability

→ Enabling knowledge, human and environmental impact

AMS is committed to inspiring and developing leaders for a sustainable world. Our flagship educational program is the interdisciplinary Global Leadership Skills (GLS) program. This unique, yearlong program equips our fulltime Master’s students with a critical, global, and sustainable mindset and develops them to become responsible leaders.

As part of the GLS program, students contribute to the SDGs through an Action Learning Project. These projects not only involve AMS staff, who mentor the projects on a voluntarily basis, but also local companies, committing themselves to co-creating solutions for SDG-related challenges with the students.

Read all about our Global Leadership Skills (GLS) program

Apart from the GLS program, the executive MBA students also run mandatory community projects and apply acquired business skills to serve the community.

Sustainable Organizational Management

→ Enabling knowledge impact

Driving sustainable change at AMS is also demonstrated in our innovative, human centered organization design, geared toward unleashing the agility, talents and ambitions of the AMS governing structures, faculty and staff.

Sustainable Campus Management

→ Enabling environmental impact

A brand new, low-energy campus was realized, including pioneering work in establishing circular contracts for e.g. audiovisual infrastructure and furniture. The new organization and campus allow faculty and students to interact seamlessly and stimulates collaboration with all stakeholders.

Read more about our campus management

AMS is committed to achieving climate neutrality as an organization by 2030, reducing the schools greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to help prevent worst impacts of climate change and future-proof business growth. For this we are a strong believer in the ‘science-based’ approach to make that our actions are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Adhering to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) we focus on reduction of direct GHG emissions produced on-campus and by transport means owned by AMS (scope 1), indirect GHG emissions caused by on-campus consumption of purchased energy (scope 2), and all remaining indirect GHG emissions, related to our activities (scope 3). To unable ourself to reach our goal AMS performed a baseline Carbon Footprint measurement for academic year 2022-2023 with the help of Ecolife. All calculations by Ecolife where done using the Bilan Carbone® methodology, developed by ADEME, the French Agency for Ecologic Transition, and widely used in many Western European countries and considered the reference methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of companies and regions. The Bilan Carbone® method as used by AMS complies with ISO standards and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

All targets set by AMS and actions taken to reach the goal of becoming climate neutral are compared to the baseline Carbon Footprint measurement we conducted for academic year 2022-2023.

AMS baseline Carbon Footprint Measurement for academic year 2022-2023 results overview:

The baseline Carbon Footprint measurement results clearly show that only a small part of AMS's total emissions (3,22%) are Scope 1 emissions (97,13 tCO2eq). These are direct emissions from the daily operations of AMS. Also, Scope 2 emissions stand for a very small share (0,05%) in the overall emissions (1,43 tCO2eq). These are indirect emissions from the use of purchased electricity. The vast majority of AMS’s emissions (96,74%) consist of Scope 3 emissions (2.919,86 tCO2eq). These are indirect emissions in the value chain, divided into upstream and downstream emissions with heavy impact of travel activities typical for international business schools.

At present, we are actively working on a strategic plan to accomplish this mission. Further updates will be provided soon.

AMS is one of nine business schools worldwide (3 of which are in Europe) that are ranked as ‘transforming schools’ in the Positive Impact Rating (PIR), announced in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Read more about AMS and the Positive Impact Rating

FT Ranking: our Executive MBA was ranked 16th worldwide for Corporate Social Responsibility.

Discover our sustainability goals and the initiatives we launched to create positive impact for our students, staff, partners, and the world. Download the sustainability report here.