Social and Environmental Responsibility

Sustainable Management

For several years now, ESPCI Paris – PSL has been taking steps to strengthen its governance regarding the ecological transition. The school launched its transformation initiative in 2020 with the appointment of a project manager and the establishment of an Agenda 21 Committee, a governing body for sustainability and CSR issues.; In December 2025, ESPCI Paris – PSL adopted its Green Charter, laying the foundation for its environmental and societal strategy.

In September 2024, ESPCI began developing its Sustainable Development and Social and Environmental Responsibility (SD&SER) Master Plan, in collaboration with all of the school’s stakeholders. Roundtable discussions were then organized to gather input from the ESPCI community. The SD&ESR master plan was approved by the Board of Trustees in December 2025, and further discussions were held with the research laboratories to develop an action plan that closely aligns with the researchers’ expectations and constraints.

This DD&RSE Master Plan serves as the foundation for the institution’s environmental and social policy and will rally the entire community toward a common goal: building the ESPCI of tomorrow. It is structured around five cross-cutting areas: Governance and Strategy; Education and Training; Research and Innovation; Environment; and Social Policy.

Through these priority areas, approximately 65 initiatives will enable ESPCI to transform itself and make a commitment by 2030, while maintaining its excellence in teaching and research. These initiatives will be managed and monitored annually to ensure their implementation and the achievement of the established objectives.

PSE: These lectures and hands-on exercises are supported, in particular, by the MERCASTO program (“Measure, Reduce, Capture, and Store Industrial CO2 Emissions”), which was selected as a winner of the CMA France 2030 call for projects: Decarbonization and Life Cycle Assessment).

Training for Transitions

At ESPCI, educating engineering students and other students on environmental transitions involves providing them with the knowledge and tools they need to understand complex issues at the intersection of science, technology, and contemporary changes.

The Engineering Program

ESPCI does not aim to train specialists in environmental transition, but rather engineers capable of understanding the issues involved and taking informed action. It also provides those who wish to do so with the tools needed to explore these issues in greater depth.

• The training program consists of three components:
• the basic sciences;
• Understanding the Anthropocene (6 required ECTS credits);
• Transition Sciences and Technologies (5 required ECTS credits, 40 elective credits).

The basic sciences play a central role. They enable students to acquire methods for reasoning, modeling, and analyzing complex phenomena.

Understanding the Anthropocene provides insights into the transformations currently underway, both from a physical perspective—energy, resources, orders of magnitude—and from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences.
The program also includes courses in the science and technology of the energy transition, focusing in particular on catalysis, electrochemistry, materials, and recycling, as well as supervised research projects.

The Specialized Master’s in Action

The ACTION Specialized Master’s program is a five-year post-baccalaureate program that will offer a work-study option starting in 2027. It focuses on the decarbonization of industry and is led by ESPCI and Chimie ParisTech – PSL.

The ACTION master’s program is organized around three main areas: the environment, to analyze impacts and support transitions; life cycle assessment (LCA), to evaluate products, processes, and services; and decarbonization, to develop emission reduction pathways

The program is divided into two phases: six months of classroom instruction, followed by six months of on-the-job training.
The six months at ESPCI place a strong emphasis on hands-on experience, in keeping with ESPCI’s educational philosophy, and include numerous projects and applied assignments.

These courses provide students with the opportunity to engage with real-world scenarios, particularly through life cycle assessments (LCAs) of ESPCI startup activities and initiatives aimed at training staff on the challenges of the environmental transition.

The master’s program thus trains professionals capable of providing practical support for decarbonization efforts in industry.

It’s worth noting

that both master’s and doctoral students can pursue the “Decarbonization” minor offered by PSL. The selection of courses is very broad and covers virtually all of the courses offered by PSL on this topic. It ranges from physics and chemistry courses to economics and life cycle analysis. This program allows students to acquire additional knowledge and leads to the award of a university certificate.

Training sessions and conferences are regularly offered to all ESPCI staff. These events and awareness-raising activities may be led by students. Staff members were also made aware of environmental transitions during the development of the master plan.

Research and Innovation

At ESPCI, the environmental transition relies, among other things, on research—research that is both effective and responsible. The generation of knowledge lies at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): seeking the truth based on facts and critical inquiry to understand and transform the world.

With this in mind, ESPCI has fully aligned its scientific strategy with the challenges of sustainability and environmental and energy efficiency. The goal is clear: to produce research of the highest quality that benefits society, while respecting the planet’s limits. The school is thus developing research focused on major environmental challenges, while ensuring that it minimizes the impact of its own activities.

Research at the Heart of the Transition

Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach at the intersection of physics, chemistry, and biology, ESPCI conducts and promotes research on key topics related to environmental change. The range of research topics is broad: sustainable materials (polymers, porous MOF solids, low-impact cement), recycling and the circular economy, energy and CO₂-related issues, environmental monitoring (water, air, pollutants), water and air treatment, heat transfer, environmental and socioeconomic analysis of the transition. This approach bridges fundamental understanding, experimentation, and practical applications.

Ways to Take Action

ESPCI is committed to supporting its researchers by providing them with tools, opportunities for discussion, and resources to integrate sustainability issues into their practices and projects.

This support is based, in particular, on tools and resources designed to reduce the environmental and energy footprint:

• research activities (decision support for mission deployment, decision support for procurement)
• forums for discussion and training on responsible practices
• Supporting and promoting research that contributes to the ecological transition
• shared platforms, which enable the sharing of state-of-the-art equipment, optimize its use, limit and prevent redundant purchases, and reduce the material footprint of research, while promoting interdisciplinary research projects
• greater clarity on the funding sources available for projects related to the environmental transition.

In this context, ESPCI has secured several major funding grants, including the MERCASTO, DIM MaTerRe, CMA, and PRISM COFUND projects, which help strengthen its research and innovation capabilities in the area of environmental transition.

Transforming the campus and its practices

The ESPCI campus has been undergoing a transformation for several years, taking environmental challenges into account: improving energy efficiency, supporting the community’s mobility needs, conserving resources such as water, and designing green spaces to best accommodate biodiversity. As a result, the school’s new buildings meet several HQE (High Environmental Quality) targets and comply with the City of Paris’s Climate Plan as well as energy standards in accordance with RT2012 (tertiary sector). In its DD&RSE Master Plan, ESPCI is committed to implementing an energy conservation plan and improving the management and monitoring of its energy consumption with the goal of optimizing it.

The future ESPCI Paris garden will have a planted area of 2,900 m² in open ground. The garden will thus be enriched with 78 new trees of 15 different species, compared to 48 trees of 9 species before the renovation. The landscaping will be designed to allow biodiversity to flourish in the garden.

To reduce its greenhouse gas emissions related to travel, ESPCI aims to support the community in adopting sustainable transportation options in their daily lives. In 2020, the school introduced a sustainable mobility package for staff. To continue this support, the school will offer bicycle repair workshops and install additional on-site equipment, such as bike racks.

Implement a social policy

ESPCI has implemented an ambitious social policy aimed at supporting both its engineering students in their studies—by ensuring equal opportunities and gender equality—and its staff—by promoting a high quality of life at work and a safe environment.

For engineering students, the school has offered the Joliot Scholarship since 2010. This scholarship provides additional financial support to complement other forms of aid. Furthermore, the eligibility criteria are broad, and students who do not receive a scholarship or international students may also be eligible. ESPCI also offers other types of financial aid (such as emergency aid and mobility grants) to students.

The school is also committed to promoting equal opportunity in the early stages of recruiting engineering students through various initiatives, such as the “Cordées de la réussite” program and partnerships with the City of Paris and the City of Trappes, which help raise awareness among middle and high school students about higher education and the sciences.

ESPCI also works closely with PSL University, particularly on the student life master plan and the multi-year disability master plan.

In 2023, ESPCI adopted its gender equality plan and appointed two staff members dedicated to this issue. The goal is to improve pay equity and combat discrimination (age, gender, etc.) across the entire community.

To best support its staff, the institution has also launched an initiative focused on quality of life and working conditions (QVCT) and psychosocial risks (RPS). A survey was conducted in 2025, and an action plan is currently being developed, led by the two dedicated project managers and the Human Resources department.

Engage the community and get involved

One of the keys to successfully achieving the institution’s ecological and social transformation is to engage the entire community in this change and empower every member of the community to play an active role in these transitions. ESPCI therefore aims to co-create its sustainability and social responsibility approach and give a voice to the entire community: students, researchers, faculty, and staff. To achieve this, the school will organize “Sustainability Events”: conferences, roundtables, debates, and temporary exhibitions focused on environmental and societal issues. These opportunities for raising awareness and fostering dialogue will be essential for gathering the community’s needs, as well as its ideas and opinions on future projects.

In order to give its community an even more active role, ESPCI will restructure the Agenda 21 Committee to give it decision-making and operational capabilities, with the goal of working together to implement a sustainable development and social responsibility policy that is up to the challenges of the future.