MSc in
International Sustainability Management

Your journey begins in Berlin, where you’ll build a solid foundation in sustainability management. You will explore planetary boundaries and Earth system processes that underpin global stability, examine extractive business models and regenerative alternatives, and analyze corporate sustainability practices such as CSR and ESG reporting. Along the way, you’ll also engage with questions of ethics, responsibility, and individual agency, while studying the physical and social limits to economic activity and the frameworks designed to navigate them.

You’ll learn how to analyse scientific research and turn insights into actionable recommendations for managers and other decision-makers. You’ll also join a language course of your choice to prepare for global career opportunities and work environments.

Modules

• Social science sustainability foundations
• Natural science sustainability foundations
• Business and management sustainability foundations
• Economics sustainability foundations
• Theory for practice, Part I: Academic work and science-based management     
• Language class

During this Paris-based term, you’ll dive into sustainability governance and policymaking across international, regional, and local levels, with a special emphasis on EU frameworks and agreements. The term also challenges you to examine the controversies and limits of current corporate sustainability practices, while exploring innovative alternatives that move beyond traditional CSR models.

You’re required to choose one elective from a portfolio of courses covering different business functions. You'll also develop essential project management and consulting skills while continuing to advance to the next level in your language studies.

Modules

• Public sector sustainability foundations
• Developing critical perspectives (divided into two thematic areas)
  • The dark side of sustainability
  • Beyond CSR: innovative responses to the sustainability challenge 
• Theory for practice, Part II: Project management and consulting
• Business function specialisation elective* (choose 1)
  • Sustainable supply chain management
  • Marketing transition to sustainability
  • Sustainable finance and accounting
• Language class

*The selection of electives are subject to change every year.

Continuing in Paris, you’ll strengthen the management skills and strategic foresight required to lead sustainable change in today’s global business landscape. A sustainability-focused consultancy project gives you the opportunity to work directly with companies and organizations to solve their current business challenges and put your ideas into action.

By selecting specialized electives on emerging global trends, you can further shape your profile as a versatile sustainability expert. At the end of this term you’ll finish your language class.

Modules

• Sustainability-focused consultancy project
• Sustainability methods elective*
  • Rethinking models
  • Grand challenges
  • Social impact and innovation
• Management specialisation elective*
  • Non-profit and social enterprise
  • North-south issues
  • International business and sustainability
• Language class

*The selection of electives are subject to change every year.

After a brief summer break, your cohort returns to Berlin and takes part in a 1-week study retreat in the surrounding Brandenburg region to focus on nature-inspired electives. On campus, you’ll prepare to critically evaluate research and conduct your own scientific work, while choosing one more management elective.

A key element of this programme takes place this term — the Company Consultancy Project (CCP). Over 2 months, you and your peers will collaborate on a real-time challenge provided by a company or organisation. This project challenges you to put into practice the concepts you’ve learned in class and gives you valuable experience employers are looking for.

Modules

• Personal sustainability transformation retreat elective* (choose 2)
  • Leading from within: reconnecting to inner wisdom for sustainability leadership
  • Exploring biomimicry: nature-inspired models of innovation and leadership
  • Positive workplace activism: the why and how of employee-led change
  • Becoming a sustainable leader means becoming yourself
  • Mediating activism: courage, self-expression & embodied interventions
• Sustainability management skills elective* (choose 1)
  • Eco-venturing
  • Engaging and communicating for sustainability
  • Sustainable value creation
  • Technology entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability reporting 2.0
• Interdisciplinary company consultancy project
• Empirical research methods

*The selection of electives are subject to change every year.

Company Consultancy Projects (CCPs)

The CCP will require significant commitment and focus. Your group is expected to deliver a high-level analysis and make actionable recommendations that can realistically be implemented by the company. You’ll learn how to work effectively as a team and hone your skills in:

• Project planning and management
• Data collection and analysis
• Development of hypotheses and recommendations
• Customer service & client interaction
• Public speaking and presentations

Throughout the project, guidance is provided by business experts with support from ESCP professors.

Company Consultancy Projects

You’ll have 12 weeks to complete an individual Master's Thesis in consultation with an ESCP academic advisor. A Master Thesis demonstrates advanced research, analytical, organisational and problem-solving skills—highly valued in competitive job markets. As you develop expertise and contacts in your desired industry, a thesis can also serve as a launch pad for your career.

You’ll finish your Master's journey with an internship (or a full-time permanent position), which must be a minimum of three months. You also have the option of doing a Business Project, if aligned with the programme and validated by ESCP's Careers Centre.

The internship, which you can do anywhere in the world, is an excellent opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge, get more hands-on experience, and build professional connections, all aimed at jumpstarting your career. ESCP’s European Career Centre provides support as you look for the right internship opportunity.

Here are some examples of companies and organisations at which students have obtained internships:

KPMG – Federal Ministry of Economy and Climate Action (Germany) – ClimateSeed – Good Citizen – Maa Biodiversity – Henkel – WWF Germany – Capgemini – HelloFresh Benelux – ROSE Technologies GmbH – Deloitte – Doctolib – Enpal B.V. – Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. – Ceezer Software GmbH – EIT Raw Materials – Impact Fund Managament – OECD – Circulab – UN Human Settlements Programme – Sustainable Wine Limited – Institute for Ecological Economy Research (Germany) – PwC – Yves Saint-Laurent SAS – UN Environment Programme – AfricInvest – Transport for London – French Football Federation