oikos in a nutshell

Tigerbergstrasse 2, 9000 St.Gallen, Switzerland oikos St. Gallen

Fax +41 (0)71 224 26 98 – [email protected] www.oikos-stgallen.org

oikos St.Gallenstudents for sustainableeconomics and management

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oikos in a nutshell

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Welcome to oikos!

We are glad to see that you are interested in oikos St. Gallen! oikos has been at the forefront of student engagement in sus-tainability matters at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) since 1987. The current project portfolio spans 12 initiatives with more than 100 active members, which makes oikos one of the most energetic stu-dent associations at the HSG today.

In this information brochure, you will find all the relevant facts about history, objec-tives, projects and the international net-work of oikos St. Gallen. Enjoy your read-ing!

The oikos St. Gallen Executive Board 2013

From left to right: Simon Pfeiffer (Finance), David Zogg (President), Fabienne Meienberger (Vice-President/Operations), Simon Kuster (Marketing/IT), Chiara Ferroni (Community)

Why the name oikos?

Economics as the ‘science of household economy’ and ecology as the ‘science of ecosystems’ have their common etymologi-cal root in the Greek word ‘oikos’. The founding members took this name to show the common origin of economy and the environment. With time, the field of inter-est became broader including topics of so-cial responsibility. Nowadays, oikos stands for collegiate commitment to economical, ecological and social sustainability.

oikos St. Gallen

oikos St. Gallen has been promoting sus-tainability at HSG and beyond for more than 25 years. Its mission is to promote sustainability among the students and to support the integration of sustainability issues into business and economics educa-tion and specifically focuses on developing students’ practical skills. The current oikos project portfolio is organized into four dif-ferent streams:

Generating knowledge

The generating knowledge stream is all about educating students on economic, social, and environmental sustainability issues.

Creating action learning experiences

Students are encouraged to apply their the-oretical knowledge practically and to expe-rience sustainability in real-life projects through action learning experiences.

Creating impact at the University of St. Gallen (HSG)

oikos aims to sensitize everyone at the HSG to the topic of climate change and tries to make the campus itself more environmen-tally sustainable.

Encouraging and promoting sustain-ability in research and teaching

oikos has contributed to the university’s pioneering role in the field of sustainability and has helped mold its students as active agents for a social and ecological economy. It creates appropriate educational offerings to provide the university’s students with the required competences and offers incen-tives to encourage them to do research into this field.




Our activities in short

Generating knowledge

— oikos Conference: Intended to maintain contact with the ‘outside’ through fig-ures from business, science, politics and public life.

— oikos meets Business: Workshops with companies to gain insight into their sus-tainability activities.

— oikos & Pizza: Our themed networking and social events with guest speakers, pizza and beer.

— GoBeyond: Job fair and workshops to promote the attractiveness of alternative careers (with AIESEC St. Gallen).

— UnDress: An annual eco-fashion event at the HSG (with the Marketing Club at University of St. Gallen).

Creating impact at the University of St. Gallen (HSG)

— oikos CNC (Carbon Neutral Campus): An initiative to raise the awareness of climate change with the medium-term goal of achieving a CO2 neutral HSG campus.

Creating action learning experiences

— oikos Model WTO: A simulation of the WTO’s conference of ministers in St. Gallen and Geneva for students from all over the world.

— oikos consulting: Advice for start-ups in the field of sustainability.

— oikos Sustainable Investment: A project to promote the mindset of sustainable investing.

— oikos Social Entrepreneurship: A sup-porting platform at the HSG to foster and generate social entrepreneurial ide-as and projects.

Encouraging and promoting sustain-ability in research and teaching

— oikos Sustainability Thesis Award: An award of CHF 3000 for the best master's thesis on sustainability at the HSG.

— oikos Academia: Contributing to the process of making the HSG a pioneer in the field of sustainability by proposing changes to the curriculum of the univer-sity.

Structure of oikos St. Gallen in 2013

The Advisory Board con-sists of professionals in the field of sustainability

The Executive Board is supported by Develop-ers who push oikos for-ward

The Project teams are supported by the Execu-tive Board and coached by the Advisory Board

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AD

VIS

ORY

BO

ARD

DEVELOPERS

PROJECTS

Generating Knowledge

Creating action Learning Experiences

Encouraging and promoting sustainability in research and teaching

Creating impact at the University of St.Gallen

oikos Conference

oikos meets business

oikos & Pizza GoBeyond UnDress

oikos Model WTO

oikos consulting

oikos Investment

oikos Thesis Award

oikos Academia

oikos Carbon Neutral Campus (CNC)

oikos Social Entrepreneurship

President Vice-President/Operations Community Finance Marketing/IT

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Alumni Sponsoring PR IT


Organisational Chart of oikos St.Gallen 2013 SK‘2013

National Events




Project overview

On the following pages every oikos project is described in some more detail. In order to make it easy for you to contact any of the projects directly, we have provided the e-mail of every project leader. Don’t hesitate and get involved!

oikos Conference

The oikos Conference has taken place since 1988 and is one of the oldest of oikos St.Gallen’s projects. The annual two-day forum provides an interactive environment for students and business representatives to discuss current sustainability issues. Recent topics include:

— 2012: Commodity Trade – Focal point Switzerland

— 2011: Profits without Hunger and Thirst?

— 2010: Business Model Innovation for a Sustainable Future

— 2009: The Future of Business and Sus-tainability – Challenges in CSR

Contact: Valérie Rau [email protected]

oikos meets Business

oikos meets Business was initiated to pro-vide students the chance to deal with sus-tainable and practical oriented challenges in business. Every semester, oikos meets Business organizes workshops for selected

students to have a practical insight into the sustainable activities of companies. By do-ing that, oikos meets Business desires to spread the thought of sustainability at the HSG by adressing students of every semes-ter who are interested in sustainability. The content and the form of the workshops are variably arranged in agreement with the respective coordination partner. To round off the event, everybody is invited to an aperitif.

Contact: Maxi Gnad [email protected]

oikos & Pizza

oikos & Pizza is our regular event (four to six times per semester) to sensitize stu-dents regarding sustainability topics and to discuss innovative and forward solutions to current and future challenges. For this purpose, we invite guest speakers from science or praxis and serve pizza and beer. Not only do these evenings serve reflecting and debating on sustainability challenges together with the invited expert, but also do they foster the regular contact and ex-change between our members. With its interesting presentations and subsequent discussions, oikos & Pizza serves as a regu-lar and familiar space that continuously attracts potential members.

Contact: Thomas Spycher [email protected]




GoBeyond

The idea to start ‘GoBeyond – new paths to success’ was based on a lack of represented alternative career opportunities at the HSG. GoBeyond is designed to be a com-plement to the annual HSG Talents career event as a platform to get in touch with non-traditional career choices. Students have the opportunity to find out more about jobs in the public sector and in sus-tainable companies by participating in workshops and visiting the job fair.

GoBeyond is organized in cooperation with AIESEC St. Gallen.

Contact: Jeswin Devasia [email protected]

UnDress

Sustainable and fashionable? UnDress shows that this goes together very well. In workshops and presentations, HSG stu-dents can inform about modern eco-fashion. Moreover, there is an exhibition and a fashion show with students and pro-fessors, where everyone can gain inspira-tion for sustainable and fashionable looks and trends.

This annual event is organized in coopera-tion with the Marketing Club at the Univer-sity of St. Gallen.

Contact: Julia Weber [email protected]

oikos Model WTO

The oikos Model WTO – offered at the HSG and at the WTO Headquarters in Geneva – is a one-week simulation of the WTO nego-tiations in which around 70 international students participate. It offers students a unique experience to receive high-level training and benefit from the expertise of the WTO professionals. The diversity of opinions that the students from various continents and distinct backgrounds hold, provides an exceptional environment in which to actively exchange opinions and reflect on the role of international institu-tions, such as the WTO, in the global tran-sition towards sustainable development. Previous simulations included topics such as:

— 2012: Regional Trade Agreements — 2011: Process and Production Methods — 2010: Climate Change and Trade — 2009: Poverty Reduction and Trade.

Contact: Frederic Bärtl [email protected]

oikos Consulting

oikos consulting is a competent consultant for start-ups. Promising technical ideas are enriched by an economic approach and thus made attractive for investors. We are a reliable partner for social venture capital-ists by supporting the search for possible projects and by assessing the feasibility of exciting ideas.

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By setting up courses, seminars and events at the university, students are familiarised with the topic and brought together with industry partners. Students of the HSG therefore create a platform with expertise and a network around the social venture capital industry and exchange existing and new knowledge with fellow students.

Contact: Gianina Caviezel [email protected]

oikos CNC

The initiative oikos CNC (Carbon Neutral Campus) aims to sensitize on the topic of climate change at the HSG and tries to make the campus itself more ecologically sus-tainable. The university’s 2012 report on its carbon footprint led to several actions that have been taken subsequently, starting with the university’s infrastructure and IT. oikos CNC cooperates with the university management, but also pursues its own pro-jects. For example, once a semester, stu-dents can offset their commuting emissions by participating in ‘a beer for the climate’. In addition, the collaboration with the uni-versity restaurant led to two climate-friendly menus in early 2012 and again in late 2012; these menus were based on bio-logical, regional, and seasonal criteria.

Contact: Roman Burst [email protected]

oikos Sustainable Investment

The oikos Sustainable Investment project strives to facilitate the mindset of sustaina-ble investing. The initiative is split into two steps: First, a university course about Sus-tainable Investing shall be established at the HSG in order to raise awareness and foster knowledge among the students. In a second step, this shall be used as a funda-ment to offer students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in an investment process which is held under real conditions and considers the criteria of sustainability.

At the moment, oikos Sustainable Invest-ment is in a development phase. Various optional ways of realization have been con-sidered and are thought through right now. During the elaboration phase, the neces-sary know-how shall be acquired by work-ing together with the university and with project-partners out of the financial sector.

Contact: Simon Stauss [email protected]

oikos Social Entrepreneurship

The aim of this initiative is to offer a plat-form and meeting place for committed and innovative students at the HSG to develop social business ideas and to implement them. In doing so, those students will be supported by our program through work-shops, presentations and mentoring. The program structure is being outlined by the oikos social entrepreneurship team in close collaboration with the center for entrepre-neurship at the HSG and The HUB Zurich. In addition to that, the social entrepreneur-ship programme is thought to be replicated by other oikos local chapters.

Contact: Severin von Hünerbein [email protected]




oikos Thesis Award

The oikos Sustainability Thesis Award re-wards the best master thesis in the field of sustainability. The aim of the project is first, to encourage students to deal with the topic of sustainability, and second, to raise the awareness of professors and lecturers for this topic. Furthermore, the project aims at increasing the visibility of oikos St. Gallen at the HSG.

The oikos Sustainability Thesis Award is the first and only academic prize at the University of St. Gallen that has been initi-ated by a student organization. The prize comprises CHF 3000 and has been award-ed every year since 2008 during the official Master's Graduation Day ceremony.

The recent winners’ theses were:

— 2012: Competitiveness of Renewable Energies in Climate Change Policy - Ex-plaining post-Kyoto Emission Reduction Commitments

— 2011: Competitiveness of Renewable Energies in Climate Change Policy – Explaining Kyoto Emission Reduction Commitments

— 2010: Definition and Diffusion of High-Quality Carbon Credits: Exploratory Case Study Gold Standard.

— 2009: Holcim Sustainability Value - A Corporate Assessment of the Sustaina-bility Value Approach

Contact: Alex Krizan [email protected]

oikos Academia

The initiative oikos Academia contributes to the process of making the HSG a pioneer in the field of sustainability and forming the students to become active protagonists of a social and ecological economy.

The mid-term goal of this initiative is a comprehensive analysis of the present edu-cational offerings and the demand for cor-respondent lectures. Basing on the findings from this analysis we will develop a strate-gy to synchronize the offering with the re-quirements of a changing economy as well as the needs of our students. In the long run, this means that sustainability is inte-grated into core courses, but additionally new lectures are created which provide knowledge about specific fields of sustain-ability to interested students.

Contact: Corinne Duriaux [email protected]

oikos Atelier

The oikos Atelier serves as a meeting point and working space for all active oikees. It is situated next to the HSG campus and is equipped with all the office infrastructure which is necessary for creative work.

This studio does not only provide space for existing projects and for the incubation of new ones but is also the basis for the sus-tainable growth strategy of oikos St. Gallen: It helps us to strengthen the cohesion of our association by holding informal events and internal workshops there.

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The oikos Community

oikos International

In 1997, oikos St. Gallen decided to interna-tionalize its activities and to not only strengthen HSG business students’ ecologi-cal and social awareness, but to also do so within economics and management facul-ties around the world. In 1998, four local oikos groups were founded. Together with oikos St. Gallen, they established oikos In-ternational – an umbrella organization and administration center (based in St. Gallen). Today, the network has more than 1000 members with 42 local chapters at univer-sities in 21 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North-America.

International meetings

oikos International pursues international projects to empower students as change agents, to advance the oikos network, and to strengthen research on and the teaching of sustainability. These projects include:

— oikos Winter School (a coaching week for social entrepreneurs and platform for international students committed to fighting the social, economic and ecolog-ic challenges around the globe)

— oikos Student Reporter (real time train-ing in social media advocacy and online journalism; in 2012, the students pro-vided live coverage from Rio+20, the WEF, and the World Resources Forum)

— oikos Future Lab (annual meeting of the whole ‘oikos family’ at St.Gallen with alumni, faculty and partners)

— oikos Spring Meeting (an themed inter-national meeting bringing the global oikos network together)

The international oikos network in 2013

oikos Foundation

Financially and institutionally, oikos Inter-national is supported by the ‘oikos Founda-tion’. The oikos Foundation for economy and ecology was founded in St. Gallen in 1990 by oikos students and members of the HSG faculty. It is funded by corporate sponsors and supported by the University of St. Gallen. Its purpose is to help develop the global sustainability community in the fields of management and economics. It is closely associated with the Institute for Economy and Ecology at the HSG. Its core activities can be grouped into three sec-tions:

— International Young Scholars Acade-mies

— oikos Case Study Competitions and Teaching Initiative

— PhD Fellowship Program

If you would like to get to know more about oikos International, its local chapters or the oikos Foundation, please refer to

www.oikos-international.org

Graz

Hamburg

Belfast

Paris

Cologne

oikos Local Chapter

Warsaw

Zagreb

BratislavaNew Delhi

London

St. Gallen

Budapest

Brussels

Prague

Reims

Bayreuth

Chennai

Kolkata

Dhaka

Ahmedabad

MoscowMaastricht

Newcastle

St. Andrews

Monrovia

Witten/ Herdecke

Tübingen

Constance

Barcelona

CopenhagenLeipzig

Jamshedpur

Penn

Lausanne

Reutlingen

Lille

Lüneberg Paderborn Opole

Vienna

Tbilisi

Baku

Vellore

Vancouver

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oikos in a nutshell

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