SUSTAINABILITY-FOCUSED RESEARCH
Increasingly, sustainability is a golden thread that runs through much of our research.
Some of our centres focus specifically on driving sustainability and empowering companies on their sustainability journeys. And while other centres are more discipline focused, sustainability remains core to their activities. For example, their workshops address challenges such as:
- Incorporating ESG into strategic reward and incentives
- The impact of hybrid working on wellbeing
- The role of technology in sustainable and integrated reporting
Together, they are generating new insights, approaches and understanding that will help businesses and wider society to become increasingly sustainable.
VLERICK SUSTAINABILITY CENTRE
The Vlerick Sustainability Centre unites faculty from across disciplines to drive the sustainability agenda, on topics including:
- Creating a sustainability mindset
- Sustainability reporting and data
- Sustainability and target setting
- Designing sustainability governance
- Developing sustainable business models
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion
Launch of Vlerick’s Sustainability Centre
In November 2023, our Sustainability Centre threw open its doors for its first ever event. Keynote speaker Gunter Pauli, the eco-entrepreneur and founder of The Blue Economy, presented new and inspiring business models – showing that sustainability, regeneration and profitability can go hand in hand.
Vlerick’s Dean, Marion Debruyne, said: “I’m super excited about the launch of this centre, the way it can enact the school’s purpose and the contribution to the Vlerick Scholarship Fund it enables."
CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
The Centre for Sustainable Finance aims to advance knowledge and understanding to power the financial sector’s decision-making. The centre explores topics including:
- Sustainable finance
- Impact of ESG criteria on SMEs
- Impact investment
- Measuring scope 3 emissions
“
Responsible leaders are acting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and building businesses on ESG principles, intending to transform and improve societies. But reporting and measurement aren’t standardised, and different approaches can sometimes produce contradictory information. The solution lies in science and rigorous research. Vlerick’s Centre for Sustainable Finance exists to advance knowledge and understanding – and to power the financial sector’s decision-making.”
— Prof David Veredas, Director of Vlerick’s Centre for Sustainable Finance
Here some more examples of how our research centres and collaborative projects are creating new knowledge that’s furthering sustainability practice. We have numerous collaborations with companies. We’re also key collaborators in long-term regional, national and European research programmes. In these projects, we bring together different players to drive the sustainability agenda of governmental partners.
Project:
Artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable finance
People:
Doctoral researcher: Bjarne Brié
Supervisor: Prof Kristof Stouthuysen
Details:
In 2014, the EU adopted the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). This legislation aims to improve the quality and comparability of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. However, despite regulatory efforts such as NFRD being highly relevant and timely, we lack research into their overall net benefits.
The aim of this research is to develop insights into current CSR reporting best practice – and to better inform regulators on the potential effects of mandating CSR disclosure.
Project:
The role of Chief Executive Officers’ cognition and compensation in explaining company differences regarding their strategic flexibility, ESG performance and shareholder approval
People:
Doctoral researcher: Bettina De Ruyck
Supervisors: Prof Xavier Baeten, Prof Carine Peeters and Prof Kerstin Fehre
Details:
This research is being carried out via four separate studies into subjects including shareholder attitudes and ESG measures in CEO compensation.
Project:
Environmental and social debt accounting to combat climate change and social injustice
People:
Doctoral researcher: Angel Oganesian
Supervisors: Prof Kristof Stouthuysen and Prof Robert Boute
Details:
Companies are coming under increasing pressure to report the greenhouse gas emissions created throughout their supply chains. This Scope 3 reporting presents a formidable task – which is vulnerable to fraud or manipulation.
This research seeks to introduce an E-liability reporting system, or in other words, a climate debt account. It would mean evaluating Scope 3 emissions in a way that’s similar to how accountants calculate the added value of a business. This approach will be tested in companies – and its impact on their decision-making will be assessed.
Project:
The impact of ESG performance on credit risk
People:
Post-doctoral researcher: Dimitrios Kolokas
Faculty: Prof David Veredas
Partner: ABN Amro Belgium
Details:
Delivering on ESG is something we have come to expect of larger corporations. However, the transition to a net zero world will not happen without smaller organisations also making efforts to transform.
This study of 350 Belgian SMEs found that investing in sustainability pays off. Businesses who prioritise ESG were found to become more credit-worthy and more resilient.
Project:
NexTrust: Building sustainable logistics through trusted collaborative networks across the entire supply chain
People:
Vlerick Business School: Prof Robert Boute, Tom Van Steendam
External partners: NexTrust Consortium
Details:
In 2009, a World Economic Forum report highlighted that almost a quarter of goods transport in the EU travels empty.
The NexTrust project set about tackling this carbon-wasting inefficiency. It developed interconnected, trusted, collaborative networks that integrated shippers, logistics service providers and intermodal operators as equal partners.
Working together horizontally and vertically, these networks bundled freight volumes – and shifted them off the road to rail and waterways, creating carbon efficiencies throughout the supply chain.
Project:
Newcomer Induction Management Acceleration Programme (NiMAP)
People:
Vlerick Business School: Prof Dirk Buyens, Emmy Defever, Bert Eeckhout External partners: Talentree, Stockholm School of Economics
Details:
Companies across the world are competing to attract the best talent. Yet when highly qualified newcomers arrived in Belgium, they weren’t connecting with vacancies in the marketplace.
The NiMAP project created resources that empowered companies to embrace diversity – and helped newcomers to enter the Belgian jobs market.
The project also drew on learnings to formulate labour market integration policy recommendations.
Project:
The Inclusive Organisation: Room for every talent
People:
Vlerick Business School: Prof Katleen De Stobbeleir, Angie Van Steerthem, Shari De Baets, Prof Karlien Vanderheyden, Lien Desmet
External partners: Kliq vzw, Voka
Details:
Discrimination in the workplace is a reality – both through bias and self-discrimination. This project set out to reduce discrimination by developing a toolbox to help organisations improve inclusion.
The toolbox was developed through scientifically screening literature, in-depth interviews and focus and sounding board groups.
Researchers mapped out causes of discrimination using an inclusion scan and developed interventions and awareness training. After these had been deployed, they measured impact by re-running the inclusion scan.
Project:
Assessing renewable gas policies using a long-term equilibrium energy system model
People:
Doctoral researcher: Martin Roach
Supervisors: Prof Filip Abraham and Prof Leonardo Meeus
Details:
Society needs to make a huge shift in energy consumption to reach net neutrality by 2050. As part of this, economists have identified potential market failures related to future electricity generation – and these analyses are being used to create policy. However, very little attention has been paid to future use of renewable gas, and potential failures in biomethane supply. This research aimed to bridge this gap and provide analysis to inform policy assessment.
Our PhD and DBA community is actively pushing the scientific frontiers of sustainability – exploring subjects including fraud detection, measuring scope 3 emissions, promoting inclusive environments, women entrepreneurs, environmental and social debt accounting and racial and gender-diverse workforces.
Our PhD and DBA community is currently tackling these issues and more.
