Centres : EnvIM

Portrait d’étudiant EnvIM option Asia

Let’s discover Pietro Mantovani, EnvIM student Asia option

Climate change and relative measures to mitigate and to adapt to its impacts represent the most important challenge that our whole society is facing and I want to be an active part of it, but with the proper technical skills.

1. Where are you from Pietro ?

I come from a Economic background, a master providing students with a solid training, emphasizing rigorous analytical thinking and advanced quantitative methods, with courses such as Econometrics, Microeconomics for Finance and Statistical Learning.

I chose the latter path, arriving at the Credit Risk Analyst role I occuped in Santander Corporate and Investment Banking. My role allowed me to observe the main market drivers, and it is through these that I came closer to a greater understanding of how climate change is impacting the industries that I covered.

Environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources and the associated losses in biodiversity are presenting multiple, interrelated challenges. Issues such as water scarcity, deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, waste and pollution are increasingly impacting business and investment activities. As food system has a very heavy carbon footprint, my analysis is increasingly integrating key aspects such as land use and deforestation.

Remaining on the food and food security issue, if we just consider the impacts that climate change has and will have on agricultural productivity, and the relative implications for feeding a rapidly growing population, we get a measure of the magnitude of the challenge ahead.

We are literally talking about changing the consumption habits of billions of people and changing the production habits of hundreds of millions of producers.

Inequalities generated by climate change are massive. It is a fact that droughts and floods hits poor and marginalized communities first and worst, causing enormous damages to already fragile economies. People in low-and lower-middle-income countries are more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden extreme weather disasters.

2. What are your main motivations for this Post Master application ?

After working 4 years in the investment banking industry, I decided to turn my professional career around by joining the Mastère Spécialisé EnvIM, inseptember 2022.

As a financial analyst working within a leading international banking group, I’m in a privileged position to see how climate change is becoming more and more prevalent within the day-to-day of the financial industry, and how sustainability is being increasingly integrated.

I believe that topics such as climate change and related energy transition, the management of resources such as water and land, must be delegated to people with the proper knowledge. Furthermore, the more I go on with my career, the more I realize that to have a real overview of these problems I need to think differently, interacting with people with other perspectives and backgrounds.

3. What are your professional goals and career project?

My goal is to integrate more sustainability in my future professional career and projects. I want to establish myself as an expert in environmental management field. I want to learn how to assist companies to manage their sustainability trajectories, taking project management responsibilities and leadership roles.

I want to become an attractive future candidate for companies in France or around the world, having interdisciplinary skills on the analysis of long-term pathways and policies related to the national, regional and global food and land use, forestry, water management, biodiversity, waste and circular economy, helping companies towards their transformation in line with the SDGs, the Paris Climate Agreement and their race to net zero emissions.

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C’est la rentrée pour les étudiants de la section EnvIM de l’ISIGE Mines Paris-PSL

Bienvenue à nos étudiants !

Mercredi dernier se déroulait la rentrée pour le mastère Spécialisé Environmental Management EnvIM 2022-2023 option World proposé par l’ISIGE Mines Paris-PSL.

Nos étudiants motivés par une carrière internationale sont prêts à suivre notre programme de 12 mois. Nos futurs professionnels, jeunes diplômés ou ayant déjà une première expérience, souhaitent apprendre les meilleures pratiques, les nouvelles connaissances et compétences pour leur carrière en management de l’environnement dans un contexte international.

*Rentrée des étudiants Envim à Fontainebleau*

EnvIM World se compose de 4 mois de tronc commun à Paris (dont deux semaines à l’INSA Lyon – Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon), construit autour de projets de groupes, mis en situation quasi professionnelles, et d’un mois dédié à un projet sur une question environnementale d’actualité au mois de mai.

Cette année l’option World du Mastère Spécialisé EnvIM compte 9 brillants étudiants :
– Hssine Benhrouz, ingénieur en hydraulique et environnement
– Aurélie Cordier, ingénieure en nanotechnologies
– M’Aya Fadika, ingénieure agronome
– Catherina Daoud, Master en Sciences Environnementales
– Maya Mikaiel, Master en Sciences Environnementales
– Walaa Mrad, ingénieur civil
– Valentin Ract, Master en ingénierie industrielle
– Maxime Trap, ingénieur en systèmes mécaniques
– Noëllie VIENNET, Master en Chimie et Sciences de la Vie

Rentrée étudiants Envim — *Rentrée des étudiants Envim à Fontainebleau*

Liban, Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisie et France, découvrez les étudiants de notre belle promotion internationale qui promet d’être riche d’échanges !

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Portrait d’étudiant EnvIM option World

Let’s discover Maya MIKAIEL, EnvIM student World option

“Environmental issues are obviously transboundary: addressing this modern challenge is only feasible through international cooperation.”

Where are you from Maya ?

To complement my engineering degree, in urban planning and environment (University of Tours, FR) and my specialization at Radboud University (NL) in environmental governance and politics and after having finished my internship at ENERPARC SOLAR, the EU’s largest photovoltaic asset owner, I applied for the EnvIM World Postmaster, knowing how much of an uplift this specialised degree could mean for my future.

“I stick to my inner child desires and expect contributing to a better and less-alarming future.”

By studying the decision-making process at the European level to model ecological transition, I learned the process of encouraging populations to change their behavior. In order to implement this outcome, my scholar view needs to be balanced with a practical viewpoint. As well as meeting teachers and lecturers in the Netherlands who worked within the United Nations, I found an interest in providing guidance to leader groups and big companies with whom I would wish to work for as the head of the environmental department.

I spent a year in the French Navy alongside my ninth grade. To this day I still cherish the work ethic they instilled in me: “Honour, Values and Discipline”. I also learned the values of hard work, the importance of team building and the deeply rewarding feeling of accomplishment. By experimenting onto real-life cases within companies and institutions, I would be able to grow as a stakeholder of the ecological transition.

The first time I heard about the EnvIM post master I saw how tailor-made it was for me. Entering this programme took part in the implementation of a healthy lifestyle, and help me to fulfill my professional and personal projects. I joined the post-Master EnvIM option World in 2023.

How could you, with your own background and field of expertise, contribute to an interdisciplinary problem analysis and problem-solving ?

Resolving problems using innovation is the perfect definition of what an engineer should do. By graduating with such a qualification has taught me not only to think like an engineer, but also like a researcher thanks to my specialization and Erasmus semester.

In order to define the problem, an analysis of the different facets composing it is necessary. My tri-nationality broadens the horizons one could usually look for. I was raised in a home where France, Lebanon and England mixed every day, showing me from my youngest age that a given perspective can be shifted to reveal new angles that design new opportunities, thus new solutions.

Hence, my personal experience and cultivation helps me define an interdisciplinary problem by looking at multiple prisms that can be studied individually at first, then brought together to widen the final comprehension of the problem. My engineering background offers the whole technical expertise needed to apprehend a given situation’s complexity.

Scientific research has followed my curriculum during my three years in engineering school: in France, I centred my end-of-studies thesis around the problem of sky legal limitations, use of satellites and light pollution.

Analysing and answering an interdisciplinary problem is tantamount to a marathon: when the subject seems to be extensively studied, new perspectives arise from new pieces. I learned, from my whole experience as a student and as an individual, how to deal with intricate challenges, the hardest I have in mind being the answer to climate change and environmental urgency.

In a nutshell, before EnvIM my knowledges were very theoretical, and even if I could, with this qualitative amount of theory, attempt to analyse, better understand and solve any environmental and urban challenge, I had a need for gaining hands-on experience and training in companies and administrations: . EnvIM World is the complement I needed. To this very knowledge-based education, mostly oriented towards a professional finalization, the many projects helped me to assert my proactive stance by acting. Specifically, it will legitimize my applications to high consultancy positions connected with my ambitions

What are your professional goals and career project? How could this program help you to fulfil your goals ?

My best-case scenario would be to join a leading company or a development programme of an International Institution, as a coordinator or consultant.

I am confident that the EnvIM Postmaster will have a big impact on my life, and I cannot really imagine myself without completing this programme. Being an EnvIM student drives the same ambitions I nurture in my life: to be this golden opportunity for me to make a real difference in this world.

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Portrait d’étudiant EnvIM option Asia

Let’s discover Elsie Nakhle, EnvIM student Asia option

“I hope to make a change in this world for the better, even if only a little, but being the over-achiever that I am I know I won’t just be satisfied with that.”

1. Who are you Elsie ?

Initially, I pursued studies in engineering and hold a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Notre Dame University, Lebanon. I had the opportunity to study several topics within the field including fiber optics, electromagnetics, industrial electrification, power electronics and digital integrated circuits. While my background is quite technical and heavily related to engineering, I always had in mind to work in sustainability and the initial field that came to mind was renewable energy and most notably, solar energy.

First, I had the opportunity to take part in an apprenticeship in Energy Consultancy, through which I was able to get acquainted with the concepts of energy efficiency for buildings, indoor air quality and energy audits. This was the initial step I had taken in the direction of the world of energy management. After that, I had the opportunity to work as an Electrical Engineer, specializing in solar PV design and installations in a company in Lebanon.

However, I always felt that I was only skimming the surface of what I could actually achieve and get informed about, and there was generally much more to learn in terms of environmental issues, sustainability and energy transition, especially being from a country such as Lebanon where there was and still is the culmination of a various number of detrimental environmental crises. Water scarcity, food security, destruction of ecosystems and natural habitats, depletion of natural resources and sources of energy are major issues that should be made more aware, not only for the benefit of mankind but for the millions of species inhabiting the earth. Being environmentally conscious is a responsibility for governments, companies and individuals for the sake of not only adapting to climate change efficiently but also being able to put in place mitigation strategies.

2. To what extent are you involved ?

I always believed that it is my responsibility as a functioning member of society to contribute in any way I can to its betterment and improvement.

I had several opportunities to come across various topics relating to sustainable development and the need for active resolutions to issues directly under the umbrella of the 17 sustainable development goals through my various involvements as a Chair and member of the organizing team of several Model United Nations conferences both locally (in Lebanon) and internationally. These conferences highlighted the importance of collaborative work and active contribution to innovative solutions related to real-life conflicts on different socio-economic and environmental levels. It was a wonderful way for the youth to truly roleplay as government officials and representatives and participate in debates, deliver speeches, and write resolutions as if they were themselves members of a UN body or committee. It was an amazing experience for me to be organizing these conferences with like minded individuals.

I also had the opportunity to be part of several volunteering initiatives for preserving the environment as a member in Rotaract Sahel Metn, Lebanon. I had the chance to organize beach clean-ups, and take part in several awareness webinars related to the importance of recycling, waste management, energy management, etc. among other activities related to professional and personal development.

3. Why did you choose the Envim postmaster ?

I think at some point I realized I was too focused on renewable energy which is only one aspect in terms of energy and environmental management and so joining the Post-Master EnvIM was the chance for me to see more than just the tip of the iceberg.

The chance to be able to actually make a change through my education and participation in the program thrilled me, as well as the prospect of actively researching and learning about different modules of different subjects relating to water management, air quality and pollution, circular economy, urban planning, agroecology, …

Furthermore, being able to take these classes from two very prestigious universities with world-renowned reputations and high quality education was an added criteria to why I chose this program specifically.

I was also very excited (and may I say very lucky later on) to meet people from different backgrounds discovering the same modules and having active enriching discussions on these important environmental issues.

4. What are your professional goals and career project ?

I want to be able to keep on learning more and absorbing all the knowledge I can in the field of environmental management, in order to become a reputable individual with the proper set of skills and information related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, circular economy, biodiversity, energy transition, and sustainable resources. This multidisciplinary and multilevel approach could help me in developing new concepts in the field and become a valuable asset for NGOs, companies and even governments.

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Portrait d’étudiant EnvIM option Asia

Let’s discover Aurélie BRUNSTEIN, EnvIM student Asia option

“Change is not coming fast enough.”

1. Who are you Aurélie ?

With a passion for ecology from a very young age, I have been involved in local initiatives to raise awareness on climate related issues over the last few years. I am now at a point in my life where I want this personal engagement to influence and impact more widely and be taken to a professional level.

I developed my passion for ecology as a teenager after I read La Terre en heritage by the Jean-Marie Pelt. That added to my fascination for science and technology, drove me towards engineering studies, more precisely, at EPF engineering school in France because there was a curriculum dedicated to energies and environment. However, the three-years common curriculum convinced me to specialise in aeronautical and space, a field with complex technologies and environmental challenges.

Nine years ago, I started my journey at Safran, working on future engine performance, strategic studies and most lately, project management. Sadly, I came to the conclusion that there was no optimal solution to the aviation environmental footprint. In my view, the best solution is to travel less or slower. Hence, my professional position was not fulfilling my desire to take part into building a sustainable world. In addition, the 6th IPCC report issued in August 2021, followed by the COP26 in Glasgow was a trigger for me.

By calculating my carbon footprint, it became clear to me that individual action won’t be sufficient to reach the Paris Agreement of keeping global warming under 2°C. This is why I wish to dedicate my work to the environmental issues we face. I aim to capitalise on my scientifical background, my specialization in energy as well as my professional skills gained over the years at Safran, to help address challenges beyond my personal impact and through companies or institutions with significant influence.

With that in mind, I took part in a project at Safran looking to include eco-design into engine development process and more precisely consider the whole life cycle when designing a product.

2. To what extend are you involved in ?

Until being able to fully dedicate my professional work to the environment, I decided to volunteer in a number of local initiatives on my spare time.

Firstly, I am a facilitator for the “climate fresk”, a serious game helping to understand climate change drivers and encourage participants to take action. The game involves drawing a chronology of climate sensitive events as well as engaging with participants on how we can all act to foster change.

Secondly, I lead a project for “The shifters”, a French NGO. The project is aiming to create a tool to raise awareness on our goods and services consumption, which is way above our basic needs and highly harmful for the environment.

The personal enrichment I get from this volunteering work is far beyond expectations. Yet, whilst I see the importance of local initiatives, I am convinced it will take more to shift towards a more sustainable life on our planet. For that, I would like to gain credibility in the field, before taking it to the next level and joining a professional organisation working on climate challenges.

3. What are your professional goal and career project? How could EnvIM program help you to fulfill your goals?

My professional goal is to become a change agent at a private or public organization, or for policy makers. Namely, positions like sustainability consultant or manager. I am interested in assessing the environmental and social impacts of organizations to develop and implement sustainability programs. Likewise, a position as an environmental and climate advisor in a public institution, or NGO would highly interest me.

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