With the “Alliance for Global Sustainability” and the “Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development”, Stephan Schmidheiny laid the foundation for two groundbreaking centers for the study of concepts on social and ecological sustainability. Stephan Schmidheiny also contributed significantly to the creation of the IMD Global Family Business Center that performs fundamental research and training in the family enterprise field.
Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development
The “Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development” LACCSD is the leading research centre at the INCAE Business School in Costa Rica and one of the most important institutions of its kind in Latin America. It serves as a think tank for the regional governments, private sector and civil societies and supports the shift towards a socially and ecologically more sustainable society.
Stephan Schmidheiny founded the LACCSD in 1996, together with Roberto Artavia, at the time the rector of the INCAE Business School (until 2007). Through his Avina Stiftung, Stephan Schmidheiny contributed a substantial start-up support; through the years, the contribution of Avina was gradually replaced by profitable projects of the think tank and successful fundraising. Thus, the LACCSD achieved financial independence and operational sustainability.
IMD Global Family Business Center
In 1986, Stephan Schmidheiny was appointed Chairman of the International Management Institute IMI in Geneva. Founded in 1946 from Alcan, the IMI specialized on the training of managers and therefore is active in a similar area as the neighbouring Lausanne Institut pour l’Etude des domiciled Méthodes de Direction de l’Entreprise IMEDE, which was founded by Nestle in 1957. Soon after taking office, Stephan Schmidheiny recognized that a bundling of forces would be of great benefit for both institutions and therefore he actuated the merger of the two institutions.
Then in 1989, the merger of two institutes to the International Institute for Management Development IMD was announced. The IMD, domiciled in Lausanne Switzerland, is now one of the world’s leading institutions in the field of management education (MBA, Executive MBA, Executive Education).
Already at the IMI, Stephan Schmidheiny launched together with the Canadian Entrepreneur Frank Tilley the Family Firm Institute (FFI), which conducted research and training in the field of family business. After the merger of IMI and IMEDE, this initiative led to the IMD Global Family Business Center, which offers a unique training program today: “Leading the Family Business”. In 1990, Stephan Schmidheiny donated to the IMD the Stephan Schmidheiny Chair of Family Enterprises. This chair, which today is called Stephan Schmidheiny professorship of Entrepreneurship and Finance, is to conduct research and training in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. In 1992, Stephan Schmidheiny withdrew from the Foundation Board of IMD.
Alliance for Global Sustainability
The Alliance for Global Sustainability(AGS) was an international partnership between four of the world’s leading scientific research universities: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, the University of Tokyo and the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The objective of the AGS was to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teams to work towards solutions to the major environmental problems society is increasingly facing.
Stephan Schmidheiny laid the groundwork for this unique partnership in 1996. He formulated the idea for the Alliance for Global Sustainability and selected MIT, ETH and the University of Tokyo as partners for the organization. Stephan Schmidheiny provided significant support in the development of the Alliance, in terms of both content and financing, via his Avina Stiftung foundation. He served as the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the AGS from 1996 to 2001. The alliance was dissolved in 2011.