LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND—Earlier this month, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) won the Swiss Ethics Prize for 2006, which is organized by the Haute Ecole d’Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud (HEIG-VD) and its department known as Unit e²co. The jury, chaired by the President of the Council of State of the Canton de Vaud Pascal Broulis, rewarded EHL for the efforts it has made since 1996 in the field of renewable energy.
The school’s heating and power system, the solar cells and the small wind turbine are consistent with sustainable development, and also allow EHL students to familiarize themselves with the subject.
The Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne first began to develop its infrastructure on campus along ecological lines 10 years ago. Today, sustainable development and socially responsible development are integral parts of the curriculum offered by the world’s oldest hotel school. For the school, increasing understanding of sustainable development and its application to the hospitality industry at the national and the international levels is more than a duty, it’s a necessity.
Learning how to ask the right questions about environmental change throughout the world, anticipating, and explaining the issues and concerns that arise are all part and parcel of the courses in Ecotourism and in Management of Technical Infrastructure.
EHL’s students come from more than 80 countries. Upon graduation, some will stay in Switzerland, while others will take the human dimension of environmental problems, as taught at the school, with them to the four corners of the globe. All will be active participants in sustainable and equitable development, and will in turn reinforce the notion that in the environmental field the participation of local communities is an essential condition for changing human behavior. EHL’s graduates endeavor to develop partnerships likely to help all peoples, in all countries, along the road to a more prosperous and more secure future.
This year, 14 organizations took part in the second edition of the Prize and prepared the necessary application dossier. The jury was composed of six personalities chosen from academic, scientific and business circles, and awarded the three winning prizes. The creation of the Swiss Ethics Prize takes place in a broad socioeconomic context that encourages organizations, for a variety of reasons, to take an interest in an ethical approach to management. Against this background, its main objective, every year, is to recognize and to reward a particular effort made in Switzerland by a Swiss organization in the area of corporate social responsibility or sustainable development. A third edition of the Swiss Ethics Prize will take place in 2007.
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