Counting 180 members and 15 years of activity, IMS is Luxembourg’s foremost CSR network. Silicon Luxembourg talked to director Nancy Thomas to learn more about the role of the IMS, their newly launched Sustainability Academy and the role of companies in the energy transition.
Why was IMS founded and what is its role in the Luxembourgish ecosystem?
The aim of IMS is in the name: Inspire More Sustainability. We want to help companies become more sustainable by offering them the educational tools needed to take concrete actions that have an impact.
We also offer different working groups and activities linked to the three pillars of sustainability (planet, people, prosperity). We always try to find solutions together with businesses that inspire them and make them more sustainable at the same time.
What activities/services does IMS currently offer?
All our activities are organised by themes. We talk about waste, so we have activities linked to food waste or plastic waste and how to avoid waste and reuse furniture for example. We also have activities on diversity and inclusion but also e-mobility, carbon neutrality and corporate gardens. The full list can be found on our website.
Most businesses focus on one or two metrics, depending on their time and availability. We will organise working groups and trainings to help them tackle these in the best way possible.
“We think that if we can change people’s behaviour’s on an individual level, the company will also shift how it operates.”
Nancy Thomas
What changes have you noticed in the decade since you’ve been part of IMS?
When I first started working for IMS, around 10 years ago, our aim was to provide companies with information and raise awareness. Since COP 2015, this has changed. The Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) strategy formulated in 2016 in partnership with the IMS, the Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Economy has really mobilised a lot of local players and led to many more businesses joining the IMS.
How can companies combine profit with sustainability? Is that realistic?
To be honest, I think they can continue to have the same profits. Maybe in the short term, they will have fewer profits, but you have to think in the long term. Not many companies do that, however. It’s not enough to engage in sustainable activities for a few months which is why IMS is also about promoting new business models that can be implemented in the long run.
By joining the sustainability manager club we offer at IMS, managers can learn how to implement more sustainable company strategies. We support them in this process and tailor the learning goals to the needs of their company.
You recently launched the Sustainability Academy. What do you hope to achieve with it?
To clarify, for now, we have just soft-launched the Sustainability Academy. The objective is to have a real launch by the end of the year. We decided to create it because we wanted to give access to our knowledge and experts to each company and their collaborators.
So the idea was to concretely propose what we have developed over the years at IMS. We wanted to give the company’s employees the ability to exchange and learn from our experts and to raise the awareness of the employees. We think that if we can change people’s behaviour’s on an individual level, the company will also shift how it operates.
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