There will be two projects with two different corporate partners within this IBP course. The research question raised by both is focused on ESG practices but formulated slightly differently.

1) Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield: How to make the Better Places Certification more comprehensible and user-friendly?

The IBP Goals:

• Get familiar with the existing sustainability certification in the real estate sector and assess the potential added value of Better Places Certification with respect to various stakeholder groups (e.g. consumers, tenants, municipality).
• Research the asset-level sustainability programmes and communication of URW’s most notable European competitors and compare with URW’s Better Places Certification. Identify any gaps that exist in URW’s Better Places Certification.
  • SES Interspar (online and on-site research)
  • McArthurGlen (online and on-site research)
  • ECE (online research)
  • Klepierre
  • Sonae Sierra
• Research the awareness/understanding and the perceived importance of the individual criteria of the Better Places Certification with a range of stakeholders (e.g. consumers, tenants, municipality). Identify any gaps that exist in URW’s Better Places Certification.
• Propose an effective strategy for URW teams to use/communicate the Better Places Certification responding to the individual stakeholder groups’ needs.

2) Raiffeisen Bank International: ESG regulation/practices in the banking sector

The IBP Goals:

• Familiarize yourself with RBI’s ESG Score Model – documents and descriptions will be provided.
• Review and summarize the respective ESG Score Models of other providers (at least 3), like:
  • Moody’s
  • Fitch Ratings
  • CRIF
  • Others
• Compare the ESG Score models analyzed with that one of RBI and answer at least subsequent questions:
  • How many data points and information per customer are collected by the other provides?
  • Where do you see weaknesses of RBIs Model?
  • Where has RBI to improve its own model to ensure a fair ESG assessment of its customer?
  • How are other providers ensuring to have a most efficient and probably automized data collection in place?

Attendance is mandatory.

The assessment is based on the abilities of students to execute on the business project, aligned with expectations of the respective CPs and academic requirements specified by the CEMS academic faculty. Specifically, it will comprise of the following components:

Group assessment:

- Mid-term Presentation (PowerPoint Document): 10%

- Mid-term Presentation and Fielding of Questions: 10%

- End-term Presentation (PowerPoint Document): 30%

- End-term Presentation and Fielding of Questions 20%

Individual:

- Mid-term peer rating: 10%

- End-term peer rating: 10%

- Participation: 10%