Within its strategic guidelines for 2021-2025, UNIJES has launched a collaboration initiative between the schools that form part of this network to address relevant global issues. These partnerships take shape in Reference Research Centres (RRCs), three of which have alreaWithin its strategic guidelines for 2021-2025, UNIJES has launched a collaboration initiative between the schools that form part of this network to address relevant global issues. These partnerships take shape in Reference Research Centres (RRCs), three of which have already been approved for relevant thematic areas that address the challenges our society faces. The three RRCs are: Migration, led by the University of Comillas, Development, led by Loyola University, and Environment and Ecology, led by IQS.
“The Biggest Investment We Can Make Is Educating Future Professionals about Environmental Challenges”
Cristina Alonso Alija, who holds a PhD in chemical engineering from IQS, is leading this new Environment and Ecology centre, her area of expertise after her career at the Bayer Group as Corporate Sustainability Director, HSE, and Head of Human Rights at Bayer. We spoke with Dr Alonso about this new challenge she is facing, how she is tackling sustainability issues at IQS, and about managing the new RRC.
What are RRCs and what is their role?
RRCs were created out of the committed drive by UNIJES to have a clear voice on issues that are important in today’s world such as Migration (in Europe it is an issue that is gaining more and more importance every day), Development and Cooperation, and Environment and Ecology, which arises from the need to care for our common home.
The Environment and Ecology RRC, which is the one we’re leading at IQS, was launched through the fourth Universal Apostolic Preference (UAP) of the Society of Jesus: caring for our common home. With this RRC, we are seeking to assess and enhance all the actions that can be done jointly by the different UNIJES schools to achieve a significant impact in this area. In addition, we are evaluating all the research and technological development that has been carried out in these areas of expertise over time at our school and in the other UNIJES universities.
Did IQS propose managing the Environment and Ecology RRC to you?
Yes, things sometimes happen unexpectedly. Since finishing my doctorate, I hadn’t been in contact with IQS until the interview that IQS Tech Transfer did with me during the pandemic, when I was still at Bayer. Afterwards, I sponsored the graduating students from the Class of 2023, which was a great gift to me and really exciting!
A year ago, I decided to leave the company where I had been working for more than 25 years because I wanted to use the remaining time in my professional career to do things I had not yet been able to do and take advantage of the opportunity to share everything I had learned during my professional experience. And one of the areas that I had not worked in, and was really looking forward to, was the academic world. I contacted Dr Carlos Malet and was given the chance to lead this UNIJES project, which I loved instantly!
What is your role as director of this RRC?
My role is mainly to develop the ideas that we want to implement as an RRC to achieve the impact that we’re seeking and make everything effective. At IQS, our team also includes Paula Huguet, support from Dr Oriol Pou, with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Dr Llorenç Puig, with the Department of Ethics and Christian Thought. In this first phase, UNIJES is in the process of forming the team, with representatives from each Jesuit university, and determining the priorities where we can generate the greatest impact if we work together.
Is it aimed at educating students in these fields?
Currently, the biggest investment we can make is educating future professionals about and understanding environmental challenges in order to take action: what’s happening, what will happen, and most of all, what they can do!
UNIJES is home to 55,000 students in various areas of study who will become tomorrow’s professionals in companies, government, education, research, and so on. If everyone can understand the impact they might have as individuals in the field of the environment, and all the social implications that all this entails such as ecological transition and climate justice issues, we will have done an important service in amplifying this work.
“If everyone can understand the impact they might have on the environment, we will have done an important service in amplifying this work”
One’s future profession does not necessarily have to directly involve sustainability, but people and professionals must be aware of their personal impacts and opportunities to make a positive impact.
We want to help future professionals understand that they will work in a world where climate change is already a reality. This will entail a responsibility for them to include these factors in business activity risks. But it also offers them unique opportunities to work in innovation and business while seeking sustainability.
How important is the creation of this RRC in our present moment?
I think it is more important than ever, especially considering the world’s current situation. Human beings tend to think that they can do little to improve the situation as individuals. But we can do a great deal!
Through our individual behaviour we can do a lot, especially through collaborative efforts that act as amplifying elements. And those of us who are lucky enough to live in countries with higher standards of living have even greater responsibility. The first thing we must do is exercise our rights as citizens and use our voice, but we must also think about how we spend our time and analyse our habits as consumers. If we also consider the role we play in our professional environment, we can see how our personal impact is multiplied.
Beyond that, we must be aware that young people will fully experience the reality of climate change. Today, mental health problems associated with the environment are an unfortunate reality. Through education, we play an essential role in helping to open avenues towards solutions so young people can take action within their fields of influence.
UNIJES seeks to be a powerful voice in taking on these challenges and producing an impact in terms of protecting the planet and working towards social development.
“UNIJES seeks to be a powerful voice in taking on these challenges and producing an impact in terms of protecting the planet and working towards social development”
Which areas of work will produce this global impact?
We see the Environment and Ecology RRC as very comprehensive, touching on three fundamental areas: educating and training future professionals; research, a very important element at all UNIJES schools, both basic research and research applied to companies and based on the strengths of each school by seeking synergies between groups; and the third is in our operations, or actions that we carry out at each university to make them greener and more sustainable and always seeking to have clear and powerful engagement to reach society which allows us to be a Reference Centre.
Within the scope of IQS, is there also a relationship with students and professors?
My second activity here at IQS entails leading the Sustainability Working Group. According to the role that our school has within the RRC, it is logical that IQS is an example and a space for experimentation to determine what actions may or may not work. Therefore, I have also taken on the leadership of this internal, multidisciplinary working group at IQS, which was previously led by Dr Carles Malet and is now formed by Dr Oriol Pou and Dr Rafael González, with the IQS School of Engineering, Dr Belén Derqui and Dr Llorenç Puig, with the IQS School of Management, Dr Núria Vallmitjana, Director of IQS Tech Transfer, Dr Marta Camprodon, with IQS Student Life, Professor Núria Llaverias, leader of decarbonization at the URL, Dr Carles Malet and Paula Huguet, and support from Juan Miguel Fornas.
What else would you like to launch?
I have seen that many actions not classified as “sustainable” are done here at IQS, yet they clearly contribute to sustainable development and we have opportunities to promote them, such as with a statistics class that uses public databases on sustainability issues. In fact, carbon and water footprint calculations are already done in engineering degrees. We also have strong research groups within the framework of sustainability, such as the Environmental Process Engineering and Simulation Group (GESPA) and the Sustainability, Economics and Ethics Group (SEE). We have many solid foundations, so we must continue building upwards, and I hope to be the voice that the RRC deserves.
“We have many solid foundations, so we must continue building upwards, and I hope to be the voice that the RRC deserves”
Does all of this represent a change in your professional life? Or do you see it as a continuity?
My personal values are aligned with the definition of sustainable development to contribute to “meeting the needs of today’s world without compromising the opportunities of future generations to meet theirs.” I can enhance everything I have learned during my years as a business leader in the fields of science, sustainability, and human rights in the new environments where I work now and beyond large corporations.
Working in these new environments represents huge personal growth at this stage of my career. All of us can and must seek to generate a positive impact on the world in which we live.