Results of the 2014 Philippe de Woot Award

The third edition of the Philippe de Woot Inter-University Award took place on February 18, 2014, at the Solvay Brussels School.

The award, which rewards Master theses linked to the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), went to Sylvia Feilhauer, from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Her Master thesis on “The product carbon footprint: Advantages of the supply chain and Conditions necessary for sharing information”, was unanimously selected by the international jury, meeting the criteria of the double filter of the academic jury for the first selection, and then the stakeholders jury , made up civil society and company leaders.

Sylvia Feilhauer, 27, currently Senior Business Analyst with A.T. Kearney in Zurich, was chosen among 25 other candidates- including students who received their Master degree from the CEMS international network of management schools. For the first time in the history of the Inter-University Philippe de Woot Award, the Master theses submitted originated from every continent. The theses were evaluated according to criteria such as originality, quality of research, scientific rigour and significance at a practical level.
The academic jury first selected a short list of four Master theses. These Master theses were then presented by the candidates to the stakeholders jury , which selected the best work produced.

Summary of Sylvia Feilhauer's Master thesis
The newly emerged concept of product carbon footprinting requires a company to audit its supply chain in order to determine and possibly reduce its carbon footprint. Yet, gathering relevant data can be a costly and time consuming task and companies often face resistance from supply chain partners that do not share the required information. This study demonstrates that product carbon audits are a means to create value in supply chains and formulates concrete guidelines on how companies can facilitate information sharing in this setting.

(picture: Sylvia Feilhauer and her thesis advisor, Prof. Eric Van Raaij, Erasmus University)

The winner was awarded a prize to the value of the equivalent of €3,000, €1,500 of which will go to an environmental or social project. She has selected to contribute to the construction of a school project in India.

The guest of honour for this ceremony was Bertrand Piccard, chairman and founder of the Solar Impulse project. He was accompanied by other Belgian notables and key foreign figures, including: Philippe de Woot, writer and professor emeritus of the Université catholique de Louvain; Bruno Van Pottelsberghe, Chairman of the Solvay Brussels School; and a large number of managers of SMEs and multinational companies.

In the framework of the 3rd Philippe de Woot award ceremony, a CSR seminar entitled "Should we get rid of CSR?" was also organized on Tuesday, February 18th, from 9:30 to 17:00. Speakers included Bobby Banerjee (Cass Business School), Marie d’Huart (CAP Conseil), Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University), Bruno Roche (Mars, Catalyst), Jean-Pascal Gond (Cass Business School) and Stefan Crets from CSR Europe.

To view the program of the 2014 Philippe de Woot award ceremony, please click here .

The 2014 award was supported via the Fondation Louvain by a large number of sponsors and companies, including Bekaert, Colruyt Group, Delvaux, FBNet Belgium; the Fondation Bernheim, the Fondation Louvain, GSK, GDF Suez; Iba; ING, La Libre Belgique, Lhoist, Solvay, Spadel and Umicore.
The full list of contributors to the Philippe de Woot award is available here .

For information about the 2014 Philippe de Woot Award, you can also visit the Solvay Brussels School website.