A campus committed to the environment – Report on two CSR highlights on campus: Nature Week and launch of the "Pasteur, Tomorrow" series

In May and June, two major events focusing on environmental and social issues were held at the Institut Pasteur. By stimulating ethical reflection, raising awareness of biodiversity and fostering dialog with stakeholders in scientific engagement, these events illustrated the growing commitment to social responsibility among the Institut Pasteur community.

Nature Week: ethics, biodiversity and collective engagement

For Nature Week, which ran from May 19 to 23, 2025, a packed program of events and activities was organized, led by the Ethics Unit, the GreenTeam and the CSR/RSE (corporate social responsibility) team and involving several teams on campus. 

A small exhibition on innovative research projects combining biology, ecology and medicine, driven by the ACIP and PTR incentive programs, was on display in the greenhouse. This year, these calls for proposals, renamed SPARK and PERL, are designed to offer an effective response to the challenges of biomedical research within the current research ecosystem.

The OMICS Agora hosted a series of daily talks and debates exploring the links between ethics and biodiversity:

•    Monday May 19, Angelina Mira D'Ercole (Legal Affairs Department) explored the environmental impact of neurotechnologies from an ethical perspective.
•    Tuesday May 20, Jean-Claude Dupont (Legal Affairs Department) and François Bontems (CNRS/Institut Pasteur) led a participatory session on the short story La vieille anglaise et le continent, to consider our relationship with nature and environmental protection.
•    Wednesday May 21, Anne-Laure Morin and Julie Allouche (Legal Affairs Department) brought the series to a close with a talk on the synergies between law, ethics and environmental protection.

On May 22, for the International Day for Biological Diversity, the teams in the CSR, GreenTeam and Ethics Unit staffed various information stands in front of the canteen. 

Guided tours of campus were offered to explore the surprising wealth of local wildlife. Visitors were also able to (re)discover the Jardins de Louis (a section of the CSE) plots, which offer Institut Pasteur employees free gardening on campus.  At the same time, creative workshops offered a fun opportunity for sharing and reflection. In particular, there was the opportunity to take part in bird-recognition games devised by students from UP Cité's DU de Médiation Scientifique Innovante, class of 2025. .

SEM (the company in charge of green spaces on campus) also presented its initiatives to promote biodiversity on our Paris campus.

Keep your ears open – the newsletter team will soon be offering a look back on these guided tours and workshops with the third edition of the Institut Pasteur's "En immers(i)on" podcast!

 

"Pasteur, Tomorrow": a new series of events to foster dialog between science and society

On June 5, 2025, "Pasteur, Tomorrow," a new series of events looking at some of the major scientific challenges of our age from the perspective of CSR, was launched. For this first edition, we were delighted to welcome the Tara Océan Foundation, a pioneer in scientific ocean exploration.

Henri Bourgeois Costa, Director of Public Affairs at the Foundation and a specialist in ecosystem geography, opened the morning with an inspiring lecture about the crucial challenges in ocean preservation, which touch on science, environmental policy and social dynamics.

The morning continued with informal discussions between the representatives of the Foundation, the CSR teams and the GreenTeam, followed by a round table with the CARE Department on how scientific expeditions can boost our knowledge and encourage environmental engagement.

These two events demonstrate the vitality of CSR initiatives at the Institut Pasteur and the growing involvement of its teams in the major challenges facing the living world. The CSR team would like to thank all those who helped make the events a success.

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Photos: François Gardy/Jean-Sébastien Clément/Institut Pasteur