oikos is an international, student-led non-profit organization promoting sustainability in economics and management. Founded in 1987 in Switzerland, we today empower student change agents worldwide to drive change towards sustainability in the curriculum and in daily life.

With our different programs, we aim to transform teaching and research and to equip our members with the necessary tools to become today and tomorrow’s responsible leaders. Conferences, seminars, speeches, simulation games, and other initiatives focus on topics like responsible leadership or transforming research and teaching and embed social and environmental perspectives.

The heart of our organization is the student change agents in our local subgroups, who are currently spread in over 50 universities around the globe. They are supported by a wide network of alumni, advisors, faculties, and partners, as well as an international team based in Switzerland. Providing platforms for learning, creating, and sharing solutions. oikos builds and empowers the community to solve the challenges of the 21st century.

Our Purpose:

oikos is shaping the world in several ways and on several levels:

On the individual level:

oikos shapes personalities. By addressing sustainability change agents in an university environment with tools and programs for self-development and awareness building, the organization enables and inspires its members to move forward on their learning journey and actively contribute to a sustainable world.

In universities all over the world:

With over 45 active chapters in universities with business schools in 4 continents, the organization has a powerful outreach to the institutions that define and equal education. Being organized in a self-managing structure, the single student-led chapters adopt their action portfolio to the local needs and address sustainability in curricular and extracurricular contexts.

As a global network:

As the subgroups and regions come together to form an international community, the influence of oikos also lies in the strong bonds created between nations, cultures, partners and student change agents all around the world. The glue that holds the organization together: a passion to contribute to a higher cause, to make our world more sustainable by acting on it and collaborating towards the goal.

Through contributing to planetary sustainable development:

By following our passion through developing, co-creating and implementing a diverse multi-level, hands-on commitment, we, therefore, contribute actively to a planetary sustainable development with a focus on the societal leverages of higher education and economics.

oikos is a community sparking with positive energy, a world of possibilities. Formulating the purpose of such a complex system in only a few worlds by a board of 8 persons is neither realistic nor is it valuable for the organization. This is why a process is to be developed that involves the whole oikos community and solves the mutual identification of the latter one.

Our Mission

To transform economics and management education by empowering student change agents, raising awareness for sustainability opportunities and challenges, and building institutional support for curriculum reform.

Our Vision

Economics and management education purposed for a sustainable world.

See the Constitution of oikos International.