“We can help students develop their critical thinking skills”

In her former life, Siroune Der Sarkissian flew several times a year, managed corporate projects spanning several continents and devised ways to optimize supply chains. But after becoming increasingly aware of her company’s detrimental effects on society and the environment, she decided to step off the corporate ladder.

Today, Der Sarkissian is working to update EPFL’s degree programs by adding three core elements: a mandatory class for first-year Bachelor’s students that gives them a solid foundation in sustainability and systems thinking; new sustainability classes designed specifically for each academic department at EPFL; and greater coverage of sustainability issues in existing classes at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s level.

At the start of her career, Der Sarkissian never imagined she’d end up in such a role. She graduated from ENSIA (AgroParisTech) engineering school in France and took a job with the consumer-goods multinational where she’d completed her internship. She held various roles during the 15 years she was there, including in supply-chain and project management in France, Panama, Japan and Geneva.

“I was already put off by the consumerist society when I was a child,” she says. “During trips to Armenia – where my family is from – I remember being shocked by the piles of waste lying along the shores of Lake Sevan. But at that point, I didn’t really have a grasp of the systemic nature of social and environmental problems. Even when I was at ENSIA from 2001 to 2004, sustainability was barely covered in our classes. There was just one professor who spoke to us about the social issues associated with labor.”

Even when I was at ENSIA from 2001 to 2004, sustainability was barely covered in our classes. There was just one professor who spoke to us about the social issues associated with labor.

Social and environmental concerns

Shortly after she began working at the multinational, Der Sarkissian began to feel uncomfortable with industry practices: rotating 8-hour shifts that affected workers’ health; decisions made by management with little knowledge of the broader repercussions; and an excessive focus on profits. These social concerns were compounded by environmental ones a few years later. Der Sarkissian grew conscious of the negative impacts of fast-moving consumer goods, whose supply chains are spread across several countries and which consume vast amounts of natural resources to produce. She attempted to change things at her company – but ran into a wall. “We came up with an idea for reducing the amount of plastic packaging for one of our product lines, but the design department vetoed it because it wasn’t aesthetic enough.”

Der Sarkissian grew “increasingly vocal” about her concerns and asked to be more involved in environmental projects, driven also by mounting unease with the industry’s habit of constantly pushing consumers to buy more. She was assigned to a project to reduce the water and power use at 25 of the company’s plants worldwide, for example, but realized her scope of action was limited. “It’s really hard to change the processes of a large organization with such stringent financial targets,” she says. “You get caught up in an entire system.”

A new lifestyle

Some people she met along the way reinforced her social and environmental awareness. For instance, a friend who is also a doctor opened her eyes to the dramatic consequences of climate change. The cognitive dissonance she experienced working for the multinational eventually became too strong, and she quit in 2019 – with no other real career plans in mind. Then the pandemic hit. Der Sarkissian used the time to read up on and study sustainability. She got involved in local politics and set up a freelance business to give climate workshops based on the work of French NGOs Fresque du Climat and 2tonnes. At the same time, she changed her lifestyle completely, including what she eats and how she spends her free time. She even stopped heating her apartment – “something everyone could give a try!” she says.

A friend told her about the EPFL job opening in 2022. Der Sarkissian didn’t think her chances were very high, given her little experience in academia. But she worked hard to prepare for the job interview and won over the selection committee. She was hired into the education team within EPFL’s Sustainability Unit, where she’s now involved in various initiatives and coordinating the new class for first-year Bachelor’s students.

Getting the message across

What’s great about working with students is that you can help them develop their critical thinking skills at a time when their values are still forming.

“What’s great about working with students is that you can help them develop their critical thinking skills at a time when their values are still forming,” says Der Sarkissian. “They’ve often just left the family home and are meeting people from different backgrounds, making new friends and possibly joining student clubs – EPFL offers a lot of opportunities in this regard, which isn’t true at all universities. Students are at a point in their lives where they’re asking a lot of questions and forging their personal and professional identities. It’s an ideal time for exposing them to new ideas and broadening their minds.”

Der Sarkissian adds: “I love spending time with students. They teach me a lot – including that I’m sometimes completely off the mark! For example, when EPFL management asked us to form a working group to examine how we could better incorporate sustainability into our degree programs, we wanted to name the group Tech4Climate. But a student told me that for him, a name like that would be a real turn-off. And I realized that the name we’d chosen was too technology oriented and missed a lot of other aspects of sustainability. So we renamed the group Teach4Sustainability.”

Der Sarkissian then spent several months heading up efforts to create the new first-year Bachelor’s class, working with EPFL’s Vice Presidency for Academic Affairs, environmental engineering department, Social Sciences and Humanities Program and Teaching Support Center, as well as student groups and around a dozen professors and experts from EPFL, the University of Lausanne and other organizations. A pilot test of the class was carried out in spring 2024 with 150 students.

“Next year we’ll have over 2,000 students” says Der Sarkissian. “It’ll be a huge change, and our work is far from finished.” She’s spent a lot of time reviewing and tweaking the details of the class, including its workshops and main learning points. “These are tough decisions and require us to coordinate with all stakeholders. And we have to accept that we’ll make mistakes – which is why we’re running a pilot test.”

Critical thinking has been a constant in Der Sarkissian’s career. Her unorthodox path can serve as an inspiration to the budding scientists, engineers and architects at EPFL who want to give meaning to the work they do in a rapidly changing world.