Our History

In 1987, some few ambitious students at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland founded what nowadays has grown into a strong, and even more ambitious and impactful community of student change agents. Of course, this development needs continuous commitment and innovation over the years. Here a glimpse into over 30 years of oikos International history: Three years after starting the student club, the oikos Foundation was established as a result of successful engagement by the students of oikos St. Gallen. They envisioned a way to support the integration of ecological issues into the research and teaching of economics and management, a vision that had been fed by perspectives and voices of an increasing amount of members and visiting professors. Following these steps, oikos St. Gallen and the oikos Foundation played a fundamental role in establishing the Institute of Ecology and Economy at the University of St. Gallen in 1993. Over the following years, the interest in oikos grew beyond the walls of St. Gallen and the decision was made to turn the local student club into an international network of student change agents which has been growing and evolving ever since. In 1998, we finally went international, opening first chapters outside of Switzerland. Throughout the years we welcomed new chapters across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. In 2003 we created the oikos Case Writing Competition and Case Collection, which by now has come to be our longest-running program. Many programs and initiatives have been added to our portfolio ever since one example being the FutureLab. Created in 2011, it quickly became our flagship event for gathering the entire oikos Community and building partnerships among oikos members, alumni, academia, and other partners. In 2015 we kick-started what would eventually become another important pillar of our work - the oikos Leadership Program LEAP. Since its launch in 2015, the program welcomed over 250 participants and has had a lasting influence on their lives. Many of the LEAP Alumni return to the program as coaches to continue their leadership journey and help new generations of LEAPers evolve. The 30 year anniversary in 2017 marked a start of a new era in oikos. It set in motion the transformation of oikos International into a fully student--led organization, which was finally completed in 2019 with the closure of the oikos Foundation.

Ever since 2016, oikos started moving all operations to the virtual space, gradually replacing the office in St. Gallen with the homes of our team members around the globe. By now we work fully remote in over 10 countries, a step that has been greatly supported by our alumni and that has already proven helpful considering our relationships to our roots. Shifting the focus back on the work of our student change agents, which definitely deserves to be but into the center: Nowadays, oikos is a powerful student community with around 1000 active oikees, learning and leading in their local chapters in 48 cities all over the world. Together, we question how we want to learn, lead and live in a diversity of ways, on the ground, in our universities and in exchange with a global network of allies and supporters.