ESE's Department of Innovation and Sustainability (DIS) is established

A new vision of innovation, a shared culture of impact, an educational and research platform open to the complex challenges of sustainability.

The European School of Economics, an international business school with six locations in Europe and a network of alumni, professors and partners active in the main centres of finance, innovation and social impact, announces the birth of the Department of Innovation and Sustainability (DIS): a multidisciplinary hub designed to accompany people, organisations and territories in the transition towards regenerative, equitable and measurable models.

The DIS stems from a simple but revolutionary premise: there can be no positive impact without a systemic vision.
The Department promotes a new way of understanding sustainable development as a shared and transformative experience, based on quality relationships, cross-sectoral collaboration and generative connections between knowledge, action and responsibility.

Underlying this vision is the One Health paradigm, which recognises the interdependence between people, the environment, the economy and governance. The DIS translates this interconnection into training, applied research, design and certification, creating an active and concrete educational ecosystem where schools, universities and companies work in synergy.

The Department’s headquarters is Milan, the Italian capital of sustainable finance and social innovation, a living urban laboratory, where sustainable solutions are co-designed with students, professionals, companies, public bodies and citizens.

The Department of Innovation and Sustainability at the European School of Economics is based on a unique, permanently activated collaborative network:

• Excellentia, an innovative startup with a social vocation, brings young people between the ages of 11 and 18, families and schools into the DIS pathways, activating an unprecedented intergenerational pipeline;
• Gaslini Academy, a reference institution for advanced multidisciplinary research, contributes scientific know-how and applied skills to projects with a high territorial impact.

A training of excellence and a new generation faculty

DIS offers a transformative, practice-oriented, evidence-based and real-world training.
The courses are co-designed with companies, updated on market needs and centred on concrete cases and ESG KPIs.

The multidisciplinary faculty brings together academics, sector experts and social innovators, in a third mission logic that combines education, impact and research.

Among the flagship initiatives, the first managerial One Health ESG Managertraining course will be offered from September: the first in Italy to train figures capable of integrating sustainability, social impact and systemic vision, with certifications and micro-credentials for professionals.

Data, metrics and tools to generate measurable value

Through the Digital-Twin One Health, the Department of Innovation and Sustainability offers a system for collecting, analysing and visualising real data related to environmental, social and governance indicators.

Results are disseminated through white papers, co-signed case studies, public events and annual impact reports.

In a context where sustainability is becoming an unavoidable competitive, regulatory and reputational criterion, joining the DIS Department as a Partner means positioning oneself among those organisations that not only respond to change, but drive it.

DIS promotes an exclusive certification model aimed at organisations that want to integrate systemic sustainability principles into their strategy in a structural and measurable manner.

But it is not just a label: it is a concrete transformational path, articulated in two operational phases:

1. Training – with purpose-built content delivered by a multidisciplinary faculty. Companies can train their staff through the One Health ESG Manager programme, a highly qualifying course that combines sustainability, impact and transformational leadership.
2. Design and certify – with the support of the DIS community: students, researchers and mentors co-design high impact initiatives, KPIs and prototypes.

In this way, the company gains recognition as One Health Company, positioning itself as an active agent of change, with benefits in terms of branding, human capital and access to sustainable funding networks.

ESE’s Department of Innovation and Sustainability is not just an academic hub.

It is an evolutionary, cultural, social and technological platform, linking education, territory, companies and citizens in a single transformative model.