Guides to the university

Program Director
Francesco Perrini (Bocconi) - Raffaella Cagliano (PoliMi)

Assistant to the Program Director
Fabio Quarato (Bocconi)

Field of study
Scienze economiche per l’ambiente e la cultura (Field of Study LM-76 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007)

The MSc in Transformative Sustainability (Joint Bocconi – PoliMi Program; in English) is an internationally-oriented MSc aiming at providing students with the knowledge and the tools needed for transitioning companies toward a sustainable business and management approach, through the innovation of products, processes, systems and business models supported by technological advancements, and for understanding the influence of ESG criteria on governance, management and financial and investment decisions.
Actually, the transition to more sustainable paradigms must take into account both environmental challenges and social challenges, within the frame of a “just transition”.
In this transformation, technologies are a fundamental enabling factor: technology must be guided by an innovation process that starts from the vision and objectives and takes into account all the variables that characterize the business model and processes of companies.
In this respect, the program aims at combining the capability of strategic vision on sustainability (the why) with expertise in enabling science and technologies and processes (the what) through mediation of innovation and design methodologies (the how); the whole innovation path within sustainability is addressed from strategic planning to execution.

More in details, the qualifying goals of the MSc in Transformative Sustainability are:

• Provide fundamental interdisciplinary and advanced knowledge in the fields of Sustainability management and economics and in key enabling science and technologies for sustainability transition
• Develop competences on key methods and tools for sustainability
• Widen / deepen the knowledge into key enabling technologies for sustainability transition or theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship
• Foster the ability to apply knowledge adopting an interdisciplinary perspective and an entrepreneurial approach thanks to workshop activities;
• Develop a critical thinking approach and behavioral skills via ad hoc seminars and via in / out of class activities related to courses as well as via the internship (namely skills in communication, in interaction and teamwork, in addressing complex issues);
• Promote, besides English (language of the program), proficiency in another EU language (Italian for non-Italian native speakers).

In a nutshell…
The program aims at preparing professional figures who know how:

• To recognize and understand the transformations required by sustainability in the main business processes
• To outline and guide systemic innovation processes:
  • not only focused on scientific and technological innovation but also on the organization, management and business model of the company itself ("meso" level, of mediation between strategy and technology)
  • not only focused on the company or a part of it, but on a broader system, which sees collaboration with other external parties, or the main stakeholders and actors who can bring the different skills necessary to face complex challenge
  • not only focused on environmental variables but also taking into account the social and economic impacts of the transition.

Sustainability specialist

Role in a work setting
The role consists in supporting the sustainable growth and transformation process of the corporate business by integrating sustainability into the value chain: sustainability specialists contribute to the definition of the corporate sustainability strategy and support the institutional commitment towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and socially responsible company.

Typical tasks are:

• Support the design and documentation of the sustainability transformative strategy and roadmap at corporate or divisional level and/or cross-functional work with different company’s functions to actualize the strategy, by encouraging the adoption of innovative solutions, technologies, materials, processes;
• Management of various internal and cross-departmental sustainability projects;
• ESG reporting: design and implement reporting systems to monitor non financial KPIs and sustainability metrics;
• Acting as internal pivot/ambassador to collect and disseminate sustainability-related best practices and innovative approaches, also for internal/external communication purposes, and management of internal co-ownership of the change agenda;
• Monitoring and research of trend reports, policy changes and new regulations to identify potential impact on strategy and to support the roll-out of the relevant international directives;
• Management of key sustainability stakeholders’ relations (including international organizations, government, agencies, NGOs, associations, academia) and lobbying activities towards National and International institutions on sustainability legislative/public policy issues impacting the corporate business.

Skills associated with the role
Knowledge of methodologies and tools to:

• Develop strategies, programs and practices aimed at sustaining the transition of organizations toward sustainability;
• Design and develop new products, processes, systems and business models, exploiting the appropriate technologies, to tackle challenges and opportunities of the sustainable transition;
• Measure the sustainability and impact outcome of projects, processes and activities for management, financial and investment decisions.

Job opportunities 
ESG/CSR/Sustainability Offices or positions in corporates, NGOs and non-profit organizations, innovative start-ups.
 

Sustainability analyst

Role in a work setting
The role consists in:

• Supporting clients in their transition towards sustainable business models, by developing methodologies and tools in order to incorporate sustainability policies into business strategy and investment decisions;
• Performing research, working on reports, drafting position/policy papers to address the most relevant issues related to sustainability.

Typical tasks are:

• Analysis of scenarios and benchmarks; scouting of policies, best practices and new technologies; support for policy development;
• Support in the definition and implementation of sustainable strategic plans, to address the main sustainability issues and topics (e.g. climate change, circular economy, decarbonization);
• Close collaboration with investment professionals to perform analysis, produce an informed opinion and support fundamental integration of relevant insights related to sustainability into investment decisions; development of Social Responsible Investment Plan and support of ESG ratings projects;
• Analysis of sustainability risks, economic, social and environmental impact; definition of ESG KPIs; design of monitoring and reporting systems;
• Draft and review of Sustainability/DNF Reports; ESG due diligence and compliance checks on international principles and guidelines related to sustainability; preparation of draft background papers, policy papers, reports and studies.

Skills associated with the role
Knowledge of methodologies and tools to:

• Analyze strategies, programs and practices aimed at sustaining the transition of organizations toward sustainability;
• Measure the sustainability and impact performance of new products, processes, systems and business models for management, financial and investment decisions;
• Evaluate sustainability programs and activities according to ESG criteria and compliance with relevant principles and standards.

Job opportunities
Consulting companies, financial institutions, international organizations, think tanks, research institutes and academia.

The MSc in Transformative Sustainability (in English) is run in partnership (corso interateneo) by Università Bocconi and Politecnico di Milano; it involves mobility of students; moreover, in some specific cases, instructors move and teach at partner university.

The study plan includes:

• courses (compulsory and electives, with limited or open choice), seminars and workshops,
• a work experience lasting approximately 3 months (internship or similar activity);
• one EU language (for non-Italian native speakers: Italian is compulsory; for Italian native speakers: another EU language among those listed in “Guide to the University”);
• the thesis, which significantly characterizes the student’s academic curriculum.

Courses, seminars and workshops are organized in educational blocks, namely:

• Fundamentals of sustainability management and economics
• Fundamentals of key enabling technologies for sustainability transition
• Key tools and methods for innovation for sustainability
• Deeper /wider competences on key enabling technologies for sustainability transition as well as on theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship.

As far as courses (compulsory and limited choice electives), seminars and workshop (first and/or second year) are concerned, students attend at Bocconi in the first semester and at Politecnico di Milano in the second semester.

As far as the open choice elective (second year, semester to be chosen by the student) is concerned, students attend at Bocconi or at Politecnico depending on the elective they chose. Actually, both Universities offer open choice electives in both semesters and there will be an overall balance between electives offered in the two semesters to give students equal opportunities in the choice and to allow them to balance their workload in relation to the period of their internship.

Some academic activities are taught by Bocconi instructors only, some others by Politecnico instructors only and some others on a shared basis in order to foster a truly hybrid education. Credits of all courses, seminars and workshop are equally distributed between Bocconi and Politecnico di Milano.

The program structure of the Master of Science in Transformative Sustainability comprises educational activities for a total of 120 credit points.

First year of studies

(*Attendance is compulsory)

NOTE:

• code 20818 ‘Management and economics for sustainability - Module 1 (Corporate sustainability strategies and governance)’ and code 20819 ‘Management and economics for sustainability - Module 2 (Environmental economics and climate change)’ are respectively the first and second module of the course code 20817 ‘Management and economics for sustainability’
• code 20826 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition - Module 1 (Ecological processes, environmental impacts and transition towards sustainability)’ and code 20827 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition - Module 2 (Technologies for the energy transition towards sustainability)’ are respectively the first and second module of the course code 20825 ‘Technologies for energy and sustainable transition’

Second year of studies a.y. 2023/2024 

Moreover, in addition:
 

The courses subdivided in modules are considered passed, and may be recorded in the student academic career and certified, only after passing both exams of which it is made up. The final grade is obtained by the grade point average of the two marks compared to the credits and rounded up if decimals are equal or higher than 5, rounded down if they are lower than 5.

It is furthermore specified that the credit points and the grades earned for the individual modules passed will be taken into account for rankings within the University (e.g. ISU Scholarship, selection for International Programs,etc.) and they can be viewed by printing the unofficial academic transcript at Punto Blu.

In compliance with the educational objectives of the program and the ministerial tables, "Scienze economiche per l’ambiente e la cultura", field of study LM-76 of the Ministerial Decree March 2007, the program structure may be subject to slight variations decided by the Academic Bodies.
For detailed information on foreign languages see "Foreign Languages".

At beginning of their 2nd year, students will be required to choose 1 elective (6 cpu in total) from a pre-defined list of courses offered by Bocconi and PoliMito widen / deepen the knowledge into key enabling technologies for sustainability transition or theoretical methods and practical tools for sustainability management and entrepreneurship.

Students attend at Bocconi or at Politecnico depending on the elective they chose. Actually, both Universities offer electives in both semesters and there will be an overall balance between electives offered in the two semesters to give students equal opportunities in the choice and to allow them to balance their workload in relation to the period of their internship.

The list (together with courses’ profile) will be published in good time before the end of the first year.

The MSc Program Director will schedule specific office hours to provide students with information about the second year program structure and to discuss their electives. In addition the MSc Program Director is available regularly during office hours to provide more information concerning the program structure.

Office hours are published on the website at www.unibocconi.eu/officehours.