We are a school rooted in the culture of Italian design, shaped by a spirit of openness, experimentation, and dialogue.
Our history is made of intersections — between disciplines, generations, cultures, and values.
We stand at the edge of the mainstream: close enough to engage, bold enough to question, and free enough to imagine alternatives.
Sustainability begins with who we are
We are made of different voices, different journeys, different ways of learning and teaching.
We hold together heritage and innovation, elegance and experimentation, rigour and freedom — shaping how we teach, how we learn, and how we evolve.
We believe that education grows through knowledge, but takes shape through values, awareness, and shared responsibility.
At SPD, this vision leads naturally to sustainability: the ground we stand on, and the lens through which we teach, design, and act.
It is a collective practice that emerges in the spaces we inhabit, the materials we choose, the care we show for one another, and the connections we build with the world around us.
It lives in daily gestures, and gains strength through the ideas we share and the alliances we cultivate.
We draw inspiration from the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which guide our commitments across environmental, social, and educational dimensions — and offer a framework for contributing to a more just, resilient, and generative future.
Our commitment to our students
We believe that education must be inclusive, transformative, and rooted in care.
We are committed to creating open learning environments where diversity is welcomed and opportunities are shared.
We support access through scholarships and protect student well-being through flexible, human-centred approaches.
Our commitment to our people
We believe that a school can grow only through those who make it alive every day.
We invest in our staff with opportunities for ongoing training and personal development.
We support well-being and balance, creating an environment where growth happens through dialogue, trust, and shared purpose.
Our commitment to our community
We believe that education must stay in dialogue with the world outside.
We engage with our city and communities through real projects and collaborations with non-profits, institutions, and ethical companies.
We act as a partner to those who share our values — and as a catalyst for positive transformation.
Our commitment to the world at large
We believe that sustainability should be a daily practice and a global perspective.
We embed environmental responsibility into how we operate — through recycled materials, energy-conscious choices, and digital habits that reduce impact.
We are committed to educate our students through experience, encouraging volunteering and participation as ways to turn awareness into action.
And we assess our impact, because transformation requires clarity.
This manifesto is both a commitment and an invitation. A commitment to embed sustainability into the heart of our school – as a shared responsibility. And an invitation to walk this path together, with the voices of our community guiding the way.
For this reason, we are proud to include the voices of our students — their ideas, their expectations, their energy — as a vital and generative part of this shared journey.
Because the way we learn shapes the world we create.
Every school holds the potential to shape knowledge — and with it, new ways of living, thinking, and imagining the future. At SPD, this potential takes shape through the voices of our Sustainability Ambassadors: students who observe their surroundings, imagine what could be, and care about how we get there.
Their vision sees the school as a living system — open, inclusive, and connected — where creativity inspires action, and design becomes a language of care for people, places, and the planet.
What follows is a shared outlook, made of ideas, priorities, and proposals. An active part of this manifesto — and a powerful reminder of what education, at its best, can generate.
Principle 1: Sustainability as practice
We want sustainability to guide how we learn and live, not just something we talk about. It starts from our daily habits, the spaces we share, the way we treat resources and each other.
We imagine a school where sustainability is visible in the environments we inhabit: greener, more welcoming, and climate-responsive.
We envision shared systems for reusing materials, reducing waste, and setting in motion everyday systems that inspire more conscious, smarter, more efficient ways of living and working.
Principle 2: An education that shapes the future — and the people who will lead it
We are here to learn — and we want to learn in a way that matters. Design education, for us, means understanding the world as it is, imagining how it could be, and taking responsibility for what we create.
We imagine projects where sustainability is embedded from the beginning — where limitations fuel creativity, and impact becomes part of the design process.
We hope for more opportunities to learn from real stories: companies, professionals, and practices that show what it means to innovate with care.
Principle 3: A school that grows through connection — and listens to the voices within
We want to feel part of a community — one that is diverse, dynamic, and built together. A place where we have the space to express, to create, and to be heard.
We imagine a school where students are not just welcomed but actively encouraged to shape its culture — by launching their own projects, co-creating shared experiences, and leaving a mark through ideas, rituals, and stories. Where creativity flows beyond the classroom, and participation becomes a way of belonging.