EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK
Italy: EIB provides €50 million to support Bocconi's green investments

Highlights

• Buildings will be built and renovated according to the highest energy efficiency standards
• The project also involves the construction of a nursery and the modernisation of student housing and other academic spaces
• In the last ten years, the EIB has provided over 630 million in financing to Italian universities
• The financing operation announced today (Sept 27) comes under the EIB's REPowerEU initiative

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing 50 million towards the upgrading and decarbonisation of Bocconi University in Milan to provide modern, sustainable, state-of-the-art facilities for students. The loan signed today (Sept 27) in Milan by EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and Bocconi Managing Director Riccardo Taranto is the first 30 million tranche of total financing of 50 million approved by the EIB.

Thanks to this EIB financing, buildings on the Bocconi campus will be built, renovated and modernised according to the highest energy efficiency standards to reduce CO2 emissions and make infrastructure more resilient to future extreme weather events. In addition, the project involves the construction of a new nursery to meet the needs of the university community and residents of the neighbourhood, in line with the university's aim of opening up to the city, as already initiated with the inauguration of the Bocconi Sport Center.

Other academic spaces, including student housing, will be refurbished as part of the Milan university's decarbonisation plan. Following the work's completion at the end of 2029, more than 58 000 m² of the Bocconi campus will have been refurbished thanks to this key investment.

"This operation shows the EIB and Bocconi's tangible commitment to promoting innovation and environmental sustainability to create new academic opportunities and foster the professional development of young talent. The EIB is determined to promote Europe's energy transition. This financing represents a step towards creating a state-of-the-art campus from an environmental perspective and provides tangible evidence of the EIB's commitment to supporting the objectives of REPowerEU," said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti.

"We aim to improve the liveability of our campus, provide our community of students, professors and staff with teaching and work spaces of the highest quality standards, open up more to the city and react positively to the challenge of climate change. We intend to achieve carbon neutrality (direct Scope 1 and indirect Scope 2 emissions) by 2025 before focusing on net-zero objectives concerning all the other main indirect emissions. To this end, we have already had many positive results such as generating our own energy from renewable photovoltaic and geothermal sources. Furthermore, all the electricity that we acquire from third parties comes from renewable sources with a guarantee of origin, resulting in zero indirect emissions. This new operation, made possible thanks in part to the EIB loan, will enable us to continue to develop the sustainable urban campus project, helping us to further raise quality," explained Bocconi Managing Director Riccardo Taranto.

The main projects financed using the resources made available by the EIB concern the demolition and reconstruction of two existing buildings (Bocconi 6/8 and Sraffa 11) to make them more energy sustainable. These two buildings will be classified as NZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Building) and aim to obtain LEED Platinum certification. Bocconi's new nursery, which is at an advanced design stage, will also have a high energy performance level.

The financing announced today is part of the REPowerEU initiative supported by the EIB, which will invest an additional 30 billion over the next five years to unlock 115 billion, promoting the green transition and gradually reducing Europe's dependence on fossil fuels.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) finances projects in four priority areas: infrastructure, innovation, climate and environment, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Between 2019 and 2022, the EIB Group provided 45 billion in financing for projects in Italy.