Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – "Moving forward means asking ourselves how we can behave today so as not to compromise the future of those who come after us. It means valuing diversity in action, not just words; regenerating abandoned spaces and restoring communities to places that create connections and value; providing young people with the tools to become true agents of change; producing clean, renewable energy locally for the benefit of communities and territories; and implementing measured and measurable work-life balance policies."
These are some of the answers visitors to the recently concluded CSR and Social Innovation Fair in Milan gave to the question "What does going beyond mean to you?", inspired by the title of the 14th edition. Not just a simple question, but an immersive installation, called Vox Pop AI and created in collaboration with More Interactive, which over the three days of the event—October 6th to 8th at Bocconi University—brought to life an interactive wall of faces, names, and ideas.
The words of the participants, 200 people from businesses, civil society, and academia, were processed by artificial intelligence to generate a real-time analysis of sentiments and opinions on key sustainability issues.
Data processing revealed that sustainability is, first and foremost, a collective need. Rethinking community life and redesigning relationships within it are the priority needs today.
"For me," says one of the participants, "going beyond means seeking a different angle, looking at things from a fresh perspective to generate value." It's no coincidence that the most frequently used keywords in this context were community, trust, and young people. Like relationships, impact and environment top the list, along with community and territory. Once again, the need to regenerate the planet emerges, primarily from an environmental perspective. Sustainable mobility, clean energy, urban regeneration, and the reclamation of abandoned spaces are priorities that can no longer be postponed, even for individual citizens. More generally, there's a need for sustainability to be integrated into every aspect of our lives and "no longer seen as just another adjective." To achieve this, the path indicated by the Salone attendees is clear: investing in innovation, development, and the new generations.
The response from young people was overwhelming: over 200 students participated in the Salone, actively engaging in the activities and bringing the event to life through intergenerational engagement. In addition to the 546 speakers and 254 companies and organizations involved in the 120 scheduled events, 6.500 people attended this year's Salone, confirming that a sense of community and the direct involvement of individuals are crucial elements in addressing sustainability challenges today.
"The 2026 edition of the Salone brought so much positive energy," commented Rossella Sobrero, of the Salone's promoting group. "If anyone thinks sustainability issues have been forgotten, I invite them to come to the Salone next year. They will discover that sustainability is at the heart of organizations' interests, the commitment of individuals, and even young people, which we are particularly pleased about: convinced of the urgency of concrete change, young people are asking companies to work increasingly in this direction. At this year's Salone, we wanted to highlight several important themes, including peace, a commitment to businesses, inclusivity, and the energy transition: these are some of the priorities we must keep in mind, both here at the Salone and in our everyday lives."
Engaging visitors through concrete actions is one of the goals of the Fair. One of the challenges launched to the public is the "Time Capsule," created in partnership with AWorld. Thanks to this challenge, visitors could choose up to three sustainable actions from those proposed via an app and commit to carrying them out throughout the year with the help of targeted reports and reminders. This year, the Fair surpassed the goal of 1000 commitments, which will see Rete Clima create a wetland in the Bosco della CSR forest in Nova Milanese (MB).
Looking more closely at good practices, the most popular ones focus on reducing pollution and waste, confirming that sustainability also comes from small, everyday gestures. The use of reusable water bottles tops the list, followed by walking distances under 2 km, donating unused clothing, repairing items instead of throwing them away, shopping secondhand, and cooking using waste-reducing recipes.
Food waste was also the focus of another interactive activity, particularly popular with younger visitors: with "Altromangiare," visitors tried their hand at organizing a sustainable refrigerator, properly arranging food according to storage temperature and interpreting labels and expiration dates. It was a fun way to support the fight against waste, which affects both individuals and businesses, exactly ten years after the entry into force of the Gadda Law 166/2016 on the recovery of surplus food.
Going beyond, the focus of the 2026 CSR Salone, also means expanding the concept of sustainability to include artistic and cultural productions. Art welcomed visitors at the entrance to Bocconi with a new participatory approach, thanks to live painting by the Milanese art collective Orticanoodles. Throughout the event, the public was able to witness the creation of a large-scale pictorial work, composed of 12 large panels, all titled Look Beyond. Canvas after canvas, the artists made visible what is needed to "go beyond": a brain, a heart, a rudder to stay on course, a paper boat to keep dreaming, and books to develop knowledge. Simple yet powerful images, also designed for a younger audience: the panels will be donated to six schools in Milan, to continue spreading the Salone's message to new generations.
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