In recent years we have realised how important it is to accompany urban regeneration and transformation projects with paths of understanding and involvement of the territory, together with the people who inhabit it. In addition to energy and environmental sustainability, it is fundamental to look at the social sustainability of an intervention.

This is the approach that Hines, a global real estate investment, development and management company, is proposing for the urban regeneration project of the Ex Trotto, in Milan: an area that has been disused for ten years now, where Hines is committed to creating a new urban district with a pedestrian vocation that combines residences for rent at agreed rents, places for socialising and large green areas. Creating social value and promoting the principles of social inclusion and environmental sustainability are the key objectives of the project, which will be ready by 2026. The range of initiatives with a strong social impact that is accompanying the realisation of the new urban district of the Ex Trotto tries to trigger positive social change starting with the activation of responsible participation of the youngest.

The 'Schools Project' is a long-term project that has involved various schools in the area for almost two years. Promoted by Hines, in collaboration with Municipio 7 and with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the project aims to stimulate the development of a civic sense on the part of children, including through the re-appropriation of public spaces and a sense of belonging to the community. 

Among the initiatives developed is the series of workshops 'Futuriamo - Disegnando il domani' (Let's Future - Drawing Tomorrow), in which the students of some schools in the neighbourhood were guided by Blasco Pisapia, subjectwriter, scriptwriter and cartoonist for Disney Italia and Panini Comics, in the realisation of drawings interpreting values such as inclusion, sharing, active citizenship, identity and beauty of public spaces. During the school workshops, the pupils were stimulated to reflect and dialogue on the many facets of environmental and social transition, learning the basics of comic strip expression, which they then applied in creating the murals that decorate a portion of the caesarean berms that delimit the area of the Ex Trotto construction site along Via degli Aldobrandini.
In order to make the student experience even more shared and participatory, in February 2022 a portion of the "Futuriamo" mural was reproduced inside the Gaetano Negri Middle School.

The theme of safeguarding biodiversity, also in urban contexts, was at the centre of a second initiative promoted in March 2022, thanks to the collaboration with the illustrator Camilla Falsini, who devised a didactic pathway with the aim of deepening the link between the concept of biodiversity and the themes of evolution, respect and coexistence among the different forms of life that populate the Planet. In class, the pupils created flowers and plants, the fruit of their imagination, experimenting with the juxtaposition and combination of different coloured shapes produced for the occasion by the artist. The flowers and plants created by the pupils in class were subsequently printed in maxi format and became the protagonists of an unprecedented floral skyline, "1 km of biodiversity", another portion of the caesars that delimit the construction site of the Ex Trotto project area on Piazzale dello Sport.

In order to give full continuity in the summer period to the activity started with Progetto Scuole, Hines supported the project "Una comunità animata" (An animated community), promoted by Municipio 7 under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, conceived by Equa Cooperativa Sociale. Over the course of ten days between 6 July and 16 September 2022, educators animated the summer days of families in the San Siro and Baggio neighbourhoods, with playful events and workshops on caring for public spaces held in Piazza Segesta and the technical square in Via Quarti in Milan.

In March 2023, an open-air exhibition was inaugurated along the fences of the Ex Trotto area in Town Hall 7 which reproduces seventeen drawings, one for each of the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda, created for the occasion by paper artist Isadora Bucciarelli, author of the illustrations for the interactive book “Pianeta 30”, former protagonist of the free game-exhibition open to schools and families at the headquarters of MUBA – Museo dei Bambini Milano, which will continue at the end of June.

An innovative educational project that was selected in the short list of finalists in the "Education, training and work" category for the 2023 Sustainable PA Award, promoted by FPA - FORUM PA in collaboration with ASviS - Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development.

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, around 100 pupils from the Giuseppe Calasanzio Comprehensive Institute took part in an open-air educational workshop organised with MUBA educators. Using large-scale corporate waste materials, the children jointly created a special scale map of their neighbourhood, with the aim of increasing their awareness of the urban environment in which they live.

Between April and May the journey of "Pianeta 30" also stopped at the "Mare Culturale Urbano", which will host, starting from 15 April, with a program of free animated readings open to children and parents.