Milan, July 2010 - Istituto Europeo di Design, the international education group in design, fashion, visual arts and communication and The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL), hub of the social business movement with the mission to eliminate poverty, announced a social business initiative to develop sustainable design.

The two leading organizations will combine their strengths to form a unique project, 'Y7Y Design', aimed at making social business excellent through adequate and future oriented design solutions. IED students from the campuses in Italy, Spain and Brazil will put their passion, enthusiasm and motivation into developing projects which will demonstrate that it is possible to innovate and generate new products and services on a multinational scale under the constraints of sustainability and social responsibility.
The concept of social business has been developed by Peace Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and microcredit pioneer, who will work in close collaboration with Istituto Europeo di Design in order to leverage the synergies of design and social business and achieve the mutual objectives.
The agreement was signed by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Co‐Founder of The Grameen Creative Lab, Mr. Hans Reitz, Co‐Founder of the Grameen Creative Lab and Mr. Carlo Forcolini, CEO of Istituto Europeo di Design, during the Social Business Tour 2010.
"It is within our mission to create a new class of citizens capable to develop and find sustainable solutions to solve ever‐growing problems and fulfill the needs of the planet population at all social level", declared Carlo Forcolini, CEO of Istituto Europeo di Design.
"Social Business aims at providing excellent and high‐quality products to the poor people at an affordable price. Launching a joint initiative with the leading design school IED will give us the opportunity to bring the products of our social businesses to a new level.", declared Hans Reitz, Co‐Founder of The Grameen Creative Lab.

Watch the video here.