In November 2021, the University of Ferrara published an interview with Elena Alberti, creator of the digital business game that represents the original core of what we now know as Koesi.
Published in the People section, the article retraces the beginnings of her work—from the first insights to the workshop’s adoption by companies.
According to Unife, Elena—an alumna of the University’s Bachelor’s degree in Communication and later a graduate in Strategic Communication at IULM—turned her Master’s thesis into a project designed to raise awareness among students, citizens, and companies about environmental sustainability. Her initial goal was clear: to understand whether, and how, communication could influence managers’ decisions when facing a dilemma related to the management of natural resources.
In the interview, Elena explains how, after graduating, she began promoting her workshop to professionals via LinkedIn and received an immediate response from Alberto Chiappinotto, Sustainability Manager at Electrolux, who believed in the project and supported her as a coach in its first corporate applications. This led to early experiences with nine companies in the Veneto region, which took part in the digital business game and provided very positive feedback.
As described in the article, the game recreates a modern industrial scenario in which groups of participants must decide how to manage a single shared resource, balancing profit, impacts, and responsibility. A central element is communication: teams can only speak to one another at specific moments, making it clear how dialogue and cooperation affect the final outcome.
The interview also touches on Elena’s path to the TEDx Cortina stage, where she presented the results of her work, highlighting how “working as a team” is a key factor in addressing sustainability in a meaningful way.
To close the conversation, Unife asks about her goals for the future: to continue working in sustainability, generate positive impact, and build a professional journey rooted in commitment, networks, and continuous learning. Elena concludes with advice for young people and anyone launching innovative projects: to “put yourself out there, network, find professional allies, and build small, concrete steps.”
This interview offers a valuable testimony of the project’s origins—an idea that would later evolve into Koesi, an innovative startup dedicated to bringing sustainability into organizations through interactive and engaging tools.
👉 Read the full interview on the University of Ferrara website
