Design like there’s a climate crisis
#designandclimate is an open community for anyone who finds our resources useful in their work. Through face to face meet-ups and continued conversations, the community is openly building and sharing tools and guidance to help designers adapt their practice to always been designing with planet in mind.
From initial client meetings through to designing every touchpoint of a service, and how we run our own studio practice, designers have the privilege and the responsibility to influence how people (clients, colleagues, users) think and behave.
#designandclimate was started to give designers everywhere practical tools and guidance to step up to the challenge and get started now. This community is also about holding each other accountable to design better - for people & planet.
Here's a guide to how we work.
What can design do for the climate & ecological emergency?
Climate change is a symptom of a system out of control. Stuck in a loop of exponential growth, extractive consumption, and waste: a system that was designed to optimise financial profit without considering the damaging impact on people and planet.
As designers, we are in the privileged position to put objects, ideas, and services into the world for others to use, which is why we must be mindful of the bigger system that we operate within. We need to educate ourselves and upgrade our design practices to not only reduce the symptoms of our current climate emergency, but prevent doing more harm than good.
We need to design a human world that is in balance with our natural planetary systems. It’s time to accept that our current system is broken and rethink what it means to be a human living on earth.
Collectively we have a lot of power to influence:
- Our practice: from commissioning to leaving things well
- Our relationships: influencing the people we're lucky to work with and for
- Our community: through a commitment to openness