image for illustration: The Earth seen from Apollo 17 by Harrison Schmitt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Design Council has launched its ‘Skills for Planet Blueprint: The critical green skills that all designers need’.
The Design Council writes:
Everything that is not made by nature has been designed by someone. Design therefore holds immense power over how our world is shaped. While design has created life-advancing innovations for some, the way that we design – the materials and energy we use, the waste we create, the voices we marginalise – has formed part of the extractive system that has caused the climate and biodiversity crisis. So, we need to change the way that we design to regenerate life for all – people and planet.
Cat Drew, Chief Design officer Design Council [said] ‘Green design’ sees all life on the planet as the primary benefactor of design. It is not just about the natural world, but the people that are interconnected with it; its stewards and beneficiaries. Green design takes a systemic approach to achieving environmental impact alongside social, democratic and financial value. And it is not just about problem-solving to eradicate today’s bad things: reducing emissions, pollution and waste. It is about imagining and creating tomorrow’s great things: proposing and building bold, alternative ways of being, shifting systems, and inspiring equity and inclusion. Our vision is that ‘green design’ becomes so interwoven into design practice that it simply becomes part of what we mean by ‘good design’.’
‘Economics sits at the heart of this. The cost of inaction is felt environmentally and socially (disproportionally in the Global South), but also financially: climate-related disasters have caused $3.6 trillion in damage since 2000 and unless immediate action is taken, global economic growth could plummet by 50% between 2070 and 2090. Green design needs to be part of creating a new economy that respects our planetary boundaries and allows life on earth to thrive.’
‘Design moves us beyond critique into action, offering pathways towards regenerative and equitable futures. It helps green technologies become adopted by all, it helps businesses create products and services for a green economy, it helps communities bring their ideas to life. Without designers, a just green transition is not attainable. The Skills for Planet set out in this Blueprint are not nice-to-haves, they are fundamental to human survival and prosperity.
The Blueprint aims to:
- Provide an overview of the core Green Design Skills that all practicing designers need to design for planet
- Create a shared language for the design sector
- Demonstrate the vital importance of design to a just green transition
- Signpost essential existing resources
- Build further momentum for our Skills for Planet Mission
The Blueprint does not:
- Cover discipline-specific, technical skills
- Stipulate how Green Design Skills should be taught or acquired
- Suggest what Green Design Skills look like across different levels of expertise, i.e. at school or in higher education
- Capture a design process
- Set out the supplementary activities that need to happen for green design to thrive, i.e. regulation
