Putting Design in the Frame
This week and next, we’re looking forward to a set of workshops from The Design Council. They’re all about green design skills, you see.
By the time this post goes out, we’ll be in the process of diving into what promises to be a fascinating series of online workshops hosted by The Design Council, each focused on a cornerstone of sustainable design. The Council intends to use the workshops to build out the content of its upcoming Green Design Skills Framework and is a key part of its recently launched mission to upskill 1 million designers in green design skills by 2030.
All good stuff. In our view, a skills framework specifically for design in all its various forms will be a vital step toward creating a regenerative world, and will mirror—and, we’re sure, in many ways overlap with and reinforce—comparable skills frameworks like the ones we see in Engineers Without Borders’ Global Responsibility Competency Compass and CIWM’s Skills Matrix.
“We need to re-design nearly every aspect of how we live our lives. Design shapes the world. So designers have huge power, and with power comes responsibility.
“We aim to galvanise and support the 1.97 million people working in the UK's design economy to help address the climate crisis and achieve net zero and beyond, making design regenerative and not extractive.”
Source: Design Council
Alongside optimising the operations of everything from airline flights to supply chains and from procurement to disposal, we reckon sustainable design presents one of the most important skillset challenges of them all1. We’ve written previously about how sustainable design incorporates the need for competences associated with things like building the right business propositions; engaging users along with wider stakeholder communities; designing for recovery and reuse; using the right materials and manufacturing processes…
Image: OpenAirlines
…plus, of course our old friend Systems Thinking, which by the way is Design Council’s first workshop in the current series. For us, this is where it all starts. Understanding interconnected systems—how actions ripple across ecological, economic, and social realms—is crucial for designing solutions that are genuinely sustainable. In this workshop, we’ll be looking for ways to make systems thinking a default skill, not a niche one.
Next, there’s a workshop on Innovation and Risk Management. Sustainability often means venturing into uncharted territory. We’re hoping for insights on balancing creative breakthroughs with calculated risks, ensuring that innovation doesn’t falter when faced with the unknown.
After that, there’s Influencing and Advocacy. Absolutely—design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Designers must be equipped to communicate their visions, build consensus, and drive change. We’re keen to explore strategies for embedding advocacy into design education and practice.
By the time this post goes out, the first three workshops will have already happened, and we hope—like the ones that follow—these will be posted online for those who missed them to catch up. Next week, though, we have four more, starting with Working with Nature. That’s a nice one—nature, after all, has always been the ultimate designer. This session promises to delve into biomimicry and designing in harmony with natural systems. We hope it’ll inspire practical ways to bring nature-based approaches into the mainstream.
After that, there’s Understanding our Impact. Going back to the Green Edge post we mentioned earlier, there’s a handy Circular Design competences we reproduced there that we feel no shame in repeating below, which contains impact assessment as one of the keystones. And it’s true—from the resources used to make new designs to the carbon footprints of their disposal, understanding impacts is the foundation of accountability. We’ll be listening for ways to make these assessments accessible and actionable for designers at every level.
Image: TU Delft
And talking of Circular Design, it’s no surprise that this has a whole workshop to itself. Moving from linear to circular systems is non-negotiable if we’re serious about sustainability. We’re curious to see how this workshop tackles the challenge of integrating circular principles into diverse design contexts.
The final workshop will be Shaping Places. A good one to finish with—design shapes the spaces where we live, work, and connect. This session’s focus on creating inclusive, regenerative places feels especially timely as communities navigate climate challenges.
As it works towards its pivotal role in hosting World Design Congress 2025 in London next September, we applaud The Design Council for the breadth of these workshops for the ambition of its Green Design Skills Framework initiative. At its heart, the Framework reflects a pressing need: to embed sustainability into every facet of design, ensuring it’s not an afterthought but a foundation. We’ll be approaching these workshops with open minds and high hopes—looking to contribute, learn, and help amplify this vital conversation.
With the possible exception of getting politicians to quit their endless regurgitation of green platitudes and take this whole sustainability thing seriously.