Last week, Sandra Booth, CHEAD’s Director of Policy and External Relations, delivered a lightning talk at the fourth Design for Planet festival at MMU. Here are some highlights from her presentation:
“CHEAD is a sector advocacy body representing 70 Art and Design Schools in the UK, alongside a huge, diverse number of providers across all four regions and I’ll be focusing on opportunities and priorities for green design skills across the higher education sector.
The typical student designer will be ethically, socially and environmentally aware. They want to be planet positive changemakers in the industry. Potential students look at the universities’ website for their sustainability statements, and they can see straight through green washing. So, they enter with the mindset and the behaviours (as conscientious consumers and social innovators) to design for planet and they are aware they need the practical skills and attributes to deliver on this commitment when they graduate into industry.
There is a phenomenal opportunity for the University sector to act responsibly as green skills agenda setters and to embed green design skills in all UG and PG Art and Design programmes as a graduate outcome. We are currently working with others to define sustainability in the QAA subject benchmark statement for Art and Design, and to embed green design skills in the apprenticeship standards.
Design Thinking is being taught as a leadership skill and we can reach the C suite through executive MBA programmes and the Senior Leadership and Management Degree Apprenticeship Curriculum.
At the very best design schools, regenerative design content goes beyond the pedagogy and is embedded into practice/delivery. Technical staff running design studios and facilities are advocating for responsible materials usage and zero waste, use of sustainable sourcing, demanding consideration of product life cycles and reducing planetary impact. All students will develop climate literacy skills.
In a move away from hypothetical briefs into real life inclusive design projects, Students will work on real industry briefs, go on site visits, and enjoy placements with leading green design agencies and are taught to base their work on social and environmental principles. This encourages them to think about place and planet, take accountability for what they create, build increased empathy, deliver better design outcomes, and more responsible products.
All of this good practice could be upscaled as part of a green skills framework. Working to a defined set of standards that equips the green skills agenda setters in HE, and ultimately the students, with the skills to systematically lead the green transition. Students could be able to think about design as activism – and be positioned to be confidently doing this in a way that disrupts ‘business as usual’ and shows more accountable and sustainable ways of living. Design is the golden thread that de risks research, development and innovation and ensures better outcomes for all. Design thinking and practice should be embedded in all government departments, capital and revenue projects, programmes and planning. We need better frameworks, metrics and understanding of the unique value and impact Design delivers. The new Industrial Strategy is crying out for this.
We see educators and clients embedding the UN Sustainability Goals within project briefs. Using the SDG’s as a common language, we could all double down and embed a Green Skills Framework, built on expected industry standards. Beyond this we could work to Chartered Environmental Designer status where environmental design is a core pillar of continual professional development.
As the Design Council’s green skills mission framework shows us, there is an urgent need to upskill our existing designers already in the industry – where the demand for environmental design is growing. This could be done through CPD, short courses, micro credential accredited courses and online resources.
I believe the HE sector programmes are on the right path with their journey towards creating green skilled students and that the next challenge lies within upskilling existing designers to revisit education and training pathways, engage in knowledge exchange programmes with their local universities and create a legacy following the World Design Congress in the UK in September 2025 that could upskill 1 million existing designers to lead the transition.”
Design will be a major focus of 2025 for CHEAD. I’m on the Skills Mission Group and will continue to keep you updated on the plans for World Design Congress in September 2025 and how to get involved.
Further details of the Design for Planet Festival 24 can be found here and on the Design Council website.