First-timers Section Explained
If you are looking at this page, you are either a design student or new to design for sustainability and circular economy. To get you a little bit more knowledgeable…
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01.First-timers
Radical Design for Sustainability at TedXBrum
“A look at the huge global changes that have happened over the last few centuries and how to get back on track. Professor Stuart Walker is Director of Design and Co-Director…
Biomimicry DesignLens
“The Biomimicry DesignLens is a collection of diagrams that visually represent the foundations of our design approach. It includes the core components of this approach: Essential Elements, Life’s Principles, and…
Cradle-2-Cradle
As a radical approach to life-cycle assessment, Cradle to Cradle was brought forward with the book of the same name by McDonough & Braungart in 2010. It takes nature as a…
Circular Economy: An Introduction Course
“Our global society is not sustainable. We all know about the challenges we’re facing: waste, climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity. At the same time, we want to sustain…
Pause, reflect, activate, impact: Co-designing Consensus and Dissensus for Positive Societal Impacts
“Societies are in transition, trying to balance the forces of globalisation with creating a meaningful (local) life. Our natural world is simultaneously in transition, forced to change by unprecedented levels…
Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation
“In a changing world, everyone designs. Each individual person and each collective subject – from enterprises to institutions, from communities to cities and regions – must define and enhance a…
Product-Service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions
“This publication examines the potential of sustainability in product-service systems, particularly in term of life-cycle approaches. It includes case studies of companies offering product-service systems, such as Auto Share of…
The Pearl Diver: The Designer as Storyteller
“Presently, we encounter a wide variety of ways in which designers tell stories of social innovation. This encouraged us to start a reflection on the idea of storytelling emerging from…
Ethics for Design Interactive Documentary
“Every day we use objects, services and applications designed by all kinds of designers. But does this mean that everything a designer conceives is done in our interest? Some interfaces are…
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: Outcomes of UNCED 1992
This is a list of 27 guiding principles for sustainable development throughout the world, produced at 1992 United Nations “Conference on Environment and Development” (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. The principles focus on…
Footprint Calculator
“How many planets does it take to support your lifestyle? Take this free quiz to find out your Ecological Footprint, discover your biggest areas of resource consumption, and learn what…
The Future We Want: Outcomes of Rio +20
The non-binding document as the outcome of United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio +20. It is largely a declaration of political commitment to Agenda 21 (Rio…
Living Planet Report 2016
“Global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, putting the survival of other species and our own future at risk. The latest edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report brings home…
OECD Better Life Index
This is a first attempt to bring together internationally comparable measures of well-being. It aims to address concerns that standard macroeconomic statistics like GDP failed to give a true account of people’s current and…
Good Country Index
“The idea of the Good Country Index is simple: to measure what each country on earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away, relative to…
Reports and Maps – European Environment Agency
“The European Environment Agency provides sound, independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. In close collaboration…
The Silent Spring
The seminal book of environmental scientist Rachel Carson on the adverse effects of the use of pesticides on the environment. She accuses the chemical industry of disinformation and the public…
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its…
Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development
The General Assembly, in its resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983, inter alia, welcomed the establishment of a special commission that should make available a report on environment and the…
Towards the Circular Economy
These three volumes on moving towards circular economy outline the rationale behind this transition. The first volume details the potential for significant benefits of circular economy across the EU, using product case studies and economy-wide…
Circular Economy
Looking beyond the current “take, make and dispose” extractive industrial model, the circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design. Relying on system-wide innovation, it aims to redefine products and…
Energy Parasites
“Energy parasites are handcrafted objects designed from scavenged parts to opportunistically harvest small bits of energy across public landscapes. Agnostic to energy origin or ownership, these artifacts redirect their captured…
Using Design to Influence Behaviour: On Energy Saving
TEDxTalk, Utrecht. Another aspect of design, not on designing products or built environments, but about designing messages to influence behaviour change with respect to sustainability. Creator: Deena Rosen Year: 2014…
OpenStructures Project
“The OpenStructures (OS) project initiates a construction system where everyone designs for everyone. It is an ongoing experiment that wants to find out what happens if people design objects according…
