Design Declares a climate emergency

Founded in the good company of eight pioneering agencies and practices, Driftime® have been involved in shaping Design Declares, a community-driven campaign accompanied by a manifesto calling for sustainable, enduring, and direct action. In joining the campaign, signatories are encouraged to respond to the Eight Acts of Emergency, starting by “sounding the alarm” of the crisis we are facing, and with the support of the network, continuing to measure their impact, redefine “good” practice, educate and accelerate change, pro-actively design for justice, and nurture a space that amplifies voices for change.

Our long term ambition is to build a “knowledge network” supported by the Design Declares toolkit, a free, accessible, and crowdsourced resource providing practical guidance and advice for designers to develop their own best practice, and to choose climate-friendly outcomes. The toolkit is shaped by established processes, tools and insights that make it easier for designers to make planet positive decisions, whilst signposting work by other designers and organisations including the Design Council’s Design Value Framework (opens in a new window). We hope to create what we describe as a “living and breathing document”, a growing library of resources that shares the same principles and founding philosophy as our climate conscious co-conspirators.

Driftime® are one of a select few leading agencies, studios, and innovators championing the campaign, having initially been formed by design and innovation consultancy Morrama (opens in a new window) and creative group URGE Collective (opens in a new window). Design Declares has the full support of the Design Council (opens in a new window) as part of their Design for Planet mission, with leading signatories including Morrama, URGE, service design agency Snook (opens in a new window), industrial design agency Studio Wood (opens in a new window), communication design studio thomas.matthews (opens in a new window) and us, design and impact studio Driftime® (opens in a new window).

Staying in keeping with the series of manifesto-led campaigns including Architects Declare and Engineers Declare, Design Declares offers a centralised space for a climate conscious community across design practices. It’s free to declare, we simply ask that you are a company within the UK, employing at least one full-time designer, or registered sole trader and practising freelancer operating in one or more of the industrial, digital, communication, or service design practices. We welcome those designers and agencies who don’t currently have any existing policies or actions in place, but look for an understanding that by signing, designers are committed to improving the reduction of their climate impact.

Traction is growing, with recent press coverage in Dezeen (opens in a new window), It’s Nice That (opens in a new window), Design Week (opens in a new window), London Daily News (opens in a new window) and other publications. Following momentum, and in uniting a community collectively “fed up with a lack of industry action”, Design Declares is looking to “build a voice” behind our industry-backed demands that will be put to the British government. We are calling for top-down changes inspired by a grassroots movement to decarbonise the design sector. Since its launch last week, the campaign has received almost 100 signatures from designers, studios, and organisations, a number expected to hit north of 1000 signatures by this year’s Design for Planet (opens in a new window) festival in November.

We ask you to join us, to declare your commitment, and to be part of the change.