The design industry as a force for climate impact, from pollution to solution

For the month of April we’ve put a special focus on projects and discussions around Design & Planet in alignment with our 2024 Autumn Conversations events. The author of this article, Antonia Estall, will be one of our featured speakers at the upcoming Pōneke Autumn Conversations event on 9 April.

Keen to learn more about Greenwashing Tactics & how you can design credible sustainability communication strategies? You can use the code DESIGNASSEMBLY15 to get a discount on these Creatives for Climate courses!

Climate action is urgent, and good design offers a way forward. To become a force for climate impact, the industry must shift from supporting pollution to solutions. The biggest part of any agency’s carbon footprint is the work they do for their clients. The design industry has a responsibility to use creativity to turn ideas into action, science into stories, and despair into hope. To drive this action, Creatives for Climate has launched in Aotearoa; as a global non-profit and network, to influence the influencing industry to clean up its act.

Design and planet are not mutually exclusive; what is good for one must be good for both.

Designers are myth builders, meaning makers and visual storytellers, these skills provide the building blocks for a client’s social license. Design alters the way we perceive businesses and their operations. Divesting talent from polluters creates tangible impact in a way that tweaks to decarbonizing agency operations cannot. The design field is no stranger to solving large and complex problems, and addressing the climate crisis is well overdue, Designers and Agencies don’t just have a role to play in Climate impact; they have a responsibility to lead.

It may be an uncomfortable reality but, fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global warming – 91% of global CO2 emissions in 2022. Any meaningful stand on sustainability must be backed by a commitment to divest from representing fossil fuel clients. The expansion, growth and legitimization of these companies is the main barrier to climate action.

Creatives for Climate exists to activate climate leadership within the creative industries. The global NGO brings together the best climate solutions with the best creative talent to share knowledge, build a movement and influence industry, harnessing the power of storytelling and imagination to drive rapid systemic change.

Creatives for Climate is focused on three critical areas of action:

Movement Building: Building a movement of creatives learning new skills to drive change.
Industry Alliance: Championing frontrunners to drive ethical behavior across the industry.
Climate solutions: Connecting climate organizations to creatives to co-create solutions.

In 2023, we partnered with think tank Planet Tracker on a creative activation, to translate their research on greenwashing into a toolkit for creative climate action.

We translated their complex research into a simple ‘swatch’ that identifies an increasingly complex greenwashing landscape — including new trends such as green crowding, green rinsing, and greenshifting.

Formatted into a handy paint swatch booklet that fits into handbags and pockets, the toolkit is designed to be a reference to identify examples of greenwashing at any moment — providing a simple and provocative way to fuel conversations about brand accountability. The Greenwash Swatch is free and licensed under Creative Commons for anyone to download and use.

In order to lower carbon emissions enough to meet global targets, we must measure the right things. The Advertised Emissions Framework allows us to consider not only what it means to create the visual identity of a destructive client but also measure the impact of doing so.

A UK-based non-profit organization, Purpose Disruptors, developed the framework so industry, as architects of demand, can transition from promoting high-carbon brands to low-carbon alternatives and accelerate the societal shift towards a sustainable future. With reports released annually and the advertised emissions methodology, we can consider the role of design in advertising and mark it directly against the goals laid out at each annual COP.

Just as every communicator needs to become a climate expert, every climate expert needs to become a communicator. The tools for the design industry to become a force for climate impact exist, it is time to implement them. Success and saving our planet, will depend on our ability to step into the unknown; to collaborate, innovate, and experiment.

References:

ClientEarth. “Fossil Fuels and Climate Change: The Facts.” ClientEarth, www.clientearth.org/latest/news/fossil-fuels-and-climate-change-the-facts/.

Purpose Disruptors. www.purposedisruptors.org.

Copernicus Publications. “Data Descriptor: Global Carbon Budget 2022.” Earth System Science Data, vol. 14, no. 12, 2022, pp. 4811–4878, essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/4811/2022/.

Creatives for Climate. “About.” Creatives for Climate, www.creativesforclimate.co/about.

About the author:

As the Asia-Pacific Lead for Creatives for Climate and a Textile Designer, Antonia is deeply committed to climate advocacy. Antonia brings a unique blend of skills to her work. Her passion for driving change through creative climate action is fueled by her diverse heritage from Cook Island and her Irish roots. Antonia’s mission is to approach climate justice with an intersectional lens, making a meaningful impact in the fight against climate change