100 days to COP26

It’s 100 days to go until COP26 - the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - and the most important summit on climate change in a generation. As part of the government’s #OneStepGreener campaign, we are proud to announce that we will be hosting a two-day Design for Planet festival alongside the conference, on 9-10 November, held at V&A Dundee. This is a landmark event to galvanise the UK’s design industry into committing to a sustainable, climate-first future. 

We need to do this because design shapes the world. As Sophie Thomas (ref Dezeen) often quotes, 80% of the environmental impact of today’s products, services and infrastructures is determined at the design stage (ref DOTT), and 45% of emissions comes from producing the products we use everyday (ref Ellen MacArthur Foundation). These figures alone tell us that design has a fundamental role to play in getting to net zero and beyond. Design can – and must – help us fundamentally redesign the way we live our lives, putting the planet, and the people that it gives a home, at the heart of what we do. 

Design for Planet Festival 

Hosted at V&A Dundee, Scotland’s centre for design, in the UK’s first and only UNESCO city of design, this two-day event will bring together people from the full spectrum of the UK’s design industry, with around 100 attendees convening in person, and thousands more joining through live-streaming and digital workshops. It will include illuminating keynotes, incisive debates and expert panels, alongside hands-on workshops and energising masterclasses to inspire the design community and ignite action in the unique architecture of Kengo Kuma’s first and only British building. 

We want people to leave the festival with constructive insights and tools to champion design as a powerful agent of change. We aim to stimulate the systems shift required in the design industry to address the climate emergency. 

The festival is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, Architecture & Design Scotland and Snook. We would love further organisations to get involved too – to lend support and amplify to new networks (read on to find out how). Together we want to reach the 1.69million people working in the design industry, plus the those who use design skills in their work and/or commission design. 

To find out how to attend as a participant, look out for further announcements on Twitter @designcouncil or sign up to our newsletter here. 

Category: Place & Infrastructure