With the right tools, young designers can lead a new wave of effective climate action

But, first we need to ask

Where do they see themselves at the intersection of climate change and innovation?

How do they imagine that impacting their upcoming design career?

How can we teach that intersection in the classroom?

The New Wave Research Project is a one-of-a-kind research project that centers students’ experiences at the intersection of design education and climate change.

New Wave is meant to uncover:

1) How design students perceive sustainability in the design field

2) How design students want to see climate design integrated into their education

Now, we want to help design educators make that a reality.

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What we’re hearing from students

“We constantly have to be thinking about what material waste people are putting back out into the environment.”

“Designers have a responsibility to just do better.”

“The responsibility of graphic designers is probably supporting things that are right and doing your best work for those things that are right.”

“We hold the power of choosing who produces our stuff…that power doesn’t just lie with the company. It also lies with you and what you think should be happening with your product.”

“Each of the things we produce as designers has some kind of impact that we need to think about before we even open the Adobe program of choice.”

“Use the power you have, this awesome gift you have of art, to support something that is making a difference.”

FAQ

It’s a five-question survey meant to understand how design students perceive sustainability within the design industry and how climate change might play a role in their future careers. Students will be asked questions about their perceptions of businesses performing CSR (corporate social responsibility), how climate change might impact their future career, and where they see design’s role in social issues like climate change.
If we can teach students how to design for a sustainable world, we will be one step closer to enacting real and powerful climate action. To do that, though, we need to know what students already think about sustainable design, and what we need to teach them. This research will help answer that. It will inform the CD EDU initiative to develop effective climate design education that professors can easily transfer to their classrooms.
Students can opt-in for a one-on-one with the team at the end of the survey, or sign up for an interview before taking the survey. We’ll contact them to set up a time for a 30-minute virtual call, where she will ask them about their answers and questions that expand upon the survey.
Answers will be recorded and analyzed for common themes among students and will be studied to find relationships between different themes (for example, finding the relationship between their feelings on their current design education and their perceptions of sustainable design). The answers students give will be stored for as long as the research project continues.
Yes. Students will not be required to disclose their name or university, and their email will not be linked to their answers. However, students can opt to provide their preferred area of design, their university’s size and type (private/public), and their email if they wish to sign up for a one-on-one with Rachel to discuss their answers in more detail.
This research will inform the CD EDU initiative to bring climate design into their classrooms. That being said, the outcomes that are possible from this research include a climate design course, a series of climate design projects, a roadmap for tying climate design into mainstream design pedagogy, or even a toolkit for students to take back to their home institutions to advocate for climate design education.