Event Takeaways
- Sustainability isn’t optional: Designers must integrate environmental and social considerations into every stage of their work today.
- Beyond human-centered design: Life-centered approaches encourage designers to consider ecosystems, natural resources, and non-human stakeholders in design processes.
- Action builds momentum: Incremental steps – such as using renewable materials, or introducing new frameworks – can lead to transformative change.
- Aesthetics have power: Visual choices play a significant role in challenging societal norms and fostering sustainable mindsets.
- Ask better questions: Reflecting on who or what is impacted by design decisions opens the door to meaningful change.
Watch the Event Recording
Appropriately held virtually, the event— moderated by Pivot Design Group Creative Director Ian Chalmers— featured three speakers: Taylor Kaus, Kaylyn Belcourt, and Benedetta Crippa. Each innovative, each offered a unique perspective on sustainable design. From life-centered UX strategies to rethinking industrial production and aesthetics, the event highlighted the breadth of opportunities for designers to influence a more sustainable future.
Taylor Kaus – A Life-Centered Approach to UX Design
“Designers must move from thinking about human users to considering all forms of life their work touches, including ecosystems and natural resources.” -Taylor Kaus
Taylor, a UX designer with a background in sociology and climate change, opened with a thought-provoking question: “Who or what is impacted by your designs?”
Taylor’s work with Greenpeace International highlights how life-centered design expands traditional human-centered frameworks. By developing non-human personas— such as one for water— Taylor demonstrated how designers can give a voice to the natural world. The water persona, for instance, allowed her team to evaluate the environmental cost of digital systems, particularly the immense water usage required to cool data centers.
Taylor encouraged designers to start with small but meaningful steps, such as brainstorming non-human stakeholders, mapping their needs, and evaluating the long-term environmental impacts of design decisions.
Kaylyn Belcourt – Industrial Design for a Changing World
“Sustainability isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about taking one step at a time to make things better.” -Kaylyn Belcourt
Kaylyn, President of Copernicus Educational Products and leader of Climate Designers’ Toronto chapter, offered a practical perspective on sustainability in industrial design.
Copernicus has been a certified B Corp since 2018, but their commitment to sustainability goes beyond certification. Kaylyn shared how her team reduced the carbon footprint of their bestselling easel by 32% by transitioning from steel and plastic to bamboo, a renewable material. To enable such changes, Copernicus developed their own sustainability assessment tools, allowing them to measure and reduce the environmental impact of their products.
Kaylyn also highlighted the importance of experimentation, noting that her team paused all new product development for a year to explore waste-based materials. Her advice to designers: progress is incremental, but every step counts. Whether it’s sourcing new materials or rethinking production processes, small changes can drive meaningful impact.
Benedetta Crippa – Redefining Aesthetic Sustainability
“Sustainability isn’t just about reducing harm—it’s about creating space for new ways of seeing and living.” -Benedetta Crippa
Benedetta, a graphic designer and educator based in Stockholm, challenged the audience to rethink the role of aesthetics in sustainability. She introduced the concept of visual sustainability, which addresses the societal implications of design choices.
Benedetta critiqued the idea that minimalism is inherently sustainable. She argued that visual design often perpetuates power structures, such as the association of “neutral” colours with authority or the exclusion of vibrant aesthetics from serious discourse. By addressing these biases, designers can create work that fosters equity and inclusivity.
Benedita urged designers to evaluate their aesthetic decisions through a lens of sustainability and equity. For example, she encouraged attendees to challenge norms like the overuse of black-and-white designs, which can strip away cultural richness
The Q&A session revealed the audience’s curiosity about applying these concepts in real-world settings.
Audience members asked how to address human bias in non-human personas, balance cost with sustainability, and use design to challenge societal power structures. The panelists offered these key suggestions:
- Collaborate across disciplines: Diverse perspectives can mitigate biases and lead to innovative solutions.
- Start small: Whether adopting renewable materials or questioning traditional aesthetics, incremental changes can accumulate into significant impact.
- Ask better questions: Always evaluate the “why” and “how” of your design decisions to ensure alignment with sustainable principles.
Q&A Continued
What are your hopes for your practices? Is there any particular goal to work towards? -Linda K.
Taylor: I hope to contribute to the broader design community by sharing knowledge and advocating for life-centered design principles. My goal is to continuously learn and refine how sustainability is measured in my design work, while exploring innovative ways to integrate these practices as a transformative tool. I’m also focused on expanding my collaborations with diverse creatives and professionals to co-design solutions that are both inclusive and sustainable.
Kaylyn: We have a number of very specific goals for our products, one such example being to reduce scope 3 emissions by a minimum of 50%. Overall though, as our company vision notes, we would like to “redefine what a successful business is”.
Many sustainable themes include considering new materials and ways of manufacturing but the financial cost of this change can be intimidating for businesses to adopt. What is your advice for designers trying to have a more sustainable design process in a company that prioritizes profits? -Alec F.
Taylor: In the context of UX design, I think adopting a more sustainable design approach is possible, even if your company isn’t fully aligned. Small sustainable changes often lead to a win-win, benefitting both the planet and business. For example, optimizing image sizes and streamlining content can lower the carbon footprint by making designs more energy-efficient. These adjustments not only support sustainability but also enhance performance, speed, and user experience, while lowering operational costs. By making incremental changes, you can demonstrate that sustainability not only supports the environment but also enhances user experience and drives long-term business value.
Kaylyn: My first step if someone/a company is focused just on profit would be to try to look at the numbers from multiple angles and put the benefits in terms they understand. We have had multiple cases where the “more sustainable” choice ends up being financially better, and sometimes better for the customer too - for example, removing plastics from our packaging resulted in better packaging design which cost less or the same, BUT was also a win for customers as it was quicker to unpack; another example - our bamboo products are typically lower MSRPs then their metal counterparts. So, can you look at costs aside from the pure material cost - what about labour, durability of the item, customer satisfaction, or other metrics? I would also ask - what is the cost of not moving in this direction? Hard to quantify, but worth considering - as regulations and customer sentiment change and evolve, there are costs in racing to catch up too.
I would like to know how to translate into design decisions after we decide on non-human persona for example water. If you could give an example transitioning from empathizing with water into a design decision. -Sana
Taylor: To transition from empathizing with the water persona into actionable design decisions, we started by understanding water’s relationship with the Planet 4 platform, particularly its connection to data storage. For example, we looked at how the amount of data we store and transfer impacts water usage through the energy demands of data centers. This understanding led us to prioritize design decisions that, for example, minimize data-heavy elements such as reducing large image and video file sizes. As part of an ongoing, larger effort, we are using the insights from the water persona to intentionally guide our decision-making and are exploring design and code changes to further improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Question for Kaylyn - The building of the calculator for your business is really inspiring to see since sometimes perfect solutions are not always available yet. Maybe this question is a bit niche, but how did you decide on using bamboo for updating Copernicus's products? I've brought up looking into this material before at my company but people seem reluctant because of the footprint from importing it. -Anonymous
When we first started on our journey, we focused on carbon emissions because although it was a narrow lens, carbon is an issue, we had some clear paths to address it, and we wanted to get started. Bamboo, compared to steel, even with importing it, has a lower emission factor (some of our steel is also imported). Now though, as we take a wider lens and work to consider total ecological footprint and other considerations, we definitely see challenges with bamboo; at the end of the day, all materials/resources are finite and have their pros and cons and appropriate uses. We want to look to waste next, as we feel like it would be more responsible in the long term, especially on products that in many cases are “nice to have”.
Closing Thoughts
“Designing for Tomorrow, Today” demonstrated the immense potential for design to shape a more sustainable and equitable world. The event’s themes—life-centered design, material innovation, and aesthetic sustainability—offered both inspiration and actionable strategies for attendees.
As event moderator, Ian Chalmers noted in his closing remarks, “designers and creative people have a great role to play. Let’s use our strengths to illuminate new paths forward.”
By embracing sustainability as a core principle, designers can not only reduce harm but actively contribute to a better future.
Stay tuned for upcoming DesignMeets events and continue the conversation on how design can drive meaningful change.
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About Design Meets
Proudly sponsored by Pivot Design Group, founded by Ian Chalmers, DesignMeets is a series of social events where the design community can connect, collaborate, and share ideas. Join us at a DesignMeets event to network, learn, and be inspired.
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