Design As A Force for Good - A Call For Climate Action

During these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever to reflect and reevaluate what we're really doing with our lives and profession, to ask how we can contribute to make the world a better place, and question what world do we want to emerge into after the lockdown is lifted - and what part did we play in shaping that?

So, can creative designers and digital agencies really change the world? Whilst we’ll struggle to do everything on our own, we certainly have a major part to play. And with the wealth of knowledge, skills and creativity, it would be a huge missed opportunity if we didn’t at least try!

Note: This essay is a rework of my Leeds Digital Festival 2020 talk, where I asked “Can Digital Agencies Save The Planet?”

Starting at home.

I love Leeds, it’s my adopted hometown for the past decade and I’m so proud to live and work here. It’s an amazing and vibrant place that is home to some of the most innovative creative digital agencies in the country. Leeds City Council recently declared a climate emergency, which underscores the importance of acting.

With over 100,000 creative, forward thinking and potential problem-solving people in the Leeds digital sector it’s important to realise that there is no bigger problem facing us today than climate breakdown.

We can’t go on as business as usual, as that’s what got us in this mess in the first place. There are no design agencies on a planet that cannot sustain human life, so it’s in our own interests to act, and to act now.

Disruption? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

At the time of writing this, we are currently living through unprecedented disruption due to coronavirus and the lockdown. We’re all being forced to adapt and change how we live and work; taking our meetings online, remaining indoors, and quickly adopting digital transformation at all costs.

But this disruption is nothing compared to the disruption the results of climate breakdown will have on our society. During these difficult times, I ask “What can we learn from the lockdown? What have we already learnt? How have we already adapted? And what would like to keep as we emerge into a very different world post-lockdown?”

How can we become more resilient as individuals, digital agencies, and society when faced with the biggest problem of our generation?

Luckily, we have you people like you - and your colleagues, bosses, friends and networks who have the skills, creativity, ideas and resources to do something about it. Because as much as I believe big industry and governments need to act, we each have a responsibility to do what we can in any capacity we can. And big organisations are ultimately made up of individual people. So I want to help inspire people-power, inspire business leaders to act, and inspire collective action.

So what can we do together?

Create a network of agencies and designers committed to reducing their footprint, reflecting on their business practices, and using their skills and creativity for good
Empower digital teams to make change - give our people the tools and inspiration needed to become champions and drive the change needed
Create meaningful partnerships to maximise our impact - we can’t do this in isolation, and there are plenty of groups that are actively working towards a more sustainable city of Leeds
Build a framework for all agencies across the UK to adopt - a common understanding of success, a shared language to adopt, and unified measurement framework to help hold each other to account and support our progress.
Make our industry carbon neutral by 2030 - in line with what the science is telling us, so we need to act. And act together.

So, speaking of people, and people acting together… who am I to be saying all this?

If you don’t know me or my work, my name is Will Saunders. I’ve been a designer in the creative industry for about 12 years. My many roles include graphic designer, illustrator, art director, animator, brand manager, and small agency-owner.

I recently set up Good Will Studios, the website you are reading this on now, as a means to use my creativity for good and position ethical brands, sustainable businesses, and non-profits for success. Because I believe the ‘so-called’ third sector, and organisations that exist to do something other than maximise profits at any cost, should have all the tools available to them to succeed in this competitive world.

Having lived in the digital creative world my whole professional life I know and understand the culture - busy, often boozy and fuelled by pizza and coffee, and there’s not much time to think about anything other than the project, and we tend to think we’re doing ok environmentally - paper free, not producing real things, but there’s a lot we can do.

We have a responsibility tot just in making our own businesses greener and more climate resilient - but importantly using our platforms, resources, skills to communicate an important message.

So the question I’ve been asking myself, and am now asking you…

Can we redesign the design industry for good?

I think we can!

However, when we talk about and approach climate change it can feel daunting, scary, and impossible to make a difference. So it’s helpful to break it down into areas that we can understand and tackle.

I’ve identified 3 areas:

The 3 Ps of Agency Climate Action

People - how can review the behaviours and climate footprints of the people within our organisations; from board level to the interns - we can all play an important role. And how can we reach people within influence, and inspire and empower them to make positive change. There are climate champions within every team, in every organisation, just waiting to be empowered to act and drive positive change from within.
Properties - not only reviewing and adapting our physical offices and work spaces (or in these times, our home offices and kitchen tables!) but our digital properties. We need to understand the emissions of the data centres that run our apps and websites, and how ask green our hosting really is - but also reflect upon and understand the incredible positive potential to use our websites, social channels, and client projects to promote a sustainability message. Imagine the impact we could have if we bring our client list on board, and coordinate a unified message declaring that we are taking real meaningful action. The power of branding and ‘sales’ messages can (and must) be used for positive environmental action, not simply selling more widgets.
Policy - this is what encompasses everything that we do. Our policies are underscored by our values, so reflecting on our personal and company values, and our mission and goals (that should include sustainability goals at board level) will influence our approach to our projects and the way we work. We can take a full view of our processes, analysing where there is the opportunity to introduce a greener practice, as well as the potential to inject a climate message into the creative output. By reviewing our own policies and principles, we may reconsider our client lists and choose to shift towards working with clients and industries that are better aligned with our values - shifting the industry as a whole as a force for good, instead of simply a means of helping other businesses increase their sales.

Internal change + external communication

It’s important to do what we can internally, within the confines of our own businesses, to make our own business practices, our teams, and our projects as sustainable as possible and here’s a few ways to achieve that in the image below. But the real impact is when we turn our focus outwards, and use our incredible marketing skills, our design thinking and technology to promote an environmental message, and thread it into everything we do.

We can do this in many practical ways, and you can find an approach that works for you and your specific needs and situation.

But once you’ve decided that you’re going to do something about, to really make a difference, the rest should come easy because you’re living and working inline with your values as an individual and as an organisation.

If we do this, and do this together - along with pressuring governments, creating partnerships with other industries and collaborating with various other groups that can help you, I believe we’ll be able to create, not only a better Leeds… but a better world.

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