Get started with Sustainable Design

Discover how to create sustainable and circular products

All design is powerful in its role in society. It is the all-pervasive social scriptor that influences almost every aspect of our daily lives, shapes our bodies, and influences our minds. At nearly every single moment of our lives, we are in contact with designed things. In this course, you will learn a full suite of sustainable and circular design strategies and how to apply them to the design process in order to leverage the power that design holds for making positive impacts. You’ll also learn how to manage trade-offs in decision making, along with holistic systems considerations, and engage in a product redesign using your newly-learned sustainable design strategies.

Sustainable Design Strategies Class Content

Advance your skillset in systems thinking and sustainability

  • 01

    Welcome!

  • 02

    Introduction to Sustainable Design

    • Read: Introduction to Sustainable Design Core Concepts

    • Watch: An Introduction to the History of Sustainable Design

    • Read: Introduction to the The Circular Economy

    • Read: Circular Design

    • Read: The Power of Design

    • Watch: Design and Creativity

  • 03

    Eco Design Strategies

    • Watch: Sustainable Design Method Set

    • Read: The Sustainable Design Strategies

    • Explore: Sustainable Design Strategies

  • 04

    Designing for the Circular Economy

    • Read: Moving from the Linear to a Circular Economy

    • Watch: Circular Design

    • Read: Circular Design Approaches

    • Read: Core Concepts of Circular Design

    • Explore: Circular Economy Concepts

    • Activity: Product Redesign

    • Download: the Circular ReDesign Workshop Kit

  • 05

    Completion

    • Test your knowledge with this quick quiz

    • Additional Resources and Links

    • A Message From Leyla

What you get out of this short class:

  • Learn the suite of Sustainable Design strategies and how to apply them to the design process

  • Discover the history of eco design and life cycle thinking

  • Learn how to manage trade offs in designing sustainable and circular products

Dr. Leyla Acaroglu

Instructor Bio:

Sustainability provocateur, award-winning designer, 2016 UNEP Champion of the Earth, and creative changemaker pioneer, Dr. Leyla Acaroglu challenges people to think differently about how the world works. As the founder of the UnSchool and creator of the Disruptive Design Method, Leyla weaves together her skills as a designer, sociologist, and social entrepreneur to create highly immersive educative experiences. She is a renowned international expert on systems thinking and sustainability, running workshops around the world and designing activating experiences, gamified toolkits, and unique educational experiences that help equip people with the tools to intervene and change systems to make the status quo obsolete. Sought after for her unique approach to activating positive social change by design, Leyla's main-stage TED talk on sustainability has been viewed over a million times, and she is the author of several handbooks, as well as an op ed contributor for major publications like the New York Times.

Dr. Leyla Acaroglu

UnSchool Founder + Global Change Maker

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