The Skills for Planet Map by the Design Council is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
The Blueprint is the first milestone towards our Skills for Planet Mission: upskilling 1 million designers in green design skills by 2030. Amplifying the Blueprint across the higher education sector is key to ensuring that we ignite a movement to embed Green Design Skills across all art and design course in the UK.
In this Innovations in Practice session the Design Council and Bath Spa University will share the Learning Outcomes which have been co-designed for creative educators in HE to use as a template for course design, revalidation and mapping existing course provision.
''The Blueprint defines the critical green skills that all designers need and establishes a shared language across the design sector." Rachel Bronstein, Senior Skills Manager, Design Council
Our sector has an outstanding record in delivering sustainable design courses, modelling sustainable practice in the studio and setting assignment briefs incorporating green design skills. But we can and must do more. Only 50% of designers feel that their education has provided them (to a moderate or large extent) with green design skills. Design Economy Report: The Environmental and Social Value of Design, Design Council 2025.
This session will highlight existing good practice by showcasing how course designers are accelerating the delivery of green skills programmes and embedding the six skills areas in applied practice. Attendees will be encouraged to access the green design skills self assessment tools to map your course provision against the blueprint.
The blueprint defines the following six green design skills;
- Evaluating Green Impact
- Regenerating Nature
- Embedding Circularity
- Eliminating Emissions
- Empowering Green Communities
- Influencing Green Behaviour
The blueprint breaks this down even further into 18 specific skills sets (Page 15 of the blueprint) which will become the gold standard for course design in UK HE.
''Without course designers adopting the blueprint the green transition is unattainable.'' Sandra Booth, Director of Policy and External Relations, CHEAD.
This event is a call to action for Design Educators.
To provide the designers of tomorrow with the Green Design Skills they need.
To use this Blueprint to inform learning material within the courses you create or contribute to.
To help students of all stages to develop Green Design Skills.
To implement co- designed learning outcomes.
Event Schedule:
10:00 – 10:15 Intro to Skills for Planet and learning outcomes. Rachel Bronstein, Design Council
10:15 – 10:30 How it works in practice. Kristin Doern, Bath Spa University
10:35 – 10:45 Nurturing Planetary Citizens: Developing Regenerative More-than-Human Pedagogy in Design Education, Dr Michael Stead Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures Imagination Design Research Lab, School of Arts, Lancaster University
10:45 – 11:55 Normalizing low-carbon thinking by embedding Carbon Literacy Training into the Interior Design curriculum, Aimee Ward, Course co-leader BA (Hons) Interior Design, University of South Wales
10:55 – 11:05 Cultivating Eco-consciousness: Green Skills and the Climate Social Justice Principles in Practice, Jason Forrest: Student Partnership Manager and Samantha Jarman: Graduate Employability Lead & Diploma in Professional Studies Lead, UAL: Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon
11:05 – 11:15 (REBEL) Recognition of Experience-Based Education & Learning: Access to Personal Credit, Paul Haywood, Professor for Creative and Sustainable Learning, UAL: Central Saint Martins
11:15 – 11:30 Discussion and Close
