Please read through this entire page to identify the best way to participate.

The goal of the Designers Accord is to create positive impact. There are three ways to join:

Adopter (design firms, corporations, educational institutions)
An organized group within the creative community who pledge to work through the guidelines.

Supporter (artists, freelance designers, students)
An individual who is making the guidelines relevant to their personal practice. Like adopters, we expect supporters to evangelize the movement within their communities.

Endorser (organizations)
Organization that adds awareness to the cause, and can provide infrastructure for education and outreach programs (like AIGA and IDSA).


All adopters, supporters, and endorsers follow a basic code of conduct:
Do no harm; Communicate and collaborate; Keep learning, keep teaching; Instigate meaningful change; Make theory action


Guidelines for the three types of adopters are roughly the same, but tuned to the industry orientation:

Design Firm Adopters

    1. Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.
    2. Initiate a dialogue about environmental impact and sustainable alternatives with each and every client. Rework client contracts to favor environmentally responsible design and work processes. Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.
    3. Undertake a program to educate your teams about sustainability and sustainable design.
    4. Measure the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your firm (includes operations and client engagements), and pledge to reduce your footprint annually.
    5. Advance the understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective by contributing actively to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.

Corporate Adopters

    1. Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.
    2. Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design of products and services, and pledge to help customers reduce their environmental impact.
    3. Undertake a program to educate your teams about sustainability and sustainable design.
    4. Measure the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your firm, and pledge to reduce your footprint annually.
    5. Advance the understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective by contributing actively to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.

Educational Institution Adopters

    1. Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.
    2. Initiate a dialogue about environmental impact and sustainable alternatives with every student and colleague in your educational program. Rework curricula and assignments to emphasize environmentally responsible design and work processes. Provide course content, lectures, and assignments that focus on strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.
    3. Undertake a program to educate your colleagues about sustainability and sustainable design, and plan the integration of these concepts into course curricula.
    4. Measure the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your institution, and pledge to reduce your footprint annually.
    5. Advance the understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective by contributing actively to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.


Instructions for Adopting the Designers Accord

The barrier to entry for adopting the Designers Accord is deliberately low. However, we know that it is important that this call to action is more than a manifesto. We do ask adopters to demonstrate their adherence to the guidelines by annually providing evidence of their commitment to an external committee of impartial supporters (including representatives from AIGA and IDSA), and by participating in the community conversation about the Designers Accord.

If you are a design firm adopter, please create (or update) your profile on Design Directory, and request to adopt on that profile page. A message will be send to the Designers Accord to review, and within 3 days, we will confirm your adoption. (Design firm listing is free.)

If you are a corporate or educational instutition adopter, please email join@designersaccord.org declaring your intention to adopt. The email should include:

- Statement of intention
- Name of institution / company
- Description of offering
- Location
- URL
- Size of institution (faculty, students / staff)
- Contact name and email

The Designers Accord reviews this statement and responds to the request.

If you are a supporter, please email join@designersaccord.org declaring your intention to support the Designers Accord. Please list your name, email address, and location.