The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact.
Adopters of the Designers Accord commit to five guidelines that provide collective and individual ways to integrate sustainability into design. The Designers Accord provides a participatory platform with online and offline manifestations so that members have access to a community of peers who share methodologies, resources, and experiences around environmental and social issues in design.
Focus
Our focus is on creating positive impact in the creative community by connecting a broad network throughout the creative community, inspiring and motivating our members to share best practices, bold ideas, and compelling case studies, and enabling new initiatives to grow from the foundation built by the Designers Accord.
Goals
Our aim is to make sustainability a mainstream idea in all aspects of design practice and production by empowering the global creative community in the following ways:
Goal 1: Increase awareness in the creative community
Engage all members of the creative community in a dialogue about the importance of integrating the principles of sustainability in all practice and production. Connect and empower those applying principles of sustainability in their companies and organizations through a rich on and offline support network.
Key Activities
- Hold regular real-world gatherings and events
- Communicate regularly with the community to share information
- Partner with media outlets to share best practices
- Shape professional recruiting practices
Key Indicators and Metrics
- Increase number of broadly published case studies
- Help all major design awards programs (AIGA 365, Red Dot, IDSA IDEA, Art Directors Club, Commarts, The One Show, Webby Awards, Adobe MAX Awards) integrate a statement of sustainability in their criteria of evaluation
- Facilitate a Designers Accord presence at major conferences and events
Goal 2: Graduate the next generation of design thinkers and leaders
Provide a toolkit for bringing sustainability to all aspects of undergraduate and graduate design programs so that the next generation of designers is able to practice sustainably.
Key Activities
- Connect with educators and thought-leaders through one-on-one meetings and roundtable events
- Convene a Global Summit on the topic of Design Education and Sustainability
- Foster a broader collaboration with schools
Key Indicators and Metrics
- Gather best practices from design educators and disseminate them in order to modify, update, and add curriculum to existing design programs, and/or initiate new programs
- Engage key faculty, administrators, and students to help enable change
- Help establish strong student organizations
Goal 3: Codify best practices to achieve the greatest impact
Transform the anecdotal success stories of design and sustainability into codified best practices.
Key Activities
- Coordinate a series of Town Hall meetings
- Offer professional education workshops with organizations like AIGA, IDSA, USGBC, and international professional organizations
Key Indicators and Metrics
- Publish sustainability trends / key concerns
- Actively disseminate tools, training, and materials
- Create an archive of the Designers Accord (as a project)
Goal 4: Influence policy
Bring the power of systems thinking to policy discussion. Increasing relevance of design thinking in higher order strategic challenges.
Key Activities
- Create additional partnerships with compatible organizations
- Tighten linkages with professional organizations and corporations
- Leverage insights from underrepresented (DA adopter) geographies
Key Indicators and Metrics
- Establishment of a US National Design Policy
- Support the involvement of the designer’s voice in creating policy, alongside lobbyists and economists
