Sustainable designers Examples in action…

Role a designer… ‘The designer’s job is to imagine the world not how it is, but how it should be’ Sir Terence Conran

Starter activity: Belief circles What do you think the role of a designer is?  Write your name on a small piece of ‘scrap’ paper and join your class to look at the statements about the role of a designer.

Designers in action… More and more designers and technologists are considering the environmental impact of their products as each stage of the product lifecycle. Here are a few examples of designers for whom the impact of their designs are at the heart of their work.

Emily Cummins Emily Cummins, is an award-winning inventor with a passion for sustainable designs that change lives. Her latest innovation is a sustainable fridge which is 'powered' by water but keeps the contents dry, hygienic and cool. At school, she studied GCSE and A level Design and Technology and then continued her studies at Leeds University where she studied Engineering. Check out Emily’s other designs at:

Steven Hunt Steven is passionate about products and technologies that improve people’s lives. After studying Graphic Communication at school, he went onto Glasgow University to study Product Design Engineering, a combination of creativity and mechanical design. After a few years of working as a product engineer in the UK, he decided that he wants to focus on developing ‘products that really matter’ to people.

And now… Steven now works as a senior specialist at Practical Action, where he works in many countries with communities to develop technologies that ‘make a ‘difference to people’s lives. Can you work out what’s in the picture above? A clue: It killed approx.12,000 people in Madagascar last year.

Practical solutions… A solution was an appropriate cooking stove that is run off ethanol, a waste product of sugar molasses. How much of a difference do you think this has made to people lives? In Madagascar, Steven worked on a project with communities to see how indoor pollution from cooking with fuel wood could be reduced.

Design Activity… Research into the work of a designer or organisation who interests you. Identify your favourite product they’ve designed and some information about the product. Join your work together to make an inspirational display about designers and their products. You might want to include quotes and pictures as in the display below.

Designers in action.. sustainable companies in the UK, go to: Or more inspired examples of Practical Action’s international projects stories and video clips go to: