Living climate change

Abstract

As the world moves into an era of significant changes predicated by the challenge of sustainability, the future holds many questions, with serious consequences depending on the answers. Given the implications of these changes, the world’s design community needs to be constantly challenged to respond. To support conversations on what life will be like in 20 or 30 years and thus make the climate change debate more tangible, IDEO, a global design and innovation company, is hosting the Living Climate Change project and website. Moving the debate away from what we have to give up toward what we can create, the project is born from the conviction that design has a role to play in addressing the global issue of climate change. The scenarios IDEO developed (in movie clips) show how we may choose (or be forced) to abandon the old ways and change our behaviour. In partnership with IDEO, the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Delft University of Technology applied the Living Climate Change method in their education on sustainable design. Over a ten-week period, nine student teams were asked to develop non-linear future scenarios and present these in short movie clips. This paper presents the results of this activity, reflects on the methods used (expert involvement, storytelling, scenario building, movie making) and the learning that took place. The main conclusion is that the Living Climate Change activity turned out to be a valuable tool for the students, helping them come to terms with complex and interlinked topics and how these might change the world and the way we live..