In sustainable design and innovation, appreciation of the Planet as an equal stakeholder with humans and businesses continues to rise. Yet a consistent challenge arises in that people have difficulties relating to the nonhuman and interpret the world in terms of human values and experiences. We need more practical tools to stimulate a connection, especially in its affective dimension, to the Planet and to include nonhuman stakeholders in sustainability developments. To anchor Planetary understanding and considerations, we investigate the role of participatory storytelling to stimulate a reappraisal of the needs of nonhuman stakeholders through empathy building. To posit this, we defined empathy for the Planet as a holistic relationship with human and nonhuman stakeholders. We facilitated workshops where design students, design professionals, and business stakeholders could co-create environmental stories using human and nonhuman character personas. We analyzed the personas, stories, and participants’ feedback on the process experience and impact and observed that story creators experienced empathy for the Planet through projecting and blending their own emotions and intents onto the characters. We discuss, therefore, how ecological story co-creation can be a tool for self-reflection, collective sense-making, and the inclusion of the voice of Planetary stakeholders relevant for sustainable design and to drive sustainability engagement in general. This research confirms the role of stories and imagination in creating a bridge to the natural world through new, human and nonhuman, perspectives.

The GRIP project takes an open innovation approach by multiple design iterations together with multiple experts in a relatively new area for design (work-related stress). The GRIP relaxation space offers employees an adaptive environment inspired by nature that reacts to people's presence and creates a personal environment, varying in size, soundscape and animated light. The environment stimulates paced breathing, meditation and helps employees to become more aware and in control of their personal response to stressors and relaxation. The design has been evaluated by 23 experts with backgrounds in design, research and healthcare. These evaluations resulted in very positive responses regarding the low effort required and the high quality of the relaxation experience provided by the design. The open approach has resulted in a design of the relaxation space that provides a platform for further exploration and innovation within and beyond the domain of work-related stress.