Creating Our Climate Action Cards

On invitation by the Design Council to contribute to the World Design Congress and help engage delegates with a pledge aligned to the Design For Planet theme, Design Declares created the Climate Action Cards.

These cards have been co-created with experts from across design disciplines, and designed to shift practice, business and mindset. They bring together a unique collection of planet-positive lessons, advice and steps you can take right away.

As a community that has formed around declaring that we are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency, and we want to respond with the tools of our industry, we decided to create something tangible. How could we go beyond a good intentioned pledge to inspiring climate action?… and the idea for the Design Declares Climate Action Cards was born.

Building on the interplay between big and small, the climate action cards aim to prove how many small actions can have a big impact.

The idea is simple - a set of 52 cards, each presenting an action that will make a difference when designing, or doing business, for the planet. One card a week, for 52 weeks providing guidance for a year of climate action aligned to Design Declare’s 8 Acts of Emergency and the Design Council’s Skills for Planet Blueprint (opens in a new window) that outlines 18 skills in 6 key areas that empower designers for the green transition.

The action cards are designed with the aim to shift the practice and mindset of those within design and design lead business through small nudges, propositions and actionable steps. Each attendee will be given a single card on arrival at the World Design Congress and are encouraged to make their card visible as a way of encouraging networking during the event. If an attendee is inspired to learn more and act on each card, they can acquire a set of 52.

The challenge came when deciding on the actions themselves (as there are just so many things we can do) so we crowdsourced the content via a call for contributions to our networks, the Design Council experts and speakers at the World Design Congress. In just a short space of time the response was overwhelmingly positive with fantastic actions proposed by designers across the sector. The collective set of ideas and tools provide a rich foundation for climate action, yet to create a succinct set of cards we had to distill them down to 52 actions that aligned with both the 8 Acts and the Green Skills. So this meant removing direct authors, organisations and tools from the card set so we could focus on actions not individual authors. And to honour the original authors, organisations and tools we have listed them below:

Contributions from

From organisations

Who recommended the following tools