The Trap of Wishcycling

By Leyla Acaroglu, originally published on Medium

Image by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on UnSplash

Wishcycling is when people place non-recyclable items in the recycling and hope those items will end up being recycled. The unfortunate reality, though, is that these actions contaminate the recycling stream and reinforce the very problem of waste.

Wishcycling comes from a place of good intentions, but as we all know, good intentions do not always lead to good outcomes.

I think it’s safe to say everyone has done this at some stage.

We’ve popped the coffee cup into the recycling bin with some coffee still in it and the lid on, or that thin plastic wrapper, a pizza box, lightbulb, broken drinking glass, batteries, chopsticks, maybe even an extension cord (I’ve seen it happen), and hoped that it would go off and be magically made into some new thing.

Yet the truth is, we don’t have a magical recycling system where everything can be easily transformed into something new. In fact, most things you think are recyclable, are probably not. Recycling has not been able to keep up with the rapid changes to our hyper-disposable and complex material world. Yes, your uncoated paper, tin and aluminum cans, PET bottles, and a few other ridged plastic products can technically be recycled, but the vast majority of the packaging and products that end up in your home, can’t or won’t get a second life.

Image authors own. Source

Waste collection systems all over the world are struggling with the diversity of material combinations of products and packaging. Coupled with the recent changes to the global recycling supply chain, we have an exponential waste crisis unfolding. The list of what not to include in your recycling (because it will end often up contaminating the entire load of recyclables and be destined for landfill or incineration, all at a cost to the recycling company) is long. It’s actually surprising just how many not-to-include items are on the list in some places. That’s because recycling is different everywhere, and because we have created a material world so complex, it’s hard for the waste processors to keep up with the diversity of ever-changing waste streams.

When modern recycling first became a regular curbside thing in the 70’s (in part to reduce the amount of waste filling up city landfills), the material world was very different. Originally it was just glass, metal and paper that were separated and collected. These had clear markets they could be sold back into, and so the economics of recycling was feasible. Then came combination products like tetra packs and chip packets (plastic and aluminum together), and a vast number of plastics. The diversity of new packages and household products started to really muddy the waters for the recyclers, and over time, most recycling moved to a single market — China.

Now we live in a material age where there are tens of thousands of different material and product combinations that enter homes the world over, and after a few decades of being told that recycling is great, we wishfully place many of them in the recycle bin, feeling good and hoping for the best.

Take, for example, the samples of packaging that I collected from different retailers in the UK. I found instructions, in small print on the back, mainly telling me that the products needed to be returned to the supermarket or were not recyclable at all. I was alarmed by how many packages (organic food products I might add) explicitly stated: “Do not recycle.” Nearly all of them were non-recyclable in my household collection system, yet a quick look in the shared recycling bin in my apartment block and it was overflowing with these very same un-recyclable materials.

The issue of greenwashing — misleading consumers into thinking something is green, or in this case recyclable, when it’s not — is a topic I have talked about in the past, and this certainly plays into the wishcycling issue. But it’s not as simple as all of us being manipulated or duped into thinking that everything with a recycling symbol is recyclable.

Many of us really do wish that things we buy can be recycled because it validates us buying them to begin with.

Organic products with different instructions on where and if the packaging can be recycled!

The people producing these types of packaging and products are very rarely thinking about the end-of-life issues that their material combination choices will have on a waste stream. They deflect responsibility onto us, the customers, and onto the city that will have to manage the plethora of produced waste from their poor designs. I also think it’s unfair that there is an expectation that the customer will be able to decipher the many different options for end-of-life management, for what appears to be the same types of materials, when they are not, as there are hundreds of different types of polymer combinations.

Equally, retailers don’t set adequate guidelines on what types of packaging they will accept in their products, so it becomes a free-for-all. Without shaming the specific brands or supermarkets, I can say that a quick walk up and down the isles of several UK supermarkets showed me that most of the packaging was un-recyclable. I’m going to guess this is the same in Australia, North American, China and most other major economies.

How can we, the customers, be responsible for not recycling when so much of what our food and hygiene products are designed into, is packaging that is not even collected in most cities? Here is a selection of packaging from fruit and nut packaging from major UK supermarkets, all non-recyclable. I wasn’t just cherry-picking these ether! Go look in your cupboards and see what is actually recyclable, and what is most likely not.

Orange, lime and nut bags from two different UK supermarkets, all not recyclable.

Plastics are particularly problematic as they are not easily recycled. Whilst the industry invested 50 million dollars a year to convince us that a number inside a triangle stamped on the base of a piece of plastic will mean that the product will be recycled, the likelihood of it being turned into something new will depend on many different factors, such as: if it’s even technically possible to recycle it (often not); how contaminated with food or product it is; if the local council will collect it; if the local municipal waste processing facility will take it; and if there is a market for that type of plastic to be sold into. Oh, and if there is a market for that plastic to be made into new plastic products. The oil and plastics industry has long known that it’s cheaper and easier to just turn virgin oil into new plastic than it is to collect, clean and resell it. They have profited off us believing that recycling is the solution when they have long known it is not.

This all leads to much confusion about what can and can’t be recycled, which unfortunately leads to people’s wishcycling, which then goes on to contaminate recycling streams all over the world, and then we get blamed for it! Education alone will not fix an inherently broken system.

Mainstream curbside recycling has been around for just over thirty years, and it’s in the last fifteen years that half of all the plastic that has ever been produced has been made and sold. To add to this, more than 90% of plastic ever produced hasn’t been recycled. Not because we consumers do the wrong thing, but because most of it is not easily recyclable!

The Recycling Industry

The margins on recycling are already very thin, with the collections and sorting often being more expensive than the value of the products being recycled. Some recycling processors still use human line sorters, and others are entirely mechanical. The machines that sort waste are often engineered for the main types of recyclables, such as glass, metal and hard plastics, not the plethora of other stuff that ends up in the sorting lines.

Then, even after the products are all sorted out and bailed up, the waste processing company has to find a buyer for that specific waste stream. Metals usually have a healthy demand, and thanks to the rise in online shopping, the paper board industry is doing ok. But plastics have always struggled to find a place to go (all the more reason to focus on post disposable design).

We wishcycle in part because we have been told that recycling is great and it will solve the issue of waste (this the plastics industry did a great job of convincing us of in the 90s, by creating the numbers up to 7 inside triangles that get stuck on certain types of hard plastics to supposedly help everyone identify and recycle them — side note, the history of the design of the original recycling symbol, the triangle made out of arrows, the Mobius Symbol, is fascinating and well worth the read here in this article.).

I have explained in the past that the global recycling system is broken, and that recycling is part of driving the generation of waste. It legitimizes the production of waste and creates a false solution to a manufactured problem. But here in this article, I want to explore the phenomenon that results from confused, good-intentioned, or perhaps lazy people that don’t know what to do with certain types of waste.

I will be the first to admit that even I am one of them at times. Intrigued by how others experienced this, I asked the UnSchool team to do a quick snapshot assessment of food items in their houses. As can be seen from the image below, it’s all very confusing about what the symbols mean. The cross through the recycling symbol means it can’t be recycled, but should we be happy that these ones even have any instructions at all? Because many of the other items they found had no information stating whether it was or wasn’t recyclable. This begs the question, whose responsibility is this? Ours, the supermarkets’, the local council, the recycling companies’, the packaging designers’, the product owners’? The federal government’s?

With such a confusing mess, it’s no wonder people wishcycle!

North American packaging: single-serve applesauce, coffee, frozen berries and crisp tube.

As I explored these issues, I come to feel very sorry for the recycling sector; they are beholden to the decisions made by the producers of products and packaging, and to the lack of regulation or guidance from the government. Then they’re burdened with the responsibility of finding new homes for an ever-growing stream of disposable stuff made with little care for what its end-of-life destination or impact will be.

How big is the wishcycling issue?

The less sexy name for the issue of wishcycling is recycling contamination, and in wealthy countries like the UK, Australia and the US, it’s a massive issue.

According to the UK Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), in 2018, contamination meant councils in the UK sent 500,000 tonnes of recycling to landfill. Research conducted by WRAP revealed that 82% of households in the UK add at least one item to their recycling that is not accepted. The amount of plastic packaging used in supermarkets in the UK is staggering. In 2017, the 10 biggest UK retailers produced 900,000 tonnes of packaging and 2bn plastic bags.

“More than two-thirds of consumers (69%) believe supermarkets and retailers are responsible for reducing the amount of plastic used, and many want to see more progress.” — Packaging News, 2021

In the US, the recycling system is increasingly under pressure. The EPA explains the conundrum of recycling: “​​Most Americans want to recycle, as they believe recycling provides an opportunity for them to be responsible caretakers of the Earth. However, it can be difficult for consumers to understand what materials can be recycled, how materials can be recycled, and where to recycle different materials. This confusion often leads to placing recyclables in the trash or throwing trash in the recycling bin.”

All over the US, recycling with no market to sell to, or place to store it is being burnt or sent to landfill. Increasing costs of processing have meant that some councils have just stopped collecting recycling altogether. This analysis shows how different states are working to address the issues with recycling in the US.

“Since 1960 the amount of municipal waste being collected in America has nearly tripled, reaching 245m tonnes in 2005. According to European Union statistics, the amount of municipal waste produced in western Europe increased by 23% between 1995 and 2003, to reach 577kg per person.” — The Economist

In Australia, a country where over 60% of people recycle, it was reported recently that 58% of plastic and 23% of glass packaging were put in the wrong bin. This is contributing to ongoing issues with contaminated exports to neighboring countries, where over 50% of recycling is sent to be processed.

To add insult to injury, Reuters reported last year that the oil industry plans on investing 400 billion dollars on plants to make new plastics and just 2 billion on reducing plastic waste. Wishcycling is only going to get worse.

Addicted to Disposability

The issues of wishcycling go deeper than just misunderstanding what is and isn’t actually recyclable. It speaks to a wider issue of waste and our relationship to it — specifically, how planned obsolescence and enforced disposability feed our addiction. To justify consumption, we need to believe that there is a better destination for our waste than just landfills, incineration or escaping into nature. We want it to be ok to create it, and as our material lives have become more disposable, more complex, there is a higher desire for the idea of recycling to work.

All over the world, the amount of municipal solid waste being generating is growing at unprecedented rates. In India, in 2001 it was 36.5 million metric tonnes, twenty years later in 2021, it’s now 110 million metric tons. This is estimated to grow to 200 million metric tons by 2041 (source, statistia).

“China is responsible for the largest share of global municipal solid waste — at more than 15 percent. However, in terms of population the United States is the biggest producer of waste. The U.S. accounts for less than five percent of the global population, but produces roughly 12 percent of global MSW and is the biggest generator of MSW per capita.” — Global waste generation — statistics & facts, Statista, 2021

Trash in a canal near Sahiwal Jhal Road in Pakistan, a Photo by Muhammad Numan on Unsplash.

Trash piling up on a London street (a very common sight), Photo by Paul Schellekens on Unsplash.

Recycling is not the solution to waste. The global increases in solid waste generation are happening at rates far, far greater than any recycling system can manage (except maybe Germany, which has policies that shift responsibility back onto the producer and Wales, which is the world's third-best recycler!).

Recycling doesn’t work because its existence incentivizes and legitimizes the creation of waste. Thus, as a solution to the global waste crisis, it does no more than temporarily mask the issue at hand. We live in a linear economy, a system that requires the production of waste for it to function. We designed an incentive system of growth that relies on continual consumption, which means we must make waste to perpetuate it. To solve the waste crisis, we need to redesign the entire system of materials and how they flow throughout the economy. And certainly, companies need to be held accountable for the things that they create and pump out into the world.

This is the biggest design challenge of our time. How do we redesign everything so it works better for all of us? How do we meet human needs without destroying the systems that sustain us? This is the topic of a book I’ve been working on for some time and the more I reflect on the changes that need to occur, the more I see that many of the solutions put in place (such as recycling) are actually reinforcing the problems and preventing us from reimagining the systems that created this issues to start with!

I find this a hard realization to voice, but under the current system, recycling is a key part of legitimizing the disposable economy we live in and thus we need to stop relying on recycling and demand a full redesign.

Recycling contamination. Photo by Vivianne Lemay on Unsplash.

Aspirational Recycling

Recently there were reports of UK recycling being dumped in Turkey after the recycling market took a huge hit from the China waste ban that started in 2018 (the rise in waste trafficking is a rabbit hole I will explore in another article).

This is where the wishcycling situation plays into a psychological bias we are all part of. It’s also called aspirational recycling, which feeds into the desires that people have to “do the right thing.” Here, we all want recycling to be the solution to our growing global waste crisis, so much so, that people are likely to recycle items that connect to their self-identity, such as the coffee cups or the take-out food containers, even if they have a suspicion that they are not recyclable (which cups are not, nor are black plastic take out containers). A Harvard Business Review article claims there is a bias whereby waste production is increased through the pre-knowledge that an item could be recycled, which leads to an increased use of disposable items. So we trick ourselves into using things that are non-recyclable by wishing that they were. This is the root cause of wishcycling.

We collectively rely on recycling as a crutch, allowing the potential of materials being reused to justify our continued consumption and use of disposable items.

Industry relies on this collective bias to continue to produce more and more non-recyclable stuff and feed into a collective misunderstanding of what is and isn’t recyclable. Confusion is a great tool for distraction. When known side effects (such as the millions of tons of plastics in the oceans) come to light — and even though there is a nonexistent recycling system for the billions of tons produced each year— they go back and blame it on us for not recycling properly!

Is Recycling Worth It? By NPR

Then there’s the issues of different rules in different places, and the persistent claims from industries that things are recyclable (even if they are not), along with the misinformation that recycling is somehow the silver bullet solution to the world’s waste crisis — it’s no wonder we’re so misdirected. We wishcycle because we have been told that recycling is the solution and we all want to do the right thing.

Our desire for things to be “greener” often makes us do un-green things. This is not really our fault though; we’ve all fallen victim to decades of marketing spin from industries addicted to disposability, saturated with ads that tell us that littering is the issue and recycling is the solution. The false answer to a manufactured problem is to believe that a simple act of separating our waste into that which can be recycled and that which will end up in the ground or being burnt will fix the myriad of environmental and social equity issues that waste creates.

Recycling may have a place in a well-designed circular economy, but it will not solve the problem created by our addiction to easy, convenient, disposable stuff. The only way we can stop waste is by designing it out of the system to start with and this requires us to redesign everything, the materials used, the way we create products through to the entire economic system that they work within.

Wishcycling is part of a fairytale that has been told to us over and over again, it says recycling is a good solution to a massive problem. It feeds into our collective delusions that disposability can be remedied by the same system that benefits from waste. This all adds up to confused good-intentioned people who put their broken Christmas lights and soiled diapers in the recycling and hope for the best. And an industry that then blames the customer for not getting it right.

Where did the wishcycling concept come from?

The term “wishcycling” first appeared around 2015 when journalist Eric Roper wrote about the waste industry’s rising challenge of dealing with new types of materials and polymers that were making their way into the recycling bins of households.

In an article, Roper interviewed Bill Keegan, who was the President of a waste and recycling firm DEM-CON, where he mentioned the idea of people wishing things would be recycled. Inspired by the concept, Roper wrote a follow-on piece the following week about the concept of wishcycling where he detailed how plastic bags and bowling balls, food sachets, and loose bottle caps were all contributing to recycling contamination.

In the article, Roper explains, “A number of materials in particular frequently show up at local processing facilities, causing problems for the complex machines that make curbside single-sort recycling possible. They ultimately end up comprising the ‘residual’ waste that facilities cannot recycle.”

Wishcycling on the news (on Fox news!)

According to the industry magazine Recycling Today, “there are five common curbside recycling contamination themes: tanglers (hoses, cords, clothes), film plastic (plastic wrap or bags), bagged things (garbage or recycling), hazardous material (propane tanks, needles/sharps) and a category that can be summed up as ‘yuck’ things that downgrade other materials and clog the system (food, liquids, diapers, etc.).”

To help address this, on a practical level, online tools like this can help keen people figure out what can and can’t go in their recycling right now. But let’s be honest, the average person is more likely to make a quick judgment based on assumptions, leading to wishcycling. I know in my case, I feel guilty when I put things in the normal waste bin, so I want to avoid it and hope that the oat milk tetra pack is indeed going to be recycled!

Commonly wishcycled items:

Paper coffee cups: They are lined with plastic and have polystyrene lids so are not easily recycled. These have to go in the trash, so get a reusable cup for your daily caffeine fix!

Paper take-out containers: They are also often lined with plastic and if not then contaminated with the oils and residues of the food, the best you could hope for is the unlined ones going directly in your home compost or organic waste collection.

Broken glasses and ceramics: Recycling facilities are usually high-tech places that use lasers and magnets to separate out the recyclables. But often there are humans working a line, and broken glass can’t be picked out by the machines — humans with hands have to separate them out.

Pizza boxes: Any food-contaminated paper product is hard to recycle because the fibers absorb the grease and thus make the recycling process harder. So they have to go in the general waste or if you have organic waste collection/composting then it should go in there.

Flexible and soft plastics: These are basically ALL your food plastic packages that are soft and flexible, such as crisp and candy wrappers, rice bags, nuts and loose lettuce bags. Anything that is flexible is unlikely to be recyclable in most mainstream waste recollection services. Some stores offer a takeback program if you are diligent enough to separate, collect and take them back to your store.

Any electronic item: 100% of these have to go in a dedicated electronic waste recycling collection service. They are filled with complex and often toxic materials and can even explode, so be sure to find out from your local council about collections and drop-offs for e-waste.

Light globes: Most light globes are made of several different materials and thus can’t be recycled through the normal collection and need to be taken to a specialty recycling drop-off location.

Any household item: Broken toys and old T-shirts are most likely not recyclable in your household collection. These need to be taken to a specific location or better still, repaired and resold.

What can we do about it?

Waste is produced as a result of consumption. So the first thing we can do is nip the issue in the bud by not buying the things that can’t be recycled to start with. Of course, it would be even better if the companies who produced unrecyclable crap stopped designing such items, and supermarkets and producers got together and figured out how to create more universal packaging solutions that dramatically reduced waste, to begin with. Ahh, that would be bloody brilliant. But in the meantime, whilst we all wait for some of the biggest companies in the world to catch up to the growing global demand for a circular economy (I’m looking at you Amazon), then we have to each take on the task of figuring out what is actually recyclable in our community and then be a bit more diligent about where it ends up.

I for one buy mostly from a local food producer who only sells local produce and delivers it in reusable boxes. When I do have to shop at the supermarket I try and take a bit of time to read the packaging (and I still get it wrong sometimes FYI). I compost all organic waste and include all light uncoated paper products and bio-based plastics in the compost drop-off point (this will be industrially processed so all the biodegradable packaging can go in it).

It can feel insignificant to take these small micro-steps against a tidal wave of waste, but our own actions are calculated up and used to influence the actions that industries take. Once they realize people are actively avoiding certain products, they will be forced to refect and hopefully change. Wherever we can flex our consumer power, we help shape the way new trends emerge through demand (oat milk, and vegan food options, for example, is a relatively new addition to grocery shelves for a reason!).

Wishcycling is a symptom of a much broader issue at play: we have designed a world addicted to waste and disposability. Until we break that cycle, we, as everyday people, will continue to have to navigate our way through the material complexity that is thrust upon us.

But as long as we believe the fairytale that recycling will solve our waste crises, then we will continue to enable industries to get away with creating more and more disposable, unsustainable and un-recyclable crap.

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If you want to get started on your change-making journey, then check out my list of free tools for circular and sustainable design, or explore the everyday actions you can take via my United Nations collaboration, The Anatomy of Action.

The big opportunity for systemic change is in the way we do business, so I have courses on circular systems design, sustainable design, the circular economy and how to activate sustainability in business.

If you are interested in diving deeper into how to activate sustainability in any size business and want to help to bring about the transition to the circular economy, then consider signing up for my 2-day in-person Masterclass this October in London.

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Additional sources used in this article:

Rebecca Altma, Discard Studies, On Wishcycling, 2021, available here

Stephanie B. Borrelle, The Conversation, Recycling isn’t enough — the world’s plastic pollution crisis is only getting worse

Jackie Flynn Mogensen, 2019, Mother Jones, One Very Bad Habit Is Fueling the Global Recycling Meltdown

Erin Hassanzadeh, 2021, CBS Minnesota, Pandemic-Driven ‘Wishcycling’ Is Causing Big Problems At Recycling Centers

Drew Desilver, 2016, Pew Research Center, Perceptions and realities of recycling vary widely from place to place

Tom Mumford, 2020, ReCollect, Wishcycling 101: When Good Intentions Lead To Contamination

What is Disruptive Design?

By Leyla Acaroglu

Disruption was asked to be banished in 2012, 2014, and 2015, yet it still is a hot, overused ‘buzzword.’ Just like many aspirational terms before it (like sustainability and innovation), popularity leads to overuse, dilution, confusion, and fatigue. Frankly, overuse sucks the meaning right out of a concept until it’s just a shell of an idea held together by ink on a page.

Disruption, like so many overused words, is intensely misunderstood. While conceptually the term means to create an interruption into something that is maintaining a status quo, colloquially it is much more about making loads of money from the newest, most ‘disruptive’ (read: newer) technology out there. It’s toppling old industries through new smart, young, and agile upstarts. In this context, it’s not about making change; it’s about winning customers, clicks, and clients.

To disrupt is to disturb or intervene. The term came to prominence in the late 90s when Clay Christensen, an MIT professor, spoke of it in relation to business activity in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. For Christensen, his term “disruptive innovation” is the very specific act of challenging a mainstream company by creating a new parallel product that activates previously un-activated elements of the economy; thus, it creates a shift toward the new offering, poaching consumers from the main player over to the newer innovation. It has nothing to do with coolness or edginess, or even social change or sustainability. Disruptive innovation, in this context, simply has to do with new economic activity that challenges the mainstream business establishment.

Christensen has written about how Uber, often referred to as a major disrupter, is indeed not a disruptive innovator. According to his theory, Uber misses the mark because it did not enter a low-end or new foothold market; instead, it launched in San Francisco, a place where taxi rides were already in high demand and its target audience was already accustomed to using taxis. Furthermore, Christensen points out that the term disruptive is being wrongly used to describe innovation that is simply improving upon a good product that already exists - something Uber did masterfully by offering convenience for hailing a cab and paying for it via a smart app.

But, for Christensen, they missed the mark on being disruptive because the initial consumer base did not reject it and wait for its quality to improve in order to drive down market prices; instead, those already using taxis happily thrust Uber to the top of the market. So yes, Uber is transforming the taxi industry, but, according to Christiansen’s framing of disruption, their business model does not follow the basic principles to qualify it as “disruptive.”

The Case for More Disruptive Design

So, where does disruptive design come into play? And can it really be differentiated from disruptive innovation? While the concepts have similarities on face value (such as shared a word that describes change), disruptive design is very different from the concept of disruptive innovation.

Here’s how I frame it:

Design is the act of creating something new — sometimes iterative, sometimes innovative, and in rare cases, revolutionary. Designing is an intentional act of creating a product, service, or system that embodies some degree of change. First and foremost, design has to achieve function (purely aesthetic creative productions are not, in my opinion, design; they are more so in the world of art, which is incredible and valuable and all of the adjectives to describe the power of art and yes there is always a need for more of it in the world). But art can exist without function whereas design can’t, so when we talk about Disruptive Design, we are talking about creating intentionally disruptive creative interventions that are functionally imbued with the objective of challenging the status quo and making positive change.

Design is about creating something that adds to or iterates on the existing, and disruption is about creating a disturbance with the intent of changing a system. When combined, the practice of disruptive design is to create intentional interventions into a pre-existing system with the specific objective to leverage a different outcome, and more importantly, an outcome that is likely to create positive social change.

When combined, the practice of disruptive design is to create intentional interventions into a pre-existing system with the specific objective to leverage a different outcome, and more importantly, an outcome that is likely to create positive social change.

The Disruptive Design Method (DDM) is about activating sustainability principles through creative practice. It employs a series of thinking and doing tools that anyone can implement in a formulated processes of mining, landscaping, and building to develop a three-dimensional perspective to exploring, understanding, and intervening in complex hyper-local to global problems.

Mining: Deep dive into the problem, develop research approaches, explore the elements within: PROBLEM LOVING STAGE.

Landscaping: Identify the main elements in the system and map how they interact, relate and connect: SYSTEMS MAPPING STAGE.

Building: Solutions emerge from the last two stages. Explore options, viability and possibility. Test, prototype, repeat: IDEATION & INTERVENTION STAGE.

I developed the Disruptive Design Method as a way to fill a gap between knowledge and action, to forge a community of practice that facilitates purpose-driven changemakers, to activate systems thinking, to consider sustainability sciences in what we produce and to enhance creative ideation techniques as platforms for actively participating in the world around us. Really, it’s a remedy for the perpetual frustration that many of us experience, as it provides a set of mental and practical tools to help redesign the world so that it works better for all of us.

We live in a hyper-negativity-fueled media landscape where it is increasingly difficult to escape the perception that everything is fucked. But if we all opt into this restrictive mental model, then we are opting into a self-perpetuating future. In fact, the future is not defined; we co-create it as we participate in the construction of what is relevant now. Our immediate actions actually define the future scenario that we will be in, both individually and as a collective whole (there is so much amazing nerdy stuff out there ATM on this from physicists; see here, here and here).

“The best way to predict the future is to design it” — R. Buckminster Fuller

What may be most surprising about Disruptive Design is that it is not limited to designers, engineers, techies, entrepreneurs, or any other profession that’s been unconsciously linked to the word “disrupt.” Anyone can practice the Disruptive Design Method:

Here are the general prerequisites:

• Give a shit about the future of this planet

• Have a burning desire to participate in designing solutions that address hyper-local to global issues that affect humanity and the sustainability of the life-support systems that sustain the planet

• Be open to sharing, exchange, and collaboration

• Be a pioneer who is willing to fail, discover, curiously explore, and change a core part of what they do in the world

• See problems as opportunities

REthinking linear consumption

Our entire economic structure is based on the idea of producers and consumers. Whilst we know it’s a little more complex than this dichotomic bi-structure, there are very specific differences in these two approaches to living in this world. Modern lifestyles are geared toward a massive shift in production to consumption. Consumption is the act of passively absorbing the products of society, whereas a producer is an agent that forms the artifacts and elements that make up the human world. All elements of an ecosystem designed by nature are both producers and consumers.

Humans are the only species that create closed ecosystems, where one is reliant on the dictatorship of the creator. I can imagine you are reading this on a product that is created as a closed ecosystem, designed to create an addictive need for the specific products of the creator.

How does this relate to being a disruptive changemaker? It’s easy; avoid being a passive consumer, activate your agency, and become an active producer. The hard part is that it requires a rewriting of the mental codes we have all become comfortable with and are attached to for convenience and efficiency alike.

Creativity has always been about challenging the status quo. The advent of the industrial revolution came along and really helped shift the role of creativity, industrializing its role in society. When the profession of industrial design was created, it was all about customizing the user experience to overcome the mundanity that mass production had facilitated. Also, companies now needed to find new ways of getting a competitive edge, and creatives started to be the hot commodity in facilitating this need (a trend we are also seeing again on the rise now with the Internet age). Inherently, though, design, in this context, was focused on adding to the aesthetic experiences of the material world and its rapid advancement; it wholeheartedly embraced issues of planned obsolescence and the advent of the throwaway culture (there are troves of old-school reading on this; here are a few great starting points- Vance Packard’s The Waste Makers, Gils Slade’s Made to Break and The Economist’s Planned Obsolescence).

Now we have experience design (in which many jobs are filled by traditionally trained industrial designers), and it’s really about cognitive experience design (Tristan Harris, who used to be a Design Ethicist at Google, writes about this in this article). The issue here is that the designed world is often created to serve the interests of corporations as producers, to activate the latent consumer desires. Creative minds are put to work on creating the financial and neurological dependence of the average human to be addicted to the momentary emotional benefits that consumption has on us. Just take the pure emotional joy that many of us experience the moment we get a new gadget — the bliss that a well-designed UX offers us — and compare it to the pain and frustration that we experience when something does not work according to our expectations. And then as quick as it sets in, it wears off, because — here’s where the money factor comes in — so much of what is produced is designed to break, to be undesirable as quickly as it was desired!

This is where the Disruptive Design Method differs from the rest. It means actively seeking out the production of goods, services, and expenses that challenge and change the status quo so that we have more significant contributions to the narratives of where we want to end up as a species, happening from all sides of the debate. And this means corporations must be willing to experiment and create things that go against the “business-as-usual” model of take, make, use, and dispose. This is where movements like the circular economy, regenerative business, and product-service-system models are so incredibly powerful at reimagining the economic activities that sustain many of our livelihoods, but also have significant costs to the wider social and environmental ecosystems.

Activate your Agency: Learn the Disruptive Design Methodology

The Disruptive Design Methodology is a three-part process of mining, landscaping, and building for problem solving that helps people develop a three-dimensional perspective of the way the world works and provides a unique way of exploring, identifying, and creating tactical interventions that leverage systems change for positive social and environmental outcomes.

Because intervening in the status quo requires a critical and flexible thinking framework (along with a bit of rebellious flare), the Disruptive Design approach initiates change by teaching practitioners to love a problem arena, which essentially is any arena in which you wish to create positive change. Instead of avoiding or ignoring problems, the Disruptive Design method dives right into the sticky center of the issue and then looks at the ways in which complex, dynamically-evolving systems interact in order to find the opportunities for leveraging change through creative interventions.

Once you learn to be a problem lover, you use systems boundaries to define the spaces you wish to explore, and then find connection points perfect for a tactical intervention (which is often not where you would intuitively think, based on your starting knowledge in the problem arena). 

Then, because you have all this new knowledge from mining and landscaping, you can rapidly develop divergent solutions and creative approaches for change that builds on your unique individual sphere of influence, which is the space we can all curate to affect change on the people or things around us. Any problem from community concerns to massive global crises can be explored and evolved through this method; because it’s a thinking and doing practice, it can be adapted and evolved based on the problem. The core pillars of the approach are always systems, sustainability, and design.

Disruptive Design is a way for creatives and non-creatives alike to develop the mental tools to activate positive change by mining through problems, employing a divergent array of research approaches, moving through systems analysis, and then ideating opportunities for systems interventions that amplify positive impact through a given micro or macro problem arena. It enables you to gain an empowered perspective of your role in the world and get the tools to take on a proactive approach to designing change in everyday local environments and socially-motivated practices.

The entire knowledge set equips you to be a more aware and intentional agent for change. You can dive into a comprehensive overview of the Disruptive Design Methodology in this online introductory class, or you can also download this FREE toolkit for creative facilitation using the Disruptive Design Method!

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The Diagnostic Toolkit: Part 3 of Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

When it comes to sustainable transformation, building knowledge is not enough. You need easy-to-use, impact-driven tools that can help you generate tangible outcomes within your organization.

If you’ve been following along with our journal in the past few weeks, you’ll already know about the trends and forces influencing the transition towards sustainability in the workplace, as well as the many micro transformative forces shaping the way business operate and workplaces evolve.

If you’re new here, you may want to start by downloading the full FREE report, Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change,  from which all of these insights have emerged.

So, now that you have wrapped your head around the drivers for change in this decade of disruption, you can use this Diagnostic Toolkit in Part 3 of the report to assess your current sustainability and climate-positive journey.

Once you’ve established your baseline, you can then use this simple tool to help frame the strategy you can employ to embark on or enhance your sustainability journey. 

HERE’S HOW THE TOOLKIT WORKS

1. Respond to 10 quick questions and calculate your score 

2. Use your score to diagnose where you are at currently on your journey 

3. Review your customized action pathway that walks you through what steps to take to generate real sustainable solutions in your workplace

NEXT STEPS

Congratulations! You’re on your way to forging workplace transformation that mitigates the risks of disruptors like Covid-19 and climate change and creates more equitable systems for the triple bottom line of people, profits, and planet. 

So, what’s next for you and your organization? If you’re taking some time to digest all of this and want to network with other like-minded professionals — join us in doing so on LinkedIn >

TAKE A COURSE

Maybe you’re ready to take the next step and fully immerse your business in a sustainable transformation? Sign up for a course in our brand new Sustainability in Business series >

GET THE FREE EBOOK

If you’re somewhere in between and want more information, download our new FREE e-book, Six Steps to Activating Sustainability in Business >

The Drivers of Change: Part 2 of Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

What exactly makes 2020-2030 “the decade of disruption”? How are climate change and Covid-19 impacting workplace transformation and forcing adaptability to a sustainable future? What do businesses need to do in order to stay ahead of the curve and mitigate risk among this time of great and immediate change? 

These are some of the questions we set out to answer in our groundbreaking report, Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change, written by Leyla Acaroglu and commissioned by Unily, which you can download in full here — it’s totally free! 

Trends are driven by forces for change.  While Part 1 of the report explored the megatrends and the disruptive shifts that will define this decade, there are many micro transformative forces shaping the way businesses operate and workplaces evolve.

Here in Part 2, we show the 12 Drivers of Change identified across three categories: Climate Change and Business Strategy; Workplace Culture and Attitudes; and Technology and Infrastructure.

Based on our trend analysis, we explore how they emerged and what some pioneering organizations are already doing to adapt to these influential forces,  showing how sustainability, climate change, and the circular economy are affecting the workforce in multi-pronged ways.

If you want to join the ranks of these pioneering organizations and start your workplace sustainability journey, then take one of our Sustainability in Business Programs or week-long intensive happening in December. 

Climate Change and Business Strategy

The need to create goods and services that are designed to have a positive effect on the environment, redesign business models that promote sustainability, and set new standards for business operations is critical to the success of organizations in this decade. 

All levels of society are now demanding that companies take care of their impacts in some way. These demands are coming from workers, customers and governments. Every industry is being called to act in different ways, but overwhelming businesses need to, and in many cases already are acting on their social and environmental obligations. 

“At its essence, sustainability means ensuring prosperity and environmental protection without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. A sustainable world is one where people can escape poverty and enjoy decent work without harming the earth’s essential ecosystems and resources; where people can stay healthy and get the food and water they need; where everyone can access clean energy that doesn’t contribute to climate change” - Former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon

All aspects of business activities draw on many complex systems that, in turn, result in multi-level pollution back into the atmosphere and environment. From production and transport emissions in producing goods and delivering them to market, to the daily waste generated in office buildings, these are all contributing factors when we look at “doing work” and the effects this has on the climate crises. 

Climate Positive Change

Driven by the global societal need to decarbonize the economy, organizations will adopt a diverse array of daily practices through to entire business operational transformation to move from carbon negative to carbon positive companies.  

Proactive Leadership

The leaders of the past might have been ok with avoiding or even denying that action on environmental and social issues are important, but the leaders of the present and future are pioneering change within their organizations and reaping the benefits of this action. 

Circular Transformations

Business models go from linear to circular by design. The current linear model of ‘take, make and waste’ is transformed into closed-loop circular product service delivery models that design out waste and design closed-loop material flows. 

Business Model Redesign

Pivots toward mitigating costs due to changing structural, financial and environmental impacts, combined with maximizing new revenue streams and reduced employee and infrastructure costs offer more adaptive, flexible ways of conducting business in the face of change. 

Workplace Culture and Attitudes

Work is a crucial part of our personal and cultural identity, purpose and wellbeing. It is also the lubrication of the economy, but with 77% of greenhouse gas emissions being directly attributed to industrial activities, electricity and transportation in the US, the impact of work on the climate and the wider natural systems we all need to survive is significant and workers are realizing this which in turn is affecting the culture within organizations. 

Office buildings globally alone account for 28% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions from all the heating and cooling, ventilation, lights and equipment needed to go about business and accommodate working humans.  So the places and ways we engage in work are shifting to respond to driving forces around physical infrastructure, modes of getting to work, health and safety concerns along with lifestyle desires of the younger workforce. 

We are seeing challenges to the old hierarchical models where younger workers are demanding ethical frameworks and holding their own employers accountable for their actions. All of these forces are altering the culture within organizations. Workers look for companies that have purpose and that value their employees; similarly, customers seek out companies that are aligned with their values and see workers being treated correctly. Unless organizations are willing to respond to this shift and embrace sustainability in all its forms as a core part of their operational DNA, then they will lose quality staff and suffer customer cynicism. 

Value Aligned

Workers and customers are shifting their values and seeking out organizations that are value-aligned and meet their purpose-filled expectations, greater work-life balance when choosing a job and likeliness to work for a company with a strong sense of purpose and mission. 

Worker Activism

There are increased demands from within the workforce for organisations to be relevant, ethical and aligned with the real-world changes that are occurring, be it responding to Covid-19, social equity or climate change. Employees are setting the agenda rather than the organization, as culture is shifting toward values and ethics being an equal player in profit and innovation. 

Flexible Worklife

The demand for more work-life balance and the coinciding rise of telecommunication technologies with Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to diverse work-life scenarios customized to meet the employees’ and employers’ needs. 

Green Jobs

As the economy changes, so will the types of jobs offered and skills needed by organizations to be competitive. Roles that encompass the skills, knowledge and capabilities to develop and advance a sustainable and resource-efficient world are on the rise, with demand increasing as changes to the workplace and business operations unfold. 

Technology and Infrastructure

There is no doubt that technology is impacting all aspects of society in rapid ways, but the workplace is one area where tech-enabled change is being accelerated. Many executives are planning on redesigning their organizations to make them fit and ready for tomorrow, with many anticipating that technological transformation will continue to be a primary business disruptor (Global Trends 2020) . 

Whilst tech is enabling rapid feedback of data to facilitate real-time changes, such as reduced energy use and behavioral changes, there are still many gaps to fill and questions to be answered from the impacts of AI and the benefits or losses associated with automation. One thing is for sure though: technology is a great enabler of sustainability. The more integrated we make the systems, the more effective organizations can be at adopting the business and cultural changes needed to embrace sustainability. 

Technology is also enabling organizations to literally reconfigure the way they work, being location independent, which in turn, is affecting the size and form of the physical environments that companies design and maintain for their workforce. 

Digital Transformation

The workforce is becoming more mobile. Digital technology and innovation - the internet of things, automation, AI - all have the potential to radically increase efficiency and enable new business models across all sectors. 

Work Less But Better

As technology and science advances, we rapidly uncover new ways of working that provide more productivity through efficiency, which in turn can empower a more effective work-life balance. By working better, but less, we can reduce the impact of many aspects of workplace activities, from the size of offices to worker transport and energy use. 

Living Buildings

Office spaces are adapting in their design, size and infrastructure to incorporate nature and living elements so that work environments are cleaner, more effective and desirable for workers.

Changes to the office environments are being brought about by different forces, from the desire for more work-life balance through to talent retention, but one significant design trend is the health and well-being of the workers inside.

Bringing living things into our built world enables more human-centric spaces that save energy, respect materials and create better working environments that prioritize people and create multifunctional spaces appropriate for multiple uses, such as adapting to social distancing. 

Post Disposable

Adopting circular design strategies and ensuring that the full life of products are created to be sustainable, climate positive and socially beneficial can be achieved through the aspiration of being post disposable. To do so, businesses must ensure that, in all aspects of business, materials are valued and systems are designed to capture and reuse the materials that can’t be maintained.  Check out our free post-disposable activation toolkit.

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While this journal offers a quick summary, the full report goes into way more detail about each of these microforces, as well as offers case studies that show how pioneering organizations are adapting to these drivers of change. 

Launching Now! Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace In the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change — a Report for Unily, by Disrupt Design

By Leyla Acaroglu

When I was invited by Unily, an intranet development company, to research and write a report on the future of sustainability in the workplace, it was just before the global pandemic hit. Within weeks of starting the research, the world ground to a halt, and the positive and negative impacts of the Covid-19 crisis started to form, making for a fascinating time to be working on a futures report! 

Today we launch the resulting report on the forces affecting this disruptive time we are living in: Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change. I explore the macro and micro trends driving change and the impacts of massive disruptions like Covid-19 and climate change on the workplace.

Decade of Disruption: Future of the Sustainable Workplace in the Age of Covid-19 and Climate Change

I am so proud of this work. My small team and I worked solidly for 8 months during the pandemic, exploring the megatrends and emerging micro forces that will define the divers for change this decade, looking at what is already underway in bringing about a sustainable future and how this affects the workplace. From today, you can download the report for free here. 

I hope that all the creative changemakers out there who have been working tirelessly in the last 10+ years to sound the alarms on global environmental crises like climate change and plastic waste pollution can adapt the perspectives and insights explored through this report, written at such a unique time during the throws of the emerging Covid crisis — a time that has brought to the forefront of the world’s attention the need for urgent systems change in order to bring about a sustainable and regenerative future, now.  And business is critical to this transformation. This is why alongside this we have the Sustainability in Business Program series designed to support organizations make the shift to operating in sustainable and circular ways.

The Report 

Transformation of the entire economy and social practices, accelerated by the global pandemic that swept around the world, wreaked havoc on markets, rapidly changed business operations, altered people’s lives and challenged healthcare systems. As a result, the Covid-19 crisis is emerging entirely new ways of working, living and doing business. But before this, the foundations for massive disruption were already being laid out for businesses, with several forces of change playing out, this report explores these and how they will continue to drive change this decade.

Through the report, we highlight a number of case studies of leading organizations who are pioneering change, and we explore in detail 12 emerging drivers propelling a pathway towards sustainability within the workplace, starting with the cultural shifts in how and where we do business and expanding out to the operational foundations of the modern workplace. We explore how they emerged and what pioneering organizations are already doing to adapt to these influential forces, showing how Covid-19, sustainability, climate change, and the Circular Economy are affecting the workforce in multi-pronged ways.

The report is presented in three main sections: a highlight of the six relevant megatrends predicted and already emerging as a major influencer this decade; a detailed exposition of 12 micro forces driving these megatrends and how they relate to the workplace and shifts within business operations; and a diagnostic toolkit for business managers to assess where they are on their sustainability journey, with a detailed set of maps of where to go from here to stay ahead of the pack. Stay tuned for more information about each section, as we will be sharing highlights from each of the three parts over the next three weeks, here in our journal!

Through identifying trends unfurling in real-time, this trend report is designed to support business leaders in the process of adapting to this decade of disruption.  

Covid-19 and climate change are just two of the most obvious forces impacting our way of life. What we will see unfold over this decade is a great amount of collective reliance in our ability to rapidly transform the way we do everything. The demand for change is great, from workers, to customers and business leaders - the trend towards sustainability being an integral part of the modern workplace is emerging from multiple directions.

This trend report is designed to support business leaders in the process of adapting to this decade of disruption. 

Two highlights for me are the identification of the defining drivers which contribute to the megatrends and the micro transformations that will continue to drive change, and the sustainability in business self-assessment tool that helps any organization reflect and assess where they are at and helps lay a pathway for how they can leverage positive change and transform into a sustainable workplace. 

As part of the exploration, 2000 UK based office workers, from graduate entry-level jobs through to Senior Manager level, were surveyed by Censuswide in August 2020. A range of questions relating to the impact of Covid, their perceptions of sustainability and work-life changes were presented and selected data responses are shown throughout the report. It was found that there is a rising concern among workers around the impact of the companies that they are working for with 72% of respondents being concerned about environmental ethics, 83% feel that their companies aren’t doing enough and 63% want more green skills to strengthen their workforce value.

Activate + Design the Future of Your Workplace Now

Sustainability is about ensuring that decisions made today don't impede the ability for future generations to have the same, if not better quality of life as we do today, and in the context of work, it's about ensuring that workers, workplaces and business structures are ethical, equitable and economically viable.  Every organization will be at a different stage.

As the case studies throughout the report show, there are many ways to engage with sustainability and multiple opportunities to lead through these complex times. The most important thing is getting started,  and this report will support you in gaining the insights and advantages of establishing a journey towards a sustainable workplace.  

Get Our New FREE Facilitation & Creative Development Toolkit

Positively disruptive communication can be tricky not just to create, but also to engage in. But, with pressing global issues, concerned changemakers need the know-how to navigate discourse and dialogue around things that matter the most. 

This new (totally free!) toolkit, a collaboration by Disrupt Design with support from OxFam Asia’s Lab, is designed to support the creative exploration and development of digital campaigns for activating positive change using the Disruptive Design Method (DDM). 

The 60+ page illustrated toolkit includes a step-by-step guide to facilitating engaging workshops and designing creative campaigns to activate change in the digital space.

Part 1 shares a workshop process through systems thinking and creative ideation using the DDM, and Part 2 provides a set of actions to support designing and developing creative and engaging digital campaigns.

Activating Change 

By running through the content of this toolkit, you will be supported in exploring and developing exciting new opportunities for creating effective engagement campaigns that move people into action. One of the key things in designing effective campaigns that activate change is understanding the issues you are seeking to address, knowing the system it exists within and developing unique and engaging ways of communicating the desired change. This toolkit is designed to help you facilitate getting from issues to ideas to action!

Part 1: Applying the DDM

Many of you are already familiar with the DDM’s approach to problem-solving, one which helps develop a three-dimensional perspective of the way the world works and provides a unique way of exploring, identifying, and creating tactical interventions that leverage systems change for positive social and environmental outcomes. It incorporates research and problem exploration (MINING), systems thinking and modes of interventions (LANDSCAPING), and then ideation and creative development (BUILDING). 

In the context of designing positively disruptive communication, the DDM is effective because it initiates a framework for something that is very innate to us humans: creative problem solving! Many people think that they are not creative, but creativity (the ability to come up with new and unique ideas) is actually a very natural human instinct. People have been creating new and unique things forever, and each day, every one of us creates things to make our lives more effective and enjoyable. We cook, clean, write, draw, tell stories, play — these are all forms of creative expression. This toolkit helps apply the DDM in a way that feels natural and organic, as well as exciting and revelatory. 

Part 2: Creative Campaign Design

After running through the creative process of the DDM In Part 1 and getting a tangible idea that you want to develop into a creative campaign, you will need to prototype and design the final concept.  Prototyping is the technique of turning ideas into a tangible physical concept that you can share with others, get feedback on, and refine your idea into a viable solution. In this section of the toolkit, you will find a quick guide covering design approaches for digital campaign communication design. 

Design is critical to any campaign success, especially in the hyper-visual digital space. Well communicated ideas are what help change the world. The goal here is to design the right approach to engage your intended community with your ideas and provide the right motivation for taking action. Campaign design is about several key factors: tone and style, visuals, layout and language. 

It’s not just what you say; it’s also HOW you say it. 

We communicate in more ways than ever these days: verbally, through body language, social media, text, television, and also through colour, symbology, and the imagery that we choose.

It’s therefore critical to understand, respect and ethically leverage what our cultural understanding is of these subtle and not-so-subtle ways of communicating to our both own and the wider global community while minimizing unintended consequences and miscommunication.

There are now lots of useful tools to help create beautifully-designed digital communication, from social media posts to posters and videos. By following the simple steps laid out in the toolkit, anyone can come up with more beautiful and impactful campaign designs. After running through this campaign design flow, you will have stepped through the design process of exploring and deciding on the aspects of effective communication to your community — setting yourself up for success in conveying important messages in an effective, tangible way that creates positive change.

We hope you enjoy the toolkit and it helps you facilitate and activate more positive change in the world!

Why is this free?

We are committed to helping anyone, anywhere make positive change and give away a minimum of 20% of all our content for free. We have a range of free toolkits and courses you can find online here. We are only able to do this, thanks to the support of our customers and clients who pay for our classes and workshops.

The Growing Demand for More Sustainability in Business

By Leyla Acaroglu

Most people are aware that individual actions have impacts on the planet — both potentially positive or negative — but what is less considered is the impacts that our actions in business have. Many of the global environmental and social issues we face are directly attributed to the economy, and all work, in all its forms, impacts the economy in some way. From producing goods and services through to purchasing products to conduct operations, these are all aspects of the complex global supply and demand cycles that drive up ecological damage or create new markets for more sustainable outcomes. 

Sustainability in business is about integrating an approach to operating a business that meets the needs of your customers and workers without negatively impacting the planet at large into the DNA of your organization. This involves the harmonizing of these three key factors: 

• Considering the social, environmental and economic impacts so that the actions, the decisions and the outcomes of your operations do no harm; 

• Working toward offering back more than you take and contributing not just goods and services to a linear economy, but creating value that is wider than pure economic gains. 

• Understanding where in your operations and experiences (for customers and workers) you need to instigate technical and cultural change so that you continually improve working toward a carbon positive and sustainable business.

In order to achieve this transformation, all agents in the business ecosystem need to be aligned to the opportunity that sustainability offers. Leadership is crucial in this. Demands from workers are driving organizations to take action, but the most effective change happens when leaders lead the change with passion, knowledge and motivation. It's very hard to not align people to a common good when they are exposed to the facts in a way that connects to them and their lives. This is what we are seeing with climate change — people are demanding that their companies take action to show leadership.

We live in a time when the availability of information makes it hard to avoid the realities of our collective environmental and social ills; however, there are many forces of misinformation and anti-science that support a lack of action, or the intentional blocking of progressive change. 

But when you get to the core of it, all humans need nature — we all want our kids to have a positive future. And when you look at it from this perspective, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who would eventually agree that the negative impacts of a rapidly changing climate, ocean plastic waste or air pollution are positive things that we should encourage. All companies impact these areas. They take in resources and pump out pollution in the process; unless a business has assessed and thus understand these impact areas, it will continue to have a negative impact by default.

Business Impact Areas

There are three main activity areas where organizations have impacts and thus present the main opportunity to make change within: 

• Operations — through the energy, water, waste and procurement that the company consumes and produces in order to do business. 

• Products — those that are produced by the company as part of their offering into the economy. These have significant supply chain and natural resources impacts and should be considered in relation to full life product stewardship. 

• Experiential — the services and culture that the organization creates and fosters both with customers and with employees. 

Forces for Change

It’s not just common sense to introduce sustainability into any business; it’s also an increasing demand from key stakeholders, such asthe workforce. They see the issues at play and want to work for companies that align with their values.

The Purpose-Driven Workforce

The changing workforce is demanding meaning and purpose-filled work as we move from Baby Boomers being the biggest generation to Millennials. Studies done by Deloitte and McKinsey show that Gen Z and Millennials are deeply concerned about environmental issues such as climate change, and want to not only work for a company that speaks to these values but also to buy from them as well. Recent studies from Mercer 2018, WBCSD report “Complex disruptions to the Future of Work”, Harvard Business Review, and The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019 all demonstrate these trends in play.  

“Employers are responding to workers’—especially Millennials’—demands for better work/life balance with increased telecommuting, flextime and other accommodations. Since 1996, the percentage of organizations offering telecommuting has increased threefold (from 20 to 60 percent), and the percentage offering telecommuting on an ad hoc basis has increased from 45 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2016.“ (SHRM 2016) 

The Stakeholder Demand

For many years, sustainability was driven by customers, regulators and sometimes internal leaders. These stakeholders helped early adopters and pioneering organizations be first out of the gate in ensuring that their business operations and profit-building activities don’t negatively affect the planet. So of the most successful examples of this in large companies are InterFace Floor, Patagonia, and Ikea.

But now the drivers for change are coming from less-likely stakeholders, with shareholder activists, corporate governance and CEOs themselves starting to demand higher sustainability performance from their teams, seeing not only the value in a responsible company but also the realistic necessity to take action to curb climate change and ensure that natural resources are protected for future generations.

In early 2020, many things coalesced to show this significant increase in the normalization of sustainability in business. One was Microsoft announcing that they will buy back all the carbon they have ever produced. Another was the CEO of the world’s biggest investment firm, BlackRock, announcing that they would no longer invest in companies that don’t take climate action, and then in mid-2020 came good on this by divesting from several fossil fuel companies.

Even more so, the COVID-19 course has opened up an unlikely opportunity to build back an economy connected to reliance and sustainability, with the European Union, the UK, Canada and many other leading nations committing to creating a green economic recovery plan. This has opened up massive opportunities for organizations to assess and disrupt their own old way of doing business and bring in new leaner, greener and healthier work practices.

Helping you get Sustainability into Business Decision Making

Sustainability can be complex and overwhelming at times. Understanding the difference between the terminology, methods, assessment tools and then deciding what works best for your industry and scenario are all considerations that managers and senior leaders face. 

What is the circular economy and how do we participate in it? What are our operational impacts and how do we assess them? What about being carbon neutral — is that something we need to do now? These are all the kinds of questions that organizations are asking themselves, and google searching the answers isn’t cutting it.

That’s why we have an entire suite of Business Sustainability programs to support the active assessment and transition for any size company, whether you are just beginning to implement sustainability in business or you are working on becoming a carbon-positive organization.

A sample of some of the Business Sustainability online courses available at online.unschools.co

Led by Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, UNEP Champion of the Earth, Designer and Sociologist, her expertise in sustainability and tools for the circular economy allows for a rapid uptake and understanding of the core considerations that anyone working to affect change within an organization needs to know. 

The core topics in our Business Sustainability knowledge category include:

1. Sustainability in context of what it is, is not and how to do it well. Included in this is an overview of all the aspects within, from climate change to recycling and the circular economy, as well as how this affects business and workplaces and the practical actions you can take to eliminate impacts and build a more sustainable business.

2. A clear overview of all the terms and concepts that apply to sustainability, carbon positive workplaces and the circular economy. 

3. Life cycle thinking and understanding the supply chain, along with design and manufacturing of products you make and also consume. This supports base-case assessment, design changes, and also procurement choices. 

4. Material impacts and decisions around business activities, such as waste and energy services. Discover how to use environmental impact assessment in ways that support better decision making and reduce costs. 

5. The theories and approaches to making positive change within your organization. 

6. Understanding the areas of impact that any business must consider and practical approaches to reducing these.

7. Business Ethics and leadership tools for engaging your people in effective, respectful and motivating ways, with action checklists and support in writing environmental policies and reporting. 

8. How to create products and services for the circular economy. 

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JOIN AN INCREDIBLE LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP IN ACTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY IN YOUR BUSINESS

Sustainability can be complex and overwhelming at times. Understanding the difference between the terminology, methods, assessment tools and then deciding what works best for your industry and scenario are all considerations that managers and senior leaders face.

This program lays out the core thinking and decision-making tools required to advance sustainability and the circular economy within the business environment, led by Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, UNEP Champion of the Earth, Designer and Sociologist.

Her expertise in sustainability and tools for the circular economy allows for a rapid uptake and understanding of the core considerations that anyone working to effect change within an organization needs to know.

Business Sustainability Activation October Training Program

MEET OUR NEW SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS TRAINING PROGRAMS!

For many years we have been working with organizations of all sizes to help them identify and integrate sustainability into their processes, practices and organizational DNA, and now we are excited to share a diverse range of programs dedicated to helping advance and activate sustainability into business processes and structure!

Our new courses range from an introductory level course through to 101, 102 and 103 series of leveling up. They are designed to support organizational change and offer any sized business the tools needed to identify, design and reconfigure into a circular, sustainable and climate positive business. The series will be released over the next few months and to kick off, we have a 1-month live intensive with Dr. Leyla Acaroglu happening in October! This program is the perfect starting point for anyone who wishes to help transform their business at an operational level into one that has conscious and considered impacts. Find out more about the program, who its best suited for and our full series here in this week’s journal.

What IS the live program is all about?

This program is designed for professionals from a variety of backgrounds and industries who want to gain the full-spectrum understanding of sustainability in business operations.

This is an immersive knowledge-building program for managers, HR specialists and business development teams wanting to advance through sustainability.

This week-long immersive is divided up into 3 main live knowledge sessions and activations during the week, offering up a detailed introduction to sustainability in the workplace program.

We designed this workshop for anyone who is interested in understanding how to take action within a business context to introduce sustainable and carbon-positive actions.

The topics covered include:

• Sustainability — what it is, is not and how to do it well. Included in this is an overview of all the aspects, from climate change to recycling and the circular economy to gain a clear overview of all the terms and concepts that apply to sustainability, carbon-positive workplaces and the circular economy

• An overview of business sustainability concepts, current must-haves for engaging with this transformation and case studies of organizations taking action 

• Which forces are influencing sustainability in the workplace and the business risks associated with inaction 

• How sustainability affects business and workplaces, and the practical actions you can take to eliminate impacts and build a more sustainable business

• The trend toward workers demanding sustainability from organizations, along with theories and approaches to making positive change within your organization

• Life cycle thinking and understanding the supply chain; design and manufacturing of products you make and also consume, which supports base-case assessment, design changes, and also procurement choices

• Material impacts and decisions around business activities, such as waste and energy services, as you discover how to use environmental impact assessment in ways that support better decision-making and reduce costs

• How to write an environmental plan/policy, do a self-assessment, take action and create products and services for the circular economy

• Business ethics and leadership tools for engaging your people in effective, respectful and motivating ways, with action checklists and support in writing environmental policies and reporting

If you are an executive, manager, decision-maker, and leader who is working within an organization and are keen to start your sustainability journey, this course will help you get your head around all the policies, procedures, decisions and pitfalls of taking action for a carbon-positive future. 

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“The Disruptive Design workshop far exceeded my expectations. The content has given me a practical way to delve into complex problems, exploring thinking far beyond my normal lines of inquiry, and to surface new areas for intervention and innovative ways of designing those interventions. Everyone who is tackling systems should learn this.”

— Catriona McLagan, New Zealand Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

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Why SHOULD YOU take this workshop?

This is a knowledge-building skill development program for people wanting to integrate sustainability decision making into their workplace. 

The content is designed to support the rapid uptake of core concepts, tools and approaches to integrating sustainability into decision making, facilitating the transition toward operating more sustainably, and providing the tools that enable this to happen within your organization. 

This program is specifically focused on understanding the fundamentals of what sustainability is and how it applies to your business and the workplace, along with providing very practical action kits, details on how to write environmental policies and a regulation checker. 

The goal is to provide the framework for you to get started within your organization, no matter what industry you are in or how far along your sustainability journey you already are. Its practical, actionable and easy to digest in a short period of time. 

By the time you have taken this program, we will have launched our brand new Sustainability in Business Series, along with our 12 Steps to Sustainability Challenge, all of which which offer practical roadmaps to organizational change.

Sustainability can be complex and overwhelming at times; understanding the difference between the terminology, methods and assessment tools and then deciding what works best for your industry and scenario are all considerations that managers and senior leaders face. 

The October workshop lays out the core concepts, tools and actions you can take to ensure you are activating a sustainable and ethical approach to doing business. 

Led by Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, UNEP Champion of the Earth, Designer, Sociologist and UnSchool founder, her expertise in sustainability and tools for the circular economy allows for a rapid uptake and understanding of the core considerations that anyone working to affect change within an organization needs to know. 

“Over 200 of the world’s largest firms estimated that climate change would cost them a combined total of nearly US$1 trillion in the case of nonaction. At the same time, there is broad recognition among these same firms that there are significant economic opportunities, provided the right strategies are put in place.”

— The Global Risks Report 2020

A sneak peek at the rest of the series

The Business in Sustainability Program series encompasses many aspects of integrating and transforming organizations to be sustainable and circular. From general operational impacts through to system-wide transformation, each program has been curated to support a different level organizational shift.

September will see the release of our new Sustainability in Business Series, starting off with the Introductory course.

Our introduction course helps you assess where you are and covers the basics to get yourself or team on the same page. We offer a self-assessment tool to see where you are at and identify the next steps, along with sharing inspirational case studies from a variety of industries and the growing trends around the world.

The 101 course focuses on the operational level, covering topics such as audits, inputs and outputs; 102 covers the financial aspects of sustainability in business to make the case for change and upskill in ways to do so; 103 covers the broader systems thinking for carbon and future positive workspaces, looking at the bigger pictures and establishing leadership paths forward. We will also be offering an executive-level course in the future to leverage and build leadership in the sustainability for a business context, as well as an engaging and motivational 12 Step Organizational Challenge.

INTRODUCTION PROGRAM

Basic Training

Kick off your transformation by uncovering the core concepts and approaches to sustainability in business, and be inspired by diverse industry case studies as well as map your action plan:

• Part 1: Sustainability and Circular Economy Transformation in Business 

• Part 2: Case Studies of Sustainability Initiatives in Business

• Part 3: Leadership and Activating Change

Sustainability in Business 101

Operational Training

The 101 program covers all the core aspects of operational impacts, exploring the energy, waste water and procurement aspects of general operations, as well as providing actions for upskilling in life cycle thinking and green supply chain development.

• Part 1: Sustainability and Business Operational Impacts 

• Part 2: Assessing Operational Areas of Impact 

• Part 3: Supply Chains, Carbon Emissions and Life Cycle Thinking

Sustainability in Business 102

Financial Training

The 102 program dives deeper into the economic impacts of sustainability in business, such as the financial risks, opportunities, and strategies for taking on the challenges and leadership roles in this global movement. The world is changing - fast - and positioning yourself and your organization for employability and resilience will be critical for successful and sustainable growth in the years to come.

• Part 1: Materials and Waste Streams

• Part 2: Developing Policies and Procedures

• Part 3: Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting

Sustainability in Business 103

Systems Training

The 103 program looks at the bigger picture and supports decision-making for systems level change within the workplace context. Level up with carbon and future positive initiatives, build leadership skills for internal and external momentum, understand sustainable design strategies and create products and services that fit into the circular economy.

• Part 1: Transitioning to The Circular Economy

• Part 2: Systems Thinking in Business Decision Making

• Part 3: Business Ethics, Integrity and Theory of Change

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Executive Training

The Executive Training Program is an advanced sustainability leadership track that includes deep knowledge on systems wide transformation, adaptation to circular principles and operational impact assessment. Set an example for your employees and your industry in a way that both builds your business, while also establishes the norms for a more positive, regenerative and resilient industry. Get ahead of the curve and be a leader in your space.

Team Challenges

Any individual can take on the challenge for themselves or implicate their colleagues into the challenge for a fun and interactive way to increase their impact and influence. This is a great initiative for HR managers and executives to invite their employees to take part in, incentivizing participation and encouraging everyone to come along for the ride as your organization scales up its efforts toward increasing and meeting sustainability goals.

Looking for custom content?

All our standard courses are fully customizable to your organizational needs. We offer bulk subscription discounts and can develop specific and customized content for your industry, as well as provide motivational live sessions with our lead educator Leyla Acaroglu, or executive coaching and advice services to ensure your company-wide success.

“This masterclass has definitely stretched my brain. My brain does hurt but it was absolutely worth it. My work will be less stressful now that I can sift through my messy brain. Thank you for saying it’s okay to procrastinate and that it helps, and thank you for reminding me that we need to be more compassionate because we need more people to adhere to sustainability in order to make the world better. We just can’t do it alone.”

— Group Sustainability & CSR Executive at The Lux Collective, Evita Fakun

Week 65: International Youth Day | Tools for Supporting Young Change Makers

12th August is the day the UN celebrates International Youth Day this year, and what a year to shine a spotlight on all the incredible action young people around the world are taking. This year’s theme is Youth Engagement for Global Action, and over the last year, we have seen so many amazing activations from young people, like the Fridays for Future school strikes led by the incredibly inspiring Greta Thurnberg, as well as the landmark court case Juliana v. United States, which asserted that the impacts of climate change were violating Americans’ federal rights.

So in this week’s journal, we celebrate the highlights of the last 12 months of youth action, and in celebration, we developed a youth activation kit that is on sale for half price for the rest of August!

Friday School Strikes

#FridaysForFuture started in August 2018, by then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, when she and other young activists sat every school day for three weeks in front of the Swedish parliament protesting the lack of action on the global climate crisis. The now famous youth leader Greta posted what and why she was doing this on social media, and it soon become a viral phenomenon that has grown into a global youth movement.

By mid-2019, young people were striking on Fridays in more than 2,000 towns and cities in over 100 different countries with millions of students joining in. This year, September 25th will be a national day of action whereby hundreds of thousands of young people around the world will strike from school, demanding leaders take action on climate change (with Covid-19 precautions in place).

YOUNG PEOPLE SUE the US Government OVER CLIMATE CHANGE

Since 2015, a group of young Americans fought an inspiring battle against the US government, claiming that their constitutional rights were being neglected if the government did not take action on climate change. Sadly, in January this year, a U.S. federal appeals court threw the case out, causing a major setback to efforts to spur the U.S. government to address the issue.

The pioneering law suit was brought against the government by a group of 12-18 year olds, including Aji Piper, Levi Draheim, Journey Zephier, Jayden Foytlin, Miko Vergun, and Nathan Baring among a total of 21 plaintiffs, all whom were passionate about the planet and not willing to sit by and watch their government continue to ignore the science on climate change.

Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz, who presided over the case, said the following when providing his opinion on the ruling, saying that the young people “have made a compelling case that action is needed… Reluctantly, we conclude that such relief is beyond our constitutional power. Rather, the plaintiffs’ impressive case for redress must be presented to the political branches of government.”

All is not lost as this action has clearly inspired others. After the devastating fires that ravaged Australia in early 2020, a 23-year-old Australian student brought a class-action case against government over climate change. More and more young people are demanding action from their governments and taking action themselves to secure their future against catastrophic environmental issues.

Youth-led Action Networks

There are countless youth-led climate and environmental action networks, educational organisations, not-for-profits and campaigns set up all over the world. Here is a list of just some of the initiatives set up and run by young people:

Alliance for Climate Education

One Up Action

Zero Hour Movement

Youth Climate Leaders

UK Student Climate Network

Sunrise Movement

Indian Youth Climate Network

Future Coalition

Hip Hop Caucas

Youth for Nature

Youth Leaders

Here are some of the youth leaders and their twitter handles all using their voices to forge a pathway towards a sustainable future for all of us:

Nadia Nazar, 17 from USA @nadiabaltimore

Holly Gillibrand, 13 from Scotland @HollyWildChild

Vic Barrett from the USA @vict_barrett

Isra Hirsi, 16 from the USA @israhirsi 

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, 19 from the USA @xiuhtezcatl

Jerome Foster II, 16 from the USA @jeromefosterii

Luisa Neubauer, 23 from Germany @Luisamneubauer

John Paul Jose, 22 from India @johnpauljos

David Wicker, 14 from Italy @davidwicker_hf

Lilly Platt, 9 from the Netherlands @lillyspickup

Leah Namugerwa, 14 from Uganda @NamugerwaLeah

Saoi O’Connor, 16 from Ireland @saoi4climate

Timoci Naulusala, 12 from Fiji #timoci

Shalvi Shakshi, 10, from Fiji

Nakabuye Hilda from Uganda @NakabuyeHildaF

India Logan-Riley from Aotearoa / New Zealand @IndiMiro

Brianna Fruean, 20 from Samoa @Brianna_Fruean

Ridhima Pandey, 12 from India @ridhimapandey7

Marinel Ubaldo from The Philippines @YnelUbaldo

Winnie Asiti from Kenya @Asiti

Ayakha Melithafa, 17 from South Africa @ayakhamelithafa

Xiye Bastida, 17 from Mexico @xiyebastida

Autumn Peltier. 16 from Wiikwemkoong First Nation @StephaniePelti3

Amariyanna Copeny, 13 from the USA @LittleMissFlint

Take Action: our 4-Week Youth Activation Challenge

We have designed a 4-week learning challenge for any young person who wants to take action. With loads of UnSchool content from systems thinking to agency development and creativity, we have packed this program full of exciting and motivating content perfect to get any young mind activated and engaged.

To celebrate International Youth Day, the Program is half price for the rest of this month. Just use the code IYD2020 when signing up

Sign up here >

The Covid-fueled plastic waste crisis unfolding

By Leyla Acaroglu

What a conundrum: we are in the middle of Plastic Free July, whilst also being in the middle of a global pandemic that, due to the increased concerns around safety and hygiene, is demanding the increased use of disposable single-use products. 

In the weeks after the start of the lockdown, Thailand reported a 62% increase in the discarding of disposable plastic products as a result of the pandemic. This is for a country, like many others, who in January had announced progressive approaches to reducing plastic waste. Some recent stats estimate that 13 million tons of plastic waste pre-pandemic would end up in the ocean each year, and now no one knows what the true cost of this surging use in disposable products will have on this global waste crisis. Based on our current trajectory though, it is estimated that by 2040, plastic pollution will weigh 1.3 billion tons. The numbers of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) being ordered by governments are staggering alone. The UK 28 billion, France 2 billion — and China’s daily production of face masks in February soared to 116 million, which was 12 times higher than the previous month. What will become of all of this disposable plastic waste? 

For every month that we face the Covid-19 pandemic, it is estimated that globally, we will use and dispose of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves. You don't have to go far these days to see the discards of someone else's safety concerns — a dark blue disposable glove lying at the base of a city tree, a light blue disposable face-mask by the side of a trash can, or even worse, various supplies laying limply in the gutter, just waiting to be washed out into the ocean as the street cleaners come and wash it away. 

Before the pandemic, we already had a global waste crisis on our hands, and then the global shutdowns put a halt on progressive action to reduce the reliance on single-use disposable products like disposable food packaging. Given that millions of people are swapping from in-restaurant dining to ordering take-out, we have seen a surge in use of convenience packaging. Add in all the medical supplies, hygiene supplies, and PPE, and all of this has given rise to single-use products skyrocketing at a time when recycling can’t keep up. 

Financial Times called this a “toxic pandemic waste-crisis,” reporting this week that, “A study published on Thursday forecasts that the flow of plastic into oceans would nearly treble by 2040 to 29m tonnes per year if much greater action was not taken by governments and industry.” WHO has said that a 40% increase in PPE production will be needed to meet the growing global demand. 

California has announced they will put their plastic bans on hold due to Covid-19. Wired reports “Even if the industry could handle this crush of ‘recyclables,’ and even if it were economically feasible to process all the stuff, many recyclers have shut down in response to the pandemic. Curbside recycling programs have been suspended by dozens of county and local governments, from Miami to Los Angeles County, according to the trade publication Waste Dive. Recycling facilities are struggling to figure out how to protect their workers, who are concerned about virus exposure from handling materials.” Furthermore, the World Economic Forum states that in the United Kingdom, illegal waste dumping has risen 300% since the pandemic started. 

Most disposable masks are made from finely woven plastic fibers that are not recyclable, but even if they could be recycled, it’s very unlikely that they would, given the issues with recycling medical waste, especially in a time of a highly infectious virus. But there are reports of people wishcycling their masks by popping them in the recycling bin, which in turn, puts sanitation and waste workers at risk. To be clear, right now, unless you find a designated bin that is marked for face masks, they are not recyclable. And, as I have reported on before, recycling validates waste. Given that we are in a global recycling crisis, it is not good enough to rely on recycling as the solution to the complex disposability problem. 

So yes, we are indeed in a conundrum, considering the need for personal safety in the face of a deadly virus as well as planetary protection for current and future generations. More so than ever before, we need ways of meeting these needs through sustainable and circular solutions. 

We need to design our way out of this by creating new products that meet these needs and support the adaptation of these new approaches. 

WHERE CAN WE START?

We know that masks are extremely important for collective safety, and for many people, dining in restaurants is still not possible. Here are 8 ways you can avoid disposable, single-use products: 

1. Get a couple of reusable, washable masks. Wash and rotate them to avoid using single-use ones. (Consider taking up a new hobby by making your own! There are many useful tutorials online.)

2. Encourage your friends and co-workers to do the same with their masks. Consider asking your employer to bulk purchase reusable masks (and even get them branded, if that helps justify the additional costs!).

3. Reuse take-out containers at home for storing other items if you get food to go. 

4. Search out restaurants and delivery services who are making the effort to reduce unnecessary waste and who are selecting lower-impact materials. 

5. Learn to cook new things at home. 

6. If you have to use disposable, store it so that you can reuse it the full number of recommended times, and consider using Terracycle for PPE recycling. 

7. Check this article for more advice on how to stay sustainable during the pandemic. 

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At the UnSchool we are dedicated to helping create a more sustainable and circular world by design. We run programs, develop tools and support thousands of people in developing their skills, ideas and projects for activating positive change, If you are interested in designing solutions for a sustainable world, then apply to join our upcoming 1 month live masterclass or check out our online programs here. 

8 Ways to Make Online Education Engaging and Interactive

By Leyla Acaroglu

Since we are all now suddenly spending a significant amount of time in online learning environments and digital meetings, and I have been running programs online for several years pre-pandemic, I have been reflecting on what does and does not make online learning work.

Here I have compiled a list of things that I think help make digital learning experiences more effective, as well as things to avoid if you want your participants to be more engaged and motivated through the somewhat more complex 2D world of online learning —  be it in a workshop or even just an online meeting. 

I usually run live online one-month intensive training programs that mirror the core content we teach at any of the UnSchool in-person programs. We started offering these types of intensive online programs a few years back after it was obvious that for some people, getting to a physical location was challenging especially with family responsibilities etc.

Given that we are very committed to equitable access, we started offering a one-month, live, small-group program on the Disruptive Design Method, Systems Change and the Circular Economy and I was fascinated to see how effective these could still be for effective learning and creative change outcomes. 

Since the Covid crises, like many others, we had to suspend all our in-person programs and convert to online. Each time I have now run one of these intensive masterclasses online, the group really amazes me, and I am just as inspired and educated as they are after the program is complete! 

8 ways to stay engaged

Here are eight of the things I have discovered help make online education more effective: 

1. Always get people to introduce themselves in a way that helps the rest of the group be excited about working with them. At the start I give people 2-5 minutes to share who they are and why they are taking the program, along with something weird or wonderful about themselves — the latter always helps break things up and give us a giggle. Laughing is so important for human bonding, and it helps to ease any tensions some participants might have at the start. 

2. Ensure everyone keeps their video on so that everyone can see that everyone else is engaged. Of course, offer people the opportunity to switch it off if they have to pop out, but if you are in a one-hour session, then most people should be visible to help get the benefits of social visual interaction, like mirror neurons. 

3. Break people up into groups and get them talking. If you use Zoom (which we have for years), you can pop people into breakout rooms. It's an amazing feature, as it sends your participants into however many rooms you want for a smaller conversation. So say you can have a group of 10; you can put them in 5 rooms to have one-on-one time or in 3 rooms to have a bit more of a group discussion. You can’t see them unless you pop into a room, and you can call them back at any time to the main room. This helps people process new information, connect with their peers and ensure that they all can participate.

4. Get people doing things. I always pick someone and ask them for an example or to respond to a question, or I get them to write a list of reflections for 2 minutes, or break out into a room and discuss the activity they just did. I also give homework tasks too, then at the start of each session, two or three people share their actions and reflections on the homework task. Interactivity, online or off, is key to cognitive engagement and seeing how others respond to tasks is a very effective peer learning tool. 

5. Keep on time, as it helps respect all people in the group. Especially in a digital environment, people often have to leave right at the end time, and it is always awkward if some pop out before you have finished. So, I work really hard to keep on exactly the time we agreed, and if I have to go over, I make a quick offer for people to pop out if they need and then watch the recorded video later. But I think it's super important to respect the group dynamics by ensuring everyone can be there from start to finish together and say a nice goodbye before rushing off to whatever they have on next! 

6. Use time well. I always plan out my session in chunks of time and make sure I break up any direct instruction so that there is some interactivity. Maybe at the start, middle or end during a lecture session, I will get the participants time to respond or go to a breakout room and do something. In a workshop session, I design several activities around the core learning goals for that session to do alongside the presentation. I often use time restrictions to ensure that when a breakout room happens, they know that they have to be efficient to get the outcomes and then report back when the group reconvenes. 

7. Be understanding. Online learning can be tough for some, as there may be distractions around them or on their computer with seeing messages or emails come in. I understand that kids might start crying or the postman arrives, so let people know that you get it so that if these types of things happen, they don't feel awkward when they have to respond to them. The goal should be that these humans connected via the internet beamed into their homes are supporting each other, gaining the knowledge and experiences that they need from both the instructor and one another and that there is an acceptance that this is not the same experience as being in a room together with the outside world disconnected from our inside learning experience. 

8. Tell stories. This is a good engagement for any type of learning, and the more narrative base information you give, the more likely people are to retain the information that you are sharing. 

3 Things to Avoid

Here are three of the things that I feel reduce the potential for effective digital learning: 

1. Don’t assume that people will be engaged just because they are online; especially now, our attention is often split between many different things. The responsibility of the instructor is to design experiences that are engaging and that motivate participation. Just because someone is in your Zoom room doesn't mean that their mind is present with you, so find ways of ensuring that they are present. I like to see my role as a preforming of exciting learning experiences.

2. Don't get annoyed at people for being late or having not completed a task you asked of them. Online learning is very different from in-person learning when it comes to social pressure, and it can take a bit of time for people to find the motivation to do the work independently instead of in a group dynamic. So, be a bit empathetic to this and give people the opportunity to still contribute, perhaps by emailing it to you later that week for feedback. 

3. It may be that you lose a few people. Given that there are so many different types of learning systems, it's inevitable that one or two people in your group may find online learning just doesn't work for them. We always check on people if they don't show up to a session and try and find out what we can do to help them with their learning journey.  

To be fair, I teach adults and so these ideas apply to adult learning. I think kids and teenagers would have an entirely different set of success features that educators need to bring into their repertoire. I know from my own experience of going from mainly teaching in rooms with humans that the transition can be a bit awkward at first, but for me, the joy in teaching this way is in being able to connect with people all over the world and to have them learn from each other.

When designed well, online learning can have just as profound of an impact as face-to-face programs, ensuring that people have the space to engage and connect with each other and that you, as the instructor, are tracking your content to the learning needs of your group. 

This year, I have already run two month-long programs, and we have a third one coming up this September. I have been so inspired and energized by the outcomes that I am really committed to continuing to find ways of ensuring more people can successfully learn this way.

I don't think digital should replace in-person learning and engagement, as there is just so much cognitive benefit from being with other like-minded humans while trying to solve and uncover complex things. But for now, this is a great way to ride out lockdowns and uncertainty with a group of other humans who care about the same things as you and who are self-selecting into a digital space dedicated to learning how to make positive change. 

If you are interested in joining my next program, the September Circular Systems Design Masterclass, there are still a few places left. Apply here >

Racial Equity Tools and Resources

Racism the world over is a designed system of oppression. The system we live within, the one that allows for humans of certain skin colors, religious identities or sexual orientations to be oppressed to the point of literal and figurative suffocation is by design.

The system is not ‘broken’ per se; it was designed to serve a purpose and it is achieving that end goal, that being an economic and cultural system based on exploitation and extraction that enables some to get rich and live particular lifestyles at the expense of others.

This is one of the fundamental issues with power: once you have it - given by birth or earned through merit - you will fight pretty hard to keep it, as the cognitive impact is one of being entitled to the privileges that having that power enables you to hold.

One of the first steps to change is understanding the origins of the problem, the role we play within it, and then activating your unique agency to help overcome it. Complacency reinforces the system of oppression, so we all must find our way of contributing to the needed systems-level change.

There are many resources out there for both knowledge, action and skill development. We offer a starter selection here; however, it by no means complete (and mostly offers North American resources in English), and it is up to each of us to continue to be curious, self-educate and take actions to support a greater understanding of our shared global history of inequity and oppression to support moving towards the critical systems change.

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TOOLKITS

RACIAL EQUITY TOOLS
This racial equity tool set provides powerful and important content to educate yourself and those around you about the structural and systemic racism that permeates all aspects of our societies.

NEW ERA OF PUBLIC SAFETY TOOLKIT
The result of a task force set up by President Obama after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, this toolkit focuses on specific policy change and actions for a more fair and safe policing.

GARE RACIAL EQUITY TOOLKIT
This toolkit is intended for staff who work in government, elected officials, and community groups who work with the government. There are many city specific toolkits out there, which you can search for online to see specific kits to your region.

CAMPAIGN ZERO TRACKER
Use this tool to track legislation by US state, find representatives to email, research data and reports, also provides downloadable graphics to share and amplify specific actions.

EUROPEAN COALITION FOR CITIES AGAINST RACISM
This series of toolkits is available in 6 languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian and Swedish.

NAPPY & HUMAAANS
If you are creating a campaign, you need images. Find free high res stock photos of Black and Brown people at Nappy and customizable open source illustrations of humans at Humaaans. If you’re looking for a 3D model, check out this Characters of Color series for games and film.

RACE FORWARD KITS
Race Forward focuses on impact and systems change, and it offers many free toolkits from impact assessments, to restaurant workers, as well as online training with sliding scale prices.

COLOR OF CHANGE CAMPAIGN KIT
This is a resource of ongoing campaigns, and how-to resource for creating your own, curated by colorofchange.org.

BRAVE ABOUT RACE
Here is a series of action guides for parents in raising racially literate kids.

MANDATORY SENTENCING TOOLKITS
These are tools to support and take action on reforming the justice system (watch the 13th on Netflix for more on why this is critical).

ORGANIZATIONAL RACE EQUITY TOOLKIT
This is a toolkit to build robust non-performative policies and processes for equity in organizations and corporations from JustLead Washington. Samples of org mission statements are here from Durham County, and if those seem too diplomatic, check out Ben & Jerry’s.

ASIAN AMERICAN RACIAL JUSTICE TOOLKIT
Series of x15 small group training workshops with step by step plans.

NATIVE LAND
Native Land is an interactive map and accompanying educator’s guide on tracing the roots of colonialism, First Nations and Indigenous land acknowledgment, treaties and territories across the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and continually adding more.

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RESOURCES

10 STEPS TO NON-OPTICAL ALLYSHIP
Created by Mireille Cassandra Harper as a starter kit to go beyond posting and likes.

SUMMER SKOOL
@ckyourprivilege is offering a 12 week summer school via Instagram live with sessions every day at 1pm pst, archived on IGTV.

BLACK LIVES MATTER CARRD
Carrd is a simple one-page site that many people are using to group information together in easily clickable format. There are many out there; this one includes maps of the protests, resources for protestors and petitions and is a good starting point.

BLACK LIVES MATTER CARRD CANADA
Canada shares the longest undefended border in the world with the United States, and along with it, systemic inequities and a shared history of colonization and oppression. Here are some resources that are specific to the Canadian context, including some mental health links.

75 THINGS WHITE PEOPLE CAN DO FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Organizations to donate to, actions to take, things to read — there is something for everyone on this long list.

DIVEST
Climate change disproportionately and negatively affects POC communities around the world. Divest from institutions that uphold the fossil fuel industry, and use this financial institution report as a start to see where your bank stands, let them know where you stand, and swap where you keep your money.

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS OF COLOR
Since “recent research has found major disparities in mental health treatment for students across races and ethnic backgrounds,” this resource guide provides a directory of mental health resources for students of color.

LOVELAND THERAPY FUND
Mental health resources for Black women and girls across the United States, with financial assistance available supported through Rachel Cargle’s Loveland partnerships. Apply for mental health support, or donate to the foundation. Also check out this mental health context doc and resource list from Sunshine Health, this guide on traumatization from watching films, and this list of mental health resources.

RACHEL CARGLE'S LIST
From a 30 day free email course, to articles to read, books, templates, Rachel Cargle’s extensive list of resources offers comprehensive and varied ways to upskill and act from template letters to employers and academic institutions, lectures, mental health resources and her Tedx Talk.

INTERACTION INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Group and organizational training and workshops for social change within organizations, as well as facilitation training.

HOW TO TALK TO YOUR FAMILY ABOUT RACISM
Written by Rachel Cargle, common questions that may come up around the dinner table and how to respond and facilitate conversation.

BLACK TO THE FUTURE
The Black Futures Lab focuses on public policy and voting rights and is taking applications for their leadership training fellowship in progressive race-forward policy governance.

BAIL FUNDS & PETITIONS
One of the many masterlists of bail relief funds, petitions, and other resources for supporting community efforts. On the same topic, divest from companies that profit off prison labour.

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UNSCHOOLERS WITH EQUITY RELATED INITIATIVES

IF YOU ARE NOT ON THIS LIST AND HAVE A PROJECT YOU WANT TO SHARE, GET IN TOUCH AND LET US KNOW!

SAFE JOHNSON CITY, TN
UnSchool editor, Jamie Ferrell, has organized a campaign to create SAFE (Supporting Acceptance For Everyone) local business resources in her own community.

VANESSA FALOYE
Vanessa is a social justice educator who joined us as a facilitator on on our Cape Town Fellowship and Portugal Educator training. She offers group and organizational training for anti-oppression educational programs.

THE SCHOOL OF PRESSURE
Wisaal Abrahams joined us a facilitator on our Cape Town Fellowship where she lives, and she offers educational workshops on dismantling systems of oppression to academic institutions, corporations and groups.

ROOT CAUSE RESEARCH CENTER
San Fran Fellowship alumni Jessica Bellamy is an information designer and community organizer at this participatory and community based research organization addressing systemic oppression.

CODE TENDERLOIN
Founded by the “Mayor of the Tenderloin” district of San Fran, Del Seymour leads tours around the area and provides free programs for job readiness and coding in the Bay area. Del lead us through the Tenderloin on our San Fran Fellowship.

CREATIVE REACTION LAB
Workshops and programs for youth and educators for racial equity and civic leadership design, founded by Antionette Carroll. Antionette joined us as a mentor during the San Fran UnSchool Fellowship.

ELIMIN8HATE
San Fran Fellowship alumni Ellen Moon’s project for reporting and acting on incidents of anti-Asian racism, hate and violence, mental health resources and community created PSA videos.

QUIRKY30
An NFP school in Cape Town tackling the up to 70% youth unemployment rate by teaching coding for the 4th industrial revolution. Founder Sihle Tshabalala joined us as a mentor during the Cape Town Fellowship.

HEAL THE HOOD
Founder Emile YX equips youth through hip hop culture, dance and entrepreneurship to gain the skills to navigate social systems. Emile joined us as a mentor during the Cape Town Fellowship.

MOKENA MAKEKA
Mokena is an architect (among other things) who designs building to effect social change, from police stations to conventions centers, and joined us an a mentor during Cape Town on the Fellowship.

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WATCH

Some of the movies and docs are available on subscription services, but if you have chosen to divest from them, or those services are not available in your region, PBS and the Criterion Collection have titles for free, as do libraries, some of which are also available for online streaming like at the New York Public Library. Some of the big movie companies are also making racial equity movies free to watch this month.

MOVIES & DOCS

• American Son (2019)

• See You Yesterday (2019)

• When They See Us (2019)

• Just Mercy (2019)

• The Hate You Give (2018)

• If Beale St Could Talk (2018)

• King in the Wilderness (2018)

• Dear White People (2017)

• Whose Streets? (2017)

• 13th (2016)

• I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

• Selma (2014)

• 16 Shots (2014)

• The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

• Malcolm X (1992)

• Mississippi Masala (1991)

• Do The Right Thing (1989)

ONLINE VIDEOS & TALKS

• Neil deGrasse Tyson on Being Black

• LeVar Burton on Being Pulled Over

• LeVar Burton: This is My Story Video Series on Being Black in America

• Racism - what will it take to end it? | Cynthia Silva Parker | TEDxSarasota (Systems of Racism)

• The Sky Didn't Fall: How I Learned to Call Out Racism | Susan Naimark | TEDxJamaicaPlain

• Implicit Bias - how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

• Designing for a more equitable world | Antionette Carroll

• Justice by Design | Antionette Carroll | TEDxHerndon

• My Transformational Journey | Del Seymour | TEDxMoreauCatholicHS

• NPR: So many great podcasts including Code Switch, Invisibilia, and Hidden Brain

• Today Explained: a quick 20min overview updated every day from Vox to explain what just happened, and what does it mean

• Revisionist History (Malcolm Gladwell) Podcast on Black education for Black children and why this is critical

• Resmaa Menakem (therapist and trauma specialist) on the physical impacts of intergenerational trauma

• TEDTalk's playlist about racism in the United States

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READ

A quick internet search will find many lists of books to read. Bookshop will find and connect you to local independent bookstores so you can divest your retail dollars from Amazon (read about why VP Tim Bray quit over the '“vein of toxicity” that led to leaving his $1million/yr job).

• How To Be An Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi)

• The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander)

• This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Cherrie Moraga)

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D.)

• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness (Austin Channing Brown)

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (Richard Rothstein)

• 'White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide' (Carol Anderson, Ph.D.)

• Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America (Jennifer Harvey, Ph.D.)

• More titles at DiverseBooks.org, along with links to black owned bookstores, articles, and further resources.

• A curated list from editor and writer Dianca London Potts

• A curated list from Rachel Cargle

• A curated list for kids from the NYT by age bracket from 0-12. There are many other lists of books for kids, which you can search online for.

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FOLLOW

A handful of hashtags and accounts to follow, learn, listen, amplify and expand. There are thousands of industry and city/country specific accounts and tags to discover, from writers, designers, educators, outdoor recreation, sports, health, etc, etc.

#blacklivesmatter
#diversifyyourfeed
#melanated
#amplifymelanatedvoices
#amplifymelanatedvoiceschallenge
#saytheirnames
#blackvoices
#blackleaders

Some examples of hashtag impact here, here and here, along with a short article on the pros and cons (TLDR: good start, but don’t stop there).

@blacklivesmatter
@rachelcargle
@laylafsaad
@yourrightscamp
@ibramxk
@aclu_nationwide
@goodgoodgood
@ethelsclub
@crxlab
@speakoutspeakers
@blackfutureslab
@naacp_ldf

25 more accounts to check out

The Case for a Post Covid-19 Sustainable Recovery

As the world starts to reawaken from its months of in-house sheltering during the COVID-19 crises, there are calls from around the world for the rebuilding of the economy to be done through a green and sustainable pathway. The lockdown has shown many people just how urgent our sustainability needs are. There are many links drawn between natural habitat destruction, climate change, air pollution and other environmental issues connected to the rise and devastation of a pandemic such as COVID-19. The head of the UN called for a global green recovery, and many governments are seeing the links between the climate and the COVID-19 crises. With recovery talks emerging and governments around the world beginning to propose new budgets, we thought we’d take a look at who is (and who is not) focused on implementing sustainability initiatives in their COVID-19 response and future planning.

Dan Meyers via Unsplash.com

The European Union 

Right before this crisis, the EU voted to approve the Green Deal, which sets out ambitious plans for a clean and circular economy that has no new net carbon emissions by 2050. This pandemic has emphasized the urgency of implementing the Paris Agreement, with Germany and the UK collaborating to virtually lead the the 11th Petersberg Climate Dialogue earlier in April, in which they, along with 30 countries, discussed how to begin recovery with the caveat of climate protection being linked to the economic perspective. The EU’s proposed Green Recovery also highlights the need to protect biodiversity and invest in “sustainable mobility, renewable energy, building renovations, research and innovation, and the circular economy.” While there isn’t unanimous agreement among all nations of the EU, there is certainly a majority that are in favor of using the European Green Deal as a framework for recovery, leading to rich discussions and (hopefully) favorable outcomes.  

“The restart can lead to a healthier and more resilient world for everyone.” - U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres (Source)

As usual, the main pushback against green initiatives is coming from a fiscal perspective (these are the people who created the reductive, linear economy based on the hyper consumption loop, after all). We saw this happen in 2008’s recession as well — carbon dioxide levels drastically dropped and then resurged with a vengeance due to carbon-intensive stimulus spending. As such, hundreds of the world’s top economists have banded together to advise that we learn from the 2008 crisis and choose more wisely this time by investing stimulus spending in climate action, stating that “post-crisis green stimulus can help drive a superior economic recovery.” This resounding call for a green recovery is also heard from the general populace, with over a million EU citizens sharing their support for green investments. Specific countries are also putting in measures such as France offering subsidies for bike repairs to entice people to bike rather than drive.

“The current crisis is a stark reminder of how closely human and planetary health are interlinked - only together can people and nature thrive. A green recovery means restoring nature, protecting our environment, and accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral and resilient economy. MEPs must lead the way." - Ester Asin, director of the WWF European Policy Office (Source)

Markus Spiske via Unsplash.com

New Zealand 

Aside from having the leader many of us want for our own countries in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (The Atlantic hailed her as “the world’s most effective leader”), New Zealand has given personhood to a river, prioritized wellness as part of their economy, and now they are looking at ways they can rebuild in a greener and more sustainable way. For example, in the $50B recovery budget that was just proposed, they’ve allocated $1B toward environmental spend, creating 11,000 news jobs, and $430M is included for unemployed people to help clean up rivers and restore wetlands, as well as $300M is being allotted to prevent loss of biodiversity. To further improve energy efficiency, New Zealand is also investing $56M in their heating and insulation program, which simultaneously improves citizens’ health and thus reduces their vulnerabilities to diseases like COVID-19.

Dan Freeman via Unsplash.com

United States 

Politics and science continue to be at odds in the US, with environmental science particularly taking a hit since the current administration took office in 2017 and proceeded to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, roll back regulations on emissions in favor of the fossil fuel industry, and aggressively cut trees on public lands, among many other actions that have drastically changed and reduced US environmental policies. A bright spot came about, however, when the Green New Deal was proposed in 2019, led by the popular Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While widely rejected at the vote, the Green New Deal continues to be a powerful framework for progressive ideas and is currently being praised by scientists for its relevance to the COVID-19 recovery. While as a whole the US is falling behind on the world stage in this matter, a few progressive states like California are talking about how clean energy jobs can be significant in economic recovery, and thought leaders are at least envisioning what the future of the US could look like with green initiatives in place. For now, it’s still a fantasy, but we remain hopeful. 

Researchers from University of Massachusetts working on the potential of growing crops under solar panels panels and the mutual benefits with agriculture (via Unsplash.com).

Asia

China and South Korea are leading the way in investing in sustainable recovery among Asian nations. With a total of $7T pledged as economic stimulus, China is heavily investing in infrastructure for electric vehicles, renewable energy, smart cities and smart grids, and healthier cities via focusing on reducing pollution, implementing stricter emissions standards, improving health facilities, creating more space for exercise, and promoting road safety. 

South Korea has emerged as an international leader in pandemic recovery. It became the first country to hold a national election amidst this pandemic, and as a result has championed a 2050 carbon neutrality goal, along with proposals for an impressive green recovery. Publishing a “climate manifesto” and giving nod to the EU’s Green Deal for Europe and the US’s Green New Deal, the plan includes “large-scale investments in renewable energy, the introduction of a carbon tax, the phase-out of domestic and overseas coal financing by public institutions, and the creation of a Regional Energy Transition Centre to support workers transition to green jobs.” 

Seoul by Daniel Bernard via Unsplash.com

Canada

While Canada has come under scrutiny for being off course on its Paris Agreement Goals, the pandemic recovery could certainly catalyze more urgent climate action. One such initiative was unveiled in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that corporate relief money will be awarded on the contingency that companies commit to climate action. They’ll be expected to “publish annual reports on climate investments, detailing how they plan to reduce their environmental footprints, and how their operations support the country’s commitments made under the Paris climate agreement.” Other leaders are urging clean energy investments, and Vancouver’s mayor is part of a global task force committed to supporting a recovery that helps the transition to a sustainable, regenerative, low-carbon future.  

Ali Tawfiq via Unsplash.com

At the UnSchool, we are deeply committed to creating tools and resources that support the transformation to a sustainable, regenerative and circular economy. We see a strong need for more leadership in companies, governments and many organizations.

So, we are working hard on a series of new online learning systems around executive and business leadership. Over the next few months, we will be unveiling a suite of new tools and learning programs to support the rapid uptake of progressive changes to the way we do business. 

Stay tuned to find out more!

A year of Activating Change

It’s Week 52, which means we have officially spent an entire year writing and sharing new insights and ideas about how to make a positive impact on the world around us! What a year it has been — from hosting a Fellowship in Malaysia, to collaborating with the UNEP in creating our Anatomy of Action campaign, through to this moment in time, in which we’re hunkering down and figuring out new ways to support and activate positive change in the midst of a global pandemic. So this week we decided to put together a list of highlights of all the cool, creative changemaking things that we’ve talked about and experienced in the last year to get us all motivated for another 52 weeks of making positive world-changing change!

Week 1: One Person Can’t Save the World, But Everyone Can Change It

Global Climate Strike 09-20-2019 (photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash.com)

In this inaugural article that launched the UnSchool Journal, our founder Leyla Acaroglu lays the groundwork for how we can start seeing the world’s problems as opportunities to activate our agency and make positive change — because intentionally or not, all of our actions already are changing the world around us: The power to make change lies in our personal ability to see our own agency and opportunity for for creative leadership and to then make intentional choices about how we will activate the influence we organically have on the world around us, while working on enhancing this to a point where we can actively make more positive systems change.  Read on >

Week 11: Yes, Recycling Is Broken

Photo: Vivianne Lemay via Unsplash.com

With plastic pollution totally out of control and systems in chaos following China’s decision to stop processing a large portion of the world’s recycling, we unmasked the harsh reality that recycling is a placebo that justifies and perpetuates waste: Recycling is a lovely idea when it works; in fact it's a fundamental part of the circular economy, after, of course, sharing services, remanufacturing and repair. But like any system that displaces the responsibility somewhere out of sight, the externalities come back around to bite us all in the ass eventually. Ocean plastic waste is just one of the massive unintended consequences of relying on a quick fix, which then, in turn, reinforces the problem you are trying to solve. Systems thinking 101: the easy way out often leads back in, and there are often no quick fixes to complex problems. Recycling as a solution has reinforced the problem, and now we are dealing with a ‘frankenproblem’. Read it >

Week 14: Systems Thinking 101

Creative problems solving requires a systems mindset, and that’s why systems thinking is one of the core pillars of the UnSchool’s core pillars. In this article, we dive into the foundations of systems thinking and share practical knowledge to help level up your systems mindset: A concept stuck in theory does little for the greater good. Understanding that everything is interconnected and being able to apply this knowledge as a tool for effecting change are two different things, and what’s most important is the practical experience plus the applied tools to turn theories into action. To move from ideas in the brain to practice in the real world, it helps to be equipped with the distilled and applicable knowledge about which tools can be used and how to apply these in ways that achieve the desired outcome — which in our case is always positive social & environmental change. Read it >

Week 18: Introducing our UNEP Collaboration: The Anatomy of Action

We were honored to collaborate with the United Nations Environmental Programme to create a project with the intention of activating sustainable living and lifestyles by exploring what types of actions individuals can take that will actually have an impact, if replicated and normalized, as part of people's everyday lifestyle actions. We launched the Anatomy of Action at UNESCO in Paris. We wanted to not only design something that supports lifestyle changes for sustainable living, but also base it on a deeper understanding of what is working, along with why and how to amplify it so that we get new types of behavior norms that encourage positive shifts within the economy: The action set presented in the Anatomy of Action shows everyday lifestyle swaps that fit easily into daily lifestyle choices. I drew heavily on behavioral and cognitive sciences to gain an insight into how to frame these actions as opportunities rather than losses, as the reality with sustainability is that it is a massive opportunity! Read it >

Week 28: The UnSchool Kuching Fellowship Recap

UnSchool Fellowships are nothing short of amazing, as we take a small group of creative changemakers on a weeklong, immersive adventure into activating positive change via systems thinking, sustainability, and design…as well as feast on exquisite local vegetarian cuisine, dive deep into our personal potential, and make lifelong friends. The Kuching Fellowship was the 10th (!) UnSchool Fellowship; it took place on the island of Borneo (Malaysia) in November, 2019. The Kuching cohort included seventeen fellows from nine different countries, and our Fellowship blog shares a day-by-day look at the adventures. Read it >

Week 41: Sneak Peek at the NEW Design Systems Change Handbook by Leyla

Leyla released her fifth handbook in her series on making change! Titled Design Systems Change, it’s packed with new insights and ideas on how to expand your sphere of influence and contribute to the transition to a circular, regenerative future. It’s also a workbook, complete with interactive reflections and actions to help expand your capacity to make change. This article includes a sneak peek at the introduction and first section on design: Just as it can accidentally make a mess, design can also be a catalyst for positive and significant change. This is because, at its core, design is about creative problem solving and forming something new that works better than the past version.  Read it >

Week 47: #StayPositive Brain-Boosting 30-Day Challenge

On April 1st, 2020, smack in the middle of COVID-19’s world takeover, we started our 30-Day Brain-Boosting Challenge to help get people motivated to stay positive, make change and develop their agency to get cool shit done for a positive, regenerative and sustainable future. And good news: you can still sign up! This article shares more details on how this challenge unfolds and helps you level up your changemaking abilities: Read it >

(BONUS COVID-related content: in Week 45, we took a look at how social distancing is doing some good for the planet!)

Week 49: Get More Vegetables in Your Life with our NEW Hero Veg Cookbook!

Join us in celebrating the hidden heroes of our lives, vegetables (yep!), in this fun journal article that announces the release of Leyla Acaroglu + Emma Segal’s co-authored plant-based cookbook. Hand illustrated by Emma and filled with recipes from their childhood and current cooking adventures, along with things Leyla has learnt on the CO Project Farm and collaborations from the kitchen, this cookbook guides you in the art of intuitive cooking based on a veg-centric philosophy. And hey, there’s even some recipes for you to try in a special preview of the book ;) Read it >

Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with us in this year in review! We also had loads of amazing inspiring alumni profile spotlights; a 5-year birthday celebration and thoughts on 5 more years; thought-provoking reflections on greenwashing, plastic bans, and other changemaking topics; an exploration of our digital footprint that includes a full audit report; zero waste party hacks and lots, lots more!

What should we write about this year?

Leave us a comment and let us know what kind of content you’d like to see next!

Perspectives on Earth Day 50

By Leyla Acaroglu, originally published here

Last week, on Wednesday, April 22, it was the 50th celebration of Earth Day, a single day marked in the 365/6 days in a human-described calendar year that is dedicated to remembering or celebrating that we all need the Earth to survive. In my opinion, that should be inverted, and every day should be Earth Day, given we all live here, on the only known life-sustaining planet in the universe — yet we have, in the last 50 years, managed to make a complete mess of things. 

In 1968, astronauts headed toward the moon snapped a photo of the Earth from space, and this was beamed back to the millions of humans watching the Apollo 8 mission. For the first time in the history of humanity, we saw our home in all its fragile beauty from space, rising above the infinite black of the universe, and it changed the way the world saw our home, planet Earth. The image, etched into the psyche of all who have come since, is called Earthrise, and it helped spur on the burgeoning environmental movement. Maj. Gen. William A. Anders, the astronaut who took the photo, said that it changed the world: "We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." 

Earthrise Photo: NASA taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, at mission time 075:49:07

In the preceding years, the EPA was set up and the Clean Air Act passed in the USA. There were huge protests and some changes, there were clean ups and crack downs. But there was never a change in the way we do things, really. 

Now we have high definition, full color detailed satellite photos of every inch of our Earth — we can zoom in to see ice caps melting and rainforests on fire (remember when in 2019 it was a thing in Malaysia and Brazil to intentionally burn down rainforests to create farmland? Can you recall the devastating fires that ravaged Australia?). We know what we have, what we had, what we are losing...but do we know the cost? Back in the 1970s, “Americans had become increasingly aware that the same industrialization that had made the country wealthy was having an impact on the environment and their own health,” according to a reflection published in Scientific America this week. The article goes on to show all the exponentially growing graphs of ecological decay that have occurred since that day 50 years ago, when hundreds of thousands of Americans marched for planet protection, many of them now probably reaping the benefits of the industries that have gone on to pollute indiscriminately. This, of course, is not new to Earth System Scientists, as it was in the early 2000s when they first published these profound “Great Acceleration” graphs. They show the recurring hockey stick curves skyrocketing up into uncharted territories across many human socio-cultural changes and natural system impacts, all starting in 1950. 

The Great Acceleration Graphs, 2004, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Image Source

“It is difficult to overestimate the scale and speed of change. In a single lifetime humanity has become a planetary-scale geological force,” — Professor Will Steffen, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The last 70 years have seen some incredible changes to our societies, culture, technology and all the planetary systems. We now live in a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, where every centimeter of this planet has been changed by humans in some way. For the last 10,000 years, we have lived in the climate-stable Holocene period, allowing our species to grow ourselves, crops and our seemingly endless desire for natural systems destruction. Since the 1950s, however, we have entered into the Anthropoecene’s man-made era of ecological decay, and we are suffering the costs on many fronts. 

Nature is magic, yet we do unimaginable things to it for our own collective benefits, irrespective of all the other systems and species that contribute to the life-giving interplay that makes life on Earth possible. 

The tragic trade-off of our expansion and domination over the globe is all too obvious. Take a peek at any one of the exponentially-growing environmental concerns: ocean plastic waste, air pollution, deforestation, the Sixth Great Extinction, climate change. As we sit stuck in our homes, lamenting and stressing about the killer virus sweeping through our communities and blaming it on bats, we forget that we made all of this mess. We destroyed the habitats, we created the market for live animals, we facilitated the air pollution and environmental conditions that are starting to be correlated with high death rates of COVID-19. We lit the match that started the fire, and we are responsible for finding the means to extinguish it without destroying the place in the process. 

We don’t have direct evidence that climate change is influencing the spread of COVID-19, but we do know that climate change alters how we relate to other species on Earth and that matters to our health and our risk for infections. As the planet heats up, animals big and small, on land and in the sea, are headed to the poles to get out of the heat. That means animals are coming into contact with other animals they normally wouldn’t, and that creates an opportunity for pathogens to get into new hosts. — Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of Harvard University’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Source

Earth Day reminds some people —  but let's be honest, not that many, and probably not the ones who are at the forefront of the damage to begin with — that we have a debt to the damage we have done. But in the last 50 years of “celebrating” it, we have done far more destruction than protection. Locking nature up in parks, reserves and protected spaces does nothing to realign our species with the harsh and critical reality that without nature, we are nothing — without the complex interplay between all the systems around us, we have no food, no fresh water, no atmosphere, no oxygen, no culture, no stable operating environment for our species to inhabit. We are nature, we are the systems that we destroy, and as long as we only prioritize a single day to blink at this reality, we will continue to allow the decay of the most beautiful planet in the universe. 

As long as you live here, remember: every day is Earth Day. 

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Believe it or not, individual actions do have impacts. I have done several projects and initiatives that help us all take action, own the agency that we have in this system and make positive change:

• Anatomy of Action, a sustainable lifestyle initiative we collaborated with the UN to create 

• The Post Disposable Activation Kit 

• The Circular Classroom, free educational toolkit on sustainability  

• Superpower activation kit 

• 30-day brain activating #staypositive challenge 

• The Hero Veg Cookbook

Activating Change for the Circular Economy

By Leyla Acaroglu

ACTIVATING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Every time we purchase something, we are essentially voting for the kinds of things we want in the world. It’s through our purchase preferences, as individuals, as governments and as organizations, that we can encourage or discourage industries, services and products based on what we want to see continue. This is where there is great opportunity for change, as many of the products and services that fill our economy today have huge impacts on the planet, offer up many inequities along the supply chain and are designed to break.

We already have so much of the knowledge on what needs to be done to change this status quo. Scientists in the fields of life cycle assessment, environmental impact assessment, systems dynamics and consequential impact assessment have been knowledge building for years, contributing to the rising shift toward a circular economy movement. A change in the way we design and deliver everything.

Thanks to all this work, we now have a much stronger understanding of the potential negative outcomes of our actions before we even take them, and we can avoid unintended consequences if we approach problem solving through systems and life cycle thinking.

Gaining this foresight allows us to integrate sustainability into design products and across business models, policies and services. What we need right now is the normalization and integration of these approaches into the things that make up our economy. We have an incredible opportunity right now to catalyze this change, and this requires pioneering leadership from governments and CEOs, as well as the creative thinkers who can help shift the status quo.

We can speed up the change by offering up new ideas, incentivizing producers to approach product design differently and encouraging policymakers to change the dominant linear system. We can amplify sustainable design approaches and life cycle assessment in order to help green supply chains and find unique ways of shifting the status quo on hyper-consumerism through the implementation of product service system models.

Small choices, replicated many times, contribute to big impacts. This applies to all of our choices. Our world is made up of individuals operating as a collective whole. Through systems thinking, we understand the macro and the micro, the parts and the wholes. This thinking helps us gain a deeper understanding of our impacts and the power of influence that we all possess.

Many of the ecological impacts, the externalities that we see in the economy, have come about as a result of supply chain relationships — not just the end of life destination where things end up. Yet, much of our investment and activation is around waste management, rather than on designing out waste from the start.

Recently I released a new handbook called Design Systems Change where I lay out the opportunities for activating our own agency to effect positive change. In the past I have written Circular Systems Design and the Disruptive Design Method Handbooks, all designed to support people in the transition to a circular, regenerative and sustainable economy by design. In thinking deeply about these issues for many years, I have come up with a new proposition, one where the interaction of new value propositions is prioritized in the decision making process.

Integrating value into the circular economy From the Design Systems Change Handbook

Designing Change

We should (and can) be designing products, services and systems that embed the avoidance of waste through their design, instead of designing things with no regard for their consequences and then trying to design services to deal with the waste and impacts they’ll cause.

We need to move rapidly to a post disposable society. The circular economy is helping to make this happen, influencing shifts in the finance sector and in the design of products and services we all rely on. Big players in industry and government are pioneering product-system services that will help to move us away from single-use products and systems to closed loop ones.

I hope and predict that within 5 years, the pioneering companies at the forefront of this shift will have transitioned away from single-use products toward more integrated closed-loop systems that maintain and increase value throughout the system and are designed to dramatically reduce the environmental and social burden that disposability results in.

Not only is this good for the planet, but also it makes good business sense. In an increasingly resource-constrained environment, we have to find ways of reducing supply chain costs, and there are many creative ways to do this while benefiting the planet. 

The opportunities are on the horizon — we just need more activated minds willing to pioneer capturing them. In order to support people in pioneering this transition, I developed the Disruptive Design Method as a scaffolding support tool that guides decision makers through the process of understanding a complex problem, exploring the systems dynamics and then building creative interventions to design positive change.

Embracing Change

Think for a moment of all the ways change occurs in our day-to-day lives. We change our addresses, our music tastes, locations, underwear, ideas, partners, schools, nationalities, cars, governments, jobs, clothes, perspectives, money, the subject... and our minds. We change and reinvent ourselves constantly. We change the world around us and ultimately, we change the planet through the things that we choose to do, and perhaps more importantly, the things that we choose not to do. 

Many of these changes are brought about somewhat organically, even unconsciously, with life events and individual circumstances dictating many of the changes that we make. This approach is no longer enough. 

Conscious observers everywhere are noticing that an individualistic approach to change has dangerous consequences. We see the evidence of this culminating in the major issues at the forefront of global conversations: climate change, renewable energy, refugee crises, to name just a few. 

So how do you go about it when you want to intentionally, proactively affect change? How does that differ from our natural evolution… and where do you even begin in a change making practice? 

Change is everywhere - and always has been

In 500 BC, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus proposed that “the only constant in life is change,” that “stability is an illusion,” and, in his opinion, “there is a constant universal flux.” If, as Heraclitus says, change is constant, then it is also chaotic – “an inescapable paradox, yet a beautiful necessity, critical to all life.”  

We are all changing constantly, and the world is changing around, and with, us. The word change means to ‘make’ or to ‘become different,’ no matter if we’re talking about objects, people, or the natural world. Change encompasses all these, although they develop at varying speeds, be it constant, progressive, static, fast or slow.  

Failure Happens… and It’s a Good Thing!  

At the UnSchool, we approach making change as a state of being. We believe that being change-centric is a way of defining an agenda, the objective, and outcome to effect positive social change in and through the things that we do. 

This change-centric approach is a cultivated one, in which you have to work at wanting to make change. It’s not always easy; making change can definitely hurt sometimes and often requires some measure of failure along the way. How would we have evolved as a species, had we not experienced millions of years of failure and accidents? 

Failing hard and fast early on creates better, stronger results later. In saying this, it should also be noted that change is also one of the easiest things to make happen... if you have the right tools and resources, which you will receive when you engage in our classes, programs and content.  

Systems at Play in Change Making 

Everything is interconnected, so if we want to make change, we have to know how to understand those dynamics as a whole system and as parts of a whole system. When we look at the world through a change-centric lens, we first need to figure out if it’s structural or individual – is it personal or social forces that influence change? 

Social practice theory suggests that our agency for change lies in the influencers of social conditions. Anthony Giddens, one of the most prominent modern sociologists, proposed the theory of structuration. This theory explores the duality of structure where we continually make, and remake, ‘normal society’ through our routine actions and practices. 

Giddens suggests that social constructs influence the individual to a degree that choice is empowered by the practice, rather than the individual. Basically, we are influenced by social forces as well as personal choice-making. Behaviors are habits perpetuated through routine, which are either decided on consciously, or are subtly influenced by society at large. 

It boils down to this: in order to make change, one needs to consider the personal, social, and political systems at play and seek to intervene at different points.  

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JUNE 1ST-30TH, 2020

THIS PROGRAM IS LIVE, ONLINE, TWICE A WEEK FOR A FULL MONTH, AND INCLUDES 1 POST-PROGRAM MENTORSHIP MEETING WITH LEYLA

Design Systems Change excerpt: The Mushroom Model

Just one week until we launch Leyla’s newest handbook, Design Systems Change! We’re really excited about this release as we know that our community of creative changemakers are super motivated to activate their agency to help change the world in incredible ways — but just as with any skill, we all need some motivation and tools to help figure out exactly what to do!  

The drive to be involved in change, whether in your personal or professional life, starts by discovering how to develop your personal agency, identifying the sphere of influence you uniquely hold and then actioning your creative potential to participate in positive change. Sustainability is about finding ways of harmonizing the social, economic and environmental impact of the things we do, and the core content of this new handbook presents provocations and concepts that support you in gaining the knowledge and tools to participate in designing a sustainable and circular future. This is the fifth in Leyla’s series on how to make positive impactful change, and it offers a practical roadmap for activating a career as a creative changemaker. 

In this week's journal, we continue with sharing excerpts from the handbook (to be released on March 16th). From the Systems section, we explore the concept of the Mushroom Model, an adaptation of the Iceberg Model. If you are into or new to systems thinking, then this is one of the best ways to start to think in dynamic, complex systems! If you’ve missed the past few weeks of the journal, check out other excerpts here and here!

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Excerpt from Design Systems Change, By Leyla Acaroglu

The Mushroom Model

The Iceberg Model is a classic systems thinking tool that shows how the most obvious part of the system, the tip of the iceberg, is held up by the non-obvious weight of the iceberg that is hidden under the waterline. The tip represents the events that occur around us, and right under the water, we have the patterns of behavior, then the systems structures, and finally the mental models. Moving from just seeing the events to understanding and challenging the mental models that reinforce the rest of the structure is one of the goals of a systems thinker. 

In exploring the dynamic systems that allow nature to do her magic, I came to understand this concept as “emergence”, whereby the obvious parts of the system that we see with ease are deeply connected to complex elements that came together to enable the obvious thing to occur. 

So for example, take a common field mushroom. If you have ever stumbled across one, you will see the delightful little cap and stem sticking out of a bit of soil, often right after the rain has come. The conditions that enable a mushroom to form have to be just right, but the mushroom is far from an isolated element. It is connected to a highly complex underground network, a giant living organism called mycelium, and it runs its long thin fungal networks all through the Earth, supporting the vitality of the ecosystem of which it is a part and allowing for mushrooms to pop up in many locations, in over 1.5 million varieties.  

Just like the iceberg, much of what is sustaining a forest is not visible to us. We see a mushroom, but not the complex web of mycelium that operates like a neural network connecting all the trees and plants deep within the soil. Mycelium runs throughout the Earth, operating like an internet for trees. They work together symbiotically by sharing resources, through a mycorrhizal association whereby they connect at the root level. The fungus works to decay organic materials around it, allowing it to distribute nutrients to the other plants it’s connected to in exchange for things it can’t create. The mushroom you see popping up is only the emergent outcome of the systems needed to continue itself by forming a fruiting body that will propel millions of spores out into the world so that the mycelium can continue preforming its role within the system. 

Fungi, in all their diversity, including the everyday mushrooms that we eat, are the original recyclers of nature. Their main role in an ecosystem is to support the decay of organic material so that it can be broken down into the building blocks that help new life emerge. Through this process, they themselves are born, creating spores inside the gills of the mushroom head to enable them to replicate the process of seeding new mycelium so the cycle of decay and life continues. 

A mushroom is thus an emergent property of the complex hidden system of mycelium. The crown of the mushroom is the obvious outcome that we each see (the tip of the iceberg), while the gills and spores are the slightly less obvious patterns that help the system replicate itself. The stem represents the structures that hold it up, but underground is where the mycelium runs deep, representing the complex mental models or mindsets that connect all the underlying systems that sustain it all. 

I thus redesigned the iceberg model to show the interconnected relationships that reinforce the systems around us through the metaphor of the way that the mushroom/mycelium system enables ecosystems to communicate, share resources and flourish. 

Take a moment to think about other emergent things that are just the tip of the iceberg and what structures are hidden from your everyday view. This type of practice of considering hidden systems is a powerful tool in enabling you to effect change. 

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Next week, we will share an excerpt from the final section on Change, and the handbook will be available for purchase online here >

If you want to dive into systems change for the circular economy, then apply to join one of our 2020 programs here >

Great News On the Transition to Sustainability!

A massive shift is underway toward a sustainable, regenerative and circular future! To showcase how we’re in the midst of this exciting shift, we have compiled some of the recent changes we see as further demonstrating that the linear economy is on its way out, and a circular future is coming soon.

There is so much opportunity in reconfiguring the economy to evolve and solve some of our biggest threats, from ocean plastic waste to climate change. If you are inspired by these stories, then get yourself ready to take part in this great shift by joining us at the UnSchool and leveling up your changemaking skills!

IKEA and Microsoft go Carbon Positive

Two of the world’s biggest companies commit to not only be carbon neutral, but also take it a step farther to be carbon positive. Microsoft has announced they will ‘pay back’ all the carbon it has ever released into the atmosphere, and IKEA has developed a plan to make all their designs circular by 2030.

These climate carbon-‘positive’ initiatives mean that they plan, along with offset carbon credits, to transition from coal and oil sources, make raw material swaps and implement other supply chain initiatives to reduce the amount of emissions put into the atmosphere to less than what they input.

Circular Delivery Systems

The circular economy in getting into mainstream action through the delivery system LOOP, an initiative by Unilever and TerraCycle offering a delivery system for household goods in purposely-made reusable containers in the Northeast of the United States and Paris. They are planning on expanding throughout the United States and into Canada, UK, Germany and Japan.

World’s biggest investment firm won’t invest in climate negative companies

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with $7.4 trillion in their portfolio. In a letter this week from CEO Larry Fink to shareholders and CEOs, BlackRock has announced an exit strategy from companies that are not doing something about climate change, among other sustainability initiatives.

With a huge impact on global industries, this move is a strong positive statement in what is traditionally a fairly conservative and profit-oriented industry, independent of social and environmental impact.

China to ban single use plastics

China is one of the biggest consumers in the world, and it made the announcement last week to ban non-biodegradable plastic and bags by 2022, which is a huge step toward tackling the ocean plastic waste crisis.

The Yangtze river running through China is a one of the main contributors to plastic leaking into the ocean, and this move should help alleviate at least some of the source issue.

There is still much work to do to move us globally to a post-disposable future; however, steps like this do help advance us forward.

Yangtze River

An article discussing these announcements in Wired Magazine raises a good provocation around greenwashing. The author says, “Most targets used by businesses are not linked to specific operations, such as a supply chain or purchased energy. This means that net zero targets may ignore large parts of an organisation that are deemed too much of a problem to change.”

The World Circular Gap Report released at Davos announced that the world is at present “8.6% Circular”, which could be taken as exciting progress or distressing slowness, depending on how you look at things. The report shows the actions that different countries are making in detail and is well worth the read.

We talk about change all the time here at the UnSchool. The world is constantly changing in all sorts of directions, and these kinds of movements help us set the course toward a more sustainable and regenerative future.

There is always more work to do, and we are focused on upskilling as many people as possible with the tools to keep the momentum going forward!

Apply now for a 2020 program to join our global community of creative changemakers and contribute to forward motion >

Summer at the UnSchool! 2020 Programs FOR Creative Changemaking

We are excited to announce the face-to-face, capacity-building workshops and programs that we will be running in 2020!

We have four great programs planned for a European summer, with each program located at our beautiful Brain Spa campus in sunny Portugal. But for our flagship Fellowship program, we are heading out to Bolivia in late 2020!

All of our 2020 programs are open for applications now. We review applications as they come in and send out offers on a rolling basis until each program is full (except the Fellowship, which we will start reviewing and sending offers to in April).

Our programs are always small groups — the farm-based programs usually average between 6-10 changemakers, while the Fellowship has 18-20. So, if you are keen to join us this year, then do get your application in as soon as you can!  

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Circular Economy Bootcamp

We are kicking off the summer with a 3-day bootcamp on the Circular Economy, hosted June 11-14 on the CO Project Farm. This is perfect for anyone wanting to really gain the knowledge and technical skills to advance aspects of the circular economy, like policy, product design and business structures.

Apply here >

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Disruptive Design + Activating Change Masterclass

On July 20-22 at the CO Project Farm, we will host our Disruptive Design and Activating Change Masterclass. This program dives into the full Disruptive Design Method and provides the tools and agency needed for activating positive change by design.

Apply here >

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Educator Training

From August 17-21, Leyla will host our yearly intensive Educator Training program on the CO Project Farm. Perfect for people who are currently tracking to Educator Certification (or wanting to start!), this program shares all the insights and approaches we use at the UnSchool to share systems, sustainability and design methods for activated changemaking.

Apply here >

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Circular Systems Design

Head out to the CO Project Farm from September 1-4 to activate your career as a systems designer for the circular future! This 3-day advanced training on circular systems design focuses on life cycle thinking, circular design decisions, and repair as core design strategies for achieving the circular economy.

Apply here >

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Transformation is key

Our workshops and programs offer transformative experiences, advanced practical tools and a community of incredible like-minded humans to vibe off of — here are some of the things that people who have attended our programs say about the experience: 

Discover The Disruptive Design Method

By Leyla Acaroglu

The Disruptive Design Method (DDM) is a holistic approach to creative problem solving for complex issues. It combines sociological inquiry methods with systems and design thinking approaches. The Method involves a three-phase process of Mining, Landscaping, and Building, and together, these phases create a tactical approach to creative problem solving for positive impact outcomes. In this week’s journal article, I explain the what, why, and how of the DDM, along with ways it can help create non-conventional approaches to complex problems. 

The Disruptive Design Method 

Design is an incredibly powerful tool that changes the world. Everything around us has been constructed to meet the needs of our advanced human society, and in turn, our individual experiences of the world are influenced dramatically by the designed world we inhabit.  We are each citizen designers of the future through the actions we take every day, which is why I developed a systems-based creative intervention design method for exploring and actively participating in the design of a future that works better for us all.  

The three-part process of Mining, Landscaping and Building (MLB) is designed to offer a micro-to-macro-and-back-again perspective of the problem arena in which you wish to create positive change within. 

The three phases of the Disruptive Design Method: Mining, Landscaping and Building

Created as a way for creatives and non-creatives alike to develop the mental tools needed to activate positive change, the DDM approaches creative problem solving by mining through problems and employing a divergent array of research approaches, moving through to landscaping the systems at play and identifying the connections that reinforce the elements of the system, and then ideating opportunities for systems interventions that amplify positive impact by building new ideas that shift the status quo of the problem. This is then cycled through in an iterative way until the outcome is tangible and effective at altering the state of the issue at hand. As Buckminster Fuller teaches, often the smallest part of the system has the capacity to make the biggest change —  and that’s one of the fundamental approaches that the DDM enables: identify the part within the system that you have agency and ability to impact. 

The DDM is an iterative process

 Additionally, the DDM includes a 12-part knowledge set that, when explored as a whole, equips anyone with the thinking and doing tools to be a more aware and intentional agent for change. It also has the tools to cycle through the issues and seek out the non-obvious opportunities, designing divergent solutions that build on your unique individual sphere of influence.  

But perhaps most importantly,  instead of avoiding or ignoring problems, this method offers up tools for shifting perspectives that enable one to become more of a problem lover with the ability to dive right under the obvious parts of the issue at hand, avoid laying blame, and instead, identify and uncover the parts of the system that reinforce the issue. In a world where many people see and feel problematic impacts with intensity — the social, environmental, and political issues especially — and then become overwhelmed or disabled by the complexity, we see good-intentioned people disengage from taking action. Thus, I can not understate how powerful seeing problems through the lens of opportunity, optimism, and yes, even a bit of love can be for someone. I want to provide an agentizing effect, a set of tools that enable people to move from overwhelming problems to possible actions; after all,  the world is made up of the accumulation of individual actions of many, you and me included. 

The Origins of the DDM 

When I first started to develop the Disruptive Design Method, it was in part a reaction to the one-dimensional problem solving techniques that I had been taught through my years of traditional education. Back in 2014, as I was finishing my PhD and preparing to launch the UnSchool of Disruptive Design, I knew that there needed to be a scaffolding that would support all the content I wanted to fill this experimental knowledge lab with. Drawing on the years of work experience and research I had to date, I went about iteratively developing and refining the modules from 20+ down to 12 core components of the Disruptive Design Methodology set, a learning system that, once fully engaged with, fits together to create the DDM. 

The 12 core modals of the Disruptive Design Methodology

It’s a ‘scaffolding’ because it's not intended to be rigid and formulaic, but instead it is the support that one needs as they start to develop a more three-dimensional view of the world and adopt the skills of systems thinking, problem exploration, and creative intervention design. I personally use this approach in all the commissions and collaborations we do, like in designing learning systems for Finland and Thailand, and in creating sustainable living initiatives, like the Anatomy of Action with the UNEP.

I, along with my team, have taught the DDM and the core approaches of systems and life cycle thinking to thousands of people all over the world, from teenagers to CEOs, with hundreds of alumni completing our in-person programs and thousands enrolled in our online school. We have seen many different incarnations of the DDM and its tools in action throughout our five years of running the UnSchool and its various programs, and this February, we’re adding another option, a live online training course in the DDM. 

The world needs more pioneers of positively disruptive change —  people equipped with the thinking and doing skills that will enable them to understand and love complex systems and then be able to translate that into actual change. There are, of course, many tools and approaches for designing change, and the DDM is just one of a wide suite of tools out there. I am an appreciator of many of them, but for me, the reason why anyone should gain an overview of this approach is that it combines the three pillars of systems, sustainability, and design, of which I have not seen an approach yet to do the same. What this all boils down to is having a unique method on hand to positively intervene and disrupt the status quo of any problem arena to ensure that the outcome is more effective, equitable, circular and sustainable. That’s why we always offer equity access scholarships and ensure that people from all walks of life can gain access to these valuable perspective shifting tools. 

Exploring the 3-Parts of Disruptive Design Method

There are three distinct parts of the Disruptive Design Method — Mining, Landscaping, and Building (MLB) — each is enacted and cycled through in order to gain a granulated, refined outcome through iterative feedback loops.

The first part is Mining, where the mindset is one of curiosity and exploration. In this phase, we do deep participatory research, suspend the need to solve, avoid trying to impose order, and embrace the chaos of any complex system we are seeking to understand. The tools of this phase are: research, observation, exploration, curiosity, wonderment, participatory action, questioning, data collection, and insights. This can be described as diving under the iceberg and observing the divergent parts that enable us to understand a problem arena in more detail. 

The second stage is Landscaping. This is where we take all the parts that we uncovered during the Mining phase and start to piece them together to form a landscaped view through systems mapping and exploration. Landscaping is the mindset of connection, where you see the world as a giant jigsaw puzzle that you are putting back together and creating a different perspective that enables a bird’s eye view of the problem arena. Insights are gathered, and locations of where to intervene in the system to leverage change are identified. The tools for this phase are: systems mapping (cluster, interconnected circles, etc.), dynamic systems exploration, synthesis, emergence, identification, insight gathering, and intervention identification.

The third part of is Building. This is the creative ideation phase that allows for the development of divergent design ideas that build on potential intervention points to leverage change within the system. The goal is not to solve but to evolve the problem arena you are working within so that the status quo is shifted. Here we use a diversity of ideation and prototyping tools to move through a design process to get to the best-fit outcome for your intervention.

The key to this entire approach is iteration and ‘cycling through’ the stages to get to a refined and ‘best-fit’ outcome. Why do we do this? Because problems are complex, knowledge builds over time, and experience gives us the tools to make change that sticks and grows. This cycling through approach draws upon the Action Research Cycle to create an iterative approach to exploring, understanding, and evolving the problem arena.

The 12-Part Methodology Set

The three applied parts of the MLB Method are based on a more complex Methodology set. This set combines 12 divergent theory arenas to form the foundation of identifying, solving, and evolving complex problems, as well as helps develop a three-dimensional perspective of the way the world works. From cognitive sciences to gamification and systems interventions, the 12 units of the Disruptive Design Methodology are designed to fit together to form the foundations of a practice in creative changemaking. 

You can take the full program at your own pace via our online school here, or if you were to do a certification track, you would get access to the full 12 modules, plus loads of extra content on activating and facilitating change. For the live online program taught by me in February 2020, participants will be learning the core approaches and tools, as well as getting live feedback on the application of it in real time. This makes the program perfect for people with real world projects that they want to activate right now. 

The Foundation: Systems, Sustainability, and Design

The UnSchool is deeply rooted in a foundation of applied systems, sustainability, and design, forming three knowledge pillars that hold up all we do — including leveraging the Disruptive Design Method.  Whenever we teach a program, we always begin with systems thinking as the foundation, as it is one of the most powerful tools that we can use address complex problems. It enables any practitioner to see how everything is interconnected, and systems can be viewed from multiple perspectives, allowing a shift from rigid to flexible mindsets. We also engage with the principles of sustainability through each phase, which for us, means doing more with less, understanding how the planet works so that we can work within its means, and evolving from an extraction-based society to a circular and regenerative one. 

Through the Mining phase, systems boundaries are used to define the problem arenas that one wants to explore. Through systems mapping, research techniques, observation and reflection, all the parts that make up a system and their connections are explored through the landscaping phase, laying the groundwork for exposing unique places to intervene (which is often not where you would intuitively think, based on your starting knowledge in the problem arena).

From this, new knowledge is built from the Mining and Landscaping phases, which forms the foundation for the Building phase — rapidly designing divergent and creative ideas to intervening in the problem arena. Any problem from small, hyper-local concerns to massive global issues can be explored and evolved through this MLB Method. And, because it’s equally a thinking and doing practice, it can be adapted and evolved based on any problem. The core of the approach is always systems, sustainability, and design.

Activating change 

At the UnSchool, we approach making change as a state of being; we believe that being change-centric is a way of defining a life agenda, finding purpose, and setting the tone for how you live and contribute through your life and work. We all have the power to affect positive social and environmental change in and through everything we do, from the things we buy to the conversations we have and the kind of work we do. This change-centric approach is by all means a cultivated one in which you have to work at wanting to make change. Because truly,  it’s not always easy; in fact, trying to make change can definitely hurt sometimes — and frankly, it often requires some measure of failure along the way. How would we have evolved as a species had we not experienced millions of years of failure and accidents? Allowing the space for failing early on creates better, stronger results later. In saying this, it should also be noted that change is one of the easiest things to make happen... if you have the right tools and resources, which are built into the DDM. 

So, if you are keen to learn this, then join our live online Masterclass in the Disruptive Method with me this February >

What you will learn from taking a Disruptive Design Workshop 

LOVING THE PROBLEM

Many people avoid problems, which means that they never truly understand them. By learning to love problems and see them as opportunities in disguise, you will develop an open mind that thinks differently. This is all about being curious and trying to understand something before you attempt to solve it! The more curiosity you can foster, the more things you will uncover about the world around you. 

SEEING RELATIONSHIPS 

Everything is interconnected, and actions create reactions. Being able to see the relationships that make up cause and effect are part of any good problem solvers tool belt.  The content of the DDM is designed to foster systems perspectives as well as deep identification with cause and effect relationships. 

PERSPECTIVE SHIFTING

The ability to see the world through other people's eyes is critical to building resilience, empathy, and leadership skills. We will uncover how to constantly reflect and explore the world from diverse perspectives, overcome biases and be able to put yourself in the shoes of others to understand why people think or behave differently to you based on their own life and learning experiences. 

COLLABORATION

Respectfully and successfully working with others, despite differences, is critical to creativity and leadership skills. The goal is to encourage people to see that diversity in collaboration is just as important as agreement, and that coming to a consensus can be achieved in many different ways. Many of the tools we teach, such as systems mapping can be used as brilliant collaboration tools, so you gain incredible opportunities to foster effective collaboration. 

Held online over 4 weeks in Feb 2020, with 2 classes per week, we have designed this small group live online training program to ensure you can fit this into your regular life and maximize your learning experience. This live online training is perfect for anyone wanting to gain valuable insights into activating systems change through the Disruptive Design Method, as well as learning tools of problem loving, circular systems design, systems interventions, and creative problem solving.

Places are limited, so apply now!