There’s a troubling gap between the demand for green design skills, and the supply. In 2024, while 66% of designers designed for planet, only 43% felt that they had the capabilities required to do so. Closing this gap has become a key focus area for the Design Council, the UK’s national champion for design and long-standing WDO Promotional Member, who last year launched the Skills for Planet Mission with the goal of upskilling 1 million designers in green design skills by 2030.
As the climate crisis intensifies globally, it is critical work that’s already having an impact across the design sector. The project is also a key component of this year’s World Design Congress, which the Design Council will host in London from 9-10 September 2025 under the theme of Design for Planet. With insights from Rachel Bronstein, Design Council’s Senior Skills Manager, we explore the skills designers need to design the places, products and services that will regenerate the planet, rather than deplete it.
At the heart of the Skills for Planet Mission is a fundamental reframing of what it means to be a designer today. Traditional design competencies – such as critical thinking, co-creating and problem solving – are still valuable skills that form the bedrock of contemporary design practice, but what’s needed now, according to Design Council, is a shift in mindset.
Published in June 2025, the Skills for Planet Blueprint is the first step towards creating that mindset shift. Co-created with over 100 experts from across industry, academia and government, the Blueprint is a shared language that enables the whole design sector to pull in the same direction and have maximum positive impact on the planet and its people. It outlines eighteen cross-disciplinary Green Design Skills, grouped into six interconnected areas: Regenerating Nature, Embedding Circularity, Eliminating Emissions, Empowering Green Communities, Influencing Green Behaviour, and Evaluating Green Impact.
While foundational design skills are traditionally applied alongside a worldview that values humans above other species and the wider environment, green design skills are rooted in a systemic approach and value for all planetary life. As noted by Bronstein, “designers must move from a human-centred perspective to a planetary-centred one. For example, co-designing no longer means just engaging people, but representing the needs of nature too.”
That doesn’t mean all designers need to be climate specialists. The climate crisis is a systems problem and it can’t be solved in silos. That’s why the Blueprint also calls on designers to work alongside ecologists, engineers, data scientists and communities to embed circularity at every stage.
“The warnings from the science community are loud and clear: the world is at one minute to midnight. An approach based on competition and gate-keeping knowledge will not work. We need to collaborate towards the shared goal of regenerating the planet, with each sector playing their part.”
With 71% of designers anticipating an increased demand to design for planet, the expectation is that green design will soon become the norm, not the niche. From material innovation to bio-design, designers are already experimenting with climate-positive technologies, using AI to reimagine waste (like Polaron), or crafting products from repurposed materials (like Gomi).
The ambition is that, within five years, a critical mass of 1 million designers will have been upskilled, triggering a sector-wide Green Design Shift. “We’re aiming for nothing less than systemic transformation,” Bronstein shares, “led by a confident and capable design workforce.”
The Skills for Planet Mission is a powerful reminder that a future shaped by climate-conscious designers is within grasp. In that world, design protects nature, supports a circular economy, achieves net-zero outcomes, empowers communities, influences greener choices and rigorously measures its impact. In that world, designers aren’t just responding to the climate crisis — they are leading the way out of it.
