Embedding sustainability in design education: the case of design project on systemic changes for sustainable businesses based on upcycling

Sustainable design education has become a prevalent practice in design education. Ramirez’s (2007) worldwide survey shows that the majority of the programmes have either compulsory or optional modules on sustainable design. In particular, projects in sustainable design studio modules often deal with social or environmental sustainability issues with little attention to the practice of design for systemic changes for sustainable businesses. This paper aims to provide one such case: design project on how to scale-up sustainable businesses based on upcycling through systemic changes. A half-day student design workshop was co-planned and organised by De Montfort University and the University of Liverpool. Second-year undergraduate students in Industrial Design, University of Liverpool participated as part of Product Development 2 module. Throughout the workshop, participating students learned different approaches to sustainable design, production and consumption, challenges faced by upcycling-based businesses in the UK, and how to generate and develop ideas, concepts and system maps to resolve complex design problems involving multiple stakeholders.