DESIGN DEBATE: Bridging the Green Skills Gap in Design through Collaboration, Education and Knowledge Exchange
“Everything that isn’t made by nature has been designed. That means design holds immense power—not only in shaping the crises we face but also in solving them.”
These are the words of Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at the Design Council, and they couldn’t ring truer in 2025.
As the climate crisis accelerates and biodiversity diminishes, the responsibility of industries to adopt sustainable practices has never been clearer. But few industries hold the power and influence that the design sector does. From the products we hold to the services we consume, designers shape the way we live, work, and interact with our surroundings.
Yet, shockingly, only 43% of designers feel equipped to meet environmental design demands, even as 71% anticipate growing demand for green solutions.
This gap between aspiration and action is known as the green skills gap in design, and if it is not addressed, our progress towards creating a sustainable, regenerative future could stall. The solution? Building pathways for knowledge sharing, education, and collaboration to embed sustainable principles at every stage of the design ecosystem.
A new initiative “Skills for Planet” from the Design Council sets out a pathway for Green Design. “Working with leaders across education and industry, our aim is to embed green design into everyday design practice. This calls for a systemic change in design education, practice, and policy. Key findings from our research show that there is critical need to close the green design skills gap".
The Challenge of the Green Skills Gap
At its core, the green skills gap stems from three intertwined barriers.
Lack of Accessible Educational Resources:
The rapid growth of green design practices has outpaced the resources available to equip designers. A mere 27% of designers say that training and mentoring in green design is accessible at work. This means many learn on the job, without structured educational pathways.
The Disconnect Between Design Education and Practice:
The Design Council reports that only 50% of UK designers believe their education adequately prepared them to design for environmental impact. The absence of a systemic approach to embedding green skills in higher education and professional development has left a critical void in the pipeline.
Limited Collaboration Across Sectors:
Sustainable design is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring collaboration between designers, manufacturers, sustainability experts, and policymakers. Yet siloed practices prevent the collective action needed to innovate effectively.
Failure to close this gap risks leaving designers unprepared to tackle the pressing environmental and social issues of our time. Without embedding these critical skills, designs may continue to perpetuate harm, rather than solve it.
Green Design Skills Redefined
The Design Council’s Skills for Planet Blueprint offers a bold roadmap to address this gap and shape the next wave of designers. At its heart are 18 Green Design Skills, spanning six skill areas, which seek to interweave sustainability into every stage of the design process:
Regenerating Nature: Focuses on protecting and restoring ecosystems through strategies like nature-focused solutions and collaborative design with non-human stakeholders.
Embedding Circularity: Addresses waste elimination, material selection, and circular business models to combat our extractive systems.
Eliminating Emissions: Guides designers in reducing carbon impact throughout a product’s lifecycle, driving net-zero operations.
Empowering Green Communities: Encourages community-led design that fosters local stewardship and environmental justice.
Influencing Green Behaviours: Develops communication strategies to inspire sustainable decision-making by both consumers and businesses.
Evaluating Green Impact: Establishes systems to measure the environmental and social benefits of design outputs, ensuring accountability.
These skills are underpinned by a Green Design Mindset, which shifts focus from a narrow, human-centred perspective to a systemic worldview balancing the needs of both people and planet.
Cross-Sector Collaboration is Key
While designers are pivotal to the green transition, they cannot succeed alone. Closing the green skills gap demands a united effort across disciplines and industries to share knowledge, foster innovation, and create supportive systems.
Redefining Education:
Universities, colleges, and training organisations must take a proactive role by embedding green design education into their curricula. This can be achieved using the Design Council’s Skills for Planet Blueprint as a framework. By equipping emerging designers with these critical skills, we ensure a new generation enters the workforce prepared to lead green innovation.
Corporate Investment:
Organisations that employ designers should prioritise training programmes and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities. Companies can position themselves as market leaders through employee upskilling while aligning with global sustainability goals like net zero.
Policy & Advocacy:
Policymakers and governing bodies are essential allies in advancing the green transition. By funding design education, creating incentives for green learning, and embedding sustainability benchmarks into professional standards, they can catalyse change across industries.
Knowledge Sharing Platforms:
Creating platforms for interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that best practices can be shared. Imagine designers working alongside material scientists and environmentalists to innovate responsibly or brands co-creating with communities to align design with local priorities.
The Economic Imperative for Green Design
Beyond its ethical necessity, green design holds significant economic potential. A 2021 report from the World Economic Forum calculated that climate inaction has already caused over $3.6 trillion in damage.
Conversely, businesses adopting sustainable practices see accelerated growth as consumer demand shifts towards responsible brands. Innovative companies like Faith in Nature have demonstrated how sustainable materials and circular economy models create both financial and ecological benefits.
Embedding skills like circularity and emissions elimination enables businesses to thrive in this green economy while preparing for future regulations mandating sustainable practices.
The green skills gap should be viewed not as a barrier, but as an opportunity to reimagine the future of design. At its core, addressing this challenge is about creating a regenerative economy rooted in accountability and collaboration.
The Design Council’s Skills for Planet Mission invites individuals and organisations to help upskill one million designers by 2030 and drive action across education, industry, and policy. Their Blueprint is not only a guide but also a call to action—for every designer, educator, employer, and policymaker to play their part.
Together we Can Transform
Would you like to be part of shaping a sustainable future? The time to act is now.
Educators and Institutions: Embed green design skills into your curriculum and train the designers of tomorrow.
Organisations: Invest in upskilling your team with CPD programs that prepare them to design for planet and market demands.
Policymakers and Industry Leaders: Open channels for cross-sector collaboration and fund systems that integrate green learning into your national framework.
Collaboration will build the resilient framework needed for best practices. By sharing insights, resources, and a common goal, we can close the green skills gap and redefine what it means to design well.
