Sustainable Markets Initiative Launches Design Lab To Develop High Impact Solutions for Sustainable Future

(Credit: Sustainable Markets Initiative)

The Terra Carta Design Lab, a collaboration between HRH The Prince of Wales, Sir Jony Ive, and the Royal College of Art (RCA), will inspire and invite design students from around the world to design high-impact, low-cost solutions for ‘Nature, People and Planet.’

Through the Terra Carta Design Lab, students in architecture, design, engineering, art and related fields will be given the opportunity to develop innovative solutions to climate-related issues such as GHG emissions reductions, biodiversity, and new economic and social models that emphasize planet and people.  

Over 2,300 RCA students from four schools -- Architecture, Arts & Humanities, Communication and Design -- along with recent RCA alumni experts will participate in the program. A shortlist of up to 16 designs will be announced at COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow later this year. The winning designs will be announced in 2022. 

Supporting partners of the Terra Carta Design Lab include Octopus Energy, the Islamic Development Bank and Amazon.

According to its charter, the Terra Carta “aims to provide an integrated roadmap towards an inspiring, inclusive, equitable, prosperous and sustainable future for the sake of present and future generations; one that will harness the power of Nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector.”

The Terra Carta will achieve its mission by:

1. Furthering, and where possible exceeding, the goals and targets outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
2. Broadening the definition of sustainability, beyond simply net zero transition, to be inclusive of Nature, People, Planet, Equality and Prosperity.
3. Supporting the protection and restoration of a minimum of 30% of biodiversity, on land and below water, by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
4. Making global investment and financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions, climate-resilient development and Natural Capital/biodiversity restoration (on land and below water).
5. Encouraging coordination, cooperation and cohesion within corporate and public-private-philanthropic domains.
6. Leveraging consumer and shareholder demand to drive sustainable transition and investment within the private sector.

“Small ideas can have a big impact if they are supported with the right design, science and engineering and that is the key idea behind today’s Terra Carta Design Lab. We only have 100 days until COP26, the big UN conference in Glasgow to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis, and we will all need to play our part, old and young, if we are to change how we look after the Earth, making it sustainable for Nature, People and Planet,” said HRH The Prince of Wales.