‘Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet’

I am Professor of Design at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and one of the Co-Directors of Design HOPES. I was the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Leadership Fellow in Design between 2017 and 2021 and have also held professorial positions at key design departments around the UK. Within these, I have spent a lot of time in product design research – a major area of focus in this project.

I am Professor of Design and Making and Chair of Creative Intelligence at the University of Dundee. I am also Co-Director of Design HOPES with Paul. My background is in social change around critical issues – including the climate crisis – and co-creation with communities and industry. Fundamentally, I believe in action research – using design to drive change by bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet, so we are exploring the role that design – in all its guises – can play in creating a healthier planet and people.

For context, the health sector is the fifth largest contributor to climate change. If we can start to reduce its impact, we can make real progress towards green transition goals.

The health sector is Scotland’s biggest employer; there are close to 200,000 employees and they are using tonnes of resources every year. In NHS Scotland, a lot of these resources go to waste so our job as design researchers is to intervene and innovate. We are looking at how we can design new ways of doing things at a systems level, local levels and everything in between.

To give an example, one of our projects – the Green Ward Toolkit – is undertaking an environmental baseline assessment of a ward’s activity. This is useful because the site of an NHS hospital is like a mini city; it has all the same operational services – travel, food, energy, sanitation, waste – and they’re place-based, situated in a particular context. So, the typical debates around urban sustainability are all relevant – the hospital is effectively a demonstrator through which to explore solutions.

Our primary partner is NHS Scotland, and we work with them across the majority of their 14 regional health boards. Another of our main partners is the V&A Dundee, who helped us launch the project back in October 2023. Currently, we have a work-in-progress show with them, along with a programme of other events and activities which will run until February 2025.

We also work with a number of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) – groups like 4c, wideblue, Dress for the Weather – who span a range of design disciplines from architecture and textiles to fashion, product and interactive design. Then there are the NHS hospitals, where we work directly with CEOs, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, porters, catering managers and chefs.

To add to Paul’s comprehensive list – the hospital operations teams often get forgotten, but they really glue everything together. There are also waste managers and people trying to tackle the health boards’ commitments to net zero goals; we try to dovetail with their existing programmes.

We also work closely with the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland’s Head of Circular Economy. These partnerships give us a direct link to policymakers and will inform a policy pop-up at the end of the project.

On 5 December, we opened our work-in-progress exhibition at the V&A Dundee. Showcasing the 17 projects in which the Design HOPES team are currently involved, the display is available to visit until 17 February 2025.

We also recently funded five design challenges and a series of internships for early career design researchers in Scotland.

Their projects include:

• Digitising hospital stock-taking processes

• Improving the sustainability of ward-to-ward travel

• Addressing the stigma around stoma bags

• Designing single-use plastic out of hospital equipment (such as drip stands and ventilator arms)

Following a lot of interest, we are planning to expand the design challenge programme next year, hopefully to the whole of the UK.

We are also inviting involvement with Design HOPES through our community of practice. This comes in the form of two working groups addressing questions fundamental to this project. The first examines green futures storytelling and ways to change behaviour by affecting hearts and minds. The second exists at the design-policy interface, exploring how designers can work with policymakers to input their insights into the policy-making process.

There is an open invitation to join both groups and we welcome participation from within and beyond the design community.

By 2044, many of the UK’s and NHS’s sustainability commitments should have come to pass. To help that happen, we are building capacity with a growing cohort of early career design researchers. Hopefully, they continue to integrate sustainable design practices into their respective fields.

There’s also real potential for the tools and frameworks we’re building for the NHS to be adopted elsewhere. This is how we are thinking about the future at Design HOPES – from a holistic and systemic point of view.

Personally, I would like to see some of our projects bringing an end to NHS Scotland’s reliance on single-use plastics. If we achieve that, we can move towards a more biodegradable, regenerative health and social care system, where harm to the planet can be eliminated through smarter production and consumption.

I also have ambitions for Design HOPES to become an international centre of excellence. We have already attracted international recognition, and I think there is potential to do a lot more good – not just for the environment but also wider social, economic and cultural impacts.

Ultimately, we are trying to offer a more hopeful future and create the pathways to reach it.