Design for Good announces focus on ‘designing for people and planet health’ between 2026-2030
London (1 July 2025) – Design for Good announced last week that it will mobilise its global alliance of hundreds of creatives to design for people and planet health between 2026-2030, two deeply connected and equally critical needs for advancing social and environmental good. By addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being and Goal 13: Climate Action, the charity aims to positively improve millions of lives as well as the health of our planet’s ecosystems by 2030.
“It’s evident that you cannot have a healthy life without a healthy planet, and addressing the challenges of one without also addressing the other is not viable,” said Design for Good Managing Director Cecilia Brenner. “At its heart, good design is all about caring for all life. What are we designing for, if not for people’s and planetary health and well-being?”
The time is now
The UN has identified SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) as suffering major setbacks, noting year-over-year record-breaking rising temperatures and the COVID-19 pandemic reversing 10 years of progress in life expectancy. However, hope exists in interventions reaching the most affected communities and to regenerate ecosystems.
Design for Good believes the time is now for the global design community to unite and lead with purpose to create lasting, measurable impacts in both goals. All designs created will be available for free for anyone to use.
Global, cross-functional collaboration
Since 2022, Design for Good has convened more than 1,600 designers across 30 countries to collaborate with NGOs, charities and affected communities.
Over the next few months, Design for Good will identify non-profits, NGOs and charities who share its mission in creating impact for people and planet health, and, starting in October 2026, designers from alliance members made up of leading global organisations and institutions will collaborate to create positive impacts for specific problems identified.
Designing for impact
The announcement came during Design for Good’s annual event 26 June to celebrate the impact of projects focused on UN SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and progress of products and services addressing UN SDG 4: Quality Education. Preliminary educational innovations include an interactive board game on healthy hygiene, an online game that helps youth identify misinformation on social media and the news, lesson plans for teachers to educate children and their parents on water conservation, and upskilling out-of-work young adults.
“Whether we’re teaching kids the importance of handwashing through flipbooks, creating an app that digitises a map of open wells to improve local water access, or creating a game to educate on misinformation, Design for Good has shown that we can make positive impact,” said Ben Sheppard, Co-founder and Chair of Design for Good. “By making all products and services open source, we're continuing to drive impact as more organisations and people use and scale them. I’m excited to see how our global community will use its collective power to design for people and planet health.”
NGOs/non-profits working on SDG 3 and SDG 13 and for-profit organisations with design teams interested in joining the alliance should email info@designforgood.org for more information.
