Design for Good to celebrate its first cycle making impact on UN SDG 6: Clean Water & Sanitation
London, June 2024 — The ground-breaking non-profit alliance, Design for Good will next week celebrate the close of its first cycle, where 600 designers from 13 global organisations have come together with NGOs and Charity partners over the past two years to create clean water and sanitation solutions to help address Goal 6.
The event, to be held on Tuesday 25th June at the Royal College of Art’s (RCA) Battersea campus, will officially conclude the inaugural cycle by celebrating and recognising thirteen projects from this first cycle. Projects include designing in support of clean portable toilets, changing behaviours around water saving, promoting hygiene while breaking down language barriers for children in underserved communities and sustaining livelihoods by regenerating peatlands. The event will also include a Royal College of Art certificate presentation ceremony for designers who successfully completed the RCA x DfG Academy and officially signal the commencement of cycle two in September 2024, where the global alliance members will start designing for Quality Education, Goal 4.
Established in 2022, Design for Good is a non-profit alliance of leading global organisations and institutions with the aim of directly harnessing the collective power of design to create positive impact for all of life. Members to date comprise General Mills, Logitech, LIXIL, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft led by Xbox, Nedbank, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Philips, bp, Airbus Commercial, Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal College of Art.
Development organisation partners comprise Global Water Challenge, Green Schools Ireland, AMP Health, AMREF Health, Liberian Youth Parliament for Water (LRYPW), Mega Group, Clean Team, ITPC, Her Best Foot Forward, WaterStarters, The WASH Foundation and ECO-UNESCO.
Steffani Fields from The WASH Foundation comments: “So many children growing up in developing countries still lack the understanding and resources to protect themselves against deadly germ transmission because the close connection between good hygiene practices and good health is not taught in schools or at home. The inclusion of WASH Education into school curriculums can bridge that gap”.
Over the course of the cycle, all designers from the represented organisations worked in a unique cross-company collaboration to design solutions aimed at improving access to clean water and sanitation for communities around the world. Over time, the global alliance intends to create directly measurable benefit to impacted communities. In order to train the participating designers, the RCA x DfG Academy ran a bespoke, accredited mission-led program, including lectures from global design leaders including Don Norman. The course has a 94% recommendation rating and has resulted in designers taking new humanity and life-centered design skills back into their respective global companies.
The celebratory event will be hosted by incoming managing director, Cecilia Brenner, who comments: “It will be great to come together as a global force for good to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable achievements made since we started this endeavour in 2022. Looking forward, we have huge ambitions to harness the power of design while also equipping our designers with the evolving skills to design for good, for all of life. We look forward to cycle two where we’ll collaborate to help address lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Nick de Leon, Design for Good trustee as Knowledge Exchange and Partnerships, Royal College of Art concludes: “From good design to designing for good, our first cohort of designers are making an impact.”
