Hey Climate Designers,

We hope you’re staying cool in the heatwaves, and enjoying all that summer has to offer. We're coming to you this month with a request from the organization.

Everything that we do here is powered by volunteers and offered for free to the community. Our newsletter, our podcast, our educational resources, our online gatherings. We want to keep it that way. But to do so we need your help.

Our bank account is running low. Our expenses are modest and donations exclusively go towards our tech costs and fiscal sponsorship. We’re looking for your help in covering these expenses so we can continue bringing you these rich conversations, content, and inspiration in a world of doom and gloom.

Our ask of you today is to support us with a recurring donation of $5/month.

We only need 1% of our readers to pledge their support to reach our goal. If Climate Designers holds value in your life, and this amount would not impact you, we invite you to support the organization today.

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Latest from Climate Designers

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Join the next Successes & Struggles event on August 5th

A space where designers working in the sustainability/climate space can share what's actually working and what's not.

Real wins, real failures, real breakthroughs that move the design industry forward.

This is for anyone doing climate work in design: mid-career pivot, veteran practitioner, currently in the trenches. Your experience is the foundation someone else needs.

Join the next Doom & Bloom Online Recap on August 14th

Check out our new online event series every second FRI of the month where we invite our listeners to share their ideas, thoughts, and stories from the latest podcast episode.

The next Doom & Bloom episode features the guys behind Thinknado. For the next recap event, we'll be using their new tool for breaking the patterns of conventional thinking. Come ready to play!

The new episode is coming out soon. Find it on Spotify or Apple.

Volunteer with us!

We’re looking for a number of volunteer roles:

• Chapter Leaders to support existing chapters in Toronto, Seattle, and Bengaluru
• Newsletter curators and guest writers
• Those interested in producing online events

Community Highlights

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Renourish, a new Circular Design Studio

One of our longtime Climate Designers team members, Eric Benson, has just launched renourish.design along with co-founder Yvette Gattineri. Here’s a piece of their story.

“Twenty years ago, Yvette and I both found our design work in the trash. We had put months of effort into it only to see it sitting soiled in a dumpster. We felt demoralized. We left our corporate jobs, went to graduate school, and dedicated two decades to helping create the foundations of circular design. Re-nourish was born in 2006. We offered free, open-source tools, strategies, frameworks, and resources for graphic designers. The journey was challenging and often disheartening, because the pace of change was so slow.

In 2018, we discovered Alexandra Rowland's idea of hopepunk, and it inspired us to keep going. She pointed to Samwise Gamgee who refused to stop believing the journey matters and carried his friend up the mountain when everything seemed lost. That's how we work together. We see hope as resistance and our north star for why we design.

The sustainability field often looks polished, populated with beautiful websites and carbon-neutral claims. Each with very little substance behind them. We spent twenty years trying to build the substance those claims are missing.

So, like Samwise Gamgee, we are there and back again. Today, we return to practice through Renourish Studio. The work will be messy and imperfect, but it will still be an important step forward. It's about the journey, not perfection.” - Eric Benson​

Team Successes & Struggles Event: AI Edition

Every month we have internal team conversations with our group of global volunteers.

“This month we ran a very inquisitive conversation about the intersection of AI and Climate with an internal Successes & Struggles style event.

This exercise allowed us to take a step back as an organization and see where we all land when it comes to this topic. Ultimately, our discussion led us to connect back to our own creativity and exercise our brains the “old fashion way”. We recognize that AI is a choice, and that we as humans are what spark the flames of creativity and innovation at this intersection.” - Sabrina Karas​

We'd love to extend this conversation to the broader community. How has AI impacted, influenced, hindered, or enhanced your life?

Events & Opportunities

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Climate Designers Online Events

• ​Climate Designers Global: Successes & Struggles on August 5
• ​Climate Designers Global: Doom & Bloom Recap Hangout on August 14
• ​New Wave Research Project: Re-nourish with Eric Benson and Yvette Gattineri on September 24
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Climate Designers Chapter Events

• ​New York Chapter: Recycling Center Tour and Arcade Assembly on August 5 & 13
• ​Bengaluru Chapter: Meet & Greet on August 8 (currently full)
• ​Los Angeles Chapter: 🎨 Zine Making Workshop at RiverFest! on August 9
• ​Toronto Chapter: Sun Print Workshop (Designer Crafting Social) on August 22
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External Events

• ​Looking Forward Book Club reads Climate Wayfinding with Grist on July 29
• ​First session in the Open Rhizome series with Culture Hacks Labs on July 29
• ​Make It Count: Sustainability Communication Workshop with AimHi Earth on August 4
• ​Climate Fresk Online with People for Nature on August 5
• ​Snackable Skills Workshop with Climate Conscious Leaders on August 5
• ​From Resource to Relationship: Shifting away from separation with SoiltoGrow and Ida Persson on August 20
• ​Cultural, Visual, and Futures Literacies: Educating the Next Generation of Designers with IFTF on Sept 1
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Conferences, Cohorts, and Climate Weeks

• ​Climatebase Fellowship Cohort 10 applications due August 24
• ​New York City Climate Week on September 20–27
• ​New York City Climate Film Festival on September 18–21
• ​Future Festival in Toronto on September 30–October 1
• Lots of Climate Weeks coming up in September, check them all out here​
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Jobs

• ​Check out the latest on the Climate Designers job board

Inspiration

What's inspiring the team this month.

​Beautiful News Infographics​ “I recently rediscovered this site, the work of author Mark Chandless. I think it's a stunning reminder of just how good an infographic can be! Plus these are all great examples of what’s going well in the world.” - Dr. V.​

​Everything I Did When I Got Laid Off, And How It Helped Me Find My Niche​ “I loved this post by Anne Warren about how she left the e-commerce world and pivoted into circular fashion. She talks about her initial hypothesis, what she discovered through meeting people, and how she narrowed her focus over time. She now designs knit apparel with deadstock yarn. Anne emphasizes the value of making new friends on this journey, which reminded me so much of my experiences with Climate Designers!” - Leslie Forman​

​Designing cities for a hotter future​ “A fascinating interview highlighting the role architects will play in designing the built environment with the changing climate in mind. In the future, cities will function like forests and buildings will act like trees. A regenerative design approach which minimizes environmental impact and enhances the well-being of the people that live in the buildings. Architects and all designers must step beyond our traditional roles to become climate activists, helping to translate complex science in an actionable steps.” - Marc O’Brien​

​Project Circle​ “This is a new Australian based research project with a framework for making material choices that work within planetary boundaries for a regenerative built environment. It has a lot of great material overviews, and I especially appreciated the three example building techniques at the end showing the design principles in practice. The first “Green House” uses all grown materials, the second “Blue House” re-uses high-impact engineered materials like concrete, and the third combines the two approaches. Really interesting for the circular economy nerds out there!” - Natalie Walsh​

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Keep this Party Going

Once again, if you value what we do, consider giving the gift of a few dollars each month to allow this organization to continue operation.

As our thanks, one-time donors of $50+ and monthly donors of $5+ will receive access to members-only content and our deepest gratitude. Your support allows us to continue to offer what we do for free, and benefits the entire design and climate community.

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Quick Links

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