Hey Climate Designers,

This month we are focused on one of the many ways futures work intersects with creative practice: speculative design.

Speculative design is a way of using design to explore possible futures, rather than only responding to problems that already exist. It often starts with the simple question of what if?

Designers can then use imagined scenarios, services, or objects to make those futures feel more tangible. A speculative object might be something as ordinary as a passport, receipt, product label or piece of legislation, except it belongs to a world that does not yet exist. By giving a possible future a physical form, we can start to question the systems, behaviours, and assumptions that would need to exist around it.

Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby helped shape this approach through their influential book Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming, which explores design as a way to imagine and debate alternative futures. Their work popularised Joseph Voros’s Futures Cones of possible, plausible, probable and preferable futures. Rather than treating the future as one fixed destination, the framework gives designers space to explore what is likely to happen, what could happen, and what we might actually want to happen.

Speculative objects can be particularly useful in climate design, where future impacts can sometimes feel distant or abstract. Making possible futures visible can help us ask different questions about the choices being made today, and in turn guide us away from risk and towards more positive outcomes.

To explore what that can look like in practice, newsletter contributor Marta De Prisco created Coral Passport, 2080, drawing on her background in speculative design and recent experience training in coral conservation and restoration in Thailand.

What if a coral colony needed documentation to survive?

Earlier this year, I came across coverage of large-scale coral restoration work at Hope Reef in Indonesia. It really resonated with me because restoration is often presented as a hopeful end point, when in reality it is ongoing, physical, and uncertain work.

I felt something similar while training in coral conservation and restoration in Thailand. Much of the work was not about “saving” a reef in one dramatic intervention. It was monitoring, cleaning, documenting, repairing and returning to it again and again.

That experience made me think about what restoration might look like several decades from now.

Coral Passport, 2080 is a speculative object imagining a future in which a coral colony can no longer remain in its original habitat and needs to be relocated.

Its passport might record its reef of origin, species, genetic lineage, bleaching history, temperature exposure, restoration interventions and destination reef. It could also contain information about who is responsible for its care, how its movement is funded, and perhaps even an algorithmic assessment of its chances of survival.

The idea draws on Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s approach to speculative design, using imagined objects and possible futures to question what is already happening around us.

A coral passport sounds absurd. But many of the systems behind it already exist in some form: environmental monitoring, restoration programmes, climate modelling, genetic data, conservation funding, and increasingly, AI-supported decision-making.

The object therefore raises a less fictional question. As climate pressures increase, who decides what gets restored, relocated or protected?

And if data begins to influence those choices, which ecosystems will be well represented enough to be seen, measured, and prioritised?

For designers, speculation can create a useful distance from the present. Instead of immediately asking how we solve a problem, we can first ask what kind of future our current decisions are designing.

The most important question behind this object might be the simplest. What would we need to change today so that a Coral Passport never needs to exist?

– Marta De Prisco​

Resources for Speculative Design

We’ve pulled together a new section in our resource library on all things speculative design, futures, and imagination. If you’re just getting started, here are a few resources to try:

• ​Speculative design: A comprehensive field guide (article) – Excellent in-depth guide by James Roha for a single read to familiarize yourself with speculative design.
• ​Speculate on Futures from Sitra (exercise) – Take an emerging signal and ask what could happen if it became mainstream.
• ​Mitigation of Shock by Superflux (case study) – An immersive London apartment imagining daily life in 2050 under climate-driven food and infrastructure disruption.

For more, check out the new Speculative Design section of our resource library.

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If you value the work we do, the best way to support us is with a recurring donation. Help us continue to bring you these rich conversations, resources, and inspiration in a world of doom and gloom.

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Latest from Climate Designers

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Join the next Successes & Struggles event on October 7th

​You're trying to do good climate work, but something keeps getting in the way.

​A client who won't budge. A company that doesn't care. A budget that makes real sustainability impossible. A "green" claim you know is greenwash.

​You're not alone.

​Successes & Struggles is a guided networking session for designers working where design meets climate. Brand, product, UX, industrial, architecture: every discipline is welcome.

Latest Doom & Bloom episode

Marc talks with Jasmine Bina, cultural futurist and founder of Concept Bureau, about why rooms full of climate believers still don't act. Her take: most climate stories cast people as the villain, and nobody wants to look vulnerable.

They cover belonging as the root of most social problems, small low-risk bets over big swings, and why fixing a client relationship can change a studio's culture faster than any internal initiative. An hour-long, winding conversation.

Community Highlights

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Would you floss with plastic from your grandmother’s body?

On theme for this newsletter, Bay Area Chapter lead Tim Lillis recently showed a speculative object as part of a group show inspired in part by Dunne & Raby’s book Speculative Everything.

“Speculative design allows practitioners to share how possible futures might manifest in our daily lives. Concepts of legality, morals, politics etc. can sometimes be too abstract to imagine clearly enough that they help us make decisions about the world we want to live in *today*, but bringing forth an artifact of those worlds can help. Not just "What are the outlines of that world?" but "What is it like to live in that world?"

About the object: In 2080, measures have been taken to reduce our impact on the planet. Plastic items made from new plastic are banned, forcing some aspects of a circular economy. Meanwhile, the incineration of bodies for cremation has been recognized as an unnecessary source of carbon emissions. Bodies are now disposed of enzymatically, allowing us to easily harvest the plastic accumulated over our lifetimes fromin our corpses when we die.

3D printing allows infinite form factors for the reclaimed plastic. Many people choose to honor their loved ones by wearing their harvestings as jewelry, while others refashion the plastic into objects they can use every day to remind them of their loved ones." - Tim Lillis​

​Heather Goldstone on Doing the Next Right Thing​

Eric Benson is the host of Climate Designers partner project Climify. Check out the latest episode from his new podcast, What Makes a Good Day?​

“In my most recent interview with Heather Goldstone (from the Woodwell Climate Research Center) we discussed the latest UN report on global warming. (And yes, it’s not a good report). Heather responded to the report sharing a quote from a co-worker who said 'Let’s hit 1.5 °C twice. Once on the way up and again on the way down.' We have to bring the global temperature down, so I love this reframing. The fight goes on.” – Eric Benson​

Events & Opportunities

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Climate Designers Online Events

• ​New Wave Climate Conversations: The Shift Deck with Cindy Raspiller on September 29
• ​Climate Designers Global: Successes & Struggles on October 7
• ​Designing Better Climate Futures with En-ROADS, two part series on October 13 & 28

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Climate Designers Chapter Events

• ​Kantara Rugs & Climate Designers LA on October 3
• ​The Boston Farmer's Almanac Discussion Circle on October 14

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External Online Events

• ​Vent Session with Sustainability Creatives on September 29
• ​From Soil to Social Systems: Reflections on Our Regenerative by Design Report with Eileen Fisher on October 1
• ​Sustainability Communication Workshop with AimHi Earth on October 1
• ​Product-Market-Earth Fit Masterclass: Rewiring User Habits with Climate Conscious Leaders on October 9
• ​Biomimicry Confluence on October 14–15

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Conferences and Climate Weeks

• ​Future Festival in Toronto on September 30–October 1 and Chicago on November 3
• ​San Diego Climate Week on October 1–8
• ​Greenbuild Conference (NYC) on October 23–25
• ​Boston Climatech Summit 2026 (free virtual option) on October 29
• Check out more upcoming Climate Weeks here​

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Cohorts and Courses

• ​u-lab: Leading From the Emerging Future with Presencing Institute from Sept 24 - Nov 19 (last cohort of this long-running program, started but can still join)
• ​Degrowth & The Great Turning with Armando Davila & Arpita Bisht starting October 3
• ​Design Beyond Commerce with Ida Persson starting October 24
• ​4D Regenerative Design Literacy with Gaia Education starting Nov 2
• ​Ten-Year Forecast Training with Institute for the Future on November 3 & 5

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Opportunities

• ​Research to Impact Lab: The Work//Shift Fellowship closing October 26

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Jobs

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

Inspiration

What's inspiring the team this month.

​The Imagination Curriculum​ “I've always taken refuge in speculative fiction and cli-fi as a way to imagine different scenarios played out, both positive and negative. I really enjoyed this breakdown of many of my favorite writers through the lens of strategy and major themes. Consider it a reading list and a set of provocations on using speculative fiction to broaden our imaginations today.” – Natalie Walsh​

​Satish Kumar: Why the world needs less clever people​ “I loved this conversation. I appreciate the philosophy of Satish Kumar in regards to “Soil, Soul, and Society”. We must view the Earth not as an economic resource, but as a living system (soil), cultivate inner values like compassion and courage (soul), and foster a united global community (society). A must watch/listen for anyone wanting to expand their perspective.” – Marc O’Brien​

​PiggyPower​ “In light of El Niño being on its way, this is an interesting use of design/engineering/science to create alternative energy, effective recycling, and 3D Printed hardware for disaster preparedness.” – Rachel Cellinese​

​Letters from the Future​ “I’m doubling up this month to share another speculative themed project I just love. I'm a big fan of what appears to be a rise in creative snail mail subscriptions as an antidote to our fast-paced digital lives. In this project from Radical Futures Studio, ‘each month subscribers receive physical mail from a near-future where the feminine principle governs.'” – Natalie Walsh​

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We’re looking for a number of volunteer roles, in particular:

• Virtual Events Team
• Doom & Bloom Podcast Producer
• Social Media Designers
• Chapter Leads to support existing Chapters in the Bay Area, NYC, Seattle, and Toronto​

These openings and more on our volunteer page.

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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 powers the movement and benefits the entire design and climate community.

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