Hey Climate Designers,

We’ve been busy lately. New Chapters and Hubs are getting started behind the scenes, those recently launched have hosted their first events, and many of our longstanding Chapters have been buzzing with events through the summer and fall.

Enjoy a few highlights from this active season!
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Latest from Climate Designers

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Successes & Struggles: Digital Product Design Edition, November 4th

​Our Successes & Struggles event series is switching it up and going discipline-first from here on out. Each session will focus on one discipline, starting with digital product design in NOV and brand design in DEC.

​The first half is an open Q&A with members of the Climate Designers team and guest speakers. Bring your questions, and we’ll provide the space to talk about what’s working, what isn't, and where you're stuck.

Then get to know each other in breakout sessions so you can share your wins and challenges with other similar designers in a small group setting.

What's new with Doom & Bloom

We’re wrapping up Season 2. We have three episodes left. One is with the team behind Casa Davka, another is with designer Ida Persson. And our last episode is with the Climate Designers team, discussing our favorite episodes of the season.

Be sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple, and other players to get notified when these episodes go live. Oh, and of course Instagram and LinkedIn.

Community Highlights

New York City Chapter: Summer of Sustainability

“This summer, Climate Designers NYC went on an event blitz, hosting more than ten events across the city. We did everything from community meetups at “green” arcades to a tour of one of the largest recycling centers in North America. The 24/7 facility manages recycling from all five boroughs of New York City and processes roughly one to two tons of recyclable material each day.

We visited museums and started having deeper conversations around what drives us, what challenges we see, and what problems exist in our own communities. We specifically diversified our meeting locations to make it easier for more people to participate, and it worked. We met a bunch of new creatives, and even people who didn’t necessarily consider themselves creative, all coming together in the name of climate action.

One thing I noticed throughout the summer was sharing. Sharing time with people. Sharing space that allowed someone to vent or share their own passions for the planet. Sharing knowledge, experiences, and perspectives.

Those are the things that help us grow and refine our outlooks. They help us create connections and become more empathetic toward one another. Through sharing, we realize that despite our differences, we are often a lot alike. And even when we aren’t, we walk away with a new perspective.

This climate crisis won’t be solved by one person or one group alone. It will take collective action. Holding these events reminds us that we aren’t in this alone, and along the way we build strength through community.

Because this is hard work we are doing, and sometimes community is exactly the refuel we need to remind ourselves to keep going.”

— Brian Stancheski, NYC Chapter Lead

Toronto Chapter: Solarpunk Book Club

“For the month of October, Climate Designers Toronto participated in the wonderful “We Create Our Futures” Solarpunk festival hosted at the Centre for Social Innovation.

The discussion was rich and covered product design, architecture and the built environment, all the way to systems design, and the impact these practices have on our environment at large. The conversation returned as usual to the psychology underpinning our environmental crises, and we agreed that a fundamental shift in society's beliefs (to something more solarpunk) is necessary to create a greener future.

In celebration of the festival, we've also gathered real life examples of the solarpunk-and-design adjacent topics covered in the readings, with as many local ones as possible! You can check out the solarpunk resources here, and check out the full recap on the Toronto Chapter Instagram.”

— Ren Wang, Toronto Chapter Lead

Dubai Chapter: Launch Event!

“We had our first virtual event at Climate Designers Dubai and it went really well! It was a very interactive and productive session. We learnt about CD, discussed how we’d like to shape our chapter, and reflected on the climate challenges unique to the Dubai / Gulf region and how we might use our creative skills to work towards solutions.

I also introduced Creative-Climate Digest - a little nugget at the end of every gathering where we rotate sharing something worth taking away with us - a video, article, poem, book, piece of research, or simply a cool idea that stayed with someone. This month I shared this great piece of zero waste storytelling.”

— Simran Monga, Dubai Chapter Lead

Boston Chapter: Almanac Soft Launch

“The Boston Chapter recently hosted a Farmer's Almanac Discussion Circle to celebrate the soft launch of our Boston Urban Farmer's Almanac! Inspired by the almanac created by the Los Angeles Chapter, the Boston Urban Farmer's Almanac is a guide to living sustainably in the Boston area with information across waste, public infrastructure, land use/nature & water, community & culture, lifestyle & local economy, and education. This was an opportunity for the community to give their feedback and shape the future of the Almanac.”

— Brett Duboff, Boston Chapter Lead

Events & Opportunities

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Climate Designers Online Events

• ​Climate Designers Global: Designing Better Climate Futures with En-ROADS Session 2: Design a Future on October 28
• ​New Wave Climate Conversations: The Shift Deck with Cindy Raspiller on October 29
• ​Climate Designers Global: Successes & Struggles: Digital Product Design on November 4
• ​New Wave Climate Conversations: Climate Cooldown with Thomas Yount on November 5
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Climate Designers Chapter Events

• ​Chicago Chapter: Ripple Effects Mapping Workshop with Climate Action Museum on October 28
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External Online Events

• ​D! Design Therapy with Design Declares on October 30
• ​Designing for Impact: AI, User Behavior, and the Climate Cost of Design Choices with Climate Conscious Leader on November 4
• ​Masterclass on Regenerative Startup Incubation with Narwhal Ventures on November 11
• ​Regenerative Design in Digital Practice 2026 with Living Future Europe on November 13
• ​Demo Day Workshop with Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Accelerator on November 18
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Conferences and Climate Weeks

• ​Future Festival in Chicago on November 3
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Cohorts and Courses

• ​Ten-Year Forecast Training with Institute for the Future on November 3 & 5
• ​4D Regenerative Design Literacy with Gaia Education starting November 2
• ​The Kinship Journey with Samantha Sweetwater starting November 4
• ​Remember, Re-Root, Reveal with Spring starting November 5
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Jobs

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

Inspiration

What's inspiring the team this month.

​Symbiotic - a fictional future artifact from 2050​ “This is a beautiful short film that brings to life the umwelts, or sensory experiences, of other creatures. The film was designed by the studio Modem as part of Future Garden, an initiative that explores futures and policy in the EU. They did an impressive job of visualizing completely different experiences of the world while connecting it back to the implications of human decision making on the more than human world. It’s a perfect complement to reading Immense World by Ed Yong for those who want to go deeper into the vast diversity of umwelts experienced by life on earth.” – Natalie Walsh​

​Baratunde Thurston & Blaise Agüera y Arcas | On Interdependence​ “I got to see Baratunde Thurston speak at the latest Long Now talk. I'd like to call out a point he made: ‘So much of the story of AI is about what you can do all by yourself. You can write a whole movie by yourself. But, what if you like people? What if the movie gets better because of the push and pull of one mind interacting with another? That’s a feature, not a bug to be eradicated or ‘efficiencied’ out of the picture.’ Design has always gotten better through critique, argument, and the push and pull of colleagues. A tool built to remove that friction removes the part that makes the work good, the part that makes the process fun. I invite critique, push back. It's what makes us better designers. Who wants to work alone in a fun, creative profession? Not me.” – Marc O’Brien​

​DSCNT’s Citizen-Science Programme Joins the UN Ocean Decade​ “DSCNT is exploring how the information divers already collect, dive logs, photographs, depth, temperature and observations, can contribute to ocean science. Its citizen-science programme has now been endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade Project. I liked the idea of designing participation around something people already do, and making scattered personal records more useful over time.” – Marta De Prisco​

​Digg. Or Die. DIGGER.​ “Every once in a while, the suits in Hollywood greenlight a big-budget climate movie. Digger stars an unhinged-looking Tom Cruise as an oil executive with a creepy animatronic cat in a brilliantly-staged, multi-layered narrative about the planetary impact of fossil fuels. The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter went to see Digger in the theatre and — wow oh wow — it's a cinematic work of art that we'll be thinking about for a long time. Recommended.” – Leslie Forman​

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Get Involved

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Contribute to the newsletter

Do you have events, opportunities, or inspiration to submit to the newsletter? Share your submissions here! We are also open to connecting with guest writers.

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Volunteer with us!

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 Boston, NYC, Seattle, and Toronto​

These openings and more are on our volunteer page.

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Donate

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

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