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Hey Climate Designers,

Hope everyone had a good summer ☀️. We’re getting back into the swing of things, and before getting into this month’s feature on solarpunk we have some exciting announcements.

First, our online meetups are back! We have one for Design Educators coming up this week on August 28th, and one for our Global Community on October 1st. More details below.

Secondly, we’re officially fiscally sponsored and can now accept tax-deductible donations. We are 100% volunteer-led and operate on a shoestring. Supporting memberships and donations are what keep the lights on for this organization. If you value the work we do, please donate today.

An Ode to Solarpunk

The crisis of imagination has become a common theme in climate circles, and for good reason. In this age of faltering systems and ecological breakdown, many have an easier time imagining the end of the world than one where we get it right. And yet our current reality was once only a set of ideas.

If we are to build a better world, we need to start with better ideas. This is where speculative fiction can play a powerful role. With so many cli-fi (climate fiction) and eco-futurist subgenres to choose from, there is no shortage of inspiration to help us imagine possible futures. Our favorite genre of the moment is solarpunk.

​Andrew Dana Hudson defines solarpunk as a “speculative movement: a collaborative effort to imagine and design a world of prosperity, peace, sustainability and beauty, achievable with what we have from where we are.” In contrast to the neon darkness and subjugation of its cyberpunk relative, solarpunk imagines a bright future of collective abundance and care that combines ways of the past with the best of technology in service of a good life for everyone.

But solarpunk is more than arrays of solar panels and bucolic homesteads. We mustn't overlook what makes it punk. Solarpunk takes the punk tradition of direct action and applies it to ecological restoration and community resilience. Punks would occupy venues and create underground scenes. Solarpunks occupy abandoned lots with gardens and fill the gaps left by failing institutions. Punks rejected mainstream culture. Solarpunks reject extractive ways of living in favor of regenerative alternatives. As our current systems falter, solarpunk calls for action at the community level to plant the seeds of new growth in the cracks of decay.

What’s wonderful about solarpunk as a movement is that it makes building the future a grassroots endeavor accessible to anyone. This is an incredible time for creatives to shine by stepping into new roles as leaders, homesteaders, community organizers, artivists, engineers, gardeners, tinkerers.

Solarpunk ideas in action could be:
​- Growing food and putting it in community fridges
- Building shared infrastructure with and for your neighborhood
- Learning to fix your stuff at a repair cafe
- Joining local tool libraries, clothing swaps, and buy nothing groups
- Planting animal habitats and pollinator corridors at your house or on your block
- Ripping up concrete for flood control and habitat restoration
- Planting trees in urban heat zones and gardens in overlooked open spaces

What might solarpunk look like in your world? Is there a small action you can take this week?

Now is the time to find your people and start making ideas into reality.

– Marc O’Brien and Natalie Walsh
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Latest from Climate Designers

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Online meetups are back! Vent your climate design frustrations and learn from others successes! We’re kicking off our new event series, Successes & Struggles. Think, “one part therapeutic ranting about sustainability barriers, one part practical wisdom exchange.” This is your chance to meet others from multiple design disciplines and share your respective climate challenges and wins. ​For Design Educators, AUG 28​ ​For our Global Community, OCT 1​ If you're struggling with delivering a sustainable design solution at work and need some advice, or if you have a few wins under your belt that might help designers, please join us! ​

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Doom & Bloom Podcast We sit down with design educator Stevie Bales to tackle a big question: How can designers nudge decision makers toward climate action? We unpack why decision makers should be seen as people, just like us, who need to understand climate issues, why values shouldn’t be separated from everyday choices, and why companies get away with “values” that sound good but rarely guide their actions. ​ Listen to the Episode ​

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Chapters Month Check out the events participating Chapters and Hubs are doing during Chapters Month, including events from Singapore, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area with more coming soon. Be sure to follow their calendars to stay up-to-date on when they publish new events. ​ Chapters Month Events

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Question of the Month

What are your favorite pieces of climate fiction and why?

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Opportunities

Current Design and Climate Jobs, Courses, and other Opportunities
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Jobs
​Senior UI/UX Designer at Electric Power Engineers - Remote, Austin, TX, US
​Lead Product Designer at Jua - Remote, Berlin, BE, DE
​Design Intern at the Aspen Institute - Remote, Washington, DC, US
​Graphic Designer at Environmental Resources Institute - Remote, New Delhi, DL, IN
​Marketing Maverick at Copernicus Educational Products - Hybrid, Arthur, ON, CA (work with our Toronto Chapter Lead!)

Courses
​Self-Paced Free Courses by EcoGather on eco-social collapse, community care, changing times, tending land, and alternative economies
​Mending Earth: A Learning Journey for Climate Resilience Leaders on September 16th - January 13th

Volunteer with Climate Designers
​We are seeking additional Chapter Leaders for our Toronto and Singapore Chapters. Interested? Get in touch with us at hello@climatedesigners.org.​
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Events

Upcoming Climate and Design Happenings

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Conferences and In-Person Events
​World Design Congress - Design for Planet in London (and online!) on September 9th - 10th
​Circular Design for Climate Mobilization (CDCMo) Exhibition in NYC on September 18th - October 25th
​Climate Film Festival in NYC on September 19th - 22nd
​San Diego Climate Week on October 1st - 8th
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Online Events ​
​Practical LCA Tools for Materials, Manufacturing, and Marketing Teams on August 28th
​Cli-Fi for beginners: Imagination for climate solutions on September 8th
​Climate Cafe & Adaptation Gym on September 21st
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Chapter and Hub Events ​
Singapore: Imagine the present - a collective exploration on regenerative principles and IMAGINE: Embracing Chaos and Possibility in a Planetary Emergency on September 13

Bay Area: Solarpunk Salon on September 23rd

Los Angeles: From T-shirt to Yarn Making: Upcycling with things you already have - the intersection of creativity, reuse, and design thinking on September 27th

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Inspiration

Favorites from the team on the theme of solarpunk and eco-futurism

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​2040 is a great documentary (free on YouTube) that dives deep into a few climate solutions from Project Drawdown. What I appreciate in the doc, are the “2040 chapters” at the end of each deep dive that highlights a world that is the result of that solution scaling and being wildly successful. With imagination, a little CGI, and storytelling, each 2040 vignette is a glimpse into what is possible through the lens of Solarpunk - Marc

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​"Horizon Zero Dawn" has been one of my favorite video games since it's release in 2017. Not only with it's engaging storyline, beautiful environments, and powerful, somber message. I instantly equated it to "Solar-Punk". Although the game's setting is just that, a game. It still holds a powerful message: The game is a testament to the enduring power of life, showing a world where nature has beautifully reclaimed civilization and humanity thrives within it, not over it. Something that I think all of us are trying to figure out as we speak with climate related issues. Creating our own "Solar-Punk" world with nature and no longer above it. - Sabrina

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​On the political dimension of solarpunk is my favorite article on the topic. It’s 10 years old but stands up, and here are the authors' reflections 10 years later (highly recommend his newsletter). For a cozy cli-fi read, Monk and Robot is set in a calm utopian world that embodies a lot of solarpunk ideas. And lastly Grist has a bunch of good stuff on this including their definitive climate fiction reading list and Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors project which publishes stories that envision the next generation of climate progress. - Natalie

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Though first published decades ago Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind feels strikingly relevant today. The manga weaves together timeless yet urgent themes: how technology reshapes life and the natural world, the evolving relationship between people and nature, and the human cost of war. Also inspiring on the theme of solarpunk is La Collina Designed by Terunobu Fujimori, a whimsical, grass-covered complex, and Eva Jospin Sculpts Enchanted Forests From Cardboard. Lastly, look out for the winners of the Solarpunk Art Contest 2025 which will be announced soon. - Toshi

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​Tractor Beam is a quarterly speculative and science fiction publication dedicated to solarpunk and radical visions of hopeful futures on Earth. Also inspiring is this video from Solarpunk Farms showing the before and after progress of the past 5 years starting the farm from scratch! And for anyone in London, More Than Human at the Design Museum London is a major exhibition on now that brings together art, science and radical thinking to ask how design can help our planet thrive by shifting its focus beyond human needs. - Rachel

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​“Hum” by Helen Phillips. I've read a fair bit of speculative fiction, but this one is more near-term than most and I felt like the author did a good job depicting a world that seems increasingly possible in just a few years (or is already here even). They highlight some real consequences and realities of tech and how dependent we are on it, which I found interesting, and a topic many of us have talked about in different contexts. - Kaylyn

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The article Photos: The Scale of China's Solar-Power Projects includes a number of really inspiring photos of impressively designed, large-scale solar development projects. The visuals communicate the technological innovation and immense scope. I hope imagery like this coming out of a historically feared competitor in the global economy helps spur other countries to achieve something similar. - Carly

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A new dimension for solar panels has been unlocked: art. This art installation on a building in Canada shows what you can do when you intentionally create for the location of your project. This project combined indigenous art with modern technology to not only tell a story and connect with residents, but to help protect the future of those who live there. - Jackie

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