Do you have an idea that contributes to a circular society? What Design Can Do and the Ikea Foundation are inviting creatives from around the world to pitch their circular solutions in the Make it Circular Challenge. The competition seeks ways to to find creative solutions to socio-environmental crisis.
In particular it is looking for new ideas and existing innovations that rethink our way of life: from what we eat and wear, to why we buy and how we build. The end goal is to find and create products, services, and systems that make a circular future more accessible for all while living in harmony with nature. In the natural world, all processes are inherently circular and interconnected. Anything discarded by one system can be fuel for another.
Winning ideas will be turned into reality with €10.000 in funding and a global development programme that has been co-created with Impact Hub.
Why do we need a circular society?
With our current linear economy, resources are extracted from the earth, made into products, and then discarded. The take-make-waste economy, as it is often referred to, relies on infinite growth using finite resources. But our earth’s resources are depleting, we’re running out of landfill space, and waste has countless consequences for people and the planet.
On the other hand, a circular economy aspires to a waste-free world where industries work holistically and symbiotically.
Image: Resting Reef turns cremated ashes into underwater urns that double as artificial reefs, where oysters can live and thrive.
In a circular economy, products are made to last, or when used up, are designed to be the feedstock for a new product, creating a closed-loop system where limited waste is produced. Beyond that, a circular economy helps to address three planetary crises: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. This contributes to keeping global temperatures below 1.5 degrees to limit the effects of climate change.
The Make it Circular Challenge talks in terms of “society” rather than “economy”, because a truly resilient system must also consider the social and ethical dimensions of how people live their lives, from sun-up to sun-down. It demands a transition that is inclusive and equitable, and that gives people the tools to participate in not just circular products but in circular ways of living.
Transitioning from linear to circular demands that we change the way we design: from quick fixes to long-term solutions, from exploiting nature to collaborating with nature, and from creating new materials to using what we already have. This is where designers and creatives play a crucial role.
“Many people become lost in the face of so much outrage, fatigue, and disinterest — but not creatives,” says Richard van der Laken, co-founder and creative director of What Design Can Do. “The ability to imagine is the creative community’s ideal domain: seeing what does not yet exist, taking on a challenge, forging ahead with optimism.”
Image: The United Repair Centre in Amsterdam by Makers Unite and Patagonia. Supplied by What Design Can Do
How can you help build a circular society?
The Make it Circular Challenge calls on designers everywhere to use their creative powers for good. Submissions should respond to at least one of five categories reflecting the key aspects of a circular society.
WHAT WE EAT | covers the ways we grow, distribute, shop for, consume and discard food. So much could be gained by rethinking farming practices, redesigning the modern diet, or creating initiatives that encourage food sharing within communities.
WHAT WE WEAR | is about the clothes we put on our bodies and the textiles from which they are made. What if we could change the way we value these materials and make it easier for sustainable alternatives to be produced, used, and reused? And how could doing so also address the social inequality that is rampant in the fashion industry?
Image: Ponto Biodesign is a lab making compostable packaging for food and personal care products
WHAT WE BUY | refers to the countless consumer goods we use every day, from furniture to toys, home cleaning products, and electronics. Here it’s also essential that we address why we buy in the first place. Could design help to repair people’s relationship with things?
HOW WE PACKAGE | asks you to rethink the flawed world of packaging. Because there are better ways to protect products using materials that are truly ethical and sustainable. Here we can think about innovating new materials, but also about making disposable things less desirable, and working with policymakers to enact change from the top.
Image: Everloop toothbrushes made from recycled post-consumer plastics and the bristles are made from bamboo.
HOW WE BUILD | reimagines the built environment and looks at how we construct the places where we live, work, and play. This includes making circular decisions in new buildings for the growing population but also exploring ways to adapt existing structures and save precious resources.
Each of these categories requires us to question our extractive and exploitative habits and find new ways of living that are in harmony with people and the planet. Making this transition will require creativity, innovation, and collaboration. That’s why What Design Can Do is calling on you!
- Apply online via the Make it Circular platform
- Applications close on 11 January 2023
- To follow along as the competition progresses, follow WDCD on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
- Cover image: Buzigahill upcycled garment made entirely of waste textiles sourced from Uganda’s secondhand markets.
