Sustainability and climate emergency
Our relationship with the planet's resources calls for urgent and lasting change. If the global population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets with be required to sustain current lifestyles.
Artists and designers are uniquely placed to meet these challenges. All forms of creative practice combine the ability to imagine new futures with the means to deliver them. Our work isn't defined simply by what we produce, but what comes before and after – how those things are made and how they are used.
We understand that the world is shaped through creative action.
Creative ecologies
Maison/0
Maison/0 is the Central Saint Martins-LVMH creative platform for regenerative luxury. Our partnership is committed to leveraging the agency of creativity and education to help regenerate our climate and biodiversity and to empower emerging talents to design a better future.
The climate and ecological emergency
Designing the future
Leading courses
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Credit: Maria Macc Maria Macc, Maria Macc
Sustainability stories
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Earth Day (photo: Ana Blumenkron) Earth Day: Appetite for Justice
This Earth Day, 22 April, the Colleges across UAL saw a wellspring of activity from staff, students and alumni. At Central Saint Martins, workshops, performances and talks filled the communal and public spaces highlighting creative and optimistic
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Lleucu Anwyl, BA Ceramic Design Class of 2021: Family
What would it be like to graduate alongside not one, but two members of your family? This year, Gwenan Williams and her daughters, Lleucu and Swyn, graduated from Central Saint Martins. We speak to the trio about their experience and work.
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Manon Daure, MA Industrial Design Class of 2021: Circularity
Analysing the life cycle of things gives designers the tools to minimise the ecological impact of production. From pineapples to blown glass, we look at graduating work that introduces circularity into the system.
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Parade for Climate Justice (photo: Ana Blumenkron) Carnival of Crisis x M ARCH: Architecture
As part of the Carnival of Crisis, M ARCH: Architecture students created performances and demonstrations for the Parade for Climate Justice. See this work on show in our Window Galleries until 11 January.
College projects
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Ca-cough-any (2017) A performance protest by PDP students as part of Greenweek 2017 instigated by a workshop on CLEAN AIR with Greenpeace,
Plural Futures
A series of co-design workshops questioning existing practices and imagine future possibilities
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Fundamentals
An annual series of public debates chaired by Oliver Wainwright for the Spatial Practices programme
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Material Library (photo: Alys Tomlinson)
Materials and Products Collection
A resource of innovative materials reflecting the trends in manufacturing
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Image: Paul Cochrane
MAKE @ Story Garden
A public space for creative collaboration with, and by, the local community
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Alternative Futures
Organised by the Culture and Enterprise programme, exploring what ethical circular practice looks like, and how it might change our relationship to objects, people and ourselves
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A close up of MA Material Futures student Sean T. Ross' Solar Forge created for the Swarovski Conscious Design project. Image: Bruce Basudde
Swarovski Conscious Design Hub
A lasting, free resource for designers championing creativity and collaboration as a driving force for sustainable development, delivered in partnership with the Jewellery, Textiles and Materials programme
Climate Emergency at UAL
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Lili Gyarmati, 2021, Pre-degree Photography, London College of Communication, UAL
UAL Climate Action Plan
Learn about UAL's key priorities
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Image: Fiona Fuller, The Open Assembly, BA Interior and Spatial Design, Chelsea College of Arts
Climate Emergency Network
A growing UAL community of interest and concern, creative practice and action
Climate Emergency in Research
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Image courtesy of Tom Corby
Materializing Data, Embodying Climate Change
Changing our experiences of climate change by encountering data in physical forms
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Living Systems Lab
Exploring biological living systems to develop new ecological knowledge through creative practices
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Tokushima indigo dye museum, Indigo dyeing on fish skin. Image taken by Takayuki Ishii, 2019
Fishskin
Developing a new category of raw material for fashion – fish leather