Design for Regional Resilience
Design for Green Industry: Regional Resilience is a new initiative that is part of Shumka and Living Labs’ activities throughout 2021 – 2022, which will focus on circular economies and local ecologies.
Modeled after the highly successful Design for Startups program and funded by NRC IRAP, this new initiative brings the transformative power of design to SMEs by connecting them with designers to produce deliverables that will have impact on their business and on local and regional circular economies broadly.
Design for Regional Resilience targets firms that contribute actively to localized circular economy networks. Approaches may include reuse/redistribution; active sharing within partner or customer networks; and rethinking product-service relationships.
This program will run January – April 2022.
How it Works
- Companies tell us what problem you would like solved
- We match companies with an Emily Carr designer who has the skills in that area
- Student designers join your company team and work closely with you and your stakeholders for twelve weeks
- Students also meet weekly with Emily Carr faculty and designers in a lab setting, where they are supported in keeping projects on track
This program will help firms to
- Deepen engagement with circular economy practices, products or partnerships
- Communicate sustainability metrics and/or contributions to the circular economy through brand storytelling, including data visualization and visual documentation
- Align core products with the needs of target customers using design-led methods of user research and testing
- Assess and adjust existing products and processes toward the goal of meeting sustainability targets, or simplifying user experiences
- Prototype new products
- Map material, energy, or consumption flows within internal or external systems
Design for Green Industry: Regional Resilience is funded by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program.
