Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of this century, and we can’t afford to stop acting on it even while battling a global pandemic. Scientific simulations suggest that the change in the global surface temperature between 1850 and the end of the 21st century is likely to exceed 1.5C. The WMO claims that if the current warming trend continues, temperatures could increase 3-5C by the end of this century. Politicians and scientists have debated that limiting temperature rises to 1.5C is safer. Still, we don’t have much time, we are called to “rapid and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.
RESTORATIVE DESIGN
Restorative design can help us achieving global climate targets as it proposes the regeneration of natural systems rather than their degradation. Broadly speaking, this means that materials and energy that go into a product or process can be reintroduced into the same process or system, requiring little to no inputs to maintain it.
KEY PRINCIPLES
Here are 4 key principles to regenerative design:
✔Understanding products’ or processes’ relationship to place
✔Setting goals that identify regenerative capacity
✔Becoming a partner to places and communities
✔Striving to build a sustainable collaboration between people and place
CASE STUDY: POST CARBON LAB
To illustrate the restorative design concept, we want to share with you the fantastic work of Post Carbon Lab; a transdisciplinary design research studio focused on biodesign, regenerative sustainability, and on the development of materials and processes that can help us alleviate global warming.
During the London Design Festival, they launched 2 pilot services of two pioneering microbiological processes for sustainable and regenerative fashion applications: Bacterial Pigment Dyeing and Photosynthesis Coating on fabrics and garments. Visitors could bring old t-shirts or accessories to be revamped into stylish pieces but also into living and photosynthesizing wearables that mitigate their carbon footprints.
We really hope this innovation will soon take over and become a widespread reality. After all, the fashion industry is one of the major polluting industries in the world.