Climify

Episode 4 – Deep Dive series

This episode references Climify’s Episode 1 – Sweatshops, Social Injustices, and Systemic Impacts of Fast Fashion with Jasmine Sanders

In this episode, we discuss consumerism, the impact of consumerism with a sustainability lens, and how design contributes to, or combats, consumerism. We’ve discovered that the impact of fast fashion goes beyond just the types of fabric in use, but also affects social injustices like ethical labor and systemic privilege. We talk about consumerism tactics like greenwashing within marketing and branding, and how greenwashing leads to consumer distrust and consumer manipulation. We think about ways we can combat consumerism as designers through prioritizing our own ethics as Climate Designers. We discuss details of our ethics courses in college and how we would like to see them improved. And lastly, we consider how educators can better support students so we don’t fall into the deception of consumerism. How can students avoid feeling like baby birds being shoved out of their nest? How can our educational institutions create better connections within the sustainability world? We have some suggestions that include job fairs, teaching about and identifying greenwashing, and sharing resources for post-graduation.

Medium.com - The Role of Design in Slowing the Pace of Consumerism

Medium.com - Graphic Designs effect on Consumerism

What is greenwashing?

Katie Patrick TedTalk - Why Optimism and Creativity (Not Doom) Will Save the Planet

The Value-Action Gap: Why People Don’t Act in Accordance with Their Beliefs

Deep Dive is a Climify miniseries that explores opportunities for climate education through the eyes of recent design students. As new grads now working the 9-to-5, we’ll discuss themes centering around climate design and what educators can do to approach these topics. The classroom needs to see more intersectionality between design and climate, and we’re here to advocate for that.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

Grace Turcich
Grace is a Chicago-based graphic designer working at a marketing agency. She earned her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Graphic Design. Since Grace’s transition from a full-time student to a full-time employee, she wants to know what else she can do for the climate. As a new climate designer, she is constantly learning how design and climate are intersectional. Grace hopes to discover new ways of learning, how to challenge the status quo, and become part of the solution within the fight for climate action.

In her freetime, when she is not fighting for the planet, Grace is painting nail art, hiking, and baking a new recipe.

Follow Grace’s climate design blog on instagram @unearthclimatedesign and her website grace-turcich.com.

instagram.com/unearthclimatedesign

@climifypodcast

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Episode 3 – Deep Dive series

This episode references Climify’s Episode 10 – We Need to Break the Wheel with Ruth McElroy Amundsen & Alden Cleanthes

In this episode, we talk about design thinking and, more broadly, design systems. We’ve found that design thinking is far removed from what we do at our day jobs at an agency and freelancing, since our jobs move so quickly. We wonder if there’s a way to speed up design thinking to bring it into an agency lifestyle, so that we can start building products and services that are truly impactful for both the people and planet. But we don’t just limit the conversation to design thinking. We also touch on design systems: what a design system is, how a design system can effectively create change, and what educators can do to translate design thinking and design systems for their students. Educators can use real businesses in their communities as examples, asking students to contribute to a business’s sustainability model while maintaining profits and ensuring all parties – the consumers, the business, and the planet – can benefit.

The power of innovation and design thinking in implementing the 2030 agenda for sustainable development

Design Thinking and Sustainability - How to Develop Innovations for Our Common Future

designthinking.ideo.com

re-nourish.org/systems-thinking

Deep Dive is a Climify miniseries that explores opportunities for climate education through the eyes of recent design students. As new grads now working the 9-to-5, we’ll discuss themes centering around climate design and what educators can do to approach these topics. The classroom needs to see more intersectionality between design and climate, and we’re here to advocate for that.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

Grace Turcich
Grace is a Chicago-based graphic designer working at a marketing agency. She earned her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Graphic Design. Since Grace’s transition from a full-time student to a full-time employee, she wants to know what else she can do for the climate. As a new climate designer, she is constantly learning how design and climate are intersectional. Grace hopes to discover new ways of learning, how to challenge the status quo, and become part of the solution within the fight for climate action.

In her freetime, when she is not fighting for the planet, Grace is painting nail art, hiking, and baking a new recipe.

Follow Grace’s climate design blog on instagram @unearthclimatedesign and her website grace-turcich.com.

instagram.com/unearthclimatedesign

@climifypodcast

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Episode 2 – Deep Dive series

In this episode, we talk about our own experiences with eco-anxiety. Eco-anxiety is defined by the Climate Psychology Alliance as the heightened emotional and mental distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system. We’ve all felt it at one point or another, and if you haven’t, maybe your climate bubble just hasn't popped yet. Eco-anxiety can be difficult to talk about, but the more you talk about it, the less anxious you’ll feel. And if you don’t have anyone to talk about it with, then sit back and listen to us talk about it – it might relieve some of your worries to know that you’re not feeling this alone.

We share when we first started feeling eco-anxious and the emotions we’ve felt while experiencing eco-anxiety, and we learn a new term: “solastalgia,” the pain or distress caused by the loss of a comforting place, the isolation one feels when their home or land is lost. We move into talking about eco-anxiety, and ways you can relieve your eco-anxiety through small tangible actions like composting, saving the cold water that comes out of your faucet, and connecting with the earth. And lastly, both educators and students can bring this discussion into their classrooms by opening up real and honest conversations about climate change and eco anxiety. We discuss how educators can prompt more solutions-based projects, and how students can choose to center their class projects around climate change (whether it’s explicitly assigned or not).

Ecoanxiety.com

Climate Psychology Alliance

Australasian Psychiatry-Solastalgia

Deep Dive is a Climify miniseries that explores opportunities for climate education through the eyes of recent design students. As new grads now working the 9-to-5, we’ll discuss themes centering around climate design and what educators can do to approach these topics. The classroom needs to see more intersectionality between design and climate, and we’re here to advocate for that.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

Grace Turcich
Grace is a Chicago-based graphic designer working at a marketing agency. She earned her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Graphic Design. Since Grace’s transition from a full-time student to a full-time employee, she wants to know what else she can do for the climate. As a new climate designer, she is constantly learning how design and climate are intersectional. Grace hopes to discover new ways of learning, how to challenge the status quo, and become part of the solution within the fight for climate action.

In her freetime, when she is not fighting for the planet, Grace is painting nail art, hiking, and baking a new recipe.

Follow Grace’s climate design blog on instagram @unearthclimatedesign and her website grace-turcich.com.

instagram.com/unearthclimatedesign

@climifypodcast

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Episode 1 – Deep Dive series

This episode references Climify’s Episode 8 – Shifting Designers to Tackle Climate Change

In this episode, we’re talking cross-pollination – within and outside of design, that is. Why are we so siloed in our ways of learning and working? Is staying within one focused discipline *really* the best option? Are there better ways we could collaborate and learn from one another’s expertise? There’s lots of benefits of bringing in other collaborators of different ages, interests, backgrounds, etc. And there’s a lot to be learned from a discipline outside of your own!

Clean Creatives

Why designers are siloed and how to break out of it

Breaking silos for a more collaborative design process

Deep Dive is a Climify miniseries that explores opportunities for climate education through the eyes of recent design students. As new grads now working the 9-to-5, we’ll discuss themes centering around climate design and what educators can do to approach these topics. The classroom needs to see more intersectionality between design and climate, and we’re here to advocate for that.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

Grace Turcich
Grace is a Chicago-based graphic designer working at a marketing agency. She earned her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Graphic Design. Since Grace’s transition from a full-time student to a full-time employee, she wants to know what else she can do for the climate. As a new climate designer, she is constantly learning how design and climate are intersectional. Grace hopes to discover new ways of learning, how to challenge the status quo, and become part of the solution within the fight for climate action.

In her freetime, when she is not fighting for the planet, Grace is painting nail art, hiking, and baking a new recipe.

Follow Grace’s climate design blog on instagram @unearthclimatedesign and her website grace-turcich.com.

instagram.com/unearthclimatedesign

@climifypodcast

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Episode 11 – Rachel Cifarelli

Rachel Cifarelli joins Eric to share her story of finding sustainable design after leaving school, why she wished her teachers taught her the topic, and explains why she started the New Wave research project to help design students take the lead on climate action when educators didn't.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

TikTok: rachelcifarelli

climatedesigners.org/edu/newwave

instagram.com/theprojectnewwave

TikTok: theprojectnewwave

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Episode 10 – Ruth McElroy Amundsen & Alden Cleanthes

Ruth McElroy Amundsen and Alden Cleanthes from Norfolk Solar join Eric to go in-depth on how our way of life and how we design is truly broken. They argue that we need to rethink every system in our modern lives to stave off the worst of climate change and that harnessing the vast power of the sun is actually an easier-than-you-think way to power almost everything.

Alden Cleanthes
Alden received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Old Dominion University. She served as a publicly appointed official in the city of Chesapeake for the last decade on multiple environmental committees. She was a member of the Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative, which worked hard to have the Governor create the Virginia Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She has worked as an independent consultant for environmental policy and renewable energy at the state and federal level- directly advocating with multiple agencies, dozens of Senators, Congressmen, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She also runs an award-winning design and animation studio with her husband. She is the Co-Founder of Norfolk Solar, LLC.

Ruth McElroy Amundsen
Ruth is a NASA Thermal Engineer who led a group of parents in installing 700 kW of solar on Norfolk Academy, $1M in solar panels (largest school solar array in Hampton Roads). She has given many presentations on financing solar, has made several zero-interest loans for installing solar, including some through Virginia Community Capital, and has presented to many other non-profits to show them the way they can install solar at no cost to the institution.

She recently started a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund, Norfolk Solar QOZ Fund for installing solar on businesses and non-profits in low-income neighborhoods at no cost. This fund used her family money to install solar at no cost in low-income neighborhoods, and will also train and employ residents of those neighborhoods on the installation jobs.

She started a small woman-owned business with Alden Cleanthes, Norfolk Solar LLC, to help other investors deploy solar in Hampton Roads.

norfolksolar.org

Music in this episode is by The Ocean in Films performing "Nothing To Repeat" from their album "Cruel Vestige".

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes

Episode 9 – Raz Godelnik

Raz Godelnik joins Eric to share his years of research and teaching sustainable design and ethical business models. He discusses what went into writing his new book “Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis - A Strategic Design Approach” and why it’s so important now that design and business alike work together to write a new story about sustainability.

Raz is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design - The New School in New York, where he explores sustainable business models and how companies can respond effectively to the climate crisis. Currently, he serves as an Associate Director of the BBA Strategic Design & Management program. His new book “Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis - A Strategic Design Approach” has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Raz teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on business models, leadership, sustainability, sustainable systems, and strategic design, and his research explores connections between innovation, sustainability, business, and design. He explores how to make sustainable business models more effective in an entrepreneurial environment and works on developing a new approach to addressing the critical sustainability challenges we face (awakened sustainability). Raz also writes regularly about issues related to sustainable business, climate change, and strategic design. Last but not least, Raz is the co-founder of two green startups (Hemper Jeans and Eco-Libris).

LinkedIn
Twitter
Sandbox Zero
University webpage

The musical Guest is Tim Lillis performing his new song "Bells".

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes

Episode 8 – AIGA DEC Shifted Panel

Former Climify guests Katie Patrick and Lisa Zimmermann rejoin Eric for a panel discussion on this special episode recorded at the 2021 AIGA Design Educators Community ShiftED Conference. Each tackles tough questions about how and why all designers must address climate change in their work teaching in the classroom and creating in the workplace.

Katie Patrick is an Australian American environmental engineer, designer, and author of How to Save the World, How to Make Changing the World the Greatest Game We've Ever Played. And host to the podcast, How to Save the World, where she investigates academic research in environmental psychology.

She specializes in what she calls Fitbit for the Planet Design, which means applying data-driven gamification and behavior change techniques to environmental problems. Katie has worked on environmental gamification projects with NASA, JPL, Stanford University, UNEP, Google, the University of California, Magic Leap, and the Institute for the Future.

Katie is the founder of urbancanopy.io, a map-based application that uses satellite imaging of urban heat islands and vegetation cover to encourage urban greening and cooling initiatives. She's also the co-founder of Energy Lollipop, a Chrome extension - an outdoor screen project that shows the electric grid's CO2 emissions in real-time.

Lisa Zimmermann is a German-Irish design researcher and educator specializing in "climifying" the profession of Communication Design.

While her passion for advertising, copywriting and design persists until today, she realized early on that she couldn't work for traditional ad agencies for moral reservations towards working for clients she doesn't consider ethically sound.

Her initial research into Sustainable Graphic Design Practice in Ireland, undergone during an M.A. in Design Practice led her to specialize in this niche area of Graphic/Communication Design. According to her findings, Sustainable Graphic Design can only be achieved through close collaboration of the design, print, paper technology, and IT sectors, and she made an effort to work in all four of them, to gain a deeper understanding of their point of view and pain points. An M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences at Trinity College Dublin led her to undergo research in environmentally friendly paper sizing options – paper sizing is the process of coating paper with starch and chemical ingredients to make it possible to print on it.

Lisa currently lectures a broad range of students in the Design faculty of Griffith College in Dublin, Ireland in the areas of web design, typography, communication design, and digital tools/software skills. But rather than just integrating sustainability principles in the existing modules she teaches, she is also developing a "Certificate in Sustainable Communication Design" program aimed at professionals.

Lisa is passionate about her dog Milo, gardening, learning, cold-water-swimming, and her new podcast "Conscious Communication Design" (available on iTunes, Spotify, etc). She also hosts workshops on Digital Environmentalism and wants to expand her network, so please get in touch!

Watch the entire AIGA DEC Panel here

educators.aiga.org

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Episode 7 – Akilah Stewart

Akilah Stewart joins Eric to discuss how sustainability is all about people and why it must be inclusive and acknowledge indigenous peoples' wisdom who gifted us this knowledge to live in harmony with the planet. Akilah also shares the work of her company FATRA which is already redirecting plastic and textile waste streams into a more closed-loop system creating products that educate, alleviate, and inspire.

Akilah Stewart, the founder of FATRA, a creative waste design company. She works on analyzing plastic and textile waste and reintegrating it back into the production process to reduce pollution and increase holistic wellness. FATRA is pioneering the use of alternative materials and closed-loop design systems. Fatra, the Haitian Creole word for “trash”, is a global leader in the sustainable fashion movement and continues to challenge mainstream ideas while fostering an evolution of radical elegance and eclectic statement pieces.

She teaches formally at Parsons while also conducting waste design workshops for different institutions here and abroad. FATRA is committed to a cleaner, safer, more equitable fashion industry and environment overall.

hifatra.com

The musical is guest is Heads on Sticks performing the song "The Landscape Vanishes".

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes

Episode 6 – Sahara James

Sahara James joins Eric to discuss how designers can be an integral part of climate solutions by creating large systems-based sustainability solutions in supply chains and how she's tackling the climate crisis as a business consultant helping communities make the switch to renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions by making their homes more energy-efficient.

Sahara James was born and raised in Queens, NY. She received her Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Bard High School Early College Queens. She went on to complete her Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies at CUNY Hunter College in 2018. She is now a part-time candidate at the Bard MBA in Sustainability where she has taken on student leadership roles. In her most previous role, she was an assistant project manager conducting industrial hazard assessments for lead in paint and water in NYC buildings. Sahara is currently a Senior Sustainability Consultant at Kinetic Communities Consulting where she currently oversees the Electrify Staten Island pilot. In her free time, Sahara enjoys traveling, cooking, biking, and yoga.

linkedin.com/in/sahara-james
kc3.nyc

The musical is guest is Paul Nini performing "Relax, Part 1".

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes