Environment

With ever more pressure on the water supply and the effects of climate change, it’s vital that as a nation we manage our water consumption better. Properly understanding consumers’ needs and behaviours is key to this, and that’s what designers do best.

The Design Council is working with Southern Water on a pioneering initiative to put design at the heart of their meter installation programme.

The Design Council has recently run a design workship with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to look at how to encourage the adoption of home insulation and other low-carbon home modifications.

We’re working with schools in the South East to help them design a service or product that improves the way schools use water.

In conjunction with Southern Water we're asking Year 8 students in five schools in the South East to calculate how much water their school uses and then work with designers to reduce wastage.

Year 8 pupils from across Cornwall were given the opportunity to make parts of their school more sustainable by working with designers on the Eco Design Challenge. They calculated the size of their school's ecological footprint, then designed ways to make it smaller.

Leading a lifestyle with low environmental impact is a great intention, but can low income households afford it?

Asking residents in an average street in the North East what they really think about energy efficiency revealed that other social and financial problems are more pressing concerns.

During Dott07 designers created a blueprint for energy saving with an investment service called SaverBox and an energy reduction service called NESCO, by working with local people.