With the World Design Congress and London Design Festival behind us, this edition recaps recent news from URGE and Green Grads.

URGE has joined the World Design Organization (WDO), the international institution representing the field of industrial design. This new affiliation connects URGE to a global community of over 200 organisations exploring how design can address some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Membership underlines URGE’s commitment to empowering designers and creatives to deliver large-scale, real-world impact.

Read on for news from URGE founders Sophie Thomas, Michael Pawlyn, and Alexie Sommer before a glimpse of the next generation of sustainable design talent exhibiting with Green Grads at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair this week (October 16–19). The event promises projects that make statements, raise issues, expand possibilities and create dialogue.

Green Grads champions recent graduates working on creative responses to the climate and biodiversity crises, supporting early careers in sustainable design, craft, and innovation. You can find out more on their website.

Sophie Thomas - OBE for services to sustainable design

Twenty-eight years ago, Sophie co-founded Thomas.Matthews, establishing its reputation as a pioneer in sustainable materials and communication design. Through projects such as the RSA Great Recovery, she took over a thousand designers to waste sites to see first-hand the consequences of design decisions.

She has since co-founded etsaW, continuing her long-term pursuit of transforming waste into resource and supporting early-stage ventures developing new materials and systems, and URGE. As a Visiting Professor at UCL, trustee of WRAP, and Honorary Doctor of Arts (University of the Arts London), Sophie continues to influence how design engages with environmental responsibility.

In 2026, she will lead the Design Skills for Circularity (a programme developed by the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM), Design Council, and WRAP) and work with a small, dedicated cohort of participants. Read about the programme in the last URGE newsletter and go to the CIWM website to register your interest.

Here is Sophie's TEDx talk (2024) on the role of the designer in eliminating waste.

Michael Pawlyn - Biomimicry in Architecture (Third Edition)

Michael’s recently released third edition revisits his influential work through a regenerative lens, drawing on nature’s 3.8 billion years of innovation to inspire buildings and systems that are net positive for the planet.

Completely rewritten with new content and illustrations, the book makes a compelling case for biomimicry not just as inspiration but as a discipline for designing as nature does. With examples ranging from self-repairing structures to water-harvesting beetles and termite-inspired ventilation, it reveals how biological strategies can lead to more resilient, life-supporting systems.

Available from RIBA, hive.co.uk, and all good bookshops.

Here is Michael's TED talk (2014) on using nature's genius in architecture.

Alexie Sommer - IE University and IE Impact programme

Alexie has joined the faculty of IE University, teaching on the IE Impact Programme, which brings together students from the humanities, technology, and entrepreneurship to address global challenges through sustainability-driven projects. The programme culminates in the IE Challenge, where student teams act as innovation consultants for real enterprises seeking to amplify their positive impact.

Alexie is guiding two cohorts of students through an Eco-influencers impact challenge empowering them understand how to design and deliver real-world phygital campaigns that enable meaningful behaviour change around urgent sustainability issues. The programme is anchored around sustainability (the why), behaviour change (the how), and design & technology (the tools).

Here is an introduction to the IE Impact programme.

October 16-19

Green Grads in the North

This week, Green Grads in the North returns to Manchester for the fourth time, showcasing 25 emerging designers at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, hosted in the repurposed Edwardian swimming pool of Victoria Baths.

Across the blue changing rooms, visitors will find new ideas in biomaterials, regenerative craft, and creative reuse, from Robert Radcliffe’s straw furniture and Freya Boothroyd’s Peak District clay to Maddie Sturmey and Claire Malley’s work with waste wool and textiles.

Work of Robert Radcliffe courtesy of Green Grads
Work of Freya Boothroyd courtesy of Green Grads
Work of Gagandeep Heer courtesy of Green Grads

Other highlights include Gagandeep Heer’s coffee-ground biomaterials, Mobina Rajabimoghadam and Megan Morley’s experiments with eggshells and algae, a compostable wedding dress by Leah Gasson, and grass-knitted handbags embedded with seeds for renewal by Amelia Wylam, .

Details of all Green Grads exhibiting in Manchester are now live on the GNCCF website. And that’s not all from the Green Grads this year as they’ll return to London in November 15-16 with a show at the Yorkton Workshops of Pearson Lloyd.

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