I’m just a designer, can I really make a difference when it comes to climate change?

Design has power. It shapes systems, influences decisions, and impacts the planet. In this issue, we sit down with Marc O’Brien—designer, strategist, educator, and co-founder of Climate Designers—to explore how creatives can take real action in the face of the climate crisis. From redefining what a design job means to mobilizing a global movement, Marc’s journey offers a roadmap for designers ready to lead with purpose. Plus…his passion for climate design is infectious (and totally achievable)!

In this issue/episode:

1. Sustainability Shouldn’t Be a Specialty—It Should Be the Standard

2. Design’s Job Isn’t Always to Invent—It’s to Amplify What Already Works

3. You Can’t Save the World Alone—Community is the Engine for Climate Design

4. Want to go deeper? Grab Marc’s curated list of design resources!

— Justin Lokitz

Insights

• 00:46 Meet Marc O'Brien: Climate Action Through Design

• 02:33 Marc's Journey and Initiatives

• 04:08 Climate Designers: A Global Community

• 05:20 The Role of Design in Climate Action

• 09:35 Marc's Climate Epiphany

• 10:51 Teaching Climate Design at CCA

• 14:44 Amplifying Existing Climate Solutions

• 20:16 Measuring Impact in Climate Design

• 23:21 Advising Design Studios on Climate Work

• 24:15 Realization and New Approach

• 27:27 Climate Action and Personal Connection

• 35:02 Community Building and Climate Week

• 42:59 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Read on for my main takeaways from our conversation. 🎧 And…listen to the recording of our full conversation on the Design Shift podcast on Spotify and Apple and the Design Shift YouTube channel.

Together with Superhuman

Find out why 1M+ professionals read Superhuman AI daily.

AI won't take over the world. People who know how to use AI will.

Here's how to stay ahead with AI:

1. Sign up for Superhuman AI. The AI newsletter read by 1M+ pros.

2. Master AI tools, tutorials, and news in just 3 minutes a day.

3. Become 10X more productive using AI.

Join 1 million pros and start learning AI

Design Deep Design

Design for Climate: Marc O’Brien on Making Sustainability the Default, Not the Exception

In an age of climate crisis, many industries are being forced to reckon with their impact, but few are as uniquely positioned to lead change as design. Marc, an award-winning creative strategist, educator, and co-founder of Climate Designers, believes the design industry must transform itself from the inside out. In a recent interview, Marc shared his vision, hard-earned lessons, and an urgent call to action: climate must become central to every design decision, not an afterthought or specialization.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from our conversation…

1. Sustainability Shouldn’t Be a Specialty—It Should Be the Standard

Marc doesn’t mince words when describing the design profession’s role in climate degradation. “As designers, we have to come to terms with the fact that we have contributed to our climate emergency,” he says. From overproduction to built-in obsolescence, design has shaped a culture of excess. But he also sees an opportunity: design is equally capable of reversing that damage—if it chooses to.

That’s why he’s not interested in creating more “climate designers.” Instead, he’s working to make climate-consciousness part of the design default. “The goal of my work, the goal of Climate Designers, is to fundamentally redesign the design industry to put climate at the core of our work so that there is no such thing as a climate designer or a sustainable designer. It is just default.”

This shift requires a rethinking of everything from design education to agency operations. Marc brings climate science directly into his classrooms at California College of the Arts (CCA) before he even talks about design. “Every time I start a new class, there’s always a conversation around just like, why is our climate breaking down?” Only after designers understand the broader system failures do they explore how design can intervene.

2. Design’s Job Isn’t Always to Invent—It’s to Amplify What Already Works

In a world already rich with viable climate solutions, Marc challenges designers to stop chasing novelty and start scaling what’s already effective. “We don’t need to wait for some sort of magic bullet solution,” he says. “We know exactly what we need to do today to draw down carbon and heal the damage we’ve caused.”

That insight informs a powerful project prompt Marc gives his students as well as professional workshop participants: “How might we promote existing climate solutions and approaches to become widespread and adopted?”

Designers (and workshop participants) aren’t tasked with building the next breakthrough innovation. Instead, they explore how to design the grout—the connective tissue that makes solutions visible, accessible, and adoptable. One group developed Spore TV, a “Netflix for mushrooms” that promotes the use of fungi across fashion, medicine, and construction. “They weren’t building mushroom-based products,” Marc explains. “They were creating a media platform to amplify the ones that already exist.”

This mindset also extends to professional studios and design teams. Through his advisory work, Marc helps creative firms pivot their business models to serve the climate space, whether that means partnering with existing climate startups or reframing their current capabilities to serve a regenerative agenda. With this strategy, Marc is essentially enabling them to both compete more effectively while also incorporating design-for-the-planet principles into their practices.

3. You Can’t Save the World Alone—Community is the Engine for Climate Design

Designers tend to carry a lot—projects, responsibility, and purpose. But Marc emphasizes that climate action is too heavy a load for any one person. That’s why he’s spent the last five years growing Climate Designers into a global community of nearly 5,000+ creatives across disciplines and geographies. It’s also why he hosts a weekly roundtable for studio founders and in-house leaders looking to transition into climate-forward work.

“This shit’s hard,” he says bluntly. “And it’s emotionally hard. You’re reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries that just bombard you with facts and data and personal stories that are not very… exciting.”

His answer isn’t retreat—it’s collaboration. “If you need to take a break, others are going to be there to pick up the slack. And then when they need a break, you’re back fully charged and you’re going to take up their slack.” It’s not just sustainability in what we make—it’s sustainability in how we work together.

This ethos of shared learning and mutual care permeates his approach to leadership. “Collaboration is the new competition,” he says. “We need to start sharing successes and struggles, too.” Marc sees design not only as a problem-solving discipline but as a platform for collective transformation. And that starts with breaking down silos—between disciplines, between business and activism, between doom and hope.

Justin’s Notes

At the end of our conversation, Marc distilled the moment with clarity and conviction: “You can’t do business on a dead planet. Every job will be a climate job. So it just makes sense for us to start investing in this now.”

As I believe we all know, design (yes, DESIGN) has long been a force for shaping the future. And…it’s not just about designing pretty things; it’s about taking a systems approach paired with design methodologies to tackle what would otherwise seem like intractable problems.

What’s more, when we employ powerful/handy tools, such as the JTBD framework, which we wrote about in the last few issues, we empower others to join us in identifying the opportunities ripe for change…without having to tackle the entire system at once.

Just look at what the amazing folks at Hiccup Earth are doing in the fight to reduce waste born from disposable cups at popular races, like marathons. This is a business model, climate, and sustainability innovation all in one. What it’s not is a brand new product. With the Climate Designer network and the right design tools, we can change anything…and have fun while doing it.

Want more? Connect with Marc and tell him Justin sent you!

Resources

• Climate Designers

• 1st Things 1st 2020 Manifesto

• Marc O’Brien

Subscribe to Design Shift for more conversations that help creative professionals grow into strategic leaders.

Want to go deeper?

Marc has put together an incredibly detailed curated list of resources to help designers take their first step on their climate journey. The list is chock-full of links to videos, podcasts, and courses to level up your climate knowledge. In order to address our climate breakdown, we must understand why and how we got here. It's important to consider where design has played a role in contributing to both our climate emergency and how it can show up in taking climate action.