The design industry has joined several others in declaring a climate emergency. Design Declares organiser Alexie Sommer explains the background to the launch and what the movement hopes to achieve.

Design Declares is finally here to unite communication, digital, industrial and service designers who are ready to act on the defining issue of our time: climate change. So why now" And what does it mean to declare a climate emergency"
In 2019, amid mounting pressure from Extinction Rebellion, the UK Government became the first to declare a climate emergency. It triggered ripples of industry declaration movements, starting with Culture Declares and Music Declares, and quickly followed by architects, business, engineers, fashion, health, heritage and tourism. How do you support designers facing the "designer's dilemma""
Around the same time, over coffee with Sophie Thomas, we at URGE Collective bought the Design Declares web domain name. We started to define what the campaign's elements could look like: a set of principles to sign up to; access to guidance from leading designers; signposts to industry leadership ? and we came up against some unanswered questions: whose responsibility is Design Declares" How do we fund it" How do you support designers facing the "designer's dilemma""
"Design Declares is finally here to unite designers who are ready to act"
As a service economy, designers are dependent on clients. Hence th...