At the end of last year we attended a conference at the V & A called 2012 Imperative Teach-In run by Eco-Labs. It was organised to encourage 'ecological literacy' amongst design educators, and tutors and students from design courses from all around the UK attended.The title of the event refers to the urgency of the current environmentally challenges we face and is a 'call to arms' to all design educators to embed sustainable design into design curriculum's by 2012.
As the founder of Eco Labs, Jody Boenhert says, "Design education must embrace its unique ability to facilitate change by engaging with the concept of ecological literacy, communicating key concepts of environmental sustainability, and initiating a wide-reaching learning process".
The Teach-In ning site has been set up as a network to connect design teachers and to offer methods and teaching tools to facilitate this change.
There was some inspiring speakers at the event, including John Thackara, Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation and Richard Hawkins a climate scientist, which are available via the website.
