No Waste Challenge

What Design Can Do is looking on designers and creatives round the world to hitch the No Waste Challenge, our third Climate Action Challenge in partnership with the IKEA Foundation.

This global design competition tackles one among the foremost pressing problems with our time: waste. From now until 1 April 2021, we invite creatives from round the world to submit innovative solutions to scale back waste and re-design the way we extract, produce, and consume resources on the earth .

Why waste? the solution is simple and devastating: our planet is drowning in waste. per annum we dump a huge 2.12 billion tonnes of it worldwide. And unless we make some major changes, this number is about to extend by a shocking 70% by 2050.

At the basis of this issue is our current economic model, which is predicated on a ‘take-make-waste’ approach, during which raw materials are extracted, transformed into products that are used briefly, then thrown away. This pattern features a disastrous impact on the environment. From causing biodiversity loss to accelerating heating , our wasteful economies are driving us towards a climate crisis. But if we will address the underlying root problems and symptoms of waste, we’ve a fighting chance at building a future that works for both people and planet. Can design help us envision new ways forward?

While we specialise in redesigning the whole system over the future , we will also make an instantaneous impact by buying less stuff, making more sustainable products, and reusing or recycling materials. For this reason, the No Waste Challenge is trying to find design-driven solutions at various scales. Proposals should be exciting, feasible, potentially scalable, and answer a minimum of one among three global design briefs, exploring ways for us to require Less, Make Better and Handle Smarter.

Although waste may be a global problem, the simplest solutions are often rooted in local contexts. that’s why alongside a worldwide track, the No Waste Challenge also offers additional tracks for participants within the following cities: Amsterdam, Delhi, Mexico City , Nairobi, Sao Paulo , Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

The centrepiece of the award package may be a global development programme which we’ve co-created with the expert guidance of Impact Hub in Amsterdam. Winners will receive a variety of coaching sessions and tools focused on the talents they have to form their projects a hit — from building a supply chain, to team-building and organization, finding potential clients and creating impact. Next to the event programme, each winner also will receive a prize fund of €10.000 to take a position in their idea, also as publicity and media exposure through WDCD’s communication channels.

Download the information related to this competition here.