Embedding Sustainability in the Design Curriculum

This case study explores the integration of the Design Declares Ireland initiative into the curriculum of the BA Graphic Design programme at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin. It aims to prepare students not only to become competent designers but also to become ethically aware practitioners.

The Design Practices module is delivered annually to second-year Graphic Design students within the School of Design. The module introduces the historical, theoretical, cultural, and professional contexts of design practice and aims to enable students to apply creative methodologies for the documentation and presentation of work.

Kicking off the module with Creative Activism

2. START THE JOURNEY / 6. EDUCATE, ACCELERATE

The module was launched with a two-day workshop, Sustainable Communications and Creative Activism, co-developed with Kathleen Moore, Lecturer and Sustainable Energy Communities Executive Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The pedagogical intention was to combine systems awareness with hands-on creative responses.

• Day One focused on building eco-literacy and understanding biases that hinder sustainable action.
• Day Two tasked students with identifying sustainability challenges and developing behavioural change strategies through communication design.

Then over a 12-week period, students dedicated approximately two hours per week to engaging with weekly tasks drawn from the Design Declares toolkit. The module’s progression aimed to follow the eight Acts of Emergency framework, each week pairing theoretical grounding with applied design work. The aim was to educate students on the design industry while emphasising their role within it. Ethical considerations, especially around sustainability, were the main focus, encouraging students to embed these values across their design work.

Students were also tasked with identifying a studio or practitioner who had also signed up to the Design Declares Ireland initiative. In groups the students conducted an interview exploring the motivations and approaches of their chosen practitioner in relation to sustainable design. These interviews formed the narrative backbone of a final video project outcome.

Act 1 & 2: Sound the Alarm & Start the Journey

1. SOUND THE ALARM / 2. START THE JOURNEY

Starting the journey

Students were asked to watch the “Sound the Alarm” toolkit videos and translate a key insight into the medium of an A3, single-colour Riso poster. Additionally, they were tasked with compiling a Spotify playlist that reflected their understanding of the sustainability themes discussed. The classes were collaborative, utilising Miro boards to encourage students to reflect and share their insights.

Act 3: Bringing clients with us

3. BRING CLIENTS WITH US

In week 3, students worked together in the studio to explore what values-led design really means in practice. They were encouraged to think about the principles they personally want to stand by in their future careers, and to consider how those values could shape environmentally responsible design, not just when a client asks for it, but as a standard approach. Through guided discussions, each student came up with their own checklist of what a project should include to align with their personal values. They then teamed up to create group manifestos that captured their shared ethical stance.

Act 4: Measuring what we Make

4. MEASURE WHAT WE MAKE

In this session, students were introduced to the idea of environmental impact through the lens of the fourth Act of Emergency. Rather than focusing on a new design outcome, the session invited students to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the module so far. This meant taking a step back to consider the cumulative impact of their work to date—the materials they’d used, the activities they’d taken part in, and their overall studio habits. The aim was to encourage reflection on how design education itself carries an environmental footprint.

Students then translated their findings into an infographic, helping to make the data and insights more accessible and visually engaging. While the task was complex, it offered a valuable opportunity to think more critically about design accountability and the environmental systems we’re all part of.

Getting exposure to the design industry

5. REDEFINE 'GOOD'

Guest Engagement and Industry Insight

In Week 5, Design Declares Ireland had the opportunity to witness the module in action when steering committee members Stephen Ledwidge and Róisín Jordan delivered a guest lecture.

The session was both inspirational and pragmatic, Stephen and Róisín sparked lively conversation among students, illustrating how small, considered decisions in design can lead to meaningful positive change. Their contributions not only informed students of best practice but also encouraged them to reflect on their own responsibilities as future designers.The conversation spoke directly to several core aims of the Graphic Design programme: fostering collaboration, encouraging critical engagement with cultural and social discourse, and positioning design not merely as a commercial tool, but as a catalyst for change. It reinforced our ambition to nurture a design culture that embraces experimentation, dialogue, and risk-taking as integral to addressing contemporary challenges.

Outcomes

The module culminated in a showreel of student videos that celebrated their insights into sustainability and design practices. This showreel provided students with a platform to showcase their work to industry professionals and peers, and provided them with direct exposure to the Irish design industry.

Moreover, this initiative not only underscored the importance of sustainability in design, but also serves as an important educational opportunity for students to discover the intricacies of the design industry.
It also celebrated their work and highlighted the integration of sustainability into design education, preparing our students to contribute meaningfully to a more conscientious and sustainable design industry.

Next Steps

When we spoke with the module lecturer, Aoife McInerney, about how she was leveraging the Design Declares toolkit to teach her students about sustainable design, we were excited to see it being used in such an actionable and tangible way.

Following the pilot, module lecturer Aoife McInerney collaborated with Design Declares Ireland to convert her module into an open-source Educators’ Toolkit. This resource makes the module framework accessible to educators across disciplines.

Available on Miro as a template for anyone to use, the D! Ireland x NCAD Educators Toolkit can be accessed here.

The module will be delivered again in the upcoming academic year, this time with refinements based on the insights from its pilot iteration. Notably, the number of design outcomes will be reduced to allow more time for deeper exploration of key themes, including ethical frameworks, systems thinking, and climate literacy.

Another priority will be to further develop our strategy of reframing the Acts of Emergency as open provocations rather than a linear checklist, enabling students to engage more autonomously with the themes that resonate most with their own interests and emerging practices. These changes align with our broader commitment to future-proofing design education, ensuring that teaching and learning remain adaptive, responsive, and fit for purpose in a rapidly changing world.

Further steps under consideration include:

• Introducing cross-disciplinary projects.
• Creating opportunities for partnerships with external organisations or communities for real-world sustainability briefs.
• Building stronger formative support for complex topics like life-cycle thinking and environmental metrics.
• Collect feedback, reflect and adapt iterations of the Educators Toolkit.

The integration of Design Declares Eight Acts of Emergency framework into NCAD’s Design Practices module marks an ambitious, exploratory first step toward a more sustainable and responsive design curriculum. As we continue to iterate and develop the module, our focus remains on equipping students with the tools, values, and frameworks necessary to navigate and shape a complex, interdependent world.

By embedding sustainability not as a siloed topic but as a foundational mindset, we hope our evolving model offers a useful case study for others seeking to integrate sustainability meaningfully within creative education; flexible, reflective, and open to ongoing transformation.