Rhode Island School of Design Showcases Sustainability Innovation During Climate Week NYC 2024

Events spotlight RISD’s research innovation in sustainable design and demonstrate art and design’s incredible potential to make positive change

PROVIDENCE, RI – September 27, 2024 – This week Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) celebrated two of the institution’s major sustainability initiatives – the Regeneration Studio with Hyundai Motor Group and participation in the Sustainable Market Initiative’s Terra Carta Design Lab – via events during Climate Week NYC 2024. The events amplified RISD’s unique voice in the climate conversation, leading the way from both an educational and an entrepreneurial standpoint and demonstrating art and design’s incredible potential to make positive change in the sustainable design space.

“RISD students, alumni, faculty and staff are uniquely equipped to answer the call for climate innovation, especially when collaborating with our outstanding industry partners,” said RISD Vice Provost of Strategic Partnerships Sarah Cunningham. “As artists and designers, we work with materials in unconventional ways, while exploring the systems through which materials move. Our sustainability partnerships with scientists, engineers and humanists provide rare insights into material innovation.”

On September 25, RISD presented Haptic Futures: Sustainable Materials in Design Innovation at The Fifth Avenue Hotel. Cunningham led a conversation with Executive Vice President, Head of Hyundai and Genesis Global Design SangYup Lee, Slow Factory founder Celine Semaan and two RISD alums – designer and Terra Carta Design Lab project advisor Charlotte McCurdy and former founding director of the Cartier Innovation Lab Andrew Haarsager. The conversation underscored the importance of audacious material innovation in support of a more sustainable and just world. Panelists considered how to educate future designers to develop new materialities that support climate justice and launch new types of businesses that transform manufacturing itself.

At the event, Cunningham and Lee noted last week’s launch of the Regeneration Studio, the latest in Hyundai Motor Group’s ongoing research collaboration with RISD that uses biomimicry to design utterly new approaches to future structure in the automotive industry. Lee observed, “Design plays an important role in the progress of humanity. Sustainability is not an option; we must ask ourselves ‘what can we do for the next generation?’ In our collaboration with RISD, we have designers, engineers and product planners study at the [Edna W. Lawrence] Nature Lab, examining how we can learn from every aspect of nature, and we are beginning to apply this deep learning to the manufacturing process.”

McCurdy added, “There is so much potential for art and design to help shape public imagination and public demand for change in the climate space. But everyone asks ‘what can we do?’  We should be asking ‘what could we do?’ Can implies a set menu, but could opens the possibilities for artists and designers to forage for entirely new ideas and alternatives.”

On September 26, RISD’s 10 finalists in the global Terra Carta Design Lab competition participated in the annual New Climate Futures event at Newlab Inc. The Sustainable Market Initiative’s Terra Carta Design Lab competition invites students and recent alums from participating universities to design high-impact solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Newlab, a venture platform addressing significant challenges in scaling and commercializing emerging technologies that drive innovation in the fields of mobility, energy and materials, was the perfect venue for the 10 finalists to showcase their climate solution concepts and demonstrate that RISD students are capable of producing actionable, market-ready solutions focused on social impact, biodesign and sustainability. RISD was the only school to participate in the annual event, which allowed design teams to share their business concepts with a diverse group of climate professionals in attendance.

After the event at Newlab, RISD’s Terra Carta Design Lab exhibit will be installed on campus at 20 Washington Place, Providence, where it will remain on view through the fall semester. Two RISD winners in the global competition will be announced by the Sustainable Markets Initiative later this fall, and each will be awarded £100,000 in funding and support.

“Through thoughtful research and creative practice, artists and designers imagine realities and conceive of what a just world could be. This is how they move us to address the most pressing issues of our time with hope and with courage,” said RISD Provost Touba Ghadessi. “RISD not only allows but amplifies this kind of radical learning, which is needed as we face the climate crisis and the vast inequities laid bare by its progress. Thankfully, visionary organizations like Hyundai Motor Group and the Sustainable Markets Initiative understand the importance of investing in art and design education as the most effective mechanism to support new sustainable and regenerative systems.”

For select high-res images from the two events, please visit here.

About Rhode Island School of Design
RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”) is a creative community founded in 1877 in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, we enroll 2,525 students hailing from 57 countries. Led by a committed faculty, they are engaged in 44 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and supported by a worldwide network of over 33,000 alumni who demonstrate the vital role artists and designers play in today’s society. Beyond facts and figures, what is the spirit of this community? Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum of studio-based learning and rigorous study in the liberal arts, RISD students are encouraged to develop their own personal creative processes, but they are united by one guiding principle: in order to create, one must question. In cultivating expansive and elastic thinking, RISD seeks to activate a critical exchange that empowers artists, designers and scholars to generate and challenge the ideas that shape our world. RISD’s mission, at both the college and museum, is not only to educate students and the public in the creation and appreciation of works of art and design, but to transmit that knowledge and make global contributions.

RISD contact:
Jaime Marland
Senior Director, Public Relations / RISD
jmarland@risd.edu
401 427-6954