[IDEAS FOR GOOD] Event Report | Climate Creative Cafe Vol.20 “Rethinking design thinking in the age of climate crisis”

On October 16, 2025, IDEAS FOR GOOD, a web media platform dedicated to gathering ideas that make society better, co-hosted an online event titled “Rethinking design thinking in the age of climate crisis” with Members Inc. as part of the Climate Creative project.

As part of the Climate Creative project, which tackles the climate crisis through creative ideas, communication, and business model innovation, IDEAS FOR GOOD and Members Inc. have been organizing events under the Climate Creative Cafe series. This series focuses on highlighting creative approaches from various industries and organizations, encouraging participants to transform discussions into actionable solutions.
*View past events here. (in Japanese)

Theme of the 20th session: “Flexible design thinking in the age of climate crisis: Applying Design Beyond Humans to solve real world challenges”

Design thinking is a process of observing the needs of target users or organizations, forming hypotheses, creating prototypes, and repeatedly testing them to develop products and services. This approach, which emphasizes solving “user challenges,” has been used to tackle a wide range of issues.

However, in addressing the climate crisis, a complex issue involving countless actors and intertwined domains, it became clear that conventional design thinking, which focuses only on single and simple users, could not fully resolve the underlying problems. For example, designs that center only on specific users may, over time, compromise fairness, or the pursuit of convenience may increase environmental burdens. These challenges could not be solved without rethinking the assumptions, scope, and evaluation criteria of projects themselves.

Today, we are required to revisit how we use and apply design thinking, going beyond short term KPI optimization and human centered frameworks. What was important was not just “design as a process” but evolving toward “design as an attitude.” This meant making conscious decisions with awareness of their social and environmental impacts, rather than merely choosing tools or frameworks.

The event began with an overview of the key features and value of design thinking, followed by examples illustrating how to revisit assumptions, expand project scopes, and redesign evaluation metrics. It presented perspectives for rebuilding relationships among diverse stakeholders and moving away from decision making that tended to focus excessively on convenience and short term results in business, service development, and organizational design.

The session then refocused on the climate crisis as a central theme and examined the limitations of design thinking in achieving a sustainable society. Frameworks such as sustainable and regenerative design, doughnut economics, and just sustainability transitions were introduced as starting points for rethinking the fundamentals of design thinking and asking critical questions such as: What are we designing, for whom, and how far ahead should we consider the impacts of our designs?

The event began with an overview of the key features and value of design thinking, followed by examples illustrating how to revisit assumptions, expand project scopes, and redesign evaluation metrics. It presented perspectives for rebuilding relationships among diverse stakeholders and moving away from decision making that tended to focus excessively on convenience and short term results in business, service development, and organizational design.

[Reference] “Flexible design thinking in the age of climate crisis: Applying Design Beyond Humans to solve real world challenges” | IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)
[Related Page] Special feature: Climate Creative, facing the climate crisis with creativity (in Japanese)
[Related Site] IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)