Design Thinking as a Catalyst and Support for Sustainability Solutions

Despite often-heroic efforts from dedicated scientists, researchers, educators, policymakers, activists, and everyday citizens, sustainability issues impact communities across the globe, with achievable solutions remaining daunting. Solving these wicked challenges requires creative ways of thinking, including an often-radical reimagining of the problem space itself. There is a growing recognition that individual action is insufficient as sustainability issues involve a complex web of actors, scales, and systems. Supported by an exploratory literature review, we argue that design thinking is a useful, appropriate, and necessary approach to support collective action in addressing sustainability issues. We outline five design thinking characteristics that support this argument: design thinking inspires creativity; is participatory and people-focused; encourages and inspires diversity in thought and action; adopts a holistic, systems-thinking mindset; and offers a streamlined, action-oriented approach. We conclude with reflections on this union between design thinking and sustainability action and suggest future directions for aligned research and practice.