Design Challenge 

Team with the PLNU Office of Sustainability to promote Creation Care Week. The goal is to engage our campus community, spark conversation, build empathy, and inspire action as stewards of our common home. Use Design Thinking’s human-centered research methods to create a climate change awareness campaign across media, focusing on a country of interest. Phases include inspiration, ideation, and implementation. The solution must be feasible, viable, and desirable. How might we illuminate the effects of climate change and its impact on people, biodiversity, and the planet? What is currently being done collectively to mitigate climate change? What actions can individuals take? Use social science research findings to effectively communicate about climate change in a polarized world.

Creative Solution

Within the broader topic of water-related climate change issues, I chose to focus on how climate change is stressing water and agriculture in Italy. Stronger droughts, rising heatwaves, and shrinking rivers are increasingly threatening vital crops and vineyards. These environmental changes are severely impacting biodiversity and harming local farming communities that rely on consistent water sources for survival. To visually communicate this issue, I used photography to place the viewer within the environment, capturing imagery that feels as though you are standing in the vineyards and farms themselves.

As a takeaway item, I provided knit farmers market tote bags to reinforce the importance of supporting local agriculture. The tote encourages people to shop locally and recognize how everyday choices, such as buying from farmers’ markets, can directly support farming communities and contribute to a more sustainable food system.