About Greengaged

Greengaged is a not for profit organisation founded in 2008 by Sophie Thomas from thomas.matthews, Sarah Johnson from Re Design and Anne Chick from The Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University.

Greengaged aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond positively to key environmental challenges such as climate change. This is done by offering thought leadership, creating spaces for dialogue, and opportunities for knowledge sharing - within the industry and beyond.

Sophie Thomas

Sophie runs the communication design agency thomas.matthews, a trail-blazer in innovative sustainable design, which she co-founded in 1998. She is an ambassador for the cause through her lecturing and in her role as trustee to the Design Council and has co-founded the designer’s resource Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest.

Sarah Johnson

Sarah runs the social enterprise [re]design an organisation that propagates sustainable actions through design. [re]design promote products and projects that are friendly to people and planet, and partner with a wide range of organisations to pioneer sustainable innovation.

Anne Chick

Anne is Director of the Sustainable Design Research Centre and heads up the new MA on Design for Development at Kingston University. She has been an academic pioneer in sustainability for over fifteen years and her sustainable design research, knowledge transfer and educational work are acknowledged worldwide.

Kate Andrews

With an array of socially focused clients under her belt, Kate is an independent communications designer and consultant. In 2008, Kate set up and led the digital communications for greengaged and has since joined the team to assist its invaluable online presence. Kate is currently studying an MA in Design Writing Criticism at London College of Communication.

About Us
Greengaged | 8 Disney Street, London | 020 7403 4281 | email

Blog: Future

Co-opportunity: Learning from New Media Models

Posted by Bonnie Alter on Sep 29, 2009 at 12:01 PM | 1 comments

photo by: Chiara Terraneo

Greengaged curator John Grant was joined by three speakers after lunch on Tuesday: Shaun Nagassic, Dave Birch and Giles Andrews, who each, in the context of the day on co-opportunity and re-inventing the banking system for the common good, gave presentations of their work. Here we provide a summary of each of the talks.

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What is Greengaged?

Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 22, 2009 at 11:03 AM | 0 comments

As Greengaged 2009 gets underway at the Design Council, I'm pleased to share our first Greengaged video. Featuring the voices of co-founders Sophie Thomas, Sarah Johnson and Anne Chick, and the Design Council's Chief Executive David Kester, this short film offers a brief insight into the aims and 2008 success of Greengaged.

There are still a few places left for events this current week, so do check the incredible line-up, via our events page, and register for the last few places! 

100% Design - Sustainable Design

Posted by Kate Andrews on Jun 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM | 0 comments

During last years London Design Festival, 100% Design London spoke to a number leading figures in the design industry, asking them to share their expertise and opinions on the complexities, issues, concerns and contradictions in sustainable design. This short film offers an insight into the views of Vicky Richardson (Editor, Blueprint), Lynda Relph-Knight (Editor, Design Week), Chris Sanderson (Trend Forecaster), Gareth Williams (V&A), Sam Hecht (Industrial Designer), Tom Dixon (Designer), Nipa Doshi (Designer), Michael Sodeau (Designer) and Jonathan Clarke (Architect).

Produced by Max Fraser and Aaron Stone in 2008.

The Age of Stupid

Posted by Kate Andrews on Jun 17, 2009 at 05:12 PM | 0 comments

The Age of Stupid

In Franny Armstrong's epic motion picture The Age of Stupid, famed actor Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? On Friday 22nd May 2009, I attended the first Indie Screenings of the film at London's Royal Society of the Arts, and the film is absolutely incredible - a truly remarkable piece of cinema, that truly deserves international recognition. Read my full review of the RSA screening here...

read the article...

Design and Chemistry

Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 28, 2008 at 03:55 PM | 0 comments

Design and Chemistry

It is estimated that over 90% of production materials do not end up in saleable products and 80% of products are discarded after a single use. This is causing us to rapidly consume the planet’s resources including metals, minerals, clean water and fossil fuels. Sustainable chemistry technologies are being used to reduce the impact of our lifestyles.

On Friday 19th September, in a disciplinary twist to the Greengaged events schedule, we welcomed Dr Mike Pitts (Manager of the Sustainable Technologies Priority for Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network), who held a masterclass that discussed how chemists and designers can work together to reduce the impact of the products we design (and buy).

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A Design Challenge Like No Other

Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 25, 2008 at 04:12 PM | 0 comments

Early on Monday morning, Greengaged’s penultimate day kicked off with an informative discussion about the future of design education. Speakers included Tracy Bhamra (Loughborough University), Ian Capewell (Practical Action), and Emma Dewberry (Open University).

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Reframing the ‘Design Solution’

Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 25, 2008 at 04:09 PM | 0 comments

During Monday’s educational session Greengaged welcomed sustainable design reader Dr Tracy Bhamra, from Loughborough University. Bhamra began her presentation with an overview of her sustainable design teaching and expressed how she believes that “a sustainable design module needs to be something that everyone has to think about and not considered as a separate niche.”

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Night Tour; Re-thinking the City

Posted by Kate Andrews on Sep 24, 2008 at 04:14 PM | 0 comments

Very late on Friday evening Greengaged took to the streets of London, for an exciting night tour entitled ‘Re-thinking the City”. Following an exhilarating appearance earlier last week, in the magical “Imagine 2058” workshop, London United’s interdisciplinary co-founder Aladin led the tour and explains how over 100 people had applied!

The four chosen few however, had a real night to remember - one which incidentally ended at 4.30am, an entire 3 hours later than scheduled. As aladin’s ‘passengers’ were to discover, the whole encounter was atypically unplanned, a durational performance with serendipity and chance. Following the walk, Greengaged spoke to the night walkers about their experience of the magical evening.

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