DesignTO 2025 – Net Positive

‘DesignTO Talk: Net Positive’ contributes to DesignTO’s 15-year legacy of showcasing design’s capacity to drive positive change in Toronto and beyond. The half-day event brings together ten multidisciplinary experts to explore innovative responses to the climate crisis from a perspective of abundance. Speakers include Aaron Budd (SvN Architects + Planners), April Barrett, Deepikah RB, Fran Erazo (Culturans), Judith van den Boom (Central Saint Martins), Netami Stuart (Waterfront Toronto), and the Living Room Collective (Nicholas Hoban, Vincent Hui, Clayton Lee, Andrea Shin Ling), covering such topics as regenerative design, urban infrastructure, more than human kinships, carbon positive initiatives, and more.

What is the trajectory of the climate crisis? If you envision our collective, planetary path, do you feel optimistic or distressed? In ‘Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Eco-Anxiety’ author Dr. Britt Wray notes the validity of feelings of pessimism about the climate crisis, and suggests these emotions can be productive, spurring action. Perhaps what these feelings tell us is that we’re on the wrong path: that “green” or “sustainable” approaches have not been enough to course correct and we need to forge a new path toward a healthy and thriving planet.

Design and its adjacent industries are integral to determining this new path. As is often cited, the building and construction sector creates approximately 40% of annual carbon dioxide emissions. However, Dr. Janis Birkeland notes, “If all old wasteful buildings were replaced by new green ones, the material flows used in doing so would destroy the planet.” It is urgent that we shift design goalposts from doing “less bad” to doing “more good.”

How do we design from an understanding of humans as a part of nature, and not apart from nature? How do we repair the damage done to ecosystems? How can we design whole living systems? In envisioning these design responses, how can we navigate the tensions between human needs, ecological restoration, and the structures of ownership and governance that shape our world?