Design Council / Essex County Council - Place-Based Climate Action

Essex County Council was developing a Youth Climate Ambassador Network, but early research suggested climate action was not a strong priority for many students.

Rather than starting with climate messaging, I designed and demonstrated a participatory research method for council officers to use with young people aged 15–18 and their teachers. The method explored what a positive future for Essex meant to participants, and where climate action fitted within it.

Through futures exercises, storytelling and systems thinking, participants developed ten youth-led themes for climate action and voted on their five priorities.

Outcome: Ten youth-led themes and five priority areas for future engagement. The starting point shifted communication from the council’s framing of climate action to opportunities grounded in what mattered to young people and where climate action connected with their priorities.

Design Council / London Borough of Hounslow - Place-Based Climate Action

Hounslow's Net Zero team wanted to create the conditions for a climate-positive community. An early idea was a parklet focused on air quality, transport and access to green space, but initial conversations brought to light key social and economic conditions shaping everyday life in the neighbourhood.

I supported the team to examine the idea through design research and systems thinking, combining a ward walk, desk research and stakeholder perspectives to understand local assets, barriers and everyday routines.

This brought into view the social and economic conditions affecting people's opportunities to participate in community life, including underused green space, low incomes, long working hours and concerns about crime.

Outcome: The focus shifted from progressing a predetermined intervention based on assumed community participation to exploring what would make participation possible in the first place, in ways that also supported climate action.

World Health Organization - Health Communication

WHO programme leaders asked me to explore whether existing graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging might be missing something, following concerns that audiences were becoming desensitised to established health-impact messaging.

I used Schwartz's Theory of Basic Human Values to analyse 574 graphic health warnings from more than 37 countries, exploring how values-based perspectives might inform more culturally relevant tobacco-control communication.

Outcome: The research generated new narratives for programme leaders to explore with country-level practitioners, both within and beyond public health. Initial findings were published in the 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic (page 19).

University of Bath / Bath & North East Somerset Council - Local Economic Development

The Living Well Now and in 2050 project explored the potential adoption of Doughnut Economics as a regional economic development strategy. Cross-city stakeholders indicated an interest in the framework, but brought different levels of knowledge, professional interests and perspectives into the room, which caused tension.

I designed a programme of learning and engagement to explore how different approaches could build a shared understanding of Doughnut Economics in a multi-stakeholder group. This included a nine-week read-along, 24 interdisciplinary workshops, a public lecture, an online knowledge-sharing group and an urban photo walk.

Outcome: The work identified practical conditions for cross-sector dialogue: informal and preparatory spaces, creative framing, sustained relationships, and ways to connect evidence, lived experience and policy goals.

Lumsden Design - Place-Based Design

Lumsden Design is an international museum, heritage and destination retail design practice, working in contexts shaped by local identity, cultural meaning and social value.

As expectations around social and environmental impact grew, the practice had an opportunity to explore how its existing connections to place could inform a broader approach to sustainability. However, the team had mostly encountered sustainability through a reductive 'eco' lens, obscuring the potential social and environmental impact of its work.

I designed and facilitated an interactive exercise to map the team's existing knowledge and experience, building a shared understanding of sustainability grounded in the internationally recognised definition of sustainable development. We then explored what was already present in the practice, what was missing and where new opportunities might lie.

Outcome: The team recognised that sustainability was closer to its existing strengths and interests than it had expected. What had initially felt like a constraint became a creative opportunity, with areas for further research and development identified to strengthen the practice's work and client communication.