Carra is a cross-sector educator and interpreter, supporting creative enterprise, cities and communities to co-design the transition to sustainable futures.

Through the lens of people and place, she translates environmental, social and economic needs into active learning and understanding, solving real-world problems and unlocking opportunities through creative vision, values and relationships.

“Extremely knowledgeable and passionate - these two qualities don’t always come together.”

Leadership Education.

Common Knowledge. Sense-making education for cross-sector leaders, educators and advisors in their context, conveying 'the basics' of sustainable futures, so everyone is confidently starting from the same page.

Creative Enterprise.

Common Practice. Futures skills and insights for the creative/design industries - setting the scene for sustainable futures, and securing their place.

Collaborative Cities.

Common Ground. Systems thinking within place-based parameters, supporting sectors, cities and communities to collaborate and co-design their sustainable futures transition.

Contact.

If you would like to discuss your particular project or needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, and suggest a good time to talk.

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

About Carra.

Carra combines twenty years in the creative and design industries with an interdisciplinary MSc Sustainable Development in Practice (Distinction).

Over the years, her career has evolved from multidisciplinary creative and design concepts for cross-sector applications - including internationally-acclaimed product innovation and highly-prescient future concepts for world-class events - to future-shaping skills and inspiration for forward-thinking leadership.

Carra's approach is influenced by her career origins in multidisciplinary concept generation and development - tapping into food, fashion, interiors, furniture, exhibition, spatial and urban design - and her personal passion, which is exploring how transformative habits, attitudes, practices, behaviours and relationships can be facilitated by forward-thinking design and communication.She has introduced diverse and interconnected topics via talks, workshops, interviews, research presentations and panel/roundtable discussions, as a Design Council Expert, and at Design Council's Design for Planet, The Design and Technology Association (DATA), Sustainable Innovation Conference, the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI), the International Food and Drink Event (IFE), and 100% Design London.In addition to her everyday practice, she is an independent Doughnut Economics educator and facilitator. Her lead author chapter contribution to the book ‘Accelerating Sustainability in Fashion, Clothing & Apparel’ was published by Routledge in 2023.

‘Powering Change: Women in Innovation and Creativity’ ACID Female Design Champion Award, Runner Up, April 2018: “For the imaginative boundary breaking work she is doing between different individuals.”
- Design Council

Key research areas.

Carra's 'beyond net-zero' research sparks from three vibrant themes. These interconnected themes offer a groundswell of creative, place-based potential to shape thriving futures that can be sustained within the means of the living world.

Regenerative Enterprise.

Alternative business models and project strategies that aim to put back more than they take, so as to preserve and restore our natural environment - often from the perspective of micro- (<10) and small (<50) enterprises in particular.

Circular Networks.

Practical and interpersonal skills for beyond-sector knowledge and collaborative relationships across different disciplines and communities, to preserve our life support systems and spread economic opportunities widely.

Creative Communities.

The physical and digital landscape that supports creative and collaborative capabilities within communities, such as growing, making, sharing, repairing, and learning the practical skills required to support a circular economy.

Academic underpinnings.

Carra's in-depth and interconnected insights into sustainable futures education and communication are based on inherent creativity, curiosity and ongoing research into new economics, enterprise, behaviour, communication and design, reinforcing her twenty-plus years of creative practice with academic insights.

Master's Modules:

  • Sustainable Development: Principles and Practice

  • The Sustainable Organisation: Vision into Practice

  • Sustainability in the Built Environment

  • Creating Sustainable Behaviour Change

  • Communications Campaigns: Creative Approaches and Tools

  • Learning Design for Professional Development

  • Journalism Writing

“Carra’s approach to every project is in-depth, practical and passionate; working with her is always a very pleasurable experience.”

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

Leadership Education.

Common knowledge. Sense-making education for cross-sector leaders, educators and advisors in their context, conveying 'the basics' of sustainable futures, so everyone is confidently starting from the same page.

This can include:

  • Quiet learning for leaders, educators and advisors

  • Contextual research and training for teams

  • Programme/workshop design and/or facilitation

  • Research interpretation for curriculums, lesson plans and learning resources

  • Project-by-project support (a 'Learning by Doing' approach)

Featured Projects:

The Basics of Sustainable Futures
Design and facilitation of a four-part learning programme delivered to design, business, finance and technology academics, to inform upcoming programmes, curriculums and learning materials.

Design for Thriving Cities
A future-shaping series of leadership, design and built environment workshops conveying knowledge in context, including Circular Economy, Social Value, Inclusive Design and Reinstating Nature.

Client ecosystem.

Design schools, university departments (design, business, finance and technology), councils, enterprise advisors, industry advisory bodies, trade associations and business leaders.

“It’s fantastic to be shown that we can start a conversation and provide leadership/guidance through our courses, even if we are not experts.”

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

Creative Enterprise & Practice.

Common practice. Futures skills and insights for the creative/design industries - setting the scene for sustainable futures, and securing their place.

This can include:

  • Quiet learning for creative enterprise/project/practice leaders

  • Specialist topic research, inspiration, explanation and business case-building

  • Shared vision through team workshops and strategic learning activities

  • Expanded stakeholder mapping and tools for communication and collaboration

  • Project-by-project support (a 'Learning by Doing' approach)

Featured projects:

'All Sewn Up'
Academic research, paper and industry presentation on enabling sustainable behaviours through post-growth fashion enterprise, presented at UCA Sustainable Innovation Conference, and published by Routledge.

‘The Sustainability Spectrum’
A presentation for the creative and professional services sectors demonstrating the full scope of sustainable futures beyond 'green', and their untapped potential to support them.

The Future of Interior Design
Research report and presentation on interior design practice in a regenerative, distributive and circular economy, to inspire the evolved enterprise model and curriculum of an award-winning interior design school in London, UK.

Client ecosystem.

Architecture, placemaking, fashion design, interior design, product/furniture design, hospitality, branding, communication, creative technology, and purpose-led professional services.

“Carra knows her sustainability stuff and her knowledge has depth in addition to passion.”

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

Collaborative Cities & Communities.

Common ground. Systems thinking within place-based parameters, supporting sectors, cities and communities to collaborate and co-design their sustainable futures transition.

This can include:

  • Quiet learning for decision-makers/teams

  • Place-based research and analysis

  • Programme/workshop development and/or facilitation

  • Project team sense-checking, coaching and support

  • Doughnut Economics education and facilitation

Featured projects:

'Make Space for Soil'
A cohesive communication campaign concept to educate and encourage two interconnected audiences - city-dwellers and private developers - to incorporate space for soil into urban property developments, homes and gardens, with core messages adapted to each.

'Design, differently'
Coach and co-facilitator for a six-month Design Council programme that invited six communities and councils to combine design thinking with systems thinking, to solve local challenges and issues as a result of the wider effects of climate change.

Client ecosystem.

Place-based start-ups, social enterprises, councils, schools/colleges, heritage and public spaces, and educational/design-led community initiatives.

“A special talent for looking at projects delivering solutions that satisfy the requirements from all stakeholder perspectives, are truly relevant and have undeniable integrity.”

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

Doughnut Economics Education & Consultancy.

Carra has been an official independent Doughnut Economics educator and consultant since March 2023. She began exploring Doughnut Economics around 2017, incorporating it into her Masters research from 2019, and joining the DEAL community on its launch in 2020.

She promotes a deep understanding of the Doughnut Economics principles, their interconnections, and their place-based potential to reveal actionable goals based on the manageable parameters of a place, and tackle economic, social and environmental issues simultaneously.

Leadership Education

Doughnut Economics in Theory.

Carra facilitates, adapts and supplements Doughnut Economics education and resources, privately tutoring individuals and small groups across council, business, organisation and community leadership.

Theory Education for Leaders, Educators & Advisors.
In-depth exploration of the 7 Principles of Doughnut Economics, how the interdisciplinary themes interconnect, and how they can be applied in context with place-based research and analysis, and inform effective multi-stakeholder outreach, communication and engagement strategy.

Learning Design for Place-Based Education.
Discussion, activity and workshop plans for third-party facilitation, supporting professional and local communities to learn and apply Doughnut Economics principles in context, and gain a deeper understanding of the concept and its potential in their place.

 

Individual & Group Workshops

Doughnut Economics in Practice.

Focusing on creative enterprise, cities and communities, these active learning sessions for individuals and small groups invite snapshots of local stakeholders to pool insights and perspectives, and cultivate a shared vision of what's possible in their place.

Collaborative Cities & Communities

Exploring a Topic.
This session is an effective first step beyond the Doughnut Economics introduction, helping teams and/or stakeholder groups to map the interconnected people, skills, needs and possibilities and obstacles surrounding a current topic, building shared understanding.

Innovation at the Intersections.
This session examines the Embedded Economy model to unlock the cross-sector potential for meeting local wants and needs within the means of the living world, enabling the private sector, public sector, third sector and community groups to draft localised plans.

The Four Lenses.
This session supports project stakeholders to build up a cohesive picture of the needs and possibilities (and obstacles) to consider within a place-based project proposal, by asking: “How can this place be a home to thriving people in an ecologically thriving place, while respecting the wellbeing of all people, and the health of the whole planet?”

Doughnut Design for Business

Doing Business in a Doughnut economy.
This session takes businesses through an action-oriented workshop that invites companies to engage in a transformative agenda of becoming regenerative and distributive in their strategies, operations, and impact.

Doing [Design] Business in a Doughnut economy.
As above, but from the specific context of design business, where positive impact leans more towards outward influence than internal operations, enabling the regenerative and distributive products, practices and behaviours we need to thrive.

 

Featured examples:

Economic Development Strategy, Bath & North East Somerset Council, UK
Independent analysis, synthesis and interpretation of participatory research findings for public review, following the Doughnut Economics strategy launch in B&NES, UK, facilitated by Kate Raworth and the DEAL team.

Lecture: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
‘Doughnut Economics: Can Bath Thrive Like Amsterdam?’ lecture for members of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution exploring the potential of the UK city of Bath to thrive like Amsterdam - the first European city to adopt The Doughnut.

Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent 'Celebration of the Possible', UK
Workshop facilitation on behalf on Globe Group CIC and Keele University, with independent analysis, synthesis and interpretation of their initial regional research presented to multi-stakeholders and decision-makers at their launch event.

Bespoke Doughnut Economics-aligned research, education and strategy development are available on enquiry. Contact Carra to discuss any workshops, research plans or strategic learning programmes you would like her to design.

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA

Request a call.

If you would like to discuss research, consultancy, learning programmes, project support, or something else, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, and suggest a good time to talk.

Complete the form to arrange a complementary 30min online call with Carra. A link will be provided upon confirmation of a date/time that works for both.

“It was a real pleasure working with Carra, I look forward to working with her again in the future.”

Carra is UK-based and works internationally.
© Carra Santos MSc FRSA