“There are only two sources of wealth in the world today: what comes from the Earth itself, and what flows from the human mind.  We can only sustain the former by making better use of the latter – and the SEED Foundation, in its own small but significant way, is at the heart of that process.  The Foundation is already planted; now it just needs to flourish!”

Jonathon Porritt
Chairman, UK Sustainable Development Commission

SEED Foundation is a social enterprise that explores and promotes new design approaches to meet the challenges of sustainability.

We believe this encompasses the responsible design of objects and services, but that designers need to go one step further, learning to work with other professions, considering infrastructure, and collaborating with communities. The new role of design must explore how the combined design of innovative products, services and partnerships can impact on lifestyles and behaviour

How can designers do this?
But in a context where designers must always respond to the needs of a client, how can this be done? We think that current economic scenarios offer business opportunities for designers who are prepared to adopt new entrepreneurial skills and new ways of working. We are building our first enterprise as a demonstrator of our ideas, to see if it is possible for a designer to take on this new role, break out of the traditional client/designer relationship and earn a living by solving social and environmental problems.