The Sustainable Markets Initiative – an organization created by HRH Prince Charles in 2019 to address the threats posed by climate change and biodiversity loss – is launching a new program to create small designs with a big impact, which facilitate the world’s transition to a sustainable future, according to Sarah Douglas reporting for Wallpaper*.

Called the Terra Carta Design Lab, the program is a collaboration between Prince Charles, Sir Jony Ive, and the Royal College of Art (RCA). It will bring together young and emerging architects, designers, scientists, engineers, historians, writers and artists to repair the planet and give back to nature.

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These include 2,300 RCA students drawn from the college’s four schools: architecture, arts & humanities, communication, and design. They represent over 70 countries and will collaborate in multidisciplinary teams, also joined by RCA alumni from 2011 to 2021.

Terra Carta Design Lab aims to Inspire Solutions

According to the launch statement, lab participants have the opportunity to explore ‘local initiatives to restore biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gases, support developing countries, and catalyze a new economic and social model that realigns people with their environment.’

Their projects will be assessed by a panel of the RCA’s senior academic staff based on a trio of metrics: feasibility, measurable impact, and potential to present engaging and inspiring solutions to urgent problems.

A shortlist of up to 16 concepts will be presented in November to a jury that includes Prince Charles, Jony Ive, and Paul Thompson (the college’s vice chancellor), alongside strategic and supporting partners of the Terra Carta Design Lab and the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

The winning designs will be announced in 2022, and their creators given strategic and financial support to transform their ideas into reality. Winners will also have the opportunity to be mentored by Ive, who served as chief design officer of Apple before launching his own creative collective, LoveFrom. For more on this, read the full report by Wallpaper*

For those wanting to dive even deeper, you could read the official 17 page document covering Terra Carta here (PDF). The initiative was first introduced in January 2019. What's being covered today is news of the new lab with Sir Jonathan Ive.