11 October - 31 January 2023
Designers and creatives are invited to submit innovative solutions to envision and build a circular society.
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WDCD Make it Circular Challenge
HOW CAN DESIGN MAKE A CIRCULAR FUTURE MORE ACCESSIBLE AND ATTRACTIVE TO ALL? – This October, What Design Can Do (WDCD) is launching the Make it Circular Challenge, in partnership with IKEA Foundation. The goal: to create products, services and systems that are both user-centred and earth-centred, showing that a circular future is not only imaginable — but actionable. Winners receive a prize fund and a 6-month accelerator programme co-created with Impact Hub Amsterdam! Designers and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas can submit their solutions until 31 January 2023.
WDCD is an international platform that uses design as a tool for ecological and social change. WDCD and Impact Hub Amsterdam share the same mission: to create a circular economy by designing innovative solutions. Together, we invite designers and creative entrepreneurs from around the world to submit their innovative solutions that make a circular future accessible and attractive to all.
5 CIRCULAR WAYS OF LIVING
While this challenge is open to innovations of all kinds, we ask all participants to indicate how their project relates to the five largest value chains in the world. Which category fits your project best? And how does it create or support circular ways of living?
Asks you to rethink the flawed world of packaging. It is vital that we find better ways to protect our food and products using materials that are truly ethical and sustainable. Systems also need to be redesigned to ensure that these innovations can be implemented at scale.
Reimagines the built environment and looks at how we construct the places where we live, work and play. This includes making circular decisions in new buildings for the growing population but also initiatives to adapt existing structures and save precious resources.
Covers the ways we grow, distribute, shop for, consume and discard food. Strategies could include rethinking farming practices, redesigning the modern diet, or creating initiatives that encourage food sharing within communities.
Is about the clothes we put on our bodies and the textiles from which they are made. The goal here is to change the way we value these materials and embed fair and sustainable practices for their production, use and reuse.
Includes all of the consumer goods we use every day, from furniture to toys, home cleaning products and cars. The challenge is to design circular systems for these products to exist in, while also addressing why we buy in the first place.
How does it work?
At the beginning of 2023, a jury of leading experts in design, social impact and climate action will select a minimum of 10 winners. Winning ideas are turned into reality with €10.000 in funding and a global development programme co-created with Impact Hub Amsterdam, which includes online training, mentoring sessions and a bootcamp. This programme will support the winning teams in further strengthening their projects, and propelling them through 2023 and beyond.
What can you win?
- €10,000 in funding
- A 6-month development programme co-created with Impact Hub Amsterdam
- Publicity via all WDCD platforms & partners
Timeline
Phase 1
Mid February 2023
A selection committee will review all submissions and select nominees. Phase 2
Mid February 2023
A selection committee will review all submissions and select nominees.
Phase 3
End of February 2023
Nominated projects will be announced.
End of March 2023
Selection of winners. Phase 4
End of March 2023
Selection of winners.
Phase 5
May - December 2023
The global acceleration programme will support the winning teams to further develop their project.
January - December 2024
Follow-up programme. Phase 6
January - December 2024
Follow-up programme.