Designing for Net Zero Living

Designing for Net Zero Living

How design innovation is driving the transition to net zero

March 2025

About this report

This report was commissioned by Innovate UK as part of the Net Zero Living programme and its activity to support places across the UK to transition to net zero through investment in place-based capacity and local project delivery.

The report highlights the learnings and opportunities identified through the User-Focused Design programme, delivered by the Design Council in 2024 as part of Innovate UK Net Zero Living. The programme set out to support ambitious business proposals aimed at developing net zero products or services that meet demand through user-focused research.

About the Design Council

At the Design Council, we’re committed to driving positive change for our planet through design. Building on our rich history as National Champion for the effective use of design and our Design for Planet mission, this programme harnesses the power of design in supporting the transition to net zero.

lebrate designimpact Creategoodconditionsfor

The National Champion for the effective use of design

Convene the sector

We collaborated with Innovate UK to support 47 businesses in embedding design thinking methods and tools to drive innovation in the net zero market through a User-Focused Design programme. This formed part of the wider Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme, aimed at helping businesses and places across the UK accelerate their transition to net zero.

The programme ran from November 2023 to March 2025. The Design Council’s role was to develop the programme blueprint, provide expert design knowledge and support to businesses, and monitor and evaluate the overall experience and impact of the initiative. This work is aligned with the Design Council’s mission: Design for Planet as we place design as a catalyst for positive environmental, social, democratic and financial change.

Foreword

1The transition to net zero is the defining challenge of our time, requiring innovation and collaboration. Businesses leading this transition are not only developing new products and services but also reshaping entire industries. Yet, innovation alone is not enough. To drive real change, products and services must resonate with users, address genuine market needs, and inspire widespread adoption and behaviour change.

That’s where design plays a critical role.

The Innovate UK Net Zero Living / UserFocused Design programme was created to support businesses in embedding user research and design thinking at the heart of their development processes. Over the course of the programme, we have seen how businesses, with expert coaching from the Design Council, have gained deeper insights into their users, strengthened their propositions, and refined their innovations to better meet the challenges of the net zero market.

This report captures the key learnings from the programme and highlights the opportunities that lie ahead. One clear takeaway is the power of early and integrated design support – helping businesses not only understand their stakeholders but also navigate the complexities of market entry, sector-specific challenges, and evolving consumer expectations. We have also seen the value of collaboration: sharing knowledge, setting new standards, and developing solutions that go beyond competition to create a collective impact.

The transition to net zero requires systemic change – no single organisation, business, or sector can achieve it alone. The insights in this report offer a roadmap for how businesses, policymakers, and industry leaders can continue this work, ensuring that the role of design in driving the net zero economy is fully recognised and realised.

As we look ahead, the challenge is not just to innovate, but to do so in a way that truly works for people and the planet.

Minnie Moll Chief Executive at the Design

Council

At Innovate UK, our ambition is for the UK to prosper from becoming the economy that transitions fastest to net zero and the first economy to realise energy-secure, low-carbon growth.

To achieve this, we need all forms of innovation – from technological, to humancentred and even societal – to realise the multi-billion-pound market opportunity for net zero products and services.

The Committee on Climate Change looked at the solutions needed to achieve net zero in the UK and came to the conclusion that a majority of them required some form of social and behavioural change – either alone or in conjunction with a technological shift as well. We have an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of a vast number of technology solutions that already exist if we can better tailor them to real needs and generate market pull.

Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living programme is a £60 million, three-year programme that has helped places, communities and businesses across the UK in accelerating the delivery of the transition to net zero. This has been achieved through innovative approaches that foster market pull and lead to the design of better products and services that people want and need.

We know that market pull happens when we better understand what people want and how to meet those needs. We must not forget that many consumers might not have net zero as a primary driver of action. What we collectively need to do is understand consumers better and tell a story that focuses on the benefits: lower bills, stronger communities, cleaner air, healthier homes, greater convenience and so on – all delivered in a net zero way.

That is why this work with the Design Council is so important. Design thinking is a proven way to put people at the heart of the matter to harness a “pull” for net zero solutions that drive sustainable behavioural change.

This report shares learning and ambition – informed by what has been delivered from this exciting programme. I trust it will inspire you and future innovative products and services – designed to focus on the changing wants and needs of our society.

Mike Biddle Executive Director, Net Zero, Innovate UK

2 Executive Summary

This report highlights the learnings and opportunities identified through User-Focused Design programme, delivered by the Design Council in 2024 as part of Innovate UK Net Zero Living. The programme set out to support ambitious business proposals aimed at developing net zero products or services that meet demand through user-focused research.

The objectives were to:

 Highlight the role user research plays in enhancing net zero products and services

 Increase awareness of the role of design in delivering more successful products and services for the net zero market

47 businesses from across a range of Innovate UK net zero priority sectors took part in the programme and were supported through an agile programme of expert coaching delivered through the Design Council.

The programme was built around a flexible delivery model, tailored to each business’s needs to maximise the impact of coaching. It successfully connected businesses with an experienced and diverse pool of design experts, enabling the integration of user research insights – a crucial factor given the wide range of sectors, products and services involved.

This report describes the programme findings in the context of the net zero innovation landscape. It demonstrates a greater need for increased user-focused design in driving successful innovation in the emerging net zero market, where engaging users with a clear product or service proposition is particularly relevant, as it directly influences both the success of offerings and users' willingness to adopt sustainable behaviours, essential to the success of the green transition.

However, key opportunities remain to enhance net zero innovation impact by embedding design earlier and engaging stakeholders and wider community more deeply in programme design and development. This would create greater value in net zero innovation, ensuring it is more responsive to business needs and adaptable to evolving challenges.

Programme Findings

A major finding of the programme was a design skills gap that exists for many businesses innovating in the net zero market. This report establishes a blueprint for how that design skills gap can be bridged, by enabling businesses to broaden their understanding of the role of design in the innovation process.

The programme successfully addressed this by pairing them with design experts, enhancing their ability to succeed in the net zero market with essential skills in user research, insight generation, communication, facilitation, systems thinking, technical proficiency and collaboration.

The programme had high levels of engagement and successfully delivered on its objectives to highlight the role of userfocused design and raise awareness of the role of design in delivering more successful products and services. Coaching was shown to be effective in bridging the design skills gap, significantly improving participants’ understanding of their users.

The programme identified three key business journeys: validate, refine, and pivot. Validation focuses on the importance of user and stakeholder buy-in for driving behaviour change. Refinement focused on enhancing user experience, improving

usability and engagement. Pivoting involved making strategic adjustments to better align products with market needs. These journeys are brought to life in the report through a rich set of case studies, design tools and methodologies that will be of interest to the wider design and innovation community.

Through in-depth user research, the programme examined the barriers and motivations influencing the adoption of net zero solutions. It identified key challenges, such as financial constraints, limited awareness and technical complexities that prevent widespread uptake. At the same time, it highlighted the main drivers –such as cost savings, policy support, and environmental benefits – that encourage engagement. Findings from a range of businesses reinforced these insights. Research consistently showed that

users prioritise affordability, comfort and convenience over sustainability. Only when these primary needs are met does net zero become a more prominent consideration in their decision-making.

Additionally, a significant challenge in this space is the lack of a consistent approach to measuring environmental, social, democratic, financial impact and net zero contributions.

By deepening their understanding of the design process, participating businesses de-risked decisions, challenged assumptions, navigated complexity and built stronger emotional connections with users – driving growth and strategic development.

Recommendations

Design can deliver greater value if it is positioned as a core strategic component, shaping not only the structure of the programme but also its delivery mechanisms. A co-designed approach –engaging businesses, stakeholders and communities from the outset – would foster stronger alignment with user needs, increasing both uptake and longterm sustainability.

Early and continuous design involvement that draws on a broad range of design skills is critical to help businesses meet the opportunities of the net zero market. Providing programmes that increase businesses understanding of their users, user-research and other design methodologies can be transformative. Embedding design earlier in the programme will enable businesses to gain critical skills sooner, ensuring proposals are developed with user needs in mind. Future iterations should embed design thinking at all stages.

Design offers specific tools to understand the net zero market by generating insights into user motivations and barriers, such as cost and knowledge gaps. Prototyping, testing and adapting to policy changes are crucial for developing effective solutions. Long-term user journey mapping ensures alignment with evolving market dynamics, supporting sustainable, scalable solutions.

Establishing standardised methods for assessing environmental impact and addressing knowledge gaps in this area would strengthen the credibility and effectiveness of net zero initiatives. Design should be leveraged to develop clear, measurable and widely accepted methodologies, ensuring that sustainability is both transparent and actionable. By integrating user-centred design principles, businesses can balance sustainability with consumer appeal, ensuring that net zero solutions enhance both environmental impact and market competitiveness.

Tailoring interventions to different business archetypes and providing flexible coaching models would further enhance programme effectiveness.

Sector-based approaches: a comprehensive, systemic approach is essential for supporting businesses in navigating complex sectors like net zero. Encouraging cross-sector collaboration, mapping sector-specific capabilities and addressing gaps in environmental impact measurement can ensure businesses thrive in the evolving net zero market.

Network of Living Labs: these dedicated spaces for exploratory research should be developed into a consistent, mapped network to provide a vital collaborative platform for businesses to explore the challenges of the net zero market.

Conclusion

The User-Focused Design programme is an example of the Design Council’s mission, Design for Planet, in action. It demonstrates how design can drive the transition to net zero by helping businesses create solutions that are commercially viable, sustainable and aligned with real-world needs.

By embedding design, the programme enabled businesses to rethink products, services and business models, promoting innovation for both people and the planet. It emphasised the importance of building business literacy in design to ensure sustainability is embedded from the start.

Future iterations of the programme can maximise impact, drive innovation and create a more agile and responsive framework for business support if used as strategic component of the programme itself.

This approach not only empowered businesses but also contributed to reshaping innovation in the net zero space, providing a blueprint for how we can drive systemic change towards a regenerative economy.

Net Zero Innovation

3

“Design is core to successful innovation.”

UK Innovation Strategy 2021

This section describes the context for the User-Focused Design programme, including the net zero innovation landscape, the broader Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme, and the role that design can play in helping businesses take advantage of the net zero market opportunity.

Net Zero Innovation Landscape

Net zero refers to the UK Government’s legal commitment to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Between 1990 and 2019, the UK has made real progress towards net zero, cutting emissions by 44%, decarbonising faster than any other G7 country. But there is much more to be done. The UK has committed to achieving a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

The net zero innovation landscape refers to the broader environment in which innovation uses design, technology, research and development capability and competitive dynamics to shift organisations and society towards a better and greener future.

Reaching net zero requires transformative changes across society and the economy, with collective commitment from government, industry, academia, and civil society. The transition will entail intricate connections between technology, infrastructure, people, institutions, and the environment. This requires a whole-systems approach to the innovation landscape. A whole-systems approach acknowledges the interconnectedness of sectors, integrating new technologies, user behaviour, and business models1

Design is fundamental to driving successful innovation, it can significantly reduce the cost of the net zero transition, nurture the development of better products and new business models, and remove barriers to adoption. User-focused design empowers end-users by increasing awareness and acceptance of low-carbon solutions.

Innovate UK Net Zero Living Programme

The Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme is a £60 million initiative designed to help UK businesses and local authorities overcome non-technological barriers to decarbonisation and accelerate the transition to net zero.

The programme aims to

 address barriers such as skills shortages, financing, procurement, governance, and citizen engagement

 propel business growth and innovation by fostering connections and identifying new opportunities

 unlock private investment through co-investment and follow-on funding, contributing to regional economic development

1 UK Government (2022) UK Net Zero research and innovation framework delivery plan 2022 to 2025. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-Net-Zero-research-and-innovation-framework-delivery-plan-2022to-2025/uk-Net-Zero-research-and-innovation-framework-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 (Accessed: January 2025).

It consists of two key streams: Thriving Places and User-Focused Products

Thriving Places focuses on place-based approaches to decarbonisation, addressing local governance, finance, and community engagement barriers, in order to improve the demand for net zero solutions.

User-Focused Products supports businesses in aligning their innovations with market needs to drive net zero product and services adoption. It features three programmes designed to improve the supply of solutions into the market. This report focuses on the findings of the UserFocused Design programme, delivered by the Design Council.

Overview of the Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme. User-Focused Design projects are nested within the User-Focused Products sub-programme

User-Focused Design

The User-Focused Design

programme addressed the lack of business awareness of user needs, identified by Innovate UK as a key market barrier.

It set out to help businesses apply design thinking methods to better align innovations with market needs. Its aims were to influence, inform, and de-risk future R&D activities – driving business innovation, increasing market penetration, and fostering the development of new business models aligned to a just net zero transition.

The programme provided targeted support for developing and interpreting user research while addressing the entire design process. It encompassed product and service design, brand and communication, culture and context, and business vision and strategy – tailored to each business’s needs and the stage of development of their product or service. It was designed to help businesses capitalise on the opportunities of the net zero market.

Net Zero Market

The net zero market presents a significant economic opportunity, with British businesses expected to benefit from a global market worth £1 trillion by 2030 2

It is a complex and complicated market as it involves the transitioning of entire sectors towards new low carbon or zero emission strategies, as well as empowering the public and businesses to make greener choices 3 .

Market barriers

The six key barriers to net zero market growth4 include challenges in:

1 User and business engagement

4 Limited access to and effective use of data

2 Complex policy and regulatory frameworks

3 Inefficiencies in planning processes

5 Funding constraints

6 Shortages of critical materials

2 UK Government (2023) Powering Up Britain: Net Zero Growth Plan. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/powering-up-britain/powering-up-britain-Net-Zero-growth-plan (Accessed: January 2025).

3 UK Government (2021) UK Net Zero Strategy. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1033990/Net-Zero-strategy-beis.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

4 Innovate UK (2022) Our clean future economy: Net Zero Review 2022. Available at: https://iuk-business-connect.org. uk/perspectives/innovate-uk-net-zero-review-2022-our-clean-future-economy/ (Accessed: February 2025).

Market attitudes towards net zero are diverse, with some users prioritising sustainability while others focusing on cost savings. A report on consumer attitudes towards decarbonisation and net zero showed that most of the respondents were not knowledgeable about the need to decarbonise or about net zero targets5

Behaviour change

Behaviour change is recognised as a critical factor in achieving net zero goals. Effective public and industry engagement play pivotal roles in driving the necessary transformations to reach a sustainable, low-carbon future. ‘Behaviour change plays a role in almost two thirds of the emissions reductions. Most of this comes through consumer adoption of lowcarbon technologies.’6

User-focused design prioritises the understanding of users’ perceptions and motivations to generate products and/ or services that effectively encourage behavioural shifts. This is a critical part of the innovation pathway. The Design Council’s aim in developing the programme was to help businesses understand this essential aspect of design thinking so they can innovate more effectively to meet the net zero market opportunity.

Living Labs

Some participating businesses explored the potential of Living Labs, gaining valuable insights into their role in driving more effective innovation.

Living Labs play a crucial role in the innovation landscape, helping businesses develop and test their proposals by effectively de-risking innovation. They are open innovation ecosystems in real-world settings. They leverage iterative feedback and a lifecycle approach to achieve sustainable impact. They have been used by individuals, academia and businesses to de-risk innovation and facilitate stakeholder involvement, including end-users. Living Labs are based on the principle of co-creation and allow for easy access to market-testing of products, services, new technology and business models.

5 Ofgem (2020) A report on consumer attitudes towards decarbonisation and Net Zero. Available at: https://www. ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2020/10/consumer_attitudes_towards_decarbonisation_and_net_zero_1.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

6 House of Lords Library (2022) Net Zero and behaviour change. Available at: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/NetZero-and-behaviour-change (Accessed: January 2025).

Participating Businesses

The programme supported 47 UK businesses of varying sizes and stages of maturity, ranging from pre-startups and startups to early-stage and established SMEs, across diverse geographic locations. These were selected through a competitive funding application process with Innovate UK.

In terms of innovation maturity, 72% of participating businesses were in the late design stages, with 44% in prototype, 19% in pilot, 6% in production, and 3% in detailed design.

Geographic location of businesses that were funded by the programme

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design beginning of programme survey, sample 32 responses

The development stages of design typically follow this structured process:

Discovery Requires researching user needs, market trends, and challenges.

Definition Comprises synthesising insights, defining the problem, and setting goals; also ideation (starting to generate and explore creative solutions) and mocking-up of ideas into potential concepts.

Development Includes concept development, detail design, prototype and testing.

Delivery Involves running pilots, fine-tuning usability, feasibility, and stakeholder alignment, as well as planning production.

Participating Sectors

Innovate UK has identified five key areas as critical for the acceleration to net zero: Heat & Power, Mobility, Make & Use, Agriculture & Food and Systems Integration7

To meet the UK government’s 2030 target for clean power and heat systems, decarbonising the energy and heat sectors is essential8. The transport sector, responsible for over 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions, requires innovative mobility solutions to drive reductions. Innovate UK supports the UK’s material and manufacturing industries in developing sustainable bio-based materials, decarbonising production methods, and strengthening responsible supply chains.

Programme participation was distributed across the following priority areas: Heat & Power, Mobility and Make & Use, with Make & Use leading at 34%, followed by Power at 28%. Projects were also classified into physical products (51%), services (47%), and digital products.

The spectrum of proposals ranged from physical products like sustainable packaging and eco-friendly consumer goods to digital solutions and AI-driven platforms.

7 Innovate UK (IUK) (2024) Accelerating the Net Zero transition 2024. Available at: https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/ uploads/2025/01/IUK-101224-NetZeroReview2024.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

8 UK Government (2023) Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ clean-power-2030-action-plan/242aa00e-a82e-4f29-a785-9d7d690a1230 (Accessed: January 2025).

Key Takeaways

 Design thinking is fundamental to driving successful innovation in the net zero market.

 Understanding user perceptions is critical in order to enable the behaviour change that is required for take up of net zero innovation.

 Market attitudes towards net zero are diverse, with the majority of users not knowledgeable about the need to decarbonise or net zero targets.

 The programme supported UK businesses of varying sizes and stages of maturity, across a range of priority net zero sectors and diverse geographic locations.

 Most participants’ proposals were at the late stages of the design process.

 The programme provided businesses with access to a diverse range of design experts, to bridge potential design skills gap and facilitate integration of user research insights.

Design Thinking in Action

4

“The programme offered us the clarity to envisage the future and therefore define true value through innovation for a sustainable future.”

Programme participant

This section describes the programme objectives and design, the coaching team, how coaching was delivered, the design frameworks and toolkits used by design experts and businesses during the coaching support, and engagement with businesses.

Programme Design and Objectives

The programme was designed with careful consideration of the innovation landscape and the market barriers to net zero, as outlined in the previous section.

The programme provided participating businesses with access to a diverse range of design experts to bridge potential design skills gaps and facilitate integration of user research insights. It was delivered by the Design Council Programme Team and

Programme Objectives

 Highlight the role user research plays in enhancing net zero products and services.

 Increase awareness of the role of design in delivering more successful products and services for the net zero market.

a team of eight Design Council Experts, two of which led the coaching team and supported programme design, including the evaluation stage.

Tailored support was provided through a series of coaching calls with the Design Council experts. The aim was to help each participating business align its innovations more effectively with net zero market demands, with a focus on user needs.

Coaching Objectives

 Help businesses understand various user research methodologies and where they fit into a good design process.

 Support businesses to develop research plans to better identify and comprehend the needs of customers and users, using user research to then generate actionable insights.

 Help assess insights derived from user research and how they might go on to influence changes to products or services.

 Where possible introduce how further design processes can change products or services based on research findings.

The programme ran throughout 2024, following proposal selection by Innovate UK in 2023. Business coaching support was completed in December 2024 and evaluation and reporting took place early in 2025.

Coaching Team

All coaches had years of experience and together spanned a wide spectrum of design expertise from service design to branding. Coaches were assigned up to six companies to provide expert support according to their

Design strategy, thinking and management; experience and service design.

Neal is a design and innovation leader renowned for integrating design thinking into organisational strategies. Former Head of Design at British Airways, he pioneered business class flat beds. Neal has worked with diverse organisations like IHG, BBC, NHS, and LOCOG, exploring core challenges and delivering impactful solutions in complex environments.

particular background and expertise. Each company was assigned one coach. That coach was free to bring in other coaching experts during the programme where they identified a business need.

User Centred Design, User Experience Design, Product and Industrial Design, Service Design, Design Led Innovation.

Neil is a Design and Innovation Consultant working with organisations at all stages of growth, across many sectors. Recent clients include 3M, IKEA, Philips, The Samaritans, and Unilever. Neil has also jointly authored “Brand Romance” published by Palgrave McMillan, which describes the role of design in building a loved brand.

LEAD COACH

Neal Stone

EXPERTISE

LEAD COACH

Neil Gridley

EXPERTISE

EXPERTISE

Service Design, User research, Design thinking, Facilitation, Coaching, Tech entrepreneur, Tech start-ups

Kathryn is the Founder and Director of Made Open Communications Ltd, a B-Corp certified design and technology company. Specialising in user research, communication strategies and system design, her work spans start-ups, charities and government sectors. With over 20 years of experience Kathryn brings invaluable expertise in mentoring and guiding businesses toward growth and success.

EXPERTISE

Design Thinking specialist with expertise in product and service design, design management, and strategy.

Jonathan has designed a wide range of products and services, focusing on user needs and practical solutions. He’s contributed to many successful innovation programs with organisations including Design Council, BBC, NHS and V&A Dundee. Centred on the Double Diamond, his work combines Design Thinking and business strategy methodologies.

Kathryn Woolf

Jonathan Ball

EXPERTISE

Creative Technologist, Strategist, Prototyper.

Winner of IMechE Alexander Graham-Bryce “Imagineering” Award, Jude is a creative technologist blending engineering and art. Featured Inventor in BBC Big Life Fix, he empowers individuals and institutions to become the architect of their own solutions. Jude’s projects feature in FastCo’s “World Changing Ideas”, The Drum Roses and Shorty Awards.

Lesley Gulliver

EXPERTISE

Design Strategy. Design Thinking. Design Workshops. Brand.

Lesley is a design strategist working with global organisations through to start-ups. Her career began in brand consultancy, and she has worked at Director level in several design companies. She is focused on measurable returns and understands design in terms of impact, growth, service development, and culture change.

Jude Pullen

EXPERTISE

Service, Experience and UX Design, Strategic Design, Design Innovation

Sean is a senior service designer with over 20 years of experience in creating and improving services across various sectors. He leads his own consulting practice, focusing on government, charities, start-ups, SMEs, and global organisations. Sean is committed to advancing inclusive design by making human-centred methods accessible to everyone.

EXPERTISE

Design strategy, brand strategy, brand and communications.

Darren is a strategic designer with over 25+ years’ brand experience working with global businesses, SMEs, charities and public sector organisations. Bridging strategy and creative, Darren’s firm belief in design thinking for business and user-centred techniques make him an expert in designing ‘different’.

Sean Miller

Darren Evans

Businesses' Journeys

The programme started with a welcome and onboarding call between the Design Council and all businesses. Each business was then matched to a design expert coach that was aligned with their sector and overall project proposal. They were introduced and handed over to their Design Council Expert coaches subsequently by email.

During the course of one calendar year, each business had the opportunity for a discovery session (1.5 hours), four coaching calls (1.5 hours each), and one face-to-face coaching session (half day). Scoping and coaching sessions were mostly delivered remotely, with some delivered face to face where geography or practicalities dictated.

Types of coaching sessions

After the discovery session had taken place, coaches and businesses agreed when sessions should take place and in what order, allowing the coaching to flex around the needs of the business. For example, in some cases the business preferred to swap a longer face to face session for more online coaching sessions; some coaching was focussed on a specific intense period and later sessions more spaced out. Time was also allocated for a business’s primary coach to bring in the support of other coaches with specific expertise (e.g. branding, service design, etc.,) if they saw a design need beyond ‘user research’.

1 Discovery session

1.5h to understand project scope, challenges and objectives. Foundational step to tailor coaching strategies, identify key focus areas, and establish a baseline for progress.

4 Online coaching sessions 4 x 1.5h of online coaching to provide ongoing guidance, support, and feedback.

Source: User-Focused Design programme design, Design Council

1 In-person coaching

Half-day face-to-face session to provide guidance, support, and feedback.

Coaches’ Journey

Three online Town Hall-style calls were held to onboard coaches and address early project challenges. Additionally, four quarterly insights calls gathered and refined emerging programme insights, which the coaching team synthesised into the Recommendations section of this report.

Within coaching support scope

 Helping to define critical customers and users

 Helping lay out research plans and define the type of research to use

 Sharing methods and best practice in user-centred design

 Assisting in crafting research briefs and where to look for the right type of researchers

 Assisting in synthesising research findings and extracting insights

 Assisting in creating a design action plan to adapt a product or service as needed

Scope of Coaching

A scope of delivery was co-created with coaches that included the guidance in the table below:

Out of scope

 Recommending specific research agencies or designers

 Conducting the research on businesses’ behalf

 Overseeing the detailed management of business teams conducting research independently

 Doing design development work (product, service, graphic, etc)

 Generating novel propositions based on your research

Adaptive Programme Design

The programme was built around a flexible delivery model, tailored to each business’s needs to maximise the impact of coaching.

This adaptability was crucial because:

 Participants came from diverse sectors, with products and services at different stages of development that continued to evolve throughout the year (see previous section)

 Some businesses had already commissioned research with fixed plans, requiring coaching to be back-loaded –

Indicative coaching journeys

Company A

focused on interpreting research findings and determining next steps. Others were still shaping their research approach, leading to a front-loaded coaching model where coaches played a more active role in scoping and setting up the research.

Potential coaching journeys were mapped based on businesses’ stage of development. Journey A represented later-stage businesses that had already conducted research, while Journey B encompassed earlier-stage businesses that had not yet undertaken research.

12345

Review and sensechecking your research plan

Company B

Assess stage of development and gaps in development plan

Make revisions and review

THE RESEARCH by others – review progress

Assess priority focus for research

Advise on developing research plan

Supporting analysis of the research

Support implementation on insights

Advise on finding research partner

THE RESEARCH by others

Develop better product / service

Research plan / research conducted

Source: User-Focused Design programme design, Design Council

With coaching hours spread over a year, the coaching approach prioritised high-impact guidance – equipping businesses with the frameworks, tools, and strategic direction needed to drive their own progress, rather than direct involvement in their day-today work.

A range of digital online collaboration and video conferencing tools were used to manage and deliver the programme, as well as track coaching progress and generate an insights board. The following framework was used to capture insights as they emerged through the coaching sessions.

Excerpt from insights board, initial Design Council framework for capturing programme insight

The specific role of user research in enhancing net zero products and services

The role of design in delivering more successful net zero products and services to the market

The specific role of user research in enhancing net zero products and services, shedding light on the role of user research in driving innovation towards net zero solutions.

Prioritising user research to inform the design and development of net zero products and services will support market penetration and competitiveness by tailoring offerings to consumer preferences and market needs.

The wider picture of how can design deliver more successful net zero products and services by identify gaps or areas where businesses require additional support within the design process.

While user research is essential, businesses require support in other areas of the design process to fully realise their product / service potential tailoring offerings to consumer preferences and market needs.

The dynamics of the net zero market and how can design influence innovation and sustainability in businesses. Design's role in shaping the market for net zero products and services.

By examining design's impact on a product/service market positioning, we can identify key factors driving the success of these initiatives and inform future design interventions for higher market penetration and culture change.

Source: User-Focused Design programme design, Design Council

Insights about User Research

Insights about the Design Process

Insights about Net Zero Market

Frameworks, Tools and Methods

This sub-section highlights key frameworks, tools, and methods used throughout the programme. It is not an exhaustive list but rather a selection of the most frequently used.

The following table displays an overview of the frameworks and tools used within design and monitoring of the programme and delivery of the coaching:

In the table overleaf, ‘Programme’ refers to the design, management, monitoring, and evaluation of activities. It outlines the frameworks and tools used to identify opportunities, barriers, and risks at every stage – before, during, and after coaching sessions.

'Coaching' outlines the frameworks and tools used during coaching sessions to support businesses to better apply design methods to their proposals.

Table of frameworks and tools used during the programme

Double Diamond

Generate Framework (see page 96)

A visual representation of the design process

A facilitation tool used to identify design and innovation opportunities

Guided the layout out of overall programme

Systemic Design (see page 44)

Expands the design process to encompass a broader context, recognises that systems are complex and adaptive

The Design Value Highlights the positive role design can play in social, democratic, financial and environmental contexts

Used to explore, reframe, create and catalyse programme design impact

Used to assess the value of design within the case studies, evaluates how businesses benefited from design expertise and tools to shape their projects

Used to describe best practice design process to businesses

Supported the design of helpful questions for coaches’ scoping sessions

Unpacked the broader areas where design might play a role, beyond user research

Source: User-Focused Design programme

Tools and methods

Archetypes

Clustering and Theming

Journey Mapping

Broad, general representations of key user types based on common behaviours and needs

A method to organise and group similar insights, ideas or data points to identify patterns and common themes

Process of visualising a users’ experience with a product, service or broader flow of activity over time, sometimes as a framework to gather insights across that journey

Service Blueprinting

A way of mapping an intended experience with a product, service, or system over time

Allowed the core team to speculate how coaching may best help get-to points

Synthesise and pattern spot in quarterly insights sessions

Used to generate potential, indicative coaching and business journeys and speculate how they might interact

Helped co-ordinate business coaching touchpoints and back of house coach and programme activities needed to deliver the preferred coaching journeys

Synthesise insight and identify clusters and research themes

Helped businesses to explore their users’ journeys and identify pain points

Mainstream and Edge Cases

Refers to different types of user scenarios that help shape inclusive and effective solutions

Rose, Thorn, Bud A tool to identify and organise data

Research Types deck

Stakeholder Mapping

A series of research methods that include journaling, observation, be the user, interviewing, alternative worlds

A mapping of the roles or individuals with a stake in the creation, delivery or participation of a product or service

Was used to capture insight and feedback from coaches on the go

Help explore extreme users that may be helpful to think about diversity

Used to explain different forms of design research

Supported businesses to see beyond the obvious stakeholders that they may have been designing for

Some examples of these tools are:

Example 1: The systemic Design Framework was used to frame the programme and capture insights on user research, design process and net zero market.

Orientation and Vision Setting

Connections and Relationships

ExploreReframeCreate Catalyse

Continuing the Journey

Leadership and Storytelling

The systemic Design Framework, Design Council’s methodology for Design for Planet

Source: Design Council

Example 2: The stakeholder mapping tool helped businesses contextualise users and the broader environment in which their proposals would operate.

Stakeholder mapping illustration

Source: User-Focused Design programme design,

Council

Living Labs

The impact of Living Labs on the programme was limited by low availability, varying quality and differing methodologies. Only three businesses were able to make use of a Living Lab during the programme.

The coaches found that many businesses need to better understand the role of exploratory research for effective innovation. It can be difficult for businesses to undertake this kind of research independently. Businesses would benefit from spaces that can help them identify key criteria for success and guide the direction and focus of their research efforts so they can focus on ‘getting the right product’ as opposed to just ‘getting the current product right’.

If developed in the right way, Living Labs could be spaces to support this exploratory research from a more unified, design-led perspective that would allow businesses to validate their assumptions about research objectives ; test scenarios, methods and schedules allowing for adjustments in advance; and de-risk testing.

Evaluation

To monitor and evaluate the programme, we conducted two surveys – one before the coaching sessions began and another at their conclusion. These surveys provided crucial insights into the importance of integrating design support with business modelling, ensuring product development aligns with market needs to create and refine commercially viable net zero innovations.

Overall, evaluation survey data demonstrated that the coaching programme had met its objectives. Businesses reported they had increased awareness of the role of design. They also stated that they were better able to identify and understand the needs of users within the net zero market. They were able to understand how different design methodologies could be used to derive insights to boost innovation and pivot projects towards net zero products and services. This is discussed in detail in the next section.

Engagement

Participants responded positively to the delivery of the programme. Data gathered from the final programme survey showed that over 80% of respondents were highly engaged with the programme. 96% rated the coaching sessions as good, very good, or excellent, underscoring the programme’s effectiveness in providing meaningful support.

Overall engagement with the programme

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

Most participants described the experience as ‘enlightening,’ highlighting how it opened up new possibilities. They stated that they ‘benefited to a huge extent’ from the programme and support received through the coaching sessions. Overall, the sessions were highly rated, with 58% considering them excellent and 38% rating them as very good or good.

Overall experience of the coaching sessions

Highlights

A flavour of what businesses said

“We had a great experience working with the Design Expert, who really expanded our thinking around the service offering.”

“The Design Council coaching programme perfectly matched us with our coach … who was an important part of the project. It has been truly inspiring to collaborate with someone who deeply understands and values the role of design in refining novel products.”

“The Double Diamond methodology facilitated our pivot towards a sustainable employee benefit and gave us the confidence to develop this new approach. More traditional grant projects often demand objectives which then become a straitjacket to innovation.”

“Receiving insights and guidance throughout the design process was useful and valuable.”

“By understanding the preferences and behaviours of our target audience, we were able to tailor our offerings to create a strong emotional connection with their customers.”

Designing for Net Zero 5

“Such is the power of human action and transformation on the planet and our collective wellbeing, that to envisage and achieve a sustainable future, you need to envisage the journey that will lead to that future. The programme encourages you to understand what that journey might look like.”

Programme participant

This section looks at the impact of the coaching on the participating businesses’ ability to design for net zero. It provides a blueprint for net zero design and underscores the broader role of design as a catalyst for change.

Better Understanding of Design

To assess how the design methods and tools covered in the coaching sessions supported businesses to enhance their proposals, we asked participants what design meant to them and to what extent a better understanding of the design process added value to their proposal.

For most participants, design means an iterative, creative process focused

‘What does design mean to you?’

CategoryDefinition

Problem-Solving and Iteration

User-Centred Approach

Creativity and Innovation

Collaboration and Stakeholder Involvement

Sustainability and Impact

Holistic Approach

on solving problems, understanding user needs, collaborating with stakeholders, and creating meaningful, sustainable products that have a positive environmental impact.

The table below presents our findings across six key categories, explaining their meaning and including participants’ own quotes to illustrate each concept.

Design is an iterative process of identifying problems, prototyping, and refining solutions

Design translates user needs into valuable products or services

It blends creativity, functionality and aesthetics to solve problems

Design requires input from multiple stakeholders to ensure a strong product-market fit

Design drives sustainable solutions that benefit people and the planet

Beyond aesthetics and function, design shapes the overall user experience

Quote

“Problem discovery, prototyping, and solution refining.”

It's about “creating perceptible value for customers.”

“Solving problems through creativity, functionality and aesthetics.”

“Interacting across the product value chain.”

Design creates “sustainable value through innovation.”

“The architecture, process flows, and visuals influencing user interaction.”

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

86% of respondents reported that a better understanding of the design process added value to their proposals to a large or very large extent.

Understanding of the design process

To a large extent 59%

To a very large extent 27%

To a moderate extent 14%

To a small extent 00%

Not at all 00%

To what extent has a better understanding of the design process added value to your proposal?

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

“It was really rewarding to see the businesses develop their understanding of their customers’ needs through user research and exploring how they might act on those insights. In many cases I think we broadened out their view of where and how design could help them succeed in the future.”

Neal Stone, Design Council Expert and Lead Coach

Understanding Users

The programme set out to support ambitious businesses proposals aimed at developing net zero products or services that need to achieve user acceptance. Bridging the design skills gap by increasing businesses’ understanding of users and user research methods was essential to the programme’s objectives. A user-focused approach ensures that products, services and systems are designed with real user needs, behaviours, and pain points in mind. When businesses use this to inform design decisions, they enhance user experience, mitigate innovation risks, and promote inclusivity and diversity.

Effective user design research requires a mix of analytical, communication, problemsolving and technical skills:

 User research methods: conducting qualitative (interviews, ethnography) and quantitative (surveys, A/B testing) research, as well as empathy and human centred thinking to develop a deep understanding of user needs, motivations and pain points.

 Insight generation: synthesising data, identifying patterns and translating findings into actionable recommendations.

 Communication & facilitation: leading interviews, workshops, and storytelling through personas, journey maps and reports.

 System thinking: understanding how users interact with products and services in broader ecosystems.

 Technical proficiency: using prototyping tools (digital and physical), data visualisation and accessibility principles to optimise user experience.

 Collaboration & adaptability: working across disciplines, iterating based on feedback and ensuring ethical, inclusive research.

Understanding User Research

The programme identified that there was a design skill gap in user-focused thinking. At the start of the programme 78% of respondents reported having a small-tomoderate understanding of their users. Coaching was effective at improving participants’ understanding of their users.

By the end of the programme, 17% of participants reported they now had an ‘excellent’ understanding of their users, while 83% rated their understanding as very good or good.

Do you know your users?

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design beginning of programme survey, sample 32 responses, IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

Currently, how would you rate your understanding of your user(s)?

Aligned with the findings on user understanding, participants also showed significant improvement in their grasp of user design research methods and tools. After engaging with design experts, 52% of businesses reported feeling confident in their user design research proficiency.

Understanding of user design research

How would you rate your understanding of user design research after the coaching session?

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

Better Communication

The coaches also assisted businesses in understanding how users perceived their proposition and, in many cases, helped them communicate it more clearly. Engaging users with a well-defined product or service proposition is vital in the net zero market, as it directly impacts both the success of the offering and users’ willingness to alter their behaviours for environmental sustainability.

A recent consumer study highlighted that for users to contribute effectively to net zero targets, they must first be aware of the need to act more sustainably9. Additionally, the study showed that users require clear guidance on how to change their behaviours to achieve this goal.

The programme survey results revealed that, for participating businesses, the clarity of propositions improved significantly with the integration of design, with a 14.5% increase to a very large extent and a 6% increase to a large extent, compared to the beginning of the programme.

9 Ofgem (2020) A report on consumer attitudes towards decarbonisation and Net Zero. Available at: https://www. ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2020/10/consumer_attitudes_towards_decarbonisation_and_net_zero_1.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

The Role of Design in a Net Zero Future

According to the Design Council’s 2021 Design Economy: The design value framework report10, design has significant social, cultural, environmental and democratic impact. Design plays a key role in achieving a net zero future by enabling:

1

Circular Systems

Designing for reuse, repair, and lowimpact, bio based, or regenerative materials.

4 Behavioural Change Encouraging sustainable user choices through deliberative process embedded in user research design.

2 Low-Carbon Propositions

Creating energyefficient products and services throughout their lifecycle.

5 Policy Influence Embedding sustainability in regulations and industry standards.

3 Systems Thinking Addressing environmental, social and economic impacts holistically.

6 Design Futures

Exploring new narratives and alternative futures through regenerative and speculative design.

10 Design Council (2021) Design Economy: The design value framework. Design Council. Available at: https://www. designcouncil.org.uk/resources/report/design-economy-design-value-framework (Accessed: February 2025).

Participants acknowledge this crucial role:

“The programme embodies what separates a good idea from a truly valuable innovation: we are designing for the future and bridging it with the present.”

Programme participant

The majority of businesses recognised design as crucial to a sustainable future, with 84% considering it very important.

What is the design role in a sustainable future?

Source: IUK NZL UserFocused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

To better understand the perceived impact of businesses’ innovative proposals for a sustainable future, we surveyed participants

on its potential benefits, and 96% stated that their innovation would play a beneficial role “to a large or very large extent.”

How participants perceived their innovation to have a beneficial impact in a sustainable future

23

3 1 0 0

To a very large extent

To a large extent

To a moderate extent

To a small extent

Not at all

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

Regarding the role of design in delivering net zero products, the most common response highlighted its importance in understanding the user. This was followed by ensuring fair distribution channels, sourcing ethical supply chains, addressing environmental impact, and considering overall social impact.

What do you think is the role of design in delivering net zero products and/or services? Respondents were asked to by importance – 1 less important to 5 extremely important.

Understanding the user

Extremely important

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

Design uncovers “the connected experiences (in our case human-technical) that drive human behaviours, values, beliefs, and emotions and develop the capabilities in ourselves, the business, and our project partners, to bridge the gap between that which is and is not sustainable.”

Programme participant

The Case Studies

Through the coaching programme, we identified three main kinds of business journey. Businesses needed support to validate, refine, or, when necessary, pivot from existing concepts and commercialisation strategies. We have used this three journeys as a framework for presenting the case studies and describing the design methodologies that can help businesses succeed in the net zero market.

The following business case studies illustrate their different journeys and the outcomes resulting from their participation in the programme with the support of the design experts.

Key to case study icons

Location

Sector

Typology

“The support brought the value of the ‘outside in’ with expertise and recommendations that (positively) challenged, validated, and motivated our approach to exploring and interpreting real-world complexity.”

Programme participant

Validate

Validation for a business entering the net zero market means using user research and analysis to confirm that their product or service is accepted by users and other relevant stakeholders, removing barriers to behaviour change.

Validation involves engaging, testing and gathering feedback to ensure that the concept aligns with the needs and expectations of the target market, while also verifying that the product has a positive impact, whether social or environmental.

In a space where behaviour change and regulatory alignment are key to adoption,

validation goes beyond proving technical feasibility – it confirms that a solution is meaningful, practical, and capable of driving real impact. Businesses in this programme used design methodologies to test their concepts, refine their messaging and confirm that their solutions aligned with user needs. This process reduced adoption risk, built investor and partner confidence and provided a stronger foundation for scaling. While validation did not mean a business had a fully finished product, it gave them the certainty needed to move forward with confidence, knowing they were progressing towards their goals.

Validate

The Double Diamond is a visual framework of the divergent and convergent thinking that is inherent to the design process. It consists of two diamonds, each representing a distinct phase of the design process. The first diamond focuses on understanding and defining the challenge, while the second diamond deals with developing and delivering effective solutions.

Key learnings

User and stakeholder acceptance

Confirms that users and key stakeholders understand, and support of the proposition is essential when significant behavioural shifts are needed to be undertaken by users.

Target audience focus

Clarifies which user groups to prioritise for earlier adoption.

Prototype effectiveness

Ensures that the prototype functions as intended and delivers a positive social or environmental impact.

The diagram illustrates a typical validation journey within the Double Diamond design process. The journey validates user and stakeholder acceptance, clarifies the target market focus, and ensures that prototypes effectively address user needs. Validation follows a more structured and direct design process path, as it builds upon validated and tested insights.

PulpaTronics

London

Make & Use

Physical product

About the company

PulpaTronics is a start-up with five team members developing chip-less, metal-free paper RFID tags in early prototype stages. These tags require no metal extraction, making them cheaper and compatible with existing recycling methods. Their innovative laser technology creates conductive circuits directly on paper, eliminating the need for metal and silicon. It significantly reduces the environmental footprint of RFID production, cutting CO2 emissions by 70%, from 3.5g to 1.1g CO2 per tag compared to conventional RFID tags.

Journey

PulpaTronics conducted in-store research with prototype tags and reader devices, allowing staff and customers to use the product. Sessions focused on testing tag designs and uncovering user benefits. The research revealed practical challenges, user attitudes, product benefits, and potential “WOW” moments, such as scanning for novel product information.

Outcome

The design support helped PulpaTronics validate their prototype and proposition with B2B and B2C customers, uncovering novel ideas for information customers might seek through scanning. Coaching revealed unexpected value, including “ingredient branding” concepts, which informed company strategy and positioned PulpaTronics as a champion of sustainable RFID tags.

“It was really helpful to validate, discuss and brainstorm the hypotheses we wanted to explore and experiment with on users.”

“We conducted user research much more confidently, as it was great to have an expert design coach as our sounding board to guide us through our approach.”

Chloe So, Co-Founder and CEO

Typology Amphibio Ltd (Trading as AMPHICO)

London

Make & Use

Physical product

About the company

Conventional textile dyeing consumes over 6.3 billion m3/year of freshwater and generates over 300M tons of CO2 eq of emission. AMPHICO aims to revolutionise the textile industry through their innovative Amphicolor a novel waterless coloured textile production method. By combining unique colour mixing and dope dyeing, they offer low minimum orders, reduced impact, lower carbon emissions, and costeffective textiles. The team has strong technical design skills and is exploring broader, strategic ways design can support the business.

Journey

Amphibio’s team, guided by their coach, explored woven material swatches to assess market acceptance of colour variations. Engaging stakeholders helped validate their product positioning. Through this process, they developed roadmaps for their future vision, considering how AMPHICO could offer services and experiences beyond products and its role in the fabric and fashion value chain.

Outcome

By interviewing stakeholders across teams, AMPHICO gained clarity on decision-making for colour, material, finish and seasonality. Synthesising these insights clarified their product development priorities while expanding their perspective on market entry, value chain positioning in the net zero market, as well as designing customer journeys and service blueprints.

“Having the support of Design Council was crucial in collecting and understanding the voices of the users and checking if our value proposition needs to be adjusted.”

Amphibio Ltd

Typology FSG Tableware

Nottingham

Make & Use

Physical product

About the company

FSG ‘Returnables’ provides reusable takeout packaging, aiming to replace single-use plastics in UK hospitals. Partnering with NHS catering teams, they’ve introduced reusable containers in hospital cafes and now seek to expand into patient feeding, reducing costs by 50% while enhancing sustainability and patient experience.

Journey

FSG, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, researched barriers to reusable inpatient feeding packaging. With design expert support, they conducted interviews and observational research across six NHS hospital trusts. Over three months, product trials gathered insights from diverse patient groups, staff, and sustainability leads. Clustering and theming data identified key themes, including user experience, logistics, scalability, and training needs.

Outcome

User research gave FSG deeper insights into patient experiences and barriers to reusable packaging. It helped align their initiative with the NHS’s “Green Plan” while highlighting challenges like increased staff workload for managing containers. The project validated their products and services, positioning them for success and revealing collaboration opportunities to scale their impact across hospitals.

“Our Design Council mentor provided valuable insights. More opportunities to leverage their expertise would have been beneficial. We are delighted that this project ultimately led to us winning the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce “Environmental Impact Award.”

Refine

Refinement it is an iterative process that helps businesses align their innovation with real user needs and market demands. In the net zero space, where adoption barriers can be high, businesses must make sure their products or services are not only functional but also compelling, intuitive, and easy to integrate into existing systems. Through design methodologies, businesses in this programme identified key areas for refinement, from improving

user experience and branding to adapting their value proposition or business model. These refinements were not just surfacelevel tweaks but shifts that removed friction, strengthened market positioning, and increased the likelihood of longterm success. By refining their approach, businesses were able to create solutions that were not only more desirable but also more viable in the evolving net zero landscape.

Design path intenser iterative design path to refine proposal

Design path

The diagram illustrates a refine journey, showcasing an intenser iterative design path. This involves enhancing the user experience, adapting the design to meet evolving needs, aligning the proposal with the target market, and integrating service design principles to create a cohesive and effective solution.

Key learnings

Enhancing user experience

Highlights the need to redesign user experience and interface key features to improve usability and engagement.

Adapting the design

Emphasises the importance of refining the physical product and/or service, branding, and communications for better net zero market fit.

Value proposition alignment

Identifies the need to focus on a specific user segment and tailor the offering to their needs.

Service design integration

Ensures that service elements are optimised to support user adoption and overall experience.

Furbnow

Birmingham Heat Service

About the company

Furbnow is the UK’s leading retrofit onestop-shop provider that aims to simplify energy efficiency upgrades for homeowners. Their platform enables homeowners to get an independent survey, build a home energy plan, design the project, select specialist installers and access project management of the installation.

Journey

Furbnow received support in interpreting insights from their research. One key challenge identified was that their communication strategy was not effectively driving customer acquisition. Through coaching sessions, they validated their understanding of target audiences, value propositions and messaging, adding strategic value. This process helped them clarify their target users, enabling a more focused and effective marketing strategy.

Outcome

Defining the problem led to an in-person workshop with senior management, creating three key audience personas. Using research and customer interactions, they mapped journeys and refined messaging. Supported by a design expert, this process sharpened value propositions, focusing on commercially viable customers and aligning Furbnow’s strategy with its target audience.

“Using design to centre our business around our users was very insightful, allowing us to focus on those where we can make the biggest impact.”

Becky Lane, CEO at Furbnow

Carbon Cell Ltd

London Make & Use

Physical product

About the company

Carbon Cell is on a mission to make polystyrene trash obsolete with its patentpending, carbon-negative foam technology. This eco-friendly alternative uses biochar, removing more CO2 than it produces. The foam offers high performance with competitive thermal conductivity, triple the strength of EPS, and good fire resistance. Customisable for various applications, from packaging to construction, it is fully compostable under home conditions. Carbon Cell combines environmental benefits with practical functionality, providing a promising solution to reduce plastic pollution.

Journey

The team used a human-centred research approach to develop Carbon Cell products, supporting a fundraise for market delivery. They mapped stakeholders across packaging, consumer markets, brands, and recycling supply chains. Through workshops and user research, they gathered insights to create a product that meets diverse needs by engaging key stakeholders.

Outcome

Stakeholder responses to Carbon Cell revealed three key insights for growth. First, scaling sustainable solutions requires active collaboration across policy, technology, and market sectors. This includes refining manufacturing processes, aligning with regulations, and fostering relationships among stakeholders. Second, sustainable packaging must balance cost-effectiveness with performance and compliance. Demonstrating cost savings through waste reduction and energy efficiency are. Lastly, success relies on trust – transparent communication, simplified labelling, and sustainability storytelling can drive brand and consumer adoption.

“The coaching calls were exceptionally helpful at providing an external, expert opinion on our user testing process and prototyping. Helpful to bounce ideas off our coach and restructure our approach at times because we spend our whole day at work on our product and can sometimes therefore lack appropriate perspective.”

Ori Blich, Head of Product at Carbon Cell

Kinewell Energy Ltd

Newcastle Upon Tyne Power Service

About the company

Kinewell Energy is a UK-based worldwide SME that provides ‘state of the art’ optimisation SaaS solutions to optimise the design of offshore wind farms. Their software includes tools to help design, model and streamline workflows when planning infrastructure like inter-array systems, export systems and turbine locations, and all the tools are underpinned by methodology to make rapid calculations. The team also provides consultancy services alongside their SaaS model.

Journey

Kinewell Energy is developing a complex industrial tool. User insights gathered through research led to improvements in user experience and interface design. Additionally, the evaluation process uncovered strategic opportunities for further development. The collaborative, open-minded approach facilitated a shift in perspective, emphasising not just tasks, but the achievement of broader end-goals.

Outcome

The support given by the Design Expert, helped the team refine their product, but also unexpectedly provided more strategic value by highlighting new opportunities that potentially impact the overall value proposition. As a result, the team feel that they now have more knowledge to take a broader approach to technical developments.

“Working with the Design Council and their expert has enabled Kinewell Energy to have the time to take a more design-centred approach. The meetings and conversations have changed the way we develop new features, and we’ve noticed end-usability is now a consideration much earlier than it was before.”

Dr Henna Bains, CTO, Kinewell Energy

Eluxevo Ltd

Chichester

Heat

Digital Product

About the company

Eluxevo Ltd is pioneering a sustainable approach to domestic heating that optimises home comfort. Their prototype system integrates infrared heating, lighting and control software with a unique user interface to create the ideal atmosphere. Research indicates that with the right conditions, comfort is enhanced, potentially reducing energy use and carbon emissions. Energy simulations show up to a 32% reduction in energy demand, with corresponding carbon savings, depending on the energy source.

Journey

Eluxevo conducted multiple rounds of user research, including a mocked-up experience, in-home diaries, photojournaling, follow-up interviews and installer feedback. The research addressed product feedback and explored user behaviours, beliefs and attitudes, crucial for identifying triggers and motivations to support the necessary behaviour change for their system’s adoption.

Outcome

Research insights identified potential “early adopters” more motivated to change behaviour, particularly individuals working from home in a single room or office space who seek optimal working conditions. The support also helped refine Eluxevo’s proposition, explore brand strategy and update communications to better align with these users’ needs.

“The support was excellent. It helped us to bring the outside in to our small team, develop and refine our research with users, and avoid confirmation bias. The pace was right, giving us time between biweekly/monthly session to turn planning into action into interpretation and insight.”

Eluxevo Ltd

Pivot

Pivoting is often seen as a response to failure, but this programme has shown that in the net zero market, it can instead be a sign of strategic agility and market awareness. In a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by policy changes, emerging technologies and changing user expectations, businesses must be able to adapt their propositions to remain competitive and impactful. Through design methodologies, some businesses in the

Pivot Journey

Explore adjacent opportunities

Design path

programme recognised that a pivot was necessary – not as a setback, but as a way to future-proof their project, unlock new commercial opportunities and better align with the most effective pathways to net zero adoption. While not all businesses need to pivot, those that did were able to make informed, research-led decisions that ultimately strengthened their positioning in the market and increased their potential for long-term success.

Revise the product / service

Reposition the value proposition

Adjust strategic direction

Design path

adjust, revise and reposition path, it might include explore other opportunities outside the initial scope

Adjust, revise, and reposition are key terms in the pivot design vocabulary. The pivot journey enables a business to refine its initial direction, revise its proposal, reposition ideas for a new target audience and explore adjacent opportunities.

Key learnings

Revise the product / service

Emphasises the need to significantly change the product or service, including its features and benefits.

Reposition the value proposition

Acknowledges the necessity to target a new audience, ensuring the offering resonates with their specific needs and expectations.

Adjust strategic direction

Recognises that the business needs to shift the strategic direction to better reflect the complexity of the net zero market landscape and longterm objectives.

Explore adjacent opportunities

Leverages research findings to pivot towards an adjacent offering, unlocking new growth avenues and strengthening market relevance.

Duku

Cheltenham

Mobility

Physical product

About the company

Duku is a leading UK Product Design consultancy with over a decade of experience bringing product ideas to market. Specialising in product design, development, CAD, 3D printing, electronics, and DFM, they have delivered over 500 successful products. The team began the project with a concept for accessible marine EV chargepoints, building on their success in designing accessible EV chargepoints for cars.

Journey

Duku’s team combined practical design research with stakeholder perspectives, including market factors like electric vessel adoption. They used tailored questionnaires, trials, interviews, and market research. Regular meetings with their coach provided valuable feedback. Tools like stakeholder mapping and a benefit matrix guided their approach, while research analysis identified key themes.

Outcome

The research uncovered practical constraints in the harsh marine environment, prompting Duku to pivot from their initial focus on accessible marine EV charging. The team refined the charge point design, considering location, features, and upgrade paths. The prototype allowed real-life user feedback, shaping the design to address industry needs and unpacked the unique challenges of electric propulsion in marine environment.

“Having the Design Council’s support in this project really contributed to the successful outcome. This was especially valuable in a research-led project providing practical ways to respond to the learnings, tools to help us pivot our approach, plus design feedback from an experienced industry expert.”

Andrew Aylesbury – Duku’s Director

Smart Origin Ltd

Coventry Power Service

About the company

Smart Origin helps manufacturing businesses manage energy and carbon independently through easy-to-use software and expert consultant support. Businesses at various stages of their NetZero journey can simulate their site and assess interventions like renewables, energy use changes, or storage. The software adapts to provide optimal, current recommendations, allowing businesses to visualise paybacks and benefits before investing.

Journey

The team initially identified an unaddressed market opportunity and developed a limited proof-of-principle prototype, however there was limitations in evidence base of customer needs and a clear business model. By collaborating with experts in strategic design, user experience and software development, Smart Origin conducted user insight tests and workshops to pivot their approach.

Outcome

Smart Origin leveraged program support to expand their market understanding, uncovering a larger potential value beyond initial ideas. Expert advice helped shape a roadmap, pivoting the value proposition and investment plans. Focusing on the customer journey, they integrated human consultants with technology to address diverse needs, while refining innovation KPIs to prepare for investment.

“The project used design perspectives to allow the team to manage the complex challenge of creating a disruptive new software product, which has the potential to significantly impact CO2 generation in industry.”

Stephen Irish – CEO Smart Origin

Loowatt Ltd

London

Make & Use

Physical product

About the company

Loowatt is an SME with teams in the UK, Madagascar and South Africa. On a mission to provide safe, dignified and circular economy sanitation systems, that start with a great toilet experience. The company provides innovative toilets that can be used in urban off-grid locations, for example, in underserved homes and communities which currently don’t have access to safe sanitation, and electric flush toilets for glamping, eco-tourism, hospitality, events and commercial applications where nonsewered toilet facilities are required.

Journey

After a comprehensive session exploring engineering, culture, and sales strategy, it became clear that while the proposition was commendable and ethically driven, it faced limitations, particularly in selling toilets and sanitation. Workshops focused on local humour revealed that blending satire and social commentary can make the offering memorable and highly engaging.

Outcome

The team reimagined sanitation not just as a necessity, but as an aspirational brand, using satirical techniques to address social issues like patriarchy, women’s safety, health, and career empowerment. This selfaware approach was inclusive. The sales strategy shifted, with female managers leading the initiative, embodying the values they aimed to promote.

“Perhaps the most significant impact of working with the Design Expert has been our team dynamic: Empowering women to devise and lead a bold marketing initiative, whilst coaching leadership to ‘lead from behind’. Culminating in the creation of powerful sales and marketing strategies; led by women, aimed at women, built on humour.”

Bradley Godbold, Head of Product, Loowatt

Understanding the Net Zero Market

The case studies demonstrate the importance of developing a good understanding of the net zero market in particular. User research uncovered insights about the needs, behaviours and pain points of stakeholders involved in sustainability transitions. Across the range of participating businesses a number of net zero themes emerged.

Key learnings

Identifying the appropriate key user segments for project propositions: understanding the different stakeholders (e.g., consumers, policymakers, supply chains) and their distinct motivations, challenges and decision-making processes regarding net zero goals.

Exploring behaviours and attitudes: investigating how users perceive and interact with sustainable solutions and what drives or hinders their adoption of climate technologies or energyefficient practices.

Assessing barriers and incentives: through carefully tailored user research analysing the obstacles preventing widespread adoption of net zero solutions, such as cost concerns, lack of knowledge or technical limitations, while identifying the incentives (e.g., cost savings, policy support, environmental impact) that encourage change.

This learning was substantiated across a range of businesses through their own user research insights. The findings often revealed that users prioritise other factors over net zero concerns, such as cost, comfort and convenience. When these “higher-order” needs are met, then net zero becomes a secondary consideration.

One participant shared,

“People generally do not prioritise carbon tracking for parking and are unlikely to be motivated by gamification related to it. This insight allowed us to focus on core elements of security and usability for our smart docks and app. It was an extremely valuable learning experience, preventing us from investing resources into features users were unlikely to adopt.”

Another participant noted,

“The reduction of carbon emissions is interesting for participants, but it doesn’t exclusively drive decisionmaking. Cost and comfort are still the primary motivators.”

Testing prototypes and concepts with users is crucial: using iterative prototyping to assess how different alternatives resonate with users, measuring user acceptance and refining offerings based on feedback.

Evaluating policy and regulatory impact: understanding how policy changes and regulatory frameworks influence user decisions and behaviours and ensuring that the solutions are adaptable to these changes.

Long-term user journey mapping: businesses should consider both their strategic roadmap and the entire user experience, from initial awareness to long-

term adoption of sustainable practices. This involves understanding user interactions at each stage of development and aligning them with business goals. By mapping key milestones and anticipating future needs, businesses can create scalable, adaptable solutions that remain effective and engaging as the market evolves. This approach ensures continuous improvement and longterm success in achieving net zero goals.

After completing the programme, participants rated their understanding of the net zero market as very good – 65.5%, 20% said excellent and 13.7% said good.

Participants understanding of net zero market after receiving design support

In response to the quantification of the environmental impact of the proposal, the majority of businesses responded yes (38%) or partially (45%).

The most common analysis tool was LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) that evaluates the potential environmental impacts of a product, material, process or activity.

How many participants quantified the environmental impact of their proposals

Source: IUK NZL User-Focused Design end of programme survey, sample 27 responses

“We have used expert consultants who work in LCA to give a framework for our assessment, upon which we overlayed what we know about our operations, raw materials, and product cycle supplemented with quantitative data from academic sources. Initially this was done in a simple Excel sheet, but we moved to using a digital tool with data plug-ins over the course of the project.”

Programme participant

The Broader Impact of Design Support

While the programme primarily focused on user research to help businesses overcome barriers and align their products with the net zero market, the coaching sessions provided broader strategic support.

The Design Council’s Generate framework provided a valuable tool for understanding the broader role of design in business.

Originally developed during the Designing Demand programme, a UK-wide business support initiative, the framework helped businesses identify opportunities where design bridges internal factors (vision and strategy) with external factors (customers and users). As the coaching evolved, many teams gained insights into the wider benefits of design, with some coaches using the Generate Framework to contextualise their research – demonstrating how design aligns business goals with market needs to drive innovation and impact.

Routes to market

Generate framework, a facilitation tool used within the programme by some coaches to broaden the focus of the coaching sessions and support businesses to identify other design and innovation opportunities.

Source: Designing Demand programme, Design Coucil

Beyond user-focused design, businesses gained valuable insights into branding, communication, team structures, company culture and overall business strategy.

Key broader areas of support included:

 Holistic design support: many businesses, depending on their growth stage, required additional guidance in brand positioning, value proposition development and impact strategy. A broader perspective helped them understand their place within the system, crucial for attracting early adopters and securing market positioning.

 Prototype fidelity challenges: striking the right balance in prototype fidelity was a common challenge, especially for businesses developing physical products. Novel and experiential solutions often require real-world testing, but overinvestment in prototyping can delay market entry and inflate costs.

 Stakeholder mapping and engagement: early stakeholder mapping was often overlooked, yet it proved essential for understanding diverse motivations, identifying alternative applications and refining business models. A well-mapped stakeholder ecosystem allowed businesses to navigate the wider system effectively and position themselves for success.

Businesses’ responses in the final survey highlighted the broader impact of the support received. Beyond user research, they emphasised benefits such as derisking the company, gaining an external

perspective to challenge assumptions, interpreting real-world complexity, and creating a stronger emotional connection with users – all of which contributed to their overall growth and strategic development.

“The Net Zero Living [programme] allowed us to get critical funding de-risking our company. This opened new private investments and the possibility of deploying our cleantech solution in real client sites. We quantified its impact and learned unique lessons from a user-centred design process. Our company benefited to a huge extent from the funding and support received.”

Programme participant

“We helped a business set up and analyse their user research which fed into refining the product user interface design, but insights also pointed to some opportunities with their brand and comms, so we set up and ran a brand strategy workshop with the help of Lesley Gulliver –a Branding Expert.”

Neil Gridley, Design Council Expert

For some businesses, working with experienced design coaches was seen as transformative. For non-design specialists, the coaching significantly accelerated development, improved focus and increased the overall impact of their projects.

“The

programme is an invaluable experience that deepens your understanding of design, problemsolving and decision-making. With expert guidance and hands-on support, it helps you overcome challenges, refine ideas and build confidence in your approach. It was a transformative journey that enhanced both creativity and practical design skills.”

Programme participant

“The experience has been enlightening. As non-design specialists, working with someone like Jonathan Ball allowed us to develop our service more rapidly and with greater focus. The impact has been incredibly positive, and we thoroughly enjoyed working on the project.”

Programme participant

By broadening their understanding of design’s strategic role, businesses were able to integrate these insights into their product development, branding and business strategy, ultimately strengthening their position in the net zero market.

Key Findings

 There is a design skills gap around understanding both of users and user research. Bridging this design skills gap through deepening understanding of user research ensures products, services, and systems are designed around real user needs, behaviours, and challenges.

 Integrating user-focused design methodologies will take businesses on one of three kinds of innovation journeys:

 Validation focuses on user and stakeholder acceptance, highlighting the need for user understanding and user support to drive behavioural change

 Refinement focuses on enhancing the user experience, with a redesign of key features to improve usability and engagement

 Pivot stresses the importance of revising the product or service, being willing to make significant adjustments to its features and benefits to better align with market demands.

 There are significant complexities within the net zero market. Prototyping, testing, and adapting to policy changes are essential for refining solutions. Longterm user journey mapping ensures businesses align their strategies with evolving user needs and market dynamics, supporting sustainable, scalable solutions for net zero goals.

“Firstly, we felt valued as a business, and this has as had a significant impact on our team effort and the belief in what we can achieve. Secondly, the support brought the value of the ‘outside in’ with expertise and recommendations that (positively) challenged, validated, and motivated our approach to exploring and interpreting real-world complexity. Thirdly, extracting valuable insights to inform why we do what we do, prioritise what we do, and optimise how we do it, from the perspective of our users, and broader stakeholders and related systems. These three elements combined have offered us the clarity to envisage, almost touch, the future and therefore define true value through innovation, objectively and subjectively, for a sustainable future (business, people, planet).”

Programme participant

6 Recommendations

“The programme is an invaluable experience that deepens your understanding of design.”

Programme participant

This section consolidates insights from the monitoring meetings with Design Council experts, and analyses of businesses’ initial and final surveys to provide valuable recommendations for future programmes addressing barriers to the net zero transition.

Programme Design: Combining Co-Design with Agility

Co-design the programme: involving all stakeholders from the outset in competition and programme design works well to ensure the support is tailored to business growth stages, diverse needs and varying levels of design knowledge, helping manage complexity.

Tailor support to business archetypes: where possible this programme integrated domain-specific design expertise to address industry challenges. In future, consider targeted initiatives for distinct business archetypes, such as start-ups, scale-ups, or established enterprises.

Provide flexible coaching models: adapting the intensity and focus of coaching sessions to each business’s needs works well to ensure personalised and relevant support, as does combining coaching expertise – for example, joint workshops on key topics such as branding and service blueprinting.

Keep a structured rhythm: establishing a structured cadence, integrating in-person workshops and peer learning sessions strengthens the cohort experience, fostering connection, engagement and sustained support – which is particularly vital for remote or long-duration programmes with businesses and experts spread across diverse locations.

Innovation Landscape: Strengthening Living Labs for Exploratory Research

Integrate design with business modelling: integrating business modelling from the start can improve the innovation propositions of businesses, ensuring that innovations are technically sound and commercially viable. This approach can aid in finding market opportunities, refining value propositions and creating solutions that resonate with the target audience.

Create a consistent Living Labs network: to better support innovation, businesses must understand the role of exploratory research in shaping research direction and focus. This ensures they develop the right product rather than merely refining the current one. Strengthening the capability and consistency of Living Labs is crucial for delivering dependable insights.

Living Labs can serve as dedicated spaces for exploratory research, offering a designled approach that helps businesses validate, refine, or pivot assumptions. By testing research objectives, scenarios, methods, and schedules in advance, they can mitigate risks and optimise outcomes.

However, the UK Living Lab network would benefit from:

 Reviewing the consistency and definition of Living Labs, ensuring clarity in research capabilities

 Enhancing collaboration between Living Labs to support thematic intersections (e.g., mobility and energy)

 Creating and publishing a map of Living Labs to clarify how businesses can engage effectively

 Mapping available Living Labs against business needs to identify gaps

Net Zero Market: Addressing Complexity

Prioritise insight into diverse market attitudes: net zero propositions often challenge existing practices and ways of thinking and doing. Without deep insights into user preferences, businesses risk misaligned strategies that fail to address the varied needs of their audiences.

Develop consistent impact measurement: the ability to measure the net zero impact of products and services varies significantly. Some projects can clearly demonstrate carbon reduction, while others are more abstract and deliver impact over a longer timescale or other types of impact such as social and democratic. There is a lack of knowledge and consistency in measuring environmental, social, democratic, financial impact and net zero contributions in this space.

Consider a sector-focused approach: there needs to be a deeper exploration into the challenges of the market to reveal hidden opportunities, identify gaps in business propositions and gain new market insights. How could an entire industry transition to net zero? How can we ensure inclusivity beyond just the most engaged ‘net zero heroes’?

Connect the ecosystem: a scoping project could identify ways to strengthen sector supply chains and ecosystems, fostering innovation through collaboration. By connecting supply chains and applying design methods, businesses can better uncover net zero opportunities and challenges.

Leveraging Innovate UK’s wider Net Zero Living programme network, including partnerships with public sector organisations, can further stimulate market demand.

Integrate design to refine propositions: design is essential in driving SME demand for sustainable products and services by facilitating behavioural change. Shifting from data-led approaches to integrated design strategies can enhance funding opportunities and impact.

By bridging knowledge gaps and standardising environmental impact measurement, design ensures net zero initiatives are both credible and effective. It also balances sustainability with consumer appeal, making sustainable choices more accessible and desirable whilst enhancing business offerings.

Build evidence towards net zero living design impact: it is essential to build robust evidence of the impact that design can have in the net zero living domain. To achieve this, a national review should be commissioned, focused on harnessing creativity, design and innovation to tackle the net zero challenge. The review should integrate key insights from the Net Zero Living initiative, previous Design Council programmes and the evolving needs of UK businesses.

The learnings from this programme will serve as valuable tools to enrich the Design Council’s Design Value Framework. This could then inform the design and implementation of support programmes that align with this framework, ensuring measurable impact.

Sector:

Building Sector-Specific Capabilities

Integrate systems thinking to address sector complexities: businesses often lack the experience to navigate complex sector systems, leading to inefficiencies and misaligned priorities. Early integration of systems thinking is essential for managing dependencies and addressing these complexities.

Apply design thinking to sector as a whole: as businesses operate in complex environments, a deeper understanding of sector-specific challenges is key to providing targeted support. This presents an opportunity to identify and map potential capacity needs.

Promote sector standards: the lack of sector-specific standards in the net zero space creates inconsistencies and limits business reliability. Establishing and promoting these standards through design projects and collaboration can unify efforts toward net zero goals.

Businesses:

Towards Comprehensive Design Support

Involve design early: Engaging with design earlier could help businesses better understand emerging market dynamics and align products with broader system needs, potentially revealing different motivators and alternative business models that align more closely with market expectations.

Involve design throughout: Early and sustained design involvement enables businesses to refine their propositions alongside brand and mission development, helping them navigate complex challenges, make informed decisions and maximise the impact of their innovations.

While the programme primarily focused on user research to help businesses align their products with the net zero market, coaching sessions provided broader strategic support. By deepening their understanding of design’s strategic role, businesses integrated these insights into product development, branding, and overall business strategy –ultimately strengthening their market position and accelerating their net zero transition.

“The programme demonstrated that customercentric design goes beyond meeting the basic needs of customers; it aims to create a personalised and relevant user experience. By understanding the preferences and behaviours of our target audience, we were able to tailor our offerings to create a strong emotional connection with their customers – building brand loyalty.”

Programme participant

People:

Developing Collaborative Platforms

Bridge the skills gap: while coaching made significant progress in addressing skills gaps around user-focused research, a broader understanding of design is still needed. Many participants required stronger foundational skills to develop clear research briefs and conduct effective research. Embedding these capabilities earlier in the process will empower businesses to fully leverage design, apply user research insights and develop solutions that align more closely with user needs – ultimately reducing future challenges and accelerating the transition to net zero.

To support this area in future programmes, consider developing comprehensive information packages and interactive group sessions that train participants on essential design topics while inspiring a deeper appreciation for its broader impact. Topics could include how to procure and collaborate with designers, conducting effective user research, building a strong brand identity and crafting and delivering compelling pitches.

Create collaborative platforms for innovation and net zero learning: to foster meaningful connections and drive innovation, it is essential to develop collaborative platforms that bring together key stakeholders, including coaches, businesses and users. These platforms will serve as catalysts for networking, knowledge-sharing and cross-sector collaboration. By creating structured opportunities for networking between coaches and businesses, exchange of expertise is encouraged.

Identifying safe and permissible avenues for peer-to-peer learning will accelerate knowledge-sharing on net zero strategies. By connecting professionals across different sectors, we can enable a diverse range of perspectives, fostering innovative approaches that might not emerge in siloed environments. Establishing platforms to highlight impact, success stories and the processes behind them – including both triumphs and failures – will provide valuable insights.

Broaden specialist business support: in future programs, assess business needs holistically and direct businesses to targeted support, including IP, legal, investment, branding, communications and prototyping facilities, ensuring they receive relevant and effective assistance.

Designing for Planet 7

‘Good design is, for people and the planet, an increasingly critical focus.’

UK Innovation Strategy 2021

The climate crisis demands a radical shift in how we innovate, and design has a critical role to play in making that shift possible. By demonstrating how design can help businesses create net zero solutions that are not only technically viable but also desirable, usable and impactful, the User Focused Design programme described in this report shows what the Design Council’s mission, Design for Planet looks like in action. In practical terms, the programme wasn’t just about helping businesses conduct user research – it was about embedding design as a strategic tool to shape innovations that genuinely work for people and the planet.

Designing for Planet ask us to rethink how we design, and accordingly, the programme enabled businesses to embrace this mindset, using design thinking not just to refine products and services but to fundamentally reshape their customer relationships, market strategies or even business models. For many businesses in the programme, this meant going beyond their initial assumptions – pivoting their propositions, reconsidering materials and production methods and challenging their own role in the net zero economy.

At the heart of the programme was a recognition that design’s greatest impact happens when it is integrated early and applied systemically. Just as Design for Planet calls for design to be embedded across industries, this programme showed businesses the power of bringing design into the core of their innovation processes – not as an afterthought, but as a fundamental driver of success. By equipping them with design-led methodologies, we helped them move beyond incremental improvements to rethink their solutions at a deeper level, ensuring they were not only commercially viable but also aligned with the long-term needs of a sustainable economy.

A crucial outcome of the programme was its role in building business literacy when it comes to commissioning design, which – alongside designers’ skills and government support – creates public value, a key element in achieving Design for Planet’s mission. With 80% of a product’s environmental impact determined at the design stage, building design literacy in businesses – who are ultimately commissioners of design, and sometimes designers themselves – was a crucial step in ensuring that sustainability was embedded from the outset. By equipping them with the tools to rethink about their potential stakeholders, reconsider potential markets and use user research to shape more impactful outcomes, among others, the programme ensured that businesses were not just adopting design principles but actively shaping the future of net zero innovation.

Ultimately, when businesses make more informed design choices, they create solutions that are not only commercially viable but also accessible, sustainable and aligned with real-world needs. By strengthening the capacity of individual businesses, the programme helped reinforce the role of design as a critical enabler in the broader transition to a regenerative economy – one where products and services are designed to benefit both people and the planet.

We hope that this programme is a leading example of harnessing the power of design to drive systemic change that benefits society, while also demonstrating how it can lead us to a system that restores the planet’s life resource systems in a regenerative economy of the future. By focusing on refining, pivoting and validating net zero propositions through a design lens, the programme didn’t just help individual businesses – it contributed to a broader shift in how innovation is approached in the net zero space. The impact of this work goes beyond the businesses themselves, reinforcing the idea that good design isn’t just about solving problems – it’s about reshaping the systems that create them in the first place.

References

UK Government (2022) UK Net Zero research and innovation framework delivery plan 2022 to 2025. Available at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/ uk-Net-Zero-research-and-innovationframework-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025/ uk-Net-Zero-research-and-innovationframework-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025 (Accessed: January 2025).

UK Government (2023) Powering Up Britain: Net Zero Growth Plan. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/powering-up-britain/ powering-up-britain-net-zero-growth-plan (Accessed: January 2025).

UK Government (2021) UK Net Zero Strategy. Available at: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/1033990/Net-Zero-strategy-beis.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

Ofgem (2020) A report on consumer attitudes towards decarbonisation and Net Zero. Available at: https:// www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ docs/2020/10/consumer_attitudes_towards_ decarbonisation_and_net_zero_1.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

House of Lords Library (2022) Net Zero and behaviour change. Available at: https:// lordslibrary.parliament.uk/Net-Zero-andbehaviour-change (Accessed: January 2025).

UK Government (2023) Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/clean-power-2030action-plan/242aa00e-a82e-4f29-a7859d7d690a1230 (Accessed: January 2025).

Innovate UK (IUK) (2024) Accelerating the Net Zero transition 2024. Available at: https:// www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ IUK-101224-NetZeroReview2024.pdf (Accessed: January 2025).

Design Council (2021) Design Economy: The design value framework. Design Council. Available at: https://www. designcouncil.org.uk/resources/report/ design-economy-design-value-framework (Accessed: February 2025).

Credits

Authors

Susana Soares and Maria Giraldo

With support of Neil Gridley and Neal Stone

Delivery team

Design Council

Sarah Booth

Maria Giraldo

Edmond Hobson

Hugo Jamson

Feyidara Olawuyi

Susana Soares

Design Council Experts

Jonathan Ball

Darren Evans

Neil Gridley

Lesley Gulliver

Sean Miller

Jude Pullen

Neal Stone

Kathryn Woolf

Copywriter

Alice Huntley

Acknowledgements

Work was funded by Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme

About UKRI and Innovate UK

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) provides funding to researchers, businesses and universities, investing in science and innovation in the UK to support the delivery of the Government’s net zero strategy.

Innovate UK, one of nine constituent parts of UKRI, is the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK. Innovate UK supports business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies, and UK regions.

Innovate UK funds the £60 million threeyear Net Zero Living programme. The programme is designed to help places use innovative approaches to open up local and regional markets for carbon reduction measures and ensure UK places and communities thrive as part of the transition to net zero.

For more information, including getting involved with Innovate UK’s activities, please contact James Taplin at: james.taplin@iuk.ukri.org