The role of design professionals in Ecodesign: Advocating for environmental sustainability in practice

Design and creative industries significantly influence sustainability outcomes, with up to 80% of the environmental impact of a product being determined at the design stage. Despite decades of Ecodesign research, its adoption within creative industries remains limited, and formal Ecodesign training is often absent or intermittent. This study examines how design professionals perceive and implement Ecodesign in practice and the role of ‘Green Champions’, those who are actively advocating for environmental sustainability in their organizations. Using a multi-method approach involving surveys, focus groups, and action research with over 400 design professionals. The study identifies that while Ecodesign tools and frameworks exist, designers often remain unsupported, under-informed, or constrained by organizational factors. Key contributions include: (1) adapting the Green Champion concept to the design consultancy sector; (2) empirically identifying 16 practitioner-defined environmental sustainability factors that shape design practice; and (3) co-designing user-informed tool features to support Ecodesign adoption.