{"id":6891,"date":"2025-11-27T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=6891"},"modified":"2025-11-29T07:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:14:03","slug":"top-designers-explore-whether-the-private-sector-can-move-the-needle-on-un-sdgs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=6891","title":{"rendered":"Top designers explore whether the private sector can move the needle on UN SDGs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2022, designers from ten of the world\u2019s largest organizations joined hands for a charitable cause. Their alliance, Design for Good<\/a>, brainstormed ideas on how to tackle the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and worked with organizations on the ground to make sure they worked in practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEvery time you design something, you\u2019re making an active choice on the future you want to build,\u201d Ben Sheppard, Design For Good founder and former McKinsey head of global design research, tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Design For Good alliance includes global companies like Microsoft, General Mills, LIXIL, Airbus and DBS, among others, as members. <\/p>\n

While designers make up less than 1% of working professionals, they \u201chave to sit up and take responsibility,\u201d he says, given the potential that they have to make change happen.<\/p>\n

The first cohort of designers for Design For Good wrapped up their work in 2024; now, their projects are starting to be implemented in real world conditions, and potentially show whether design really can tackle global problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Design for Good works in two-year timelines, tackling one SDG at a time. The first cohort, which started in 2022 and wrapped last year, focused on trying to improve sanitation and access to clean water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The alliance is now in the middle of its second cohort, which started in 2024 and targets access to quality education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet the results of Design For Good\u2019s first set of designs are still scaling today.<\/p>\n

Sheppard cited WaterStarters<\/a>\u2014an app born of the 2022 cohort\u2014as an example. The app is designed for technicians and franchisee managers overseeing rural water resources in Kenya, allowing them to track and complete maintenance tasks. It is free to download on the Google Play store.<\/p>\n

According to its Play store listing, WaterStarters\u2019 creators built the app to empower local communities to safeguard their water resources, and \u201censure a consistent and reliable water supply\u201d to improve \u201chealth, hygiene and economic opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, Sheppard says the app has helped over 50,000 people in Kenya access clean drinking water. By the end of 2030, this number could increase to 1.5 million.<\/p>\n

Another initiative Design For Good\u2019s designers helped create was the Uhuru care cards<\/a>\u2014a menstrual health education tool\u2014in partnership with a charity, Her Best Foot Forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Africa, girls are stigmatized as unclean, and are not supposed to go to school when they\u2019re on their period, causing them to miss as much as a month of school each year,\u201d Sheppard says.<\/p>\n

The cards have been introduced to over 10,000 students across 12 schools in Tanzania, and is estimated to gain traction in four schools in neighbouring Uganda.<\/p>\n

Before Design for Good decides which SDG to target, it consults with the UN to understand which goal the world is most lagging behind on. It then studies the key performance indicators set by the UN, and determines which can benefit from an extra jolt of design, research, and engineering input.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some [goals] which are much better suited for government policy, and others which are much better for direct action,\u201d Sheppard says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Design for Good assesses the capabilities of their alliance members. \u201cMany of them will publish their own sustainability reports, their own areas of focus and expertise\u2014and we want to bring the best of their abilities to the UN goals,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Once an SDG is chosen, the alliance nominates an expert as their advisor. They brought on Gilbert Houngbo<\/a>\u2014then chair of UN Water\u2014for the first cohort, and Valtencir M. Mendes<\/a>, UNESCO\u2019s chief of education, for their second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to have someone who is able to guide [the designers] and make sure that we make the best use of the knowledge which is available,\u201d Sheppard says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking forward, Design for Good\u2019s third iteration will be its first \u201cdual cycle,\u201d where the SDGs of achieving human and planetary health will be tackled in tandem. It will begin in September 2026, and end in 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a dying planet with healthy humans in it,\u201d Sheppard explains, when asked why the two SDGs were chosen. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of research which shows that people\u2019s health and the environment around them are inextricably interlinked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortune\u2019s Brainstorm Design conference returns on Dec. 2 at the MGM Macau! Join speakers like Gilbert Workshop managing partner Phil Gilbert, Design for Good founder Ben Sheppard, IDEO CEO Mike Peng, and\u00a0Samsung\u00a0chief design officer Mauro Porcini for a day of deep discussions on this year\u2019s theme: \u201cFuture Tense: Prototyping Tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0Register here!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2022, designers from ten of the world\u2019s largest organizations joined hands for a charitable cause. Their alliance, Design for Good, brainstormed ideas on how to tackle the United Nations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":841,"featured_media":6892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[7984,6516,614,615,6568,7985,4533,264],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nTop designers explore whether the private sector can move the needle on UN SDGs - Frisco Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cEvery time you design something, you're making an active choice on the future you want to build,\u201d says Ben Sheppard, founder of Design for Good.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=6891\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top designers explore whether the private sector can move the needle on UN SDGs - 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