3. Roll-out progressive environmental regulation and incentives across all design sub-sectors:

3. Roll-out progressive environmental regulation and incentives across all design sub-sectors:

To align design’s economic value with environmental commitments.

Recommendation summary: DESNZ and DEFRA should audit legislation in all design sub-sectors, assessing their alignment to environmental targets, then roll out updated or new green regulation and standards across the whole design economy.

The audit should pinpoint where existing regulation can be ‘retrofitted’ to align with the UK’s net zero strategy and wider targets such as biodiversity and resource use, and where there are regulatory gaps for design which need addressing urgently.

New policy should focus on targeting the regulation ‘upstream’ at the performance-standard requirements which influence the design and commissioning stage of a product or building’s development, so that negative environmental outcomes can be ‘designed-out’ from the outset.

Rationale and context

With 80% of the environmental impact of any new product determined at the design stage and 25% of the UK’s carbon footprint coming from the built environment, it is critical that design’s economic value is realigned with the government’s own environmental targets and our planetary boundaries.

However current environmental regulation is highly fragmented across design sub-sectors and between UK nations. There are already several good environmental standards in place, from the National Planning Policy Framework in the built environment, to Ecodesign standards in electrical products. The UK government needs to build on these precedents to ensure consistent and authoritative regulation across all design-subsectors and industries – from fashion to packaging design.

Design commissioners and investors need clear, progressive, and modern regulation and standards to take advantage of net zero opportunities. Regulation can create and shape markets, directing innovation efforts where they are most needed, and tilting the playing field so that green design isn’t undercut by climate laggards.

Supporting asks

Implement existing standards effectively: Regulations like Extended Producer Responsibility, the ‘environmental net gain’ principle, Ecodesign standards, Future Homes and Buildings Standards, and the ban on single use plastics; need expediting with firm enforcement, and then expanding on fixed timescales.

Implement eco-labels, including indicators for durability and repairability widely, using a design-led approach to ensure that future labelling schemes meet consumer needs.

Explore Mandatory Product Standards and embodied carbon limits for a wider range of products, such as clothing, technology, and white goods.

Leverage public procurement by introducing top-of-the field carbon, biodiversity, and resource efficiency metrics into public sector commissioning, pump-priming the emerging private sector market for regenerative and green design.