/The Oslo Manifesto
The SDGs are a design brief for the 21st century.
On 25 September 2015, when the 193 Member States of the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) they also created the world’s most demanding design brief.
/The SDGs are “universal”: this means they apply to every nation, every sector, every business, every profession, including design and architecture.
/The SDGs are about “integration”: this means they demand a new emphasis on a systemic approach that does not sacrifice environmental and social considerations to economic gain, but rather seeks for true synergies and solutions that benefit people, nature, and prosperity.
/Finally, the SDGs are about “transformation”: this means they challenge us to rethink the way we live, to rebuild all the systems that are degrading ecological and human health — and to make our world sustainable.
/In sum, the SDGs are the ultimate design and architecture challenge: how do we create, and recreate, a world that achieves all 17 of the visionary goals that have now been agreed to by all the world’s nations?
And how do we achieve this by the year 2030?
The designers, architects, and creative professionals of the world have been handed a special and enormous responsibility, given to them by the 193 heads of state. They must imagine and bring to life the design elements of a new, sustainable world — quickly.
/01
How can this design contribute to the goal of ending poverty in all its forms, everywhere?
/02
How can this design contribute to ending hunger and encouraging the transition to sustainable agriculture?
/03
How can this design help ensure healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages?
/04
How can this design support quality education and lifelong learning?
/05
How can this design advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls?
/06
How can this design help ensure the sustainable management of water and universal access to sanitation?
/07
How can this design contribute to a sustainable energy transition?
/08
How can this design promote decent work for all?
/09
How can this design advance sustainable industrialization and innovation, especially in those places that do not have access to modern industry?
/10
How can this design help to reduce inequality within and among countries?
/11
How can this design make our cities more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable?
/12
How can this design transform production and consumption patterns, to make them more sustainable?
/13
How can this design be part of the urgent action that is needed to combat climate change and its impacts?
/14
How can this design be part of caring for our oceans and seas?
/15
How can this design help to protect and restore ecosystems and preserve biodiversity?
/16
How can this design contribute to the development peaceful, inclusive, and just societies?
/17
How can this design advance the global partnership needed to achieve all of these goals?
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What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

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By signing the Oslo Manifesto you make a commitment to bringing a sense of caring for the whole world to every design project you undertake, as well as to the process of lifelong learning about the way design impacts our world, its lifeforms, and its systems.
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Name/Contact Name | Individual, organization, company or group? | Country | Action Statement |
---|---|---|---|
Marimar Sanz | Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México | Mexico | To promote social design, in the academic fields through links with NGOs |
Florian Zietz | Librito.de | Germany | Wir als Designer bemühen uns, unsere gesellschaftliche Verantwortung wahrzunehmen. Das Engagement hat auch wirtschaftliche Vorteile: Am nachhaltigen Design wird in naher Zukunft kein Weg vorbeiführen. |
Marlyn Martinez | Marlyn Martínez | United States | I am currently taking action by developing solutions that will make communities more resilient to climate change and improve biodiversity in the ocean and waterways. I will adopt the SDG's as principles to design by. |
Alison Metcalfe | Salud Shoppe | United States | I plan to take action by measuring the waste of our remnants and defining ways to reduce the waste or recycle the waste we create from building our garments. We will support women owned businesses and have open dialogue about fair wages and pricIng. |
Carmen Artigas | Individual | United States | I provide design direction to solve challenges related to developing sustainable products and adhering to transparency, traceability and circularity in the supply chain while showing companies how to responsibly improve environmental impact throughout the manufacturing lifecycle and expand productivity by enhancing working conditions. |
Roberto Iñiguez | ITESM | Mexico | I take action by working with students, professors and community creating a new citizenship, responsible for the future. |
Gabriela Mager | Brazil | I will fight to advance sustainable industrialization and innovation, especially in those places that do not have access to modern industry | |
Christhard Landgraf | zappo | Germany | Viele kleine Schritte sind kein Verrat am Ziel. |
michael haywood | the haywood group | Canada | mentioning the Oslo Manifesto in a soon-to-be-published book, Astonish! Smarter Tourism by design, and encouraging readers, organizations and communities to bring the Manifesto to life. |
Federico Hess | ITESM Campus Santa Fe | Mexico | Promote these goals between our faculty members and stimulate that every project brings a sense of caring and meets at least several of these goals. |
Rodrigo Manfredi | Rodrigo Manfredi | Brazil | Design is Business - and only human centric design can shape the business to a next level of experience that transforms the production, consumption and the way we connect to our environment . |
Paulo Reis | Agência UFRJ de Inovação | Brazil | The HUB UFRJ is a networked laboratory of experimental projects, that brings together students from various areas of knowledge of our university - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro / Brazil - under the logic of the maker culture, focusing on social, integrative, commercial, technological and entrepreneurial actions. These are projects that occur outside the classroom space, serving as a place for interconnection between research laboratories, experimentation, knowledge generation and multilevel integration. It is, therefore, a social, institutional and technological innovation. |
Dave Potts | United Kingdom | I plan to apply and promote the principles of the Oslo manifesto. | |
Liv Siri Syvertsen | Norway | I plan to take action by always having a holistic and long-term mindset in my job as an urban planner. In my daily life I will bike more and use less resources! | |
Madelene skog | Norway | Make my work sustainable and good for everyone. | |
Peter Selmer-Eide | REBEL LIGHT | Norway | This is maybe the most important issue of our time - and we will do our part! Step by step - we will make a change. |
Bert Odenthal | Odenthal Design | Germany | I'm so lucky to join the Oslo Manifesto. For a long time I design for sustainable change. The SDGs will be a good compass for the next 15 years. Let's transform the world! |
Aslak Juell Kristensen | Aslak Juell Kristensen | Norway | Clean energy now! Cycle more! Eco and cycle economics! |
Carl-Gustaf Lundholm | EGGS Design | Norway | In spite of various trends and events telling me otherwise I have always believed in a bright future. It will require hard work and some really painful prioritisations, but I think and hope that we will get there. I am striving to deliver on my vision in my daily work designing products and advising clients to make the right decisions. I believe design can have a powerful role in creating a better world, so let´s go create it. |
Sara Fosstvedt | Global Goals Games | Norway | We believe saving the planet can be the most engaging and inspiring activity for all people- In their everyday life and work. |
E Heinrich-Sanchez | Imagine if... Productions /World O.C.E.A.N.'s I Love Campaigns | Japan | Creating awareness in schools between Okinawa (Ryukyu Is, Japan), Hawai-i , Denver, Colorado, Canary Islands, Spain. Not only elementary school students but MBA students and everyone in between needs to come aboard and make the 17 Global Goals part of their daily life. |
Kyrre | Erlikpluss - Bærekraftig Utvikling | Norway | We will continue to implementing sustainable design thinking in all of our projects! |
Birgitta Fontél | Denmark | My philosophy in design is that working with industrial design we have a responsibility always to choose the most sustainable solution in both material and production, and to make sure that the design we produce is solving the problem it was created to solve sufficiently. | |
Pernille Bache | pernille bache DESIGN | Norway | As a designer I have the possibility to contribute to a sustainable world, from the first thought of a product. |
Rita Westvik | UrbanFeed AS | Norway | GROW YOUR SMART CITY! |
Name/Contact Name | Individual, organization, company or group? | Country | Action Statement |
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