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Hello! Tell us something about your self and your interest in sustainability and plastics 

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Hello! Tell us something about your self and your interest in sustainability and plastics 

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Once you have been accepted to join the Sandpit please add your details to the connections board by clicking the link above.

This helps to build networks so you can connect before, during and after the event.

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If you want to add a website, a document, a photo then just click on the + button in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. You can then post your content

To add to other content just go to add a comment and write your comment, then press return!

You do not need an account to view or add material to the pinboard.

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The event starts with networking at 9.30 and closes at 3.40 with an hour for lunch

A detailed programme is attached and if you find it helpful to have time to prepare for the workshop there are preparation prompts to support this.

However, if you just need to have a quick overview then use this link for the summary programme

Programme Overview

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Sustainability and Plastics March 13th Detailed Agenda

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The Warwick Polymer Group (WPG) brings together scientists and engineers at Warwick who have wide expertise in the education and research of one of the most widely debated materials of the 21st century: polymers.

Whereas polymers were hailed as wonder materials in the 1920s-1980s, these macromolecular materials have become a victim of their success two-fold: (1) Most of the synthetic polymers are made from a petrochemical feedstock, and (2) what to do with polymers at the end of a products life?

The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Planetary Boundaries make one thing clear, if we want our planet and us to survive. We have to make a radical change in how we manufacture, use, and value products that contain polymers.

The Warwick Cross Faculty Plastics Group is a broader STEM+ group of people from across the science, arts, and humanities disciplines.

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The Warwick Polymer Group is one of the UK’s top research centres in the area of Polymer Science and Engineering. It aims to make plastics environmentally sustainable. Its STEM+ initiative to provide leadership, training, education, knowledge and innovation.

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Choose projects

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Key dates:

13th March: Facilitated sandpit with networking opportunities. Funding application opens.

28th March: Funding applications close

7th April: Outcomes announced

14th April: Project start

31st July: Project end

Funding is available for between £1k and £5k per per project. At the Nexus Sandpit in 2024 we funded 2 projects from the ideas submitted.

Your funding request must align with our overall EPSRC funding (so will need a strong Engineering/Physical Science element) but we welcome applications that have input from other faculties and research groups. For example you could submit an idea of new material with a business analyst providing the business case and risk analysis that underlies the scientific approach

Applications for funding is only open to individuals who have attended the whole Sandpit Day (and submitted their profile to the Connections Board!) This will include people who are studying at Masters level (by research) PHd students, Post Docs, Technicians and Researchers up to and including Assistant Professors.

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What do we do about plastic waste? How can we create a business model that works?

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What do we do about plastic waste? How can we create a business model that works?

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Stiphout Plastics joins Blue Cycle, Vinylrecycling, Ioniqa, and Umincorp, amongst others, in filing for bankruptcy in the Netherlands.

Why are all these businesses that are focused on recycling plastic waste finding it so hard to make the business viable in the long term?

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How about Polymers in Liquid Formulations? 

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How about Polymers in Liquid Formulations? 

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Royal Society of Chemistry has teamed up with industry leaders to create a road map to sustainable PLFs.

Read more about their work here....

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Very few outside of the chemical industries will have heard of Polymers in Liquid Formulations – or PLFs – but almost everyone in the world interacts with them daily.
Found in millions of consumer and industrial products, they are part of our everyday lives – read about the PLF sustainability issues and recommendations for change and download the technical report.

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The UK research and innovation (R&I) sector have co-developed a voluntary environmental sustainability concordat. The concordat represents a shared ambition for the UK to continue delivering cutting-edge research, but in a more environmentally responsible and sustainable way.

Read more in this summary from Wellcome

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Skip to main content
This website will not work correctly in Internet Explorer 11 and it is strongly recommended that you upgrade to an up-to-date browser. Internet Explorer 11 will go out of support and be retired on June 15, 2022. For more information on upgrading please see browser-update.org.

The aim of the concordat is to ensure research and innovation continues to play a critical part in understanding how our planet is changing, while helping the sector to act responsibly to protect and promote our environment

By signing this concordat, signatories:

recognise the need to change how we conduct research and innovation as well as promote wider solutions

agree to take shared action now and in the future to reduce and eliminate our own negative environmental impacts and emissions and achieve the transition to sustainable practices.

This concordat has been produced in collaboration with representatives across the research and innovation sector (including universities, research Institutes, catapults and funding organisations) so that the sector can deliver a shared ambition as part of meeting the global challenge.

Join a webinar about the concordat

This webinar will provide an overview of the concordat's goals, progress to date, and future directions. This webinar will also include a Q&A for open discussion, such as the barriers and challenges to the sector, tools and resources and knowledge sharing.

As part of our Environmental Sustainability Policy , Wellcome requires organisations we fund in the UK to be signatories of the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice by the end of 2024.

Organisations can show their support for the concordat at two levels: as a signatory or as a supporter.

Signatories: Signatory organisations agree to all six priority areas that are outlined in this concordat.

Supporters: Supporters of the concordat agree with the aims and many of the priority areas included in the concordat, however they are not able to commit to being a full signatory at this time. Supporters can become signatories at any time, as and when they can agree to the commitments in the concordat.

Signing up to the concordat is a commitment to the concordat's aims, and signatories are not expected to follow the terms on the day of signing.

To sign up, your organisation must:

For questions about the concordat, contact the Environmental Association for Univeristies and Colleges's (EAUC) dedicated inbox.

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Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice

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The UK research and innovation (R&I) sector have co-developed a voluntary environmental sustainability concordat. Providing aims and guidance, the concordat represents a shared ambition for the UK to continue delivering cutting-edge research, but in a more environmentally responsible and sustainable way.

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An Example of A Project from our Nexus Sandpit in 2024

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An Example of A Project from our Nexus Sandpit in 2024

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Nexus is an exciting project that emerged from the Early Career Researchers (ECR) program at Warwick, specifically designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with industry partners.

This project provides an exciting opportunity to gain a better understanding of the available resources and interconnectedness of the food, energy and water (FEW) sectors, and to provide solutions to underlying challenges in areas of concern.

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A Research Sandpit is many things, but it is not actually to do with Sand at all!

The phrase was used to describe a methodology that would help to produce innovative ideas to solve complex "wicked problems" by bringing together researchers from different disciplines into a space that encourages free thinking and ideas generation.

A "Full Fat" Sandpit takes place over 5 days and after getting to know each other groups start to form and iterate ideas, getting feedback from others. It is a co-operative process with a competitive element at the end as not all groups will get the funding.

The best approach is to see the funding as a cherry on the cake, and appreciate the cake itself as the thing of beauty and value! A successful Sandpit participant is someone who is curious about the experience, comes with an open mind and a willingness to learn from others. These participants make new connections, learn new insights, open up new possibilities and go away a stronger researcher.

A "mini" Sandpit like today is an attempt to share some of the methods with you, to give you a taster of the experience and to see what emerges from a random group of researchers exploring a complex topic and taking the challenge in interesting and unexpected directions.

You will gain practical experience in pitching ideas, collaboration and funding applications.

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Top 3 challenges that you might want to explore together

What will get you out of 🛏️

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Do you know what we mean by greenwashing? What are some of the techniques you need to look out for?

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You may have noticed the world becoming more eco-friendly in recent years - or at least, so it would appear. But if you've ever picked up a product because the packaging had the word "natural" on it or looked recycled, you may have been a victim of greenwashing.

Greenwashing is the practice of making brands appear more sustainable than they really are. It may involve cynical marketing ploys, misguided PR stunts, or simply changing the packaging of an existing product while continuing to use unsustainable ingredients or practices. It's a way for companies to appear like they care while also increasing their profit margins, as they're fully aware that eco-conscious people are willing to part with more money for sustainable products.

You might remember the controversy back in 2019 when McDonald's introduced paper straws that turned out to be non-recyclable. Aside from the questionable practice of cutting down trees to make disposable straws, this was a classic example of a corporate giant pretending to address an issue - in this case, plastic pollution - without actually doing anything.

Another cynical greenwashing move is to slap a green label on something to make it appear more sustainable or healthy, as Coca-Cola did with Coca-Cola Life - that with 6.6% sugar was far from a healthy drink. You'd probably get less Life if you drank a lot of it.

Unfortunately, greenwashing seems to be a trend that's here to stay. Companies are constantly coming up with new and brilliant ways to tell us lies. One of the best things people can do to protect themselves from these corporate cons is to get familiar with recent greenwashing examples. Awareness of the tricks they use can help you spot other talented greenwashers more easily, so let's take a look at some greenwashing lowlights from the last couple of years.

Greenwashing examples: recent stand-out cases

And before getting started, here's a graphic that explains ways to spot greenwashing outside of the cases shown here. Skip over to get straight to those examples though.

When greenwashing, companies project an eco-friendly image which is untrue. Sometimes the disguise is hard to detect but in other cases the veneer strays so far from the truth that you begin to question the sobriety of the PR & Marketing teams behind the greenwash. Did they really think that would work?

Innocent Drinks is a prime example of the implausible approach. The company is owned by Coca Cola, the worst plastic polluter in the world. The company also uses single-use plastic - which is terrible for the environment. Yet, someone, somewhere, thought it'd be a convincing idea to release twee TV cartoon adverts - featuring cute animals singing songs about recycling and fixing the planet. In an effort to connect the brand with these contradictory causes.

It's greenwashing, pure and simple. It'd be funny if it weren't for the dire consequences of all that plastic pollution.

Luckily, the ASA stepped in and banned the ludicrous ads after they were reported by Plastic Rebellion.

The global coffee capsule market is worth over $10billion and growing fast. But the mountain of discarded capsules remains difficult to recycle. The problem is you typically have to use specialist recycling services instead of local recycling bins.

As a case in point of how the recycling process can go badly wrong. Keurig led Canadian buyers to believe they could recycle their single-use plastic coffee pods by simply breaking open the top, emptying out the coffee, and throwing the empty carcass into recycling bins. Easy right?

Wrong. The capsules weren't accepted in most Canadian provinces, except for Quebec and British Columbia. And even then the instructions didn't go far enough. The City of Toronto had to revert 90 tonnes of plastic pods from recycling bins last year because of this kind of capsule carnage.

Keurig were fined $3million and ordered to change the misleading recycling claims on the packaging.

Pro tip: at Akepa we find a coffee from our attentive local baristas is way, way better than a mediocre coffee from a pod!

IKEA is the largest consumer of wood in the world, and its timber consumption has doubled in the last decade. An investigation by Earthsight found that IKEA has been making beechwood chairs using illegally sourced wood from the forests of Ukraine's Carpathian region, an area home to endangered beasts such as bears, lynxes, wolves, and bison.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about this case is that the illegal timber was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. This oversight raises serious questions about the ethics and transparency of the FSC accreditation, which according to Earthsight, is not limited to Ukraine. They describe "rampant illegal logging" across the globe under the watchful eye of the FSC.

In spite of this, IKEA is among the best in the world in terms of its sustainability credentials, and FSC is considered the gold standard of forest accreditation.

The glass cleaner by SC Johnson claimed its bottles were made from 100% "ocean plastic". But before you start imagining intrepid teams of Windex employees out on boats salvaging plastic from the sea, let me stop you right there - because that's not what happened.

In fact, the plastic used to make the bottles was never in the ocean. It was pulled from plastic banks in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Haiti. This type of plastic is known as ocean-bound plastic because it would have otherwise ended up in the ocean.

But the problematic marketing doesn't end there. Windex also claims to be non-toxic, but a lawsuit was filed against SC Johnson in 2020, claiming that Windex products contain ingredients that are harmful to people, animals, and the environment.

5. H&M & Fast Fashion

The fast fashion industry is notorious for its environmental impact, so a level of greenwashing is to be expected there. But you might be surprised at the sheer amount of greenwash that was revealed in a 2021 report from the Changing Markets Foundation.

They looked at clothing from major high-street fashion brands to check the truthfulness of their sustainability claims and found 60% of claims overall were misleading. That's bad but H&M were found to be the worst offenders with a shocking 96% of their claims not holding up.

Put simply, virtually all of the Scandinavian Fashion Giant's claims were designed to trick people concerned about their environmental impact into buying.

So, the next time you consider buying from a major retailer like H&M because of imprecise green-tinged language like 'conscious', reconsider. The percentages say we're likely being lied to.

6. Hefty Recycling Bags

In May 2021, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Hefty Recycling Bags for the claim that its bags are "designed to handle all types of recyclables". According to the lawsuit, not only are Hefty bags not recyclable but they also contaminate waste that would otherwise have been recyclable. This means many items that could have been recycled end up in landfills instead.

Hefty bags are therefore no different from ordinary bin bags (and possibly even worse), and the lawsuit claims their misleading branding violates California's anti-greenwashing laws.

Mid-flight ads, misleading luggage charges, uncomfortable seats. These are just a few of the reasons why people dislike flying Ryanair - and now you can add another complaint to the list: greenwashing.

In early 2020, Ryanair audaciously announced itself to the British public as Europe's "lowest emissions airline". The claim was more or less made up and the Advertising Standards Authority promptly banned the ads.

It's a reminder that in environmentally sensitive sectors like aviation, you need to be extra careful as brands are all too eager to promote their green credentials to win more customers. Often the claims made just aren't true.

8. Quorn Foods Thai Wonder Grains

Quorn Foods advertised their new product, the Thai Wonder Grains lunch pot, as a way to address climate change. The advert claimed it "helps us reduce our carbon footprint", but what wasn't clear was who exactly they meant by "us".

It turns out they were referring to Quorn Foods, and not ordinary folk, who should avoid buying products that come in single-use plastic if they want to reduce their carbon footprint.

An inquiry by the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the ad was misleading. It also noted that since the product in question was new, it was impossible to determine whether it could reduce Quorn's carbon footprint.

Shell's got some balls. The company is responsible for around 1-2% of global CO2 emissions from its activities every year, while it continues to plough ahead and invest billions in oil and gas. And yet, despite this, their marketing team thought it appropriate to ask their followers on Twitter what they were "willing to change to help reduce emissions"? Really?

The poll attracted a modest 199 responses but still went viral due to the wave of vitriol it received in response, including high-profile rejoinders from the likes of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg.

This truly was one of greenwashing's most egregious examples. But only a few months later, some karma was served when a European court ordered Shell to reduce their carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. It's the first time that a private company has been ordered to reduce its emissions by a fixed amount with a defined time frame.

If that wasn't enough, here's another case that took a whole year before reaching its end. Are we surprised that Shell has engaged in greenwashing more than once? Not really.

In June 2022, the gas and oil giant launched a marketing campaign - featuring billboard posters, a YouTube ad, and a TV commercial - to promote their clean energy business in Bristol and the UK as a whole. The advertisements included misleadings claims about Shell's involvement in providing clean energy and e-vehicle charging stations. In the physical billboards, they actually dared to say, "In the South West 78,000 homes use 100% renewable electricity from Shell Energy." In reality, it's coming from the country's National Grid - a fact that was mentioned, albeit in much smaller writing.

Campaign group Adfree Cities filed a complaint to the ASA, arguing the commercials failed to give information on Shell's total environmental impact. The company does engage in clean energy, but their business resulted in CO2 emissions of 1.2 billion tonnes last year alone. Spending on gas and oil production is still expected to increase. Somehow, their net-zero target is set for 2050.

The campaign was finally banned a year after its launch, but doubts remain. Stricter regulation is needed to stop false messaging where fossil fuels are concerned.

What else is next, Shell?

10. Unilever

Unilever's cleaning brand Persil is one of the UK's most popular, with its washing-up liquid and dishwasher tablets used by millions of people each year. Many of those buyers are becoming concerned about the environment, so it's not surprising that Unilever has upped its efforts to appear eco-friendly. Nevertheless, Persil's 'Dirt is Good' TV ads have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for unsubstantiated claims to be 'kinder on the planet'.

It's the kind of perfunctory statement that's not unusual from greenwashers, although in this case adorned by flimsy supporting scenes, such as a woman hashtagging #plantmoretrees on social media - and kids collecting plastic garbage from rivers and beaches. None of which explained why Persil was kinder on the planet.

The ASA took umbrage with the 'various strands' for being 'unclear'. Kinder on the planet than what exactly? Meteorites, maybe. But all considered it's fair to conclude that Persil, a typical laundry detergent, can't be all that kind on the planet.

What to learn from this? It's a case that shows if you are going make environmental claims these days then they need to be backed up. Someone tapping out an appropriate hashtag won't do at all.

According to lots of credible sources, the world's biggest banks are funding the climate crisis, mainly through investments with a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions - especially fossil fuels.

HSBC ranks 13th for the top banks financing fossil fuels in the UK. And still finances carbon-heavy industries like thermal coal mining. Yet, a bit of progress in greenwashing awareness was seen when 45 people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that HSBC's advertisements were misleading. The offending ads were then banned but you can still see them in the image below.

HSBC argued that they're financing many of these industries to help them eventually transition to net zero, and it would be impractical to terminate funding. But while they highlighted their climate-friendly initiatives in their adverts, they failed to mention their considerable contribution to the climate crisis at the same time - an estimated $8.7 billion into new oil and gas in 2021.

It's an environmental nuance that was absent in the ads - and that, our friends, is greenwashing.

An irony of all this is that the day before the adverts were banned, HSBC were running workshops on how to spot and deal with greenwashing. They might need to take their own advice...

12. Delta Airlines

It's not a sin to enjoy travelling, to want to discover new places and visit worldly wonders. But let's be honest, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make a trip carbon-neutral when flights are involved. Airplanes burning fossil fuels are one of the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions. So while engineers and scientists search for alternative solutions, it's nothing more than a reality we should be aware of and think twice about.

Which begs the question: exactly how delusional was Delta Air Lines when they thought it was okay to send this message in consumer-facing advertising?

Back in 2020, Delta pledged $1 billion - for a plan including carbon offset credits and supposed reduced use of jet fuel - to cut the emissions created by its business. It's generous, sure.

But now, California's residents are trying to sue the company over their statement, "the world's first carbon-neutral airline".

The case is proof of the power of marketing, showing how deceptive such a claim can be. Even when facts aren't there to back it up. But more than that, it speaks to the long overdue need for greenwashing regulation.

13. Active Super

What does it say when financial institutions are largely responsible for the obscene jump in greenwashing scandals this year? When money (and profit) is on the table, the truth always seems to be a bit more open to interpretation.

Active Super (AS), one of Australia's biggest superannuation funds, has been linked to sustainability and responsible investments for years. It was even named Money Magazine's ESG Super Fund Leader for 2022. This sparkling reputation is now being investigated by Australia's Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for greenwashing.

AS said they would stop investments that were harmful to the environment and community, including tobacco manufacturing, oil tar sands and gambling. Russia, because of the invasion of Ukraine, was also supposed to be off-limits. Yet ASIC has found evidence that says otherwise: holdings in the very type of businesses that aren't people- or planet-friendly. And in Russian securities, too.

For now, Active Super has taken down the misleading claims from its website. But the case has only just begun, and we're keeping tabs on what's to come.

With a bit of luck, greenwashing's days will be numbered. People are getting tired of the same old corporate tricks and want to support brands that are truly sustainable. That's why at Akepa, we're committed to helping sustainable brands with their marketing so that consumers can make better, more informed, and more sustainable choices. Get in touch with us to learn more about our sustainable marketing agency.

greenwashing

Akepa | Digital marketing agency for sustainable brands

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Greenwashing examples for 2022 & 2023 | Worst products & brands

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Awareness of greenwashing tricks can help you spot other talented greenwashers more easily, so let's take a look at some recent examples.

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https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/greenwashing

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We sometimes call these tools and techniques - River Jumping. They are designed to get you out of the existing mind set, into fresh water and the process of jumping across, into and between rivers helps to free the thinking mind from its constraints.

This is a deliberately playful stage in our process.

No water is involved!

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One of the techniques we will be using in this session is How Might We Questions. We will use a very simple format for this but you can learn much more about this creative thinking design technique in this article.

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Defining your design challenge is probably one of the most important steps in the Design Thinking process, as it sets the tone and guides all of the activities that follow. In the Define mode, you should end up creating an actionable problem statement which is commonly known as the Point of View (POV) in Design Thinking. You should always base your Point Of View on a deeper understanding of your specific users, their needs and your most essential insights about them. In the Design Thinking process, you will gain those insights from your research and fieldwork in the Empathise mode. Your POV should never contain any specific solution, nor should it contain any indication as to how to fulfill your users' needs in the service, experience, or product you're designing. Instead, your POV should provide a wide enough scope for you and your team to start thinking about solutions which go beyond status quo. Here, you'll also learn to frame and open up your Point Of View, which is the axis that Design Thinking revolves around - a challenge well-framed is half solved.

"Your point of view should be a guiding statement that focuses on specific users, and insights and needs that you uncovered during the empathize mode.

More than simply defining the problem to work on, your point of view is your unique design vision that you crafted based on your discoveries during your empathy work. Understanding the meaningful challenge to address and the insights that you can leverage in your design work is fundamental to creating a successful solution."
- d.school, Bootcamp Bootleg

Your POV is Your Guide

Your Point of View (POV) defines the RIGHT challenge to address in the following mode in the Design Thinking process, which is the Ideation mode. A good POV will allow you to ideate and solve your design challenge in a goal-oriented manner in which you keep a focus on your users, their needs and your insights about them.

You should construct a narrowly-focused problem statement or POV as this will generate a greater quantity and higher quality solutions when you and your team start generating ideas during later Brainstorm, Brainwriting, SCAMPER and other ideation sessions. In the ideation process, POV will be your guiding statement that focuses on insights and needs of a particular user, or composite character. It's easy to get lost in the ideations sessions if you don't have a meaningful and actionable problem statement to help keep your focus on the core essence of your research results from your previous work. A great POV keeps you on track. It helps you design for your users and their needs. If you neglect to define your POV, you may end up getting lost in the ideation processes and in your prototyping process. It's all too easy to end up focusing on you and your company's own needs, trying to fulfill your and your company's own dreams, not to mention the risk of getting lost in creating amazing buttons in the beautiful colours. It's time to find out how you define your POV.
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
How do you Define your Point Of View?

Step 1

Define the type of person you are designing for - your user. For example, you could define the user by developing one or more personas, by using affinity diagrams, empathy maps and other methods, which help you to understand and crystallise your research results - observations, interviews, fieldwork, etc.

Select the most essential needs, which are the most important to fulfill. Again, extract and synthesise the needs you've found in your observations, research, fieldwork, and interviews. Remember that needs should be verbs.

Step 2

Write your definitions into a Point Of View template like this one:
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Your Point Of View template:
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Step 3 - POV Madlib

You can articulate a POV by combining these three elements - user, need, and insight - as an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work. It's surprisingly easy when you insert your findings in the POV Madlib below. You can articulate your POV by inserting your information about your user, the needs and your insights in the following sentence:

[ User . . . (descriptive)] needs [ Need . . . (verb)] because [ Insight . . . (compelling)]
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Condense your Point Of View by using this POV Madlib.
Example: An adult person who lives in the city... needs access to a shared car 1-4 times for 10-60 minutes per week ... because he would rather share a car with more people as this is cheaper, more environmentally friendly, however, it should still be easy for more people to share.
Author/Copyright holder: Sam Churchill. Copyright terms and license: CC BY 2.0 You articulate a POV by combining these three elements - user, need, and insight - as an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work. An example could be: "A person who lives in the city... needs access to a shared car 1-4 times for 10-60 minutes per week ... he would rather share a car with more people as this is cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and it should still be easy for more people to share." Here you see one of Google's driverless cars - a driverless electric car could be a part of the solution to this design challenge. However, at this stage of the design process, we're not ready to look for solutions just yet.
Step 4 - Make Sure That Your Point Of View is One That:

Provides a narrow focus.

Frames the problem as a problem statement.

Inspires your team.

Guides your innovation efforts.

Informs criteria for evaluating competing ideas.

Is sexy and captures people's attention.

Is valid, insightful, actionable, unique, narrow, meaningful, and exciting.

Yay! You're now well-equipped to create a POV and it's time to understand how to start using your POV which crystallizes all of your previous work in the Empathise mode.

You can download and print the Point Of View template here:

"How Might We" Questions Frame and Open Up Your Design Challenge

You start using your POV by reframing the POV into a question: Instead of saying, we need to design X or Y, Design Thinking explores new ideas and solutions to a specific design challenge. It's time to start using the Design Thinking Method where you ask, "How Might We...?"
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
When you've defined your design challenge in a POV, you can start opening up for ideas to solve your design challenge. You can start using your POV by asking a specific question starting with, "How-Might-We?" or "in-what-ways-might-we?". For example: How might we... design a driverless car, which is environmentally friendly, cheap and easy for more people to share?

How Might We ( HMW) questions are the best way to open up Brainstorm and other Ideation sessions. HMW opens up to Ideation sessions where you explore ideas that can help you solve your design challenge. By framing your challenge as a How Might We question, you'll prepare yourself for an innovative solution in the third Design Thinking phase, the Ideation phase. The How Might We method is constructed in such a way that it opens the field for new ideas, admits that we do not currently know the answer, and encourages a collaborative approach to solving it.

For example, if your POV is:

"Teenage girls need... to eat nutritious food... in order to thrive and grow in a healthy way."

The HMW question may go as follows:

How Might We make healthy eating appealing to young females?

How Might We inspire teenage girls towards healthier eating options?

How Might We make healthy eating something, which teenage girls aspire towards?

How Might We make nutritious food more affordable?

These are simple examples, all with their own subtle nuances that may influence slightly different approaches in the ideation phases. Your HMW questions will ensure that your upcoming creative ideation and design activities are informed with one or more HMW questions, which spark your imagination and aligns well with the core insights and user needs that you've uncovered.

"We use the How Might We format because it suggests that a solution is possible and because they offer you the chance to answer them in a variety of ways. A properly framed How Might We doesn't suggest a particular solution, but gives you the perfect frame for innovative thinking."
- Ideo.org

How Might We?

The How Might We question purposely maintains a level of ambiguity, and opens up the exploration space to a range of possibilities. It's a re-wording of the core need, which you have uncovered through a deeper interrogation of the problem in your research phase, the Empathise mode in Design Thinking - and synthesized in the Define mode in Design Thinking.

"How" suggests that we do not yet have the answer. "How" helps us set aside prescriptive briefs. "How" helps us explore a variety of endeavors instead of merely executing on what we "think" the solution should be.

"Might" emphasizes that our responses may only be possible solutions, not the only solution. "Might" also allows for the exploration of multiple possible solutions, not settling for the first that comes to mind.

"We" immediately brings in the element of a collaborative effort. "We" suggests that the idea for the solution lies in our collective teamwork.

Without a statement of a clear vision or goal, "How Might We" is obviously meaningless. The words require a well-framed objective, a POV, which is neither too narrow so as to make it overly restrictive, nor too broad so as to leave you wandering forever in infinite possibilities.

An Inspiring HMW example

David and Tom Kelley's book Creative Confidence has the story of the Embrace Warmer, a design challenge undertaken by Stanford Graduate Students aimed at solving the problem of neonatal hypothermia, which costs the lives of thousands of infants in developing countries every year. Faced with the situation where hospital incubators were too expensive as well as physically inaccessible to villagers who lived in rural settings, a team of students engaged in some Empathy research, which led them to formulate the HMW statement:

"How Might We create a baby warming device that helps parents in remote villages give their dying infants a chance to survive?"

This HMW question inspired the design of the Embrace Warmer sleeping bag device, which provides the warmth premature babies in rural villages need, and which they are able to access at a fraction of the cost of traditional hospital incubators.

Whilst a traditional approach may have resulted in technological attempts to reduce the cost of the incubator, empathic research revealed that one of the core issues was the inability or unwillingness of mothers to leave their villages or leave their babies at hospitals for extended periods. This resulted in the reframing of an incubator to a warming device.
Author/Copyright holder: Embrace Innovations. Copyright terms and license: Fair Use.
Expand on Your How Might We Questions

Marty Neumeier's Second Rule of Genius is all about framing and opening up your Point Of View by helping us dream of wishing for what we want. To start wishing, ask yourself the kinds of questions that begin with:

How might we...? (This is the commonly structured framing phrase used to express the essence of the challenge at hand.)

In What Ways Might We.... (Expand on HMW to add the possibility of multiple ways.)

What's stopping us from...?

In what ways could we...?

What would happen if...?

From there, you can ask follow-up questions such as:

"When you let your mind wander across the blank page of possibilities, all constraints and preconceptions disappear, leaving only the trace of a barely glimpsed dream, the merest hint of a sketch of an idea."
- Marty Neumeier's Second Rule of Genius

Best Practice Guide to Asking How Might We

1. Begin with your Point of View (POV) or problem statement. Start by rephrasing and framing your Point Of View as several questions by adding "How might we" at the beginning.

2. Break that larger POV challenge up into smaller actionable and meaningful questions. Five to ten How Might We questions for one POV is a good starting point.

3. It is often helpful to brainstorm the HMW questions before the solutions brainstorm.

4. Look at your How Might We questions and ask yourself if they allow for a variety of solutions. If they don't, broaden them. Your How Might We questions should generate a number of possible answers and will become a launchpad for your Ideation Sessions, such as Brainstorms.

5. If your How Might We questions are too broad, narrow them down. You should aim for a narrow enough frame to let you know where to start your Brainstorm, but at the same time, you should also aim for enough breadth to give you room to explore wild ideas.

You can download and print out our How Might We template which you and your team can use as a guide:

A Good POV will Make Your Problem Statement Human-Centred

Creating your POV will help you to define the problem as a problem statement in a human-centered manner. A human-centered problem statement is important in a Design Thinking project because it guides you and your team, and focuses on the uncovered specific needs. It also creates a sense of possibility and optimism in that it encourages team members to generate ideas during the Ideation stage, the third and next stage in the Design Thinking process. A good problem statement should thus have the following traits. It should be:

Human-centred. This means you frame your problem statement according to specific users, their needs and the insights that your team has gained during the Empathise phase. Rather than focus on technology, monetary returns or product specifications, the problem statement should be about the people the team is trying to help.

Broad enough for creative freedom. This means the problem statement should not focus too narrowly on a specific method regarding the implementation of the solution. Neither should the problem statement list technical requirements, as these would unnecessarily restrict the team and prevent them from exploring areas that might bring unexpected value and insight to the project.

Narrow enough to make it manageable. On the other hand, a problem statement such as "Improve the human condition" is too broad and will likely cause team members to feel easily daunted. Problem statements should have sufficient constraints to make them manageable.

Linear Problem Solving vs. the Non-Linear Nature of Design Thinking

This design challenge framing is in stark contrast to the business models for linear problem solving, which rationally attempt to define everything upfront, and then etch away at achieving the set solution systematically. Design Thinking is also very systematic, but its approach is more about uncovering the problem rather than etching away at a set solution. Idris Mootee mentions in his book, Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation, that more than 80% of management tools, systems, and techniques are for value capture, but that the role of Design Thinking is for value creation.

Well-framed Challenges

A well-framed challenge has just enough constraints, with space to explore. You might have encountered the following linear problem-solving approach by your manager telling you: "Design a poster which increases sign-ups to our next event."-or-"Redesign the packaging so our product is more noticeable on the shelf." These kinds of briefs quite often attempt to solve the problem of target markets not responding well enough to what's on offer, and are attempts to put a patch on things. Design Thinking digs deeper and helps us understand the users, their needs and our insights about them before we decide upon which course of action to take. As such, Design Thinking will instead help us ask and research: "Why are people not signing up for the event?" and "What is it about our product that causes people to ignore it?"

Design Thinking helps us focus on what kind of userswe're dealing with, their needs we're trying to address in our design challenge, and then understand whether we're actually addressing those needs well enough.

Define and re-define - The Non-Linear Nature of Design Thinking
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 The five stages of Design Thinking are not sequential steps, but different "modes" you can put yourself in, to iterate on your problem definition, ideas, or prototype, or to learn more about your users at any point during the project. It is important to be aware from the outset that the initial definition of your challenge is based upon your initial set of constraints or understandings, and that you should revisit and re-frame your definition often as you uncover new insights indicating a problem in the framing as you work in the other four Design Thinking modes.
Know Your History

One of the most commonly structured framing phrases which we use to express the essence of the challenge at hand is: How Might We? (HMW). The Phrase is rumoured to have been popularized by Min Basadur at Proctor and Gamble, then on to IDEO, next at Google and later at Facebook in a viral breakout, that has since revolutionised how companies frame their innovation challenges. GK Van Platter of Humantific references a much earlier example in an article entitled, Origins of How Might We? (2012). The reframing technique has its roots all the way back in the mid-sixties, with a work by Sidney J. Parnes Ph.D "Creative Behavior Guidebook", which touches on the concept of "Invitation Stems" or "How Mights" .

The Take Away

Spend enough time to carefully consider the format and composition of your POV and HMW questions to ensure that your upcoming creative ideation and design activities are informed with one of more HMW questions, which spark your imagination and align well with the core insights and user needs that you've uncovered. Creating your POV helps you define your problem statement in a human-centred manner.

"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions."
- Albert Einstein

References & Where to Learn More

Idris Mootee, Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation: What They Can't Teach You at Business or Design School, 2013

Ideo.org, How Might We.

Marty Neumeier, The Rules of Genius #2, Wish for what you want, 2014.

Sarah Soule: How Design Thinking Can Help Social Entrepreneurs, 2013.

Warren Berger, The Secret Phrase Top Innovators Use, 2012.

Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Simon Powell. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0

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How Might We is a design thinking method where designers create questions that open up ideation sessions to generate a broad number of solutions.

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https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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James and Christine shared the misery of wooden windows!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOP6hPvwYs

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Trump pushes for plastic straws, says paper straws 'don’t work'

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What is your current research passion ?

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What has been your experience of finding alternatives to using plastics as a consumer ? 

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What has been your experience of finding alternatives to using plastics as a consumer ? 

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Successes? Challenges?

Toothpaste tubes

Glass containers - keep getting broken!

Bees wax sandwich wrappings

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What excites you about sustainability and polymers as a research topic ? 

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What excites you about sustainability and polymers as a research topic ? 

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What is your sustainability and polymer dream? 

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What is your sustainability and polymer dream? 

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prof Stefan Bon

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This space is to bring together colleagues from different disciplines and learn and listen to each other to design together a blue sky idea !💡

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Groups are made by creating picture from cut up cards 

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Groups are made by creating picture from cut up cards 

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Sexy products!

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Electric vehicles - zero emissions, lower carbon footprints, everything is natural, all taken from the earth!

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We re reusing carbon fibres and saving the world 

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We re reusing carbon fibres and saving the world 

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Cool in winter and warm in summer! When you sweat it smells great with this material

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200% of our customers keep their phones for longer. Modular design and bio based products.

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We are going back to plastic straws! They explode! 💣🧨plastics won’t affect a 🦈

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How did you feel doing a ‘greenwashing pitch’? 

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How did you feel doing a ‘greenwashing pitch’? 

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Uncomfortable, science was wrong, the Facts were wrong, morally wrong.

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How did you feel doing a ‘greenwashing pitch’?

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Are there times when polymers/plastics are needed? 

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Are there times when polymers/plastics are needed? 

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What are your thoughts? Is it black and white? or are there shades of grey?

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Construction companies, automotive, packaging, windows.

They need durability. So how do we make the changes while remaining safe and fit for purpose.

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What can you bring to the party? What is your research interst?

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Selling wall and buying wall.

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Use this to help you map out your delivery ideas 

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Use this to help you map out your delivery ideas 

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The groups talk for timed periods of time about their ideas

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The ‘Blast Off’ 🚀 Table of inspiration and enquiry

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The ‘Blast Off’ 🚀 Table of inspiration and enquiry

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Random items to assist with design thinking

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Discussing ideas together in pairs to get clarity on the idea to work on how to take forwards

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The ladder of ideas - which one will you pick ?

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Lunch with ECRs and established researchers from across Warwick 

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Lunch with ECRs and established researchers from across Warwick 

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When people ask you "how was that workshop?" what will you say...?

Learning mindsets from diverse backgrounds.

Inspiring, insightful.

Great fun

Wonderful interactive session. Loved it and enjoyed it. Thank you.

I really enjoyed the Sandpit, it was great to network with people in the same field and discuss ideas on plastic sustainability.

Nice interactive session on the sustainability

Nurturing

Brainstorming

Stimulating ideas

Marvellous

Brilliant

A relaxed, well designed event to promote productive, creative and collaborative work.

I liked the picture puzzles to meet up with a new group.

A useful day with more outcomes than expected.

Good to know people.

Good way to start collaborations.

Brainstorming

Good networking opportunity

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Talking to others about a great experience