What if designers made space for people and communities to be included in our conception of nature. How then might we design with nature now?

Our most vulnerable communities continue to suffer directly from the impacts of climate change. As designers, we must demand that our work protects and serves those whose voices are ignored and whose communities have been and will continue to be violated. Designers must confront the structures of power that are directly responsible for the destruction of the living world and responsible for the lives of those who are powerless within these systems. 

To design with nature now the existing design community must sit down, make space, and listen to those impacted by our work. Designers must listen to Black Americans, Latin Americans, POC, LGBTQ, Native/Indigenous, women/femmes, nonbinary folks, immigrants, the disabled, the neurodivergent, the working poor, and those of us whose lives exist at the intersection of these experiences. To design with nature now designers must center environmental and social justice in our work. Designers must also actively work to remove the structural barriers that prevent underrepresented and oppressed people from entering the design professions. 

I want to design with nature now by working alongside and in support of my fellow designers and community members, whose voices and talents have been uplifted within the design community. Only then are designers able to engage in work that is truly of service to people, to the world, and to nature.