Silent Designers Episode 2 - Cat Drew, Design Council

Innovate UK

The second episode of Silent Designers explores the theme of Net Zero and Sustainable Technologies with guest Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at the Design Council. Cat shares how, in her role, she’s bringing together the very best knowledge, practice, and frameworks about how to Design for Planet and sharing that knowledge with designers, innovators, commissioners, and policymakers.

“The Design Council’s vision is for a regenerative world for all. The way we’re way going to get there is for people in the design sector—all 1.79 million of us—to Design for Planet and help us make the shift from a consumer to a regenerative society.”

Join us as Cat explains:

• The vital role people-centred design plays in the adoption of sustainable technologies,
• The importance of ‘new-to-me’ innovation on the path to Net Zero
• How she made the transition from policymaker to ‘Silent Designer’

An expert in Systemic Design, Cat started her career as a policymaker working across government and writing strategies for Number 10, the Home Office, and the Cabinet Office. Combining her 10 years of experience in Government with an MA in graphic design, she co-founded the UK Government’s Policy Lab. Cat has also held leadership positions in Uscreates and FutureGov, where she led programmes to make public services more user-centred and systemic in addressing local homelessness challenges.

Click here to download the episode transcript.