The 2012 Imperative Teach-in is an event that will function as a catalyzing force within design education. It will help students, faculty and staff confront critical contemporary issues; resource depletion, loss of biodiversity & especially the issue of climate change. The teach-in will challenge institutions to use their resources, expertise and skills to respond to environmental imperatives and work towards embedding ecological literacy in design education by 2012.

Design education must move quickly to respond to urgent environmental pressures. Climate change is a severe problem that will require a response from all sectors of society. Design education must embrace its unique ability to facilitate change by: engaging with the concept of ecological literacy, communicating key concepts of environmental sustainability, and initiating a wide-reaching social learning process. This review and re-focus of priorities within design education will help make design a key player in our collective response to global environmental imperatives.

The Teach-in will be a process whereby thousands of students and academics participate in a collective learning experience through the use of an on-line web broadcast. Teach-ins have a history in movements for social change from the 1960s but have recently been used to great effect by environmental educators. The 2012 Imperative Teach-in will create a platform for mass dissemination of information and the momentum to initiate institutional change

Ecological literacy is an understanding of ecological systems and an awareness of how society operates within natural imperatives. Informed by an understanding of ecological systems, new concepts and tools can help the design industry become an important player in the transition to a sustainable system.

The Event will help create a network of designers and educators who will collaboratively feed in to the Teach-in process. The teach-in itself will be broadcast live on the internet to groups at all participating colleges and institutions. The event will have three parts:

1) The main event will take place at a culturally significant London venue. It will feature a panel discussion with scientists, design academics and designers with ecologically informed practice. They will present a lecture and then a panel discussion on climate change, resource depletion, and other environmental challenges. They will then explore the scope for systemic change within design education. Questions will be taken from the audiences at the event and those watching on-line.

2) The following day each institution turns its attention to the issue. Faculty, students & staff focus on a transformation of our system: how can we create pathways to lower carbon emissions within design disciplines and also within our various institutions?

3) We will ask all disciplines to design the low carbon society we must now create.