The Training Model consists of three fundamental phases, designed to guide people and organisations on a transformative path towards sustainability: Building Commitment, Designing the Shift and Embracing the Shift.
ECODeCK training model
The Training Model consists of three fundamental phases, designed to guide people and organisations on a transformative path towards sustainability: Building Commitment, Designing the Shift and Embracing the Shift.
These phases, complementary and progressive, accompany participants from critical reflection and the definition of new visions to the integration of skills and values, consolidating concrete and lasting change.
The overall approach will be design-based and the activities will be experiential and focus on the collaborative framing of open problems and their solutions, imagining future organisational actions. Similar to what a designer does, training participants will be asked to identify problems, generate innovative solutions and critically evaluate their effectiveness.
The Building Commitment phase is fundamental to developing a genuine commitment to sustainable behaviour and actions. It aims to shake up entrenched beliefs, prompting individuals and organisations to critically reflect and revise their way of thinking. This process fosters the discovery of new meanings and the construction of sustainable paradigms for a new organisational culture, opening up the sharing of ideas, experiences and good practices even outside one’s own reality. Such confrontation strengthens connections, personal responsibility and practical solutions. It is a transformative phase that combines reflection and action to promote concrete and lasting change.
The Designing the Shift phase is a crucial step in imagining and designing sustainable change. It focuses on co-designing new future scenarios for the organisation by charting new directions and outlining shared visions. In parallel, work is done to reconnect with the present, transforming these ideas into tangible new sustainability actions for the company. This is done by developing skills and acquiring the knowledge, methods and design tools needed to act strategically, creatively and responsibly. It is a dynamic and practical phase in which vision and action converge to initiate concrete and meaningful change.
The Embracing the Shift phase marks the moment when the newly acquired values and skills are fully integrated into the reality of the organisation and the people involved. The objective is to build real ‘agency’, i.e. the ability to act autonomously and consciously in one’s role as a promoter of change. During this phase, one strengthens confidence in oneself and in one’s ability to lead sustainable transformations, consolidating relationships and roles within the new paradigm. It is a fundamental step to ensure that change is not just a temporary goal, but a lasting and systemic approach.
A competence framework: sustainable transition comp
Sustainable Transition Comp redefines the competencies needed for sustainability, providing people with the knowledge, skills and attitudes indispensable for implementing sustainable practices in the manufacturing context and making them applicable in reality.
The competence model identifies 11 sustainability-related competences, classified into four interconnected areas: Values Pillars for Sustainability, Thinking Style for Sustainability, Design Processes for Sustainability, and Agency for Sustainability. Each competence encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to promote sustainable practices and drive innovation in manufacturing.
The competence model identifies 11 sustainability-related competences, classified into four interconnected areas: Values Pillars for Sustainability, Thinking Style for Sustainability, Design Processes for Sustainability, and Agency for Sustainability. Each competence encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to promote sustainable practices and drive innovation in manufacturing.
01
VALUES PILLARS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The Values Pillars for Sustainability area includes skills essential for ethical decision-making and sustainable practices such as respecting the environment for all species, ensuring fair practices for future generations and creating narratives for sustainability.
02
THINKING STYLE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The Thinking Style for Sustainability area includes skills to promote a holistic approach to problem-solving, considering the interconnectedness of social, environmental and economic systems. It emphasises critical thinking, systemic thinking and creative analysis of complex issues through the lens of sustainability.
03
DESIGN PROCESSES FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The Design Processes for Sustainability area focuses on skills to address problems and imagine solutions with a design approach focused on human and planetary needs. It includes anticipating and mitigating problems and creating preferable future scenarios taking into account sustainability impacts.
04
AGENCY FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The Agency for Sustainability area emphasises the competence to drive positive change towards sustainability goals. This involves addressing challenges, supporting policies, engaging stakeholders and mobilising resources, with a focus on leadership, collaboration and communication.
Training team
The ECODeCK project's training team is made up of professionals with transversal skills in the field of design, united by the common goal of supporting sustainable and circular transformation in the furniture, fashion and textile sectors, key areas of Made in Italy. The team specialises in design for sustainability, design for transformation and design methods for envisioning, applying innovative approaches to promote the adoption of sustainable practices in companies.
Those working on the project have expertise in design training and collaborative practices, developing training paths that stimulate creativity, critical thinking and practical skills, which are fundamental to accompanying companies in their transition towards more sustainable models. The team is distinguished by the use of strategic design approaches, fostering collaborations between academia and industry, and by the adoption of service and systemic design practices, which integrate solutions at a systemic level to address sustainability challenges.
The team is committed to generating long-term impact, creating social, economic and environmental benefits through the adoption of participatory methodologies such as co-design and co-creation, developing concrete and shared strategies for change.
ECODeCK
The ECODeCK project addresses the issue of sustainable and circular transformation in the fashion/textile and furniture sectors, key areas of Made in Italy.
It aims to develop design-driven strategies to support companies in the transition towards more sustainable models, through an integrated capacity-building approach. This implies not only the dissemination of theoretical knowledge, but also the practical application and development of skills such as creativity, critical thinking and sustainability values. The project aims to create a strategic impact by promoting collaborations between academia and industry, with the objective of fostering the adoption of sustainable practices and generating long-term social, economic and environmental benefits.
1.
emphasises the importance of design as a lever for change, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and practical application to address the complex challenges of sustainability in an adaptive and transformative way
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proposes a design-based training model to support sustainable transition in Italian manufacturing companies
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enables sustainable transformation through the development of skills, processes and resources, involving both workers and the social ecosystem.
The ECODeCK project is part of the Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile (MICS), funded by the Ministry of University and Research under the NextGenerationEU programme. ECODeCK aims to support companies in the Italian manufacturing sector, with a focus on the fashion and furniture sectors, towards a sustainable and responsible transformation.
Library
Pubblications
ECODeCK – Designing the Transition
The Sustainable Transition comp. a competence framework to drive sustainability through the lenses of design and organisational culture
Designing Sustainability Today: An Analytical Framework for a Design for Sustainability Model in European Fashion and Furniture Industries
ECO-DESIGN CIRCULAR KNOWLEDGE. Strumenti e strategie design-driven per la transizione sostenibile del settore manifatturiero
Is There a Design-based Capacity-building Model for Achieving Sustainability and Circularity
What Italian furniture companies do towards sustainable transition? Design actions and strategies showcased during Milan Design Week 2023