The Sustainable Design Award: supporting 16 plus students in addressing sustainable design issues

This paper outlines a new award scheme currently being trialled in nine schools in England and Wales with AS and A2 design and technology students and discusses some early feedback. The scheme’s fundamental aim is to integrate thinking about sustainability into advanced level work. Students who show they have thought through sustainability issues at each stage of their coursework option will be given an award. The scheme is designed to provide students with ideas for devising design briefs and specifications from genuine, real life contexts from around the world. It is backed by a number of different organisations which will give back-up information and feedback to students throughout their AS and A2 coursework. Teachers in the pilot schools have access to a sustainability pack that helps both them and their students to tackle fundamental issues of sustainability such as reducing, recycling and reusing. The scheme is currently funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) with in-kind support from other organisations, including DATA. Over 70 schools have expressed an interest in becoming involved in the Sustainable Design Award (SDA) scheme in 2003/4.