In the design world, often times young architecture/design firms and even individual designers will apply to competitions during the young part of their career to get public recognition, build credentials, and experience the social circuits around design.

As a young aspiring designer myself, I have made a keen observation of the design industry this year. Many of the call-for-entries and competitions this year have been for solutions related to sustainable development, energy, climate, biodiversity, environmental degradation, etc. Naturally we would expect these type of call-for-entries to come through the EPA grant programs, the NRDC, and other governmental organizations for the environment. Instead the call for action is coming from design firms, architecture magazines and other NGOs alike.

Allow me to take this opportunity to highlight some of the forthcoming competitions and competitions past that have sparked interest in publications of all sorts. The entries to these competitions not only alert us to solutions most of us have never thought of, but through the venue of these competitions many will have the opportunity to be realized! The following are just a few examples of the aforementioned. Look out world, great solutions are coming!!!

Design 21: the Social Design Network, is a mainly internet based collaborative project between the global design and merchandise company- Felissimo; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (known as UNESCO). They seek to inspire social activism through design- design for the greater good. “We connect people who want to explore ways design can positively impact our many worlds, and who want to create change here, now.” Design 21 has been hosting international competitions since 1995 mostly based around social themes.

This year, one competition called Heated Issue, was a call for an environmental campaign; another was for an educational “Childs Play” toy that encourages children to cultivate their own imagination; and the third, Shelter Me, is for a new design of a natural disaster temporary relief shelter. The competition award recipients were voted on by the public, and the winners were just announced! So go ahead, view the future!

Metropolis Magazine: an architecture, design, interiors magazine has strongly directed its focus towards sustainable development in design over the last few years. Annually, they host a design competition called the Next Generation Design Competition that awards $10,000 to the winner and they choose a list of runner-up proposals that get published as well. This year the competition focused on solutions for ENERGY reduction, consumption, efficiencies and alternatives. The award recipients this year designed a city streetlight that conserves urban energy based on the lunar cycle. Check it out. Metropolis also just announced next year’s theme: WATER.

Droog Design: an international design collective based in Amsterdam, seeks to “create innovative concepts that change perspectives." This past month they had a call for entries for concepts based on Climate Change. As a result of picking a winner, they hope to develop a product that pushes boundaries, changes perspectives of environmental issues, and invent new experiences, interactions, and participations… How exciting. Droog will select the top 10 designs, and the public will be able vote online to pick the winner. Public voting begins in September, so look it up and get your vote on.

Aside from the competitions calling specifically for sustainability conscious and socially responsible entries, many award recipients of internationally acclaimed annual design competitions are being recognized for their environmental awareness. Competitions such as the ID Annual Review, the Red Dot Design Award and the Spark Awards. This interesting progression is to be noted among the design circuits as a landmark in sustainable development. Lets hope that this is not the trend of the year but an annual progression towards more socially and sustainability conscious design and cradle-to-cradle conscious products.