To coincide with Greenpeace's 50th anniversary, Dezeen teamed up with Michael Green Architecture and Greenpeace to host a live talk to discuss the relationship between design and activism.
The talk, titled Design, Activism and Impact, was moderated by Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and explored whether designers are doing enough to resolve environmental concerns or whether are they complicit in exacerbating them.
Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler appeared on the panel alongside Canadian architect Michael Green of Michael Green Architecture and Nina-Marie Lister, professor and graduate director of Urban & Regional Planning at Ryerson University.
Greenpeace was founded 50 years ago in Vancouver, Canada, with the ambition to stop nuclear testing and then joined the fight to prevent whale hunting.
Since then, the organisation has evolved into a global environmental movement that addresses widespread issues such as climate change, social inequity and threatened democracy.
Reflecting on the organisation's 50 years of activism, the panel explored where designers and architects fit into the wider conversation of environmental justice and what more can be done by the design industry to address the climate emergency.
Weyler is a writer and ecologist based in British Columbia, Canada. Weyler has written a number of historical books including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Blood of the Land, a history of indigenous American nations.
Throughout the 1970s, Weyler was a director of the Greenpeace Foundation, editor of the Greenpeace Chronicles and was a co-founder of Greenpeace International.
Green is a Canadian architect and advocate for the use of wood within the built environment. Green delivers lectures globally on the subject and gave a TED talk titled "Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers".
Based in Vancouver, Green founded his eponymous firm in 2012, which specialises in mass timber construction. His studio has completed some of the largest modern timber buildings in the world, including the Wood Innovation Design Centre and T3 Minneapolis.
Lister is the founder and director of Ryerson University's Ecological Design Lab and professor and graduate director of Urban and Regional Planning.
Lister's work explores green infrastructure design for climate resilience, biodiversity and human wellbeing. She has authored over 100 scholarly and professional publications.
Partnership content
This talk was produced by Dezeen for Michael Green Architecture as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.