where climate action meets the future of design

Tag: recycling

Christoph Pauschitz

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Christoph Pauschitz is Managing Director of GP designpartners, an industrial design studio based in Vienna working with clients worldwide.
For Christoph, innovation is inseparable from value. He believes products need genuine added value — that function, usability, and experience are what matter most.

He sees the potential for innovation in every market offering, always aiming for something better, simpler, and more convincing. He recognizes what’s missing, because without something new, there is no interest — and without interest, no value.

Lotte Kristoferitsch

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Lotte Kristoferitsch is co-founder of EOOS NEXT, an industrial design studio and social enterprise that responds to the world’s major challenges, such as the climate crisis and social injustice, through industrial design strategies. She sees design as a tool for social change, aiming to create alternatives for future, sustainable ways of living.

At EOOS NEXT, Lotte and her team strive for positive change by designing transformative technologies in fields such as mobility, health, water, self-sufficient sanitation, and electricity, driving forward social and sustainable design projects. To achieve this, they collaborate globally with universities and research institutes, social enterprises, and NGOs to improve the situation of people in need, working with Open Design and applying the principles of Circular Design across all their projects.

Barbara Gollackner

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Gollackner’s concepts show how design must dare to look beneath an attractive surface — she has developed a particular passion for conceptual work at the intersection of disciplines, driven by a curiosity for new methods, materials, networking and sharing.

With Wasteware, an experimental tableware project, Barbara created a series of pieces made entirely from food waste, using techniques ranging from moulding and pressing to 3D printing — turning something ordinarily discarded into objects of everyday use. Her collection Rest in Beauty follows a similar philosophy, giving new life to leftover, surplus, and overlooked materials. Working across wood, metal, and stone, from rare finds to everyday remnants, she creates simple, functional objects that balance minimalism with warmth, transforming what was once leftover into subtle, enduring design that quietly celebrates the uniqueness of what remains.

Alongside running her studio, Barbara serves on the board of designaustria and teaches at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.

Juan Umbert Rosselló

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Juan’s approach is rooted in systems thinking, circularity and interdisciplinary collaboration, with the aim of designing food experiences and tools that are not only desirable, but also meaningful, efficient and aligned with future environmental and social challenges.

Juan Umbert is CEO and Co-Founder of Makeat, a food design and innovation studio focused on rethinking how food systems are conceived, produced and experienced. His work operates at the intersection of gastronomy, design, technology and science, developing tools, products and experiences that connect creativity with operational reality across hospitality, food industry and brand ecosystems.

Beyond Makeat, he co-created Plesh, a new concept on the chocolate snack brand exploring new models of responsible indulgence taking out the sugar from the equation keeping the same pleshure, and co-founded liQeat, an R&D platform researching the future of liquid gastronomy through technology, process innovation and sensory design.

Arpad Pulai

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Arpad Pulai is a distinguished textile artist and Senior Artistic Associate at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. His practice focuses on sustainable textile design and the exploration of sociological themes, working exclusively with eco-friendly materials and recycling techniques.

His work is part of the collection of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, and he has received numerous prestigious awards in Serbia for his contribution to contemporary textile art and sustainable design.

Maja Halilovic

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Maja Halilovic, an award-winning biodesigner and innovator, who transforms organic waste and living systems into next-generation materials. She works with biomaterials derived from eggshells and unicellular organisms, exploring how natural intelligence can be integrated into design and manufacturing.

Her research challenges conventional boundaries, demonstrating that the future of design lies in nurturing materials rather than extracting them. By bridging the gap between biological systems and functional objects, she redefines unicellular organisms, agricultural residues, and urban waste streams into intelligent, sustainable materials that unite technical innovation with refined aesthetics. As one of the leading voices in Balkan biodesign, Maja is widely recognized for her pioneering work in organic biomaterial synthesis, advocating for regenerative production cycles that eliminate waste at the source.

Thami Schweichler

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Social designer, entrepreneur, and impact leader based in Amsterdam, whose work sits at the intersection of circularity, social justice, and entrepreneurship.

As the founder and CEO of the United Repair Centre, he has pioneered a scalable B2B clothing repair model that partners with major fashion brands to extend the life of garments while simultaneously creating meaningful employment for people with limited access to the labour market, including newcomers and refugees.

Prior to this, Thami co-founded Makers Unite, a social enterprise that empowers refugees and local creatives through sustainable design projects and circular production. This initiative gained international recognition after winning the What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge in 2016. Thami’s vision challenges fast fashion by embedding repair, reuse, and inclusion into the industry’s infrastructure.

Mary Nyaruai Mureithi

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Powerful advocate for dignity, gender equality, and a sustainable future by amplifying grassroots voices on global stages. Beyond Nyungu Afrika, she empowers the next generation of female entrepreneurs as a pan-African pitching and entrepreneurship trainer, helping young women confidently present their ideas and reach their full potential. For Mary, design is activism, and every product is a step toward systemic change.

Driven by an activist heart and firsthand exposure to the harsh realities of period poverty, where girls are forced to exchange sex for pads, use unsafe alternatives, or suffer health issues from poor-quality products, Mary designed a better solution. Through Nyungu Afrika, she pioneers a circular economy model that transforms agricultural waste, like pineapple leaves and maize husks, into a patent-pending, biodegradable, tree-free pulp for eco-friendly sanitary pads. Her innovation tackles both period poverty and the harmful impact of imported disposable pads on health and the environment.