Women Designing Climate Actions: A Collective Journey

In a world where climate headlines can often overwhelm us, it can be easy to forget the power of small, local actions. For us, four women living in different parts of Europe, coming together around a shared design experiment reminded us just how much difference we can make when we act, reflect, and learn together.

What began as a simple Diploma Guild exercise soon grew into something much deeper. Using the 52 Climate Actions website as our guide, we formed a collective of women, meeting online across borders and landscapes.

We came into the project with very different lives and landscapes:

• Jessi is German, living in rural Portugal, surrounded by olive groves and steeped in a climate of hot summers and dry soils.
• Karen is Dutch / South African, living in Brittany, France, where temperate weather and abundant rain shape both gardens and lifestyles.
• Jill, from the UK and also based in Brittany, navigating the same climate but with her own household rhythms and creative approach to reuse.
• Lorna, English, living near Manchester in the UK, where the wetter, cooler climate and urban proximity present both opportunities and challenges for food and community.

To give our process shape, we selected Dragon Dreaming as our design framework. Dreaming of what change might look like, planning together, doing individually, and then reflecting as a group. Our online meetings became more than check-ins. They were spaces of accountability and encouragement.

We began by each selecting ten actions from the 52 Climate Actions resource. From those, we found four common intersected actions which we agreed to explore together: Listen, Share and Learn; Buy Less, Make More; Eat Local, Seasonal Food; and Refuse, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Reduce.

Everyone had a different approach to the thinking tools we used. We experimented with HCEP (Hopes, Concerns, Expectations, Priorities), WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), and SMART to ground our actions in design thinking. But perhaps most importantly, we discovered that working as a collective gave us courage. What might have felt small or difficult alone became possible when held in community.

This action reminded us of the value of slowing down and listening, whether to each other, to our neighbours, or to the land itself.

Karen found that the volunteering programme they ran gave them plenty of opportunity to share, listen and learn from people across the world. She is planning to create a Climate Action board in their kitchen for next year.

Jill attended a small local Art and Nature festival to nurture local connections. Lorna attended a number of workshops and started taking her partner’s children to the allotment to learn new skills. Jessi gave a permaculture workshop at a festival where they talked about climate actions, and created a Climate Action mindmap with volunteers at a local project.

Through sharing across our diverse contexts, we often found solutions we would not have thought of alone. This action reminded us that change does not happen in isolation. Listening builds trust and the relationships that make action possible.

This action sparked a wave of creativity. Jill took up quilting, turning her husband’s old shirts into a beautiful, useful piece of art, and intended to mend torn clothes rather than buy new.

Karen managed to upcycle old lampshades and made some curtains for the outdoor kitchen from scraps of hessian she had stored. Jessi made lots of creative things in the kitchen, like chutneys, cordials and jams, and instead of buying new clothes she goes to clothes swaps and second-hand shops. Lorna knitted a flower brooch for her partner’s daughter’s birthday and made friendship bracelets for special occasions.

We realised that buying less is not about scarcity but empowerment. When we make, repair or reuse, we feel more capable and less dependent on unsustainable systems. Even small things, like mending a torn shirt or upcycling a dated piece of furniture instead of shopping for more, shifted our sense of resilience.

Food became a joyful theme running through our conversations. Jessi became more aware of where her food was coming from. She started supporting local businesses and spending more on organic produce, and now wants to expand her knowledge of foraging.

Karen and Jill experimented with abundant organic produce from their own gardens or local markets, and cooked with what the land offered. Jill joined her local community Épicerie where each member volunteers two hours a week. In Manchester, Lorna grew seasonal food on her allotment and foraged to make wild garlic soup in spring and blackberry jam in autumn.

Some of us also experimented with reducing meat consumption, trying new vegetarian and vegan recipes, and discussing how to balance sustainability with family preferences. We noticed that when we paid attention to what was seasonal and local, our meals became more varied, creative and connected to place.

Although many of us already practised this action, talking about it together helped us deepen our commitment. Jill tackled her sewing pile and gave textiles a second life, and implemented a recycle bin system in her new kitchen. Karen resolved to first visit the local Brocante or recycling centre store when she needed to buy something for the house or garden.

Lorna looked at using a repair café for sharpening tools and at buying items in bulk from wholefood shops. Jessi bought a lot of old windows and doors for her guesthouse cabin and her greenhouse.

Sharing our experiences revealed how different local contexts can be. Recycling facilities vary widely, and what is possible in one country may not be in another. This reminded us that “refuse, reuse, recycle” is not a one-size-fits-all action but a principle to adapt creatively to each place.

Working together gave us more than just practical skills. We learnt how to think about our food sources differently, and how to be more creative at repairing and reusing, but we also learnt about ourselves and each other.

Some climate actions were easier to bring into daily life, others became more long-term projects. Each of us made small, tangible shifts in our lives that, when looked at collectively, added up to something powerful.

The final key learning was the importance of celebration. Dragon Dreaming encourages celebration as part of the process. We found that when we acknowledged our achievement, whether finishing a quilt, cooking a new meal or simply showing up, we felt motivated to keep going.

As women, we have come to see how important our voices and perspectives are in shaping responses to climate change. Many of the tasks we carry out in daily life, cooking, mending, preserving food, building community, have long been undervalued. Yet these very skills are what create resilience and adaptability in uncertain times.

Through this project we wanted to highlight that these everyday actions are not small or insignificant. They are powerful contributions to a wider cultural shift. Climate action is not only about new technologies or government policies. It is also about care, creativity, and collaboration.