Our planetary commitments
Life-centred Design must apply to the business itself—reducing harm, increasing regenerative impact, and operating with transparency.
I don’t claim perfection. As a sole trader, my reach is limited, but my responsibility isn’t.
I am committed to learning what influence I hold, using the privileges and resources available to me, and directing products, profits, and platforms toward supporting a more sustainable, regenerative, and socially just design future, for all people, all animals, and the planet.
Reduce Harm
Continuously minimise the environmental and social impacts of our digital and physical products, their lifecycles, and day-to-day business operations.
Increase regenerative impact
Actively give back and support initiatives that restore ecosystems and communities, helping to counterbalance both our own impacts and those of the industries we influence.
Operate with transparency
Openly share our commitments, decisions, progress, and shortcomings so accountability is visible, not assumed.
Always be improving
Recognise that perfection may be unattainable, but remain committed to learning, refining, and moving steadily closer to a more responsible and regenerative practice.
Our Commitments
1. Reduce Waste
The LCD Lab uses what small influence it has on the production and use of its books to support circularity:
- All books are printed on-demand, rather than in bulk.
- All books include instructions on how to keep them maintained, repaired, and kept out of landfills.
2. Regenerate Resources
The LCD Lab uses profits to regenerate the trees cut down to make my books by donating to onetreeplanted.org↗
3. Reduce Energy & Carbon
The LCD Lab uses sustainable UX practices to reduce its website’s energy use and carbon footprint.
4. Nurture Diversity
The LCD Lab elevates the history of Indigenous sustainability, systems thinking, and regeneration in design conversations, presentations, and workshops.
5. Operate with transparency
The LCD Lab holds itself accountable to its commitments by openly publishing its actions (see actions here).
6. Foster Open-source
The LCD Lab fosters open-source content by providing free content and tools with licenses to remix and reshare.
7. Support System Change
The LCD Lab supports various planetary initiatives through donations and/or its time.
Our Actions on our Commitments
2.1 Investing in safeguarding precious rainforests
Using profits from LCD Lab, I purchased Squares C4-1-0035 & C4-1-0036 in the Djarawong Rainforest Property of Queensland UNESCO World Heritage area, from Square By Square↗, to help safeguard this precious rainforest for a full decade.
2.2 Planting trees to regenerate forests
In partnership with futurescouting.com.au↗, lifecentred.design donates from sales of printed books to onetreeplanted.org↗ to replenish the trees cut down to make paper for our books.
13/08/24 – Payment to onetreeplanted.org↗
(US$20/AUD$30)
31/01/24 – Payment to onetreeplanted.org↗
(US$47/AUD$73)
12/06/23 – Payment to onetreeplanted.org↗
(US$20/AUD$30)
15/11/22 – Payment to onetreeplanted.org↗
(US$20/AUD$30)
14/09/22 – Payment to onetreeplanted.org↗
(US$13/AUD$20)
2.1 Reducing web carbon with green web hosting
The LCD Lab partners with GreenGeeks web hosting. The energy used by the these web hosting servers is offset by 3 times as much renewable energy returned to the grid.
2.2 Reducing web carbon with sustainable UX
The LCD Lab is constantly improving its website with Sustainable UX strategies.
This website was built before I’d gained all the Sustainable UX knowledge and development skills I know have, so there is much to fix, and this is happening gradually.
Below are early signifigant changes.
May ’23 – Site Redesign
The Life-centred Design Guide and related information originally lived on futurescouting.com.au ↗ where it shared content with my other design book Future Scouting and all its related futuring content. Over time, the two practices became too big to share a site, so I finally split them up.
This site was the resulting new, stand-alone site for life-centred design, with average page loads 3X faster and improved accessibility.
Oct ’22 – Sustainable Web Improvements
Using sustainable web guidelines, I made the improvements to the home page, one of the highest traffic pages, resulting in these estimated impacts:
- Reduction of carbon generated per visit from 403kg/yr to 20kg/yr
- 1 second increase in page load speed
Getting there with small steps!
Nov ’22 – Sustainable Digital Improvements
Using sustainable web strategies, I made improvements to my home page, back-end processes, and switched to green hosting, resulting in these estimated results:
- A reduction of up to 2/3 less carbon generated per visit per page
- A reduction of up to 2/3 less energy used to load per page
7.1 Supporting environmental rescue
Feb 2025 – $100 donation to SAVE WALLUM COASTAL HEADLANDS
Save Wallum is a community campaign dedicated to preventing the destruction of 30 hectares of rare coastal Wallum heath and woodlands in Brunswick Heads, Byron Shire, NSW, which is at risk due to a proposed housing development.
The area is not only culturally sacred, but also ecologically vital, being home to numerous endangered species, including 9 Federally listed threatened species, known as Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES); the land is likely critical habitat for 103 threatened species in total.
Save Wallum Inc. completed a significant Federal Court application for a permanent injunction under the EPBC Act (1999), which began in late February in Sydney. The Federal Court case challenges the legality of the proposed development under the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), as there are numerous matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) on the site. The court’s decision will be a defining moment, not only for Brunswick Heads, but for environmental protection across Australia.
7.2 Supporting environmental legal causes
Sep ’23 – $65 donation to Green Peace to support legal action for climate justice
Climate change is a threat to us all. But right now, Pacific communities are being hit hardest by the impact of the growing climate disaster – paying heavily for our fossil fuel addiction despite contributing the least to it.
Governments of big polluting countries are stalling, but we need action now. The Pacific is leading the fight for climate justice, taking government responsibility for climate change to the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice.
Greenpeace is working to document evidence of the impact of climate change on communities, amplify the voices of those most urgently impacted, and build an undeniable case for climate justice.
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