As businesses and organisations face mounting climate challenges, the collaboration between the creative sector and the private sector remains hindered by structural mismatches and a language barrier.
Funded by Stichting TKI CLICKNL and conducted by Stby and What Design Can Do, our new research report, Bruggen Bouwen (Building Sustainable Bridges), explores how to bridge this gap and embed design power as a strategic leverage for sustainable business operations.
The research introduces the Sustainability Transition Ladder, illustrating the varying levels of maturity in companies—ranging from short-term cost efficiency to systemic organizational change—and the corresponding positioning of designers. By diagnosing these structural barriers, such as short-term financial targets, technocratic compliance burdens, and the absence of a shared business language, the report outlines actionable pathways for collaboration.
Key recommendations include reframing sustainability around risk management and strategic autonomy, creating neutral experimental spaces (regulatory sandboxes), and establishing a “Coalition of the Willing” among existing networks to drive evidence-based impact.
You can download the report (in Dutch) here.
The full English translation of this report will be added later.