Designing Sustainable Futures: How to Imagine, Create, and Lead the Transition to a Better World

We are in a decisive decade that demands more inspired and informed practitioners who can use positive futures to rebalance the present. The book you hold seeks to be a thought‑provoking approach to imagine, create, and lead the journey to a more sustainable world – where a spectrum of choices, including regenerative practices, await conscientious citizens, companies, and communities.

With this objective, and to help reverse the megatrends of economic disparity, social injustice, and climate change, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano came together to prototype an approach to prepare all practitioners who seek to leverage the future to infuse our present with more impact and agency.

Guided by global experts and inspired by a growing network of future‑makers, the authors share essential insights from this emerging landscape, offering thought‑provoking theory, innovative experiments, real‑world experiences, and practitioner stories. We draw insight and inspiration from many contemporary theories and practices, including strategic foresight, experiential futures, speculative design, design fiction, systems design, participatory design, and transformative leadership, and an emerging entry with genAI‑augmented design.

Regardless of whether you have a design or management background, or want to create a for‑profit or non‑profit, this book enables professionals across industries, as well as students preparing for a career in strategy, innovation, or transformation, the knowledge, skills, and confidence to strengthen resilience and guide the transition to the more sustainable practices of a better world.

Vice‑Dean and Professor Joseph Press, PhD, is a futures architect at the Institute for the Future and currently the Vice‑Dean of NACAA – an intercultural design institute in Hangzhou, China, founded by the China Academy Of Art and L`Ecole De Design Nantes Atlantique (EDNA). Previously he was a futures architect at Institute For the Future and visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano, in both the Management and Design Schools. For over 25 years, he has advised organizations in imagining, designing, and implementing more sustainable practices. He holds a SMArchS in Architectural Design and PhD from MIT in Design Technology. At POLI.design, he co‑led the pilot program Designing Sustainable Futures and convened the creative community for the Designing with Emerging Technologies global seminar series. He has co‑authored books on digital transformation, futures of working and living, and social entrepreneurialism. Actively and continues to assists organizations in the transition to a better world.

Professor Manuela Celi holds a PhD in Design and is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano. Engaged in the Design PhD Board and Rectors’ delegate for talent development, she navigates diverse sectors by delving into the multifaceted realms of design‑related knowledge. Proficient in teaching product design, metadesign, and design futures, she leads the FUEL4Design.org research project, merging design with humanities and speculative inquiry. Prof. Celi’s insights, showcased in renowned journals like Futures and The Design Journal, manifest her fusion of anticipation with critical design, offering unusual perspectives for envisioning transformative futures.