My initial understanding of carbon emissions was relatively linear: I thought choosing vegetarian options or sourcing from sustainable farms meant contributing less to the climate impact. However, after engaging with data from the UAL Net Zero team and mapping the wider food system, I began to understand emissions as part of a deeply interdependent network. A single meal’s footprint is shaped not only by farming practices, but by packaging, transportation, refrigeration, cooking methods, waste, and even climate volatility. This complexity shifted my perspective from individual choice to systemic entanglement.
Recognising gaps in awareness among UAL students, many of whom prioritise affordability or taste over environmental impact, we chose to focus on behaviour within existing structures. Drawing on Donella Meadows’ insight that behaviour emerges from system design, we developed a speculative carbon-credit game that produces a receipt visualising emissions tied to food choices. By inserting carbon data into the transactional moment, we transform the receipt into a site of reflection rather than marketing.
This process has shaped my position as a practitioner. Climate justice requires not only ambitious Net Zero targets, but design interventions that make invisible systems perceptible without simply shifting responsibility onto individuals.
Bibliography
Chun, W.H.K. (2018) ‘On Patterns and Proxies’, e-flux Architecture, June. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/212275/on-patterns-and-proxies
Chun’s discussion of patterns and proxies significantly shaped my understanding of measurement within complex systems. In our project, carbon functions as a proxy for environmental impact. It is a numerical stand-in to map intricate ecological relationships. While mapping UAL’s food system through carbon data, we encountered gaps, inconsistencies, and missing information, revealing the limitations of relying on quantifiable indicators. Chun’s text helped me critically examine what is lost when a dynamic, interdependent system is translated into data points. By converting carbon into a measurable unit within our speculative game, we risk simplifying deeply interdependent processes into individualised metrics. However, this simplification can make people question and can expose the tension between what is visible and invisible. The reading sharpened my awareness that proxies do not merely represent reality, but they actively shape perception and responsibility. This insight informed my decision to design receipts that visualise carbon usage, framing information in a way that encourages reflection rather than passive consumption. Carbon accounting, therefore, becomes not neutral information, but a constructed framework that governs behaviour and redistributes responsibility.
Meadows, D. (2008) Thinking in Systems
Meadows fundamentally shifted my understanding of climate action from isolated behaviours to structural design. Her argument that system behaviour arises from internal structures rather than external events reframed our approach to student engagement. Instead of creating persuasive messaging, we began examining how the food system at UAL is organised — how pricing, visibility, and information flows shape decision-making. Meadows’ concept of leverage points was particularly influential. Making carbon visible at the point of transaction became our attempt to intervene in the system’s information flow, rather than simply encouraging better choices.Her work also deepened my understanding of climate justice: emissions are not merely personal outcomes, but products of economic and institutional structures that determine what options are available in the first place.
It’s Nice That (n.d.) ‘Design can play, and is already playing, a critical role in rethinking food of the future’, It’s Nice That. Available at:https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/design-can-play-a-critical-role-in-rethinking-food-of-the-future-linyee-yuan-publication-231121
This article expanded my perception of design beyond aesthetics into infrastructural influence. It frames food not simply as consumption, but as a site where design can reimagine production, distribution, and cultural habits. In the context of our enquiry, it encouraged us to see the canteen not just as a service, but as a system open to speculative redesign. However, while the article highlights innovation and optimism, our project complicates this narrative by questioning whether visibility alone leads to transformation. By inserting carbon data into receipts, we are not redesigning food itself, but redesigning the informational that frames it. The article reinforced my belief that design can operate upstream within systemic change, while also prompting me to critically examine sustainability projects that risk aestheticising environmental responsibility without addressing deeper questions of power and accountability.