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Jonathan Chapman

Jonathan Chapman

Jonathan Chapman is a Professor of Sustainable Design at Brighton University, and Course Leader of the MA in Sustainable Design- a 'transdisciplinary' postgraduate course, which he co-wrote and launched.

Over the past decade, his teaching, consultancy and research have grown from their early polemical and activist roots, to developing strategic counterpoints to the unsustainable character of contemporary material culture.

Today, Professor Chapman is considered a key contributor to the discourse(s) on sustainability and design, internationally; receiving significant levels of critical acclaim, such as CNN International, New Statesman, New York Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, several features and interviews on BBC Radio 4 and the New Scientist, who described him as a ‘mover and shaker', and, ‘a new breed of sustainable design thinker’.

He has written two books; his monograph, 'Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences & Empathy' and his co-edited work,' Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories: A Collection of Sustainable Design Essays'. The book has been widely adopted by professional designers at some of the world’s largest design-led corporations including SONY and Samsung. The book is also core reading at many of the world’s leading Design schools from Parsons, The Royal College of Art, Stanford and TU Delft to Seoul National University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Tsukuba.

He was invited to stand before the House of Lords and present formal evidence as part of their Enquiry into Waste Reduction; advising on the development of EU environmental policies for the design and disposal of electronic products. He has been employed as a consultant for The Science Museum, the London Design Festival, Clarks International, MISTRA (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research), FitFlop and H&M. He is currently engaged in a broad range of consulting activities with world leading sports lifestyle brand, PUMA.