According to Fortune, the Design For Good alliance includes global companies like Microsoft, General Mills, LIXIL, Airbus and DBS working to address UN Sustainable Development Goals through design expertise. The first cohort from 2022-2024 focused on sanitation and clean water access, producing tools like WaterStarters – an app that’s already helped over 50,000 people in Kenya access clean drinking water and could reach 1.5 million by 2030. Another project created Uhuru care cards for menstrual health education, reaching over 10,000 students across 12 schools in Tanzania and expanding to Uganda. The alliance works in two-year cycles, consulting with UN experts to identify which goals need design intervention most, with their current 2024-2026 cohort targeting education access and a planned 2026-2030 “dual cycle” addressing both human and planetary health simultaneously.
Real world impact
What’s interesting here is that these aren’t just theoretical design exercises – they’re actually getting implemented. The WaterStarters app is already available on the Google Play store, designed specifically for technicians managing rural water systems in Kenya. That’s pretty smart when you think about it. Instead of creating another generic “save water” app for Western consumers, they’re building tools for the people actually maintaining the infrastructure. And the menstrual education cards? They actually brought in local artists to create culturally relevant content rather than pushing Western imagery. That kind of sensitivity makes all the difference between something that gets used versus something that gets ignored.
corporate-design-meets-global-challenges”>Corporate design meets global challenges
Here’s the thing: designers make up less than 1% of working professionals globally, but they’re often the ones creating the products and systems that shape our world. So it makes sense to leverage that expertise for bigger problems. But can corporate designers really understand the needs of rural Kenyan communities or Tanzanian schoolgirls? The alliance seems aware of this challenge – they’re bringing in UN experts like Gilbert Houngbo (then chair of UN Water) and UNESCO’s Valtencir Mendes to guide the process. They’re also looking at which companies have relevant expertise rather than just throwing random corporate resources at problems. Basically, they’re trying to match corporate capabilities with actual UN priorities rather than just doing what feels good.
Scaling design solutions
The numbers they’re quoting are ambitious – going from 50,000 people helped to 1.5 million in six years. That’s a 30x scale-up. But scaling design solutions in developing contexts is notoriously difficult. What works in one community might fail in another just miles away. The fact that they’re working through existing organizations and local partnerships suggests they understand this. The menstrual education cards spreading from Tanzania to Uganda organically is actually more promising than some top-down rollout. It means local communities are seeing value in the tools. Still, I wonder how they’ll maintain quality and effectiveness as they scale. Design interventions often work beautifully at small scale but lose their magic when deployed widely.
Future challenges
Looking ahead to their 2026-2030 dual focus on human and planetary health raises interesting questions. Sheppard’s point that “you can’t have a dying planet with healthy humans in it” is obviously true, but tackling two SDGs simultaneously could spread resources thin. The connection between environmental health and human health is clear, but designing solutions that address both effectively? That’s the real challenge. Will they create tools that help communities adapt to climate change while improving healthcare access? Or develop sustainable agricultural systems that also combat malnutrition? The ambition is commendable, but the execution will be everything. And let’s be honest – corporate sustainability initiatives don’t always live up to their promises. But if this alliance can actually deliver measurable impact at scale, it could change how we think about design’s role in solving global problems.
