Green Grads 2025 with Founder Barbara Chandler -

Green Grads 2025: in conversation with founder Barbara Chandler

Amongst many initiatives undertaken under our B Corp umbrella, sponsorship of Barbara Chandler’s landmark GREEN GRADS exhibition is one of our proudest. The programme offers a unique platform for talented young designers to highlight a range of environmental issues and offer unique, solutions-driven and innovative ways to combat them through design.

Ahead of announcing the 2025 cohort, we asked Barbara to tell us a little more about the programme, how it works and what previous GREEN GRADS are up to now thanks to the support shown through the platform. Details of the 2025 exhibitions, and how you can attend, can be found at the end of this post.

Talk us through how GREEN GRADS started..

I was design editor at Wednesday’s Homes & Property at the London Evening Standard for 27 years – until the paper dramatically reduced its coverage of my subject, and then ceased printing entirely (except for a Friday edition). I always wrote a lot about new designers – they made great stories and pictures! So I was very aware of when the degree shows for art and design graduates were cancelled by COVID in 2020 and then again in 2021. And New Designers, the big annual show for graduates, was also cancelled two years in a row.

The summer of 2021 was pretty quiet thanks to COVID and I had been double jabbed. So I thought (as a reporter for the Evening Standard and as a long-standing photographer of new designers) I would go out into England and visit the Universities. This plan was received enthusiastically by tutors and graduates alike, who in several cases organised a day of presentations for me. I visited a string of Universities, including Manchester, Stoke, Loughborough, De Montfort (Leicester), Brighton, Kingston, Plymouth, Falmouth and lots of little shows around London which graduates were putting on themselves.

The talent was astounding. These new artists, designers and engineers really did deserve a central showcase. I have previous experience of curating shows presenting new talent, and lots of contacts around the design industry, so I thought I would try and find an organisation/venue prepared to put on a show. I had a working title of #greatgrads. But there was not a lot doing. Most events were still being adjourned due to COVID. But Deborah Spencer, well known as an orchestrator of impressive design events, was putting on a design show in King’s Cross called Planted, which had an environmental theme. She was happy to bring my graduates into her show, and we decided to call them GREEN GRADS to fit her agenda.

Then Deborah secured for us a marvellous venue adjacent to her show, called the Samsung Experience Space. Michael Czerwinski, with a wealth of experience in producing/promoting events, volunteered to mastermind the practicalities. He is now co-director and show producer. We exhibited 35 of my GREEN GRADS at Samsung and over a single weekend we had 2,000 visitors. Obviously the whole project had strong legs, so we kept it going. Now we have done four substantial shows under our own steam, and have been invited into numerous other shows, including the GNCCF in Manchester (four times), Grand Designs Live (three times), the Surface Design Show (second time coming up in February), Artefact, London Design Week and more. We have a website with biographies of all our GREEN GRADS (200 at present, and another 50 coming soon) and an Instagram channel.

What’s the process for choosing and selecting each cohort?

Our graduates come from a wide range of disciplines, from artists making statements about the environment to engineers proposing solutions. Other areas we cover include product, furniture, interiors, architecture, ceramics, glass, graphics, textiles and more. Our graduates have completed Bachelors or Masters degrees or even a PhD. There are no rigorous criteria. Final projects must be related in some way to the environment; so, they might have addressed such issues as climate, carbon, circularity, energy, pollution, vanishing habitats, diminishing species, pollution of all kinds, creative use of waste, and/or biomaterials. Or their projects might be simply a celebration of nature and natural materials, and/or local production and craft – and a plea for their preservation. We find and choose our GREEN GRADS through visiting degree shows, the New Designers show in Islington, trawling websites, and general ears-to-the-ground and word-of-mouth. We have chosen a fifth cohort for 2025, and have selected around 50 newcomers, many of whom have got in touch directly with us. GREEN GRADS is essentially collaborative, and this year several of our alumni have been our official ECO-SCOUTS, visiting shows and collating their findings, to immeasurably widen and strength the process.

How have you seen design practices amongst the Green Grads evolve over the years?

When we started in 2021, it was quite tricky to find among my #greatgrads enough to qualify as GREEN GRADS. But now we have more than enough graduates who have been tackling the challenges outlined above – and identifying additional ones. Graduates have had time as students to home in on a particular environmental issue and explore it forensically, collating and analysing their research. The solutions they propose may not be perfect for “real life” but their projects highlight a particular issue. And the graduates themselves are a wonderful pool of talent for a greener future.

Can you tell us a bit more about what some of your previous Green Grads are up to now?  

Notable highlights include:

 Emma Money, inventor of Cyanoskin has received numerous grants/offers of assistance to develop her unique algae-based carbon-reducing paint.
Following GG exhibitions in London and Manchester, Elena Branch now has her Climate Collection of fabrics in full commercial production.
Amongst multiple grants, Elizabeth Lee and her three fellow graduates were awarded an Unlocking Potential Award from Innovate UK for Carbon Cell, their polystyrene replacement.
Luisa Charles, winner of GREEN GRADS 2022 Change Maker Award, has supplied her FLOAT DIY water-testing robot to wetlands in Sri Lanka, and a river in Guyana. FLOAT has gone on to be celebrated internationally, evolving into project SWIM for multiple different communities and device types.
Kiara Taylor won a major Innovation Award from Samsung, adapting her wind turbine made from waste electronics for a drip feed irrigation system for farmers in Ghana.
Sara Howard spent two years in Bali, developing her pioneering “circular ceramics” for full commercial production. These are just a few of GREEN GRAD successes “in the real world.”

Many other projects are underway and multiple GREEN GRADS report that GG support has been crucial.

Is there one memorable design that really stands out for you over the years?

Following a GREEN GRADS in the NORTH Manchester show, Sri Hollema, a graduate of Loughborough University, secured a business partner and funding for her solar-charged Mat Zero heating mat to bring gentle warmth at ground level in refugee camps and poorer communities worldwide. Mat Zero was just one of 15 out of 329 applications, to win a share of the Energy Catalyst Grant Early Stage facilitated by Innovate UK. Mat Zero is now in production and a website has just gone live for advance individual orders.

What’s next for Green Grads?

This year GREEN GRADS has already undertaken four major projects (as of September 2025).  

It began with a stand at the Surface Design Show in Islington (courtesy of the organisers; invited back for 2026); then I curated TALKING TEXTILES at Chelsea Harbour (hosted by Crucial Trading); then for the second time, GREEN GRADS  presented a whole day of eco-activities at the invitation of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls in Islington; soon after, they organised a rota of GREEN GRADS with demos and workshops at the Decorative Fair (courtesy of The House Directory). Two major shows are scheduled for October and November 2025 (see details at the end of this post).

And a final word from Barbara…

GREEN GRADS is run on a not-for-profit basis. We are financed by the generous contributions of a unique industry cooperative of outward-looking forward-facing responsible brands. We point out that GREEN GRADS is an inarguable double whammy: promoting new talent and the environment at one and the same time. As a B Corp, Victoria and Little Red Rooster got in touch with us and volunteered financial and promotional support. We didn’t even have to ask. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

To find out more and check out this year’s exhibitions:

GREEN GRADS in the NORTH

16th-19th October 2025

At the GNCCF (Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair), Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Manchester M13 0FE.

25+ GREEN GRADS in the quirky blue changing rooms of this beautiful repurposed Edwardian swimming pool.

Thursday 16th October: preview 6pm-9pm.

Friday 17th October: 10am-6pm 

Saturday 18th October: 10am-6pm.

Sunday 19th October: 10 am-4pm.

Tickets: adult: £8.50 in advance (Eventbrite fees apply)/£10 on the door.

Preview evening: £16 in advance (Eventbrite fees apply)/£18 on the door

http://www.greengrads.co.uk

@greengradsuk

Green Grads 2025 with Founder Barbara Chandler

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