Bee Sustainable: Alumna Laura Ramirez Garcia on SCAD’s Design for Sustainability program

Written by Julia Gralki. Photo Courtesy of Sarah Diaz.

SCAD’s Design for Sustainability program was launched in 2009. Since then, the graduating classes have grown in size year by year – just like the demand for sustainability experts such as Laura Ramirez Garcia.

She graduated with an MA in design for sustainability in 2021 and now works as a design manager for Catapult Design, a global non-profit design studio with locations in New York and Savannah. The organization is committed to improving peoples’ lives through accessible and innovative design – especially those of underserved populations.

“I never thought I was going to be working for an organization like this. And I love it,” she said.

In fact, Ramirez Garcia graduated from SCAD with a bachelor’s degree in fashion design before she decided to sign up for the design for sustainability master’s program. And while she is not designing a garment in her work for Catapult, her bachelor’s degree still comes in handy.

“When you start a master’s degree in design, you aren’t having any foundation classes. You get right into it,” Ramirez Garcia said.

But when creating a presentation deck or coming up with ideas for a project, those foundation classes actually prove to be useful.

“All my knowledge in color theory and design language, anything that I learned in my freshman and sophomore year at SCAD, I was able to use in my master’s degree,” she said.

Not only her master’s degree but also her professional work benefits from those foundation classes. “I can put a deck together for a client, or I can jump in and help with social media. And if I didn’t know those tools in undergrad, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Her design for sustainability classes, on the other hand, gave her another perspective on the meaning of sustainability.

“A lot of people think that sustainability is just about being green and recycling,” she said. Instead, the program focuses on systemic change. Students are encouraged to solve complex problems by looking at the big picture and the relationships between individual aspects of a problem. It’s about designing sustainable solutions and creating innovation.

But while sustainability is often understood as a synonym to environmentalism, the term also refers to values such as community.

“In order to improve something for the people or the community, you really have to work with them and not just for them,” Ramirez Garcia said. The design for sustainability program taught her the importance of taking primary research seriously by conducting interviews. If the people that students or professionals are designing for aren’t part of the process, the solution won’t really benefit them.

This idea of collaboration, co-creation and working with people instead of for them is at the core of her work as a multidisciplinary designer, where she uses her skills in leadership and outreach to empower and educate communities.

“How can you use design thinking or sustainable practices to improve the quality of life of people?” she said about her main goal and vision for her work.

While she loves her current job and would like to stay there forever, she could also see herself going back into the fashion industry. If an opportunity comes up, she would like to bring the aspect of sustainability into the fashion industry. She hopes that the industry will become more aware of what it is creating right now and the impact it has on the environment.