Course Description
The world is drowning in plastic that we’ve created, most of which takes hundreds of years to decompose. It is a disaster choking our oceans, poisoning our food chains and clogging our landfills. To solve this problem, we must find ways to replace or at least reduce plastic in manufacturing, to reuse, recycle or re-purpose plastic currently in use, to rescue discarded plastic from oceans or landfills, and to dispose of plastic responsibly.
For this course, we find companies that want to achieve the same and will partner with SCET and Schoolab around this problem. Each company prepares a “deplastify challenge” based on their own business, and will be given student teams that work together to develop an entrepreneurial solution. Supported by representatives from their partner companies, students will work to understand the industry and challenge, then design prototypes and pitch their final solutions. Each student will be working with an industry partner, mostly large corporations as well as startups. Past company sponsors include Whole Foods, Faurecia Automotive, Microsoft, Allbirds, Nestle, Recology SF, Method, Bank of the West, Surfrider Foundation, Samsung and more!
We explore the fundamentals of the plastic problem and broaden the discussion on sustainability and what it takes to improve practices across industries. The course will cover ethnographic interviewing, design thinking, ideation tools, designing and prototyping products, validation with customer feedback, and business modeling. This will offer a real life experience as well as placing the student in a consulting mode, helping them to develop skills and learn how to work efficiently in a pluri disciplinary team.
Application
Video
Introducing Deplastify the Planet
Learn more about the course in this video.
Instructor
Jan-Simon Veicht
Jan-Simon Veicht is a designer, strategist and educator dedicated to precision and simplicity, crafting solutions that bridge complexity and clarity. With 15 years in design, he has navigated the worlds of luxury consumer goods, furniture, UI/UX, branding, hardware design, and corporate sustainable innovations, transforming abstract ideas and concepts into tangible success stories. His advocacy for beauty and sustainability threads through each design choice, with a particular focus on Color, Material, and Finish (CMF). Deeply intrigued by the transformative power of emerging technologies, entrepreneurship and human-centered-design, Jan stands for a world which is not just about aesthetics but about crafting a future where interactions are more meaningful, sustainable, and functional. Beyond his professional projects in corporate innovation and as design consultant, he is committed to cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs, designers and changemakers. As a lecturer and mentor, Jan has shared his passion for sustainability and innovation insights with students at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds a Master’s in Design for Emerging Technology and serves as a Design Fellow at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation.
Currently, he works as Head of Design & Innovation at Schoolab in San Francisco, a global innovation consulting company, leading corporate strategic foresight projects, integrating Gen AI into design operations, and building out design practices across the US, Europe, and Asia.