In the race to decarbonize, hard-to-abate industries like transport, mobility, energy, manufacturing, and heavy industries face immense challenges. These sectors are pivotal in achieving global climate goals but require transformative innovation to overcome their reliance on high-emission processes. Enter design fiction: a tool for imagining and prototyping future scenarios that inspire radical innovation while addressing the complexities of decarbonization.
What is Design Fiction?
Design fiction is a speculative approach that blends storytelling with prototyping to explore “what if?” scenarios. It goes beyond forecasting trends or analyzing probabilities—it creates immersive, tangible provocations that challenge assumptions and inspire innovation. By developing speculative artifacts such as fictional news reports, prototypes, or policy drafts, design fiction brings possible futures to life, encouraging stakeholders to engage with them. Rather than predicting the future, it envisions alternative realities that push boundaries, provoke dialogue, and open up new possibilities for transformative action.
For hard-to-abate industries, design fiction offers a way to:
- Explore the integration of emerging low-carbon technologies.
- Rethink supply chains and production models.
- Address societal, regulatory, and consumer behavior shifts in response to decarbonization.
Why hard-to-abate industries need design fiction
These industries operate within complex ecosystems, often constrained by entrenched practices, high capital costs, and regulatory pressures. Traditional approaches to innovation may fall short in imagining transformative solutions. Design fiction enables stakeholders to:
- Visualize low-carbon futures: Crafting scenarios where new technologies—such as hydrogen fuel, carbon capture, or electrified transport systems—are operational within a reimagined value chain.
- Challenge assumptions: Provoking fresh thinking about entrenched norms, such as the necessity of fossil fuels in energy-intensive manufacturing.
- Align stakeholders: Engaging diverse actors—from policymakers to engineers—through tangible prototypes and narratives that illustrate shared goals.
- Test policy and business models: Simulating the implementation of carbon pricing, circular economy strategies, or renewable energy integrations in controlled, fictional contexts.
Examples of Design Fiction scenarios
Net-Zero Factories
A speculative scenario where AI-driven, autonomous factories produce goods using 100% renewable energy, with zero waste and closed-loop recycling systems. What roles would human workers play? What new supply chain dependencies could arise?
Hydrogen-Powered Transport
Fictionalized blueprints for hydrogen-powered shipping fleets or aviation systems, paired with narratives about new infrastructure and regulatory frameworks.
Energy Communities
A future where localized energy grids enable heavy industries to share renewable energy surpluses, reducing dependency on centralized grids. How might this disrupt existing energy markets?
How to Implement Design Fiction in Your Organization
- Assemble a cross-disciplinary team: Combine expertise in engineering, design, sociology, and business to capture diverse perspectives.
- Identify key challenges: Focus on specific pain points, like process emissions in steel manufacturing or the electrification of long-haul transport.
- Develop artifacts and scenarios: Create visual, tangible, or interactive prototypes (e.g., mock-ups of decarbonized supply chains or AI-driven energy optimization systems).
- Facilitate collaborative workshops: Use the scenarios to engage stakeholders in brainstorming and co-creating actionable solutions.
- Iterate and integrate: Refine the outputs based on feedback, and use insights to inform strategic roadmaps, R&D investments, or policy proposals.
The Way Forward
Design fiction is not just a tool for creative exploration; it is a catalyst for systemic change. By challenging entrenched assumptions and fostering collaboration, it can help hard-to-abate industries envision and accelerate their decarbonization journeys. As the world demands urgent climate action, the ability to think boldly and imagine differently is more critical than ever.
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