On 5 November 2021, Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas chaired a conversation between His Royal Highness Prince Charles and Sir Jony Ive, introducing the aims of the Terra Carta Design Lab, a day after launching the Terra Carta Seal honouring companies making an effort towards sustainability.
Held at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on the occasion of COP26, the conversation touched upon the motives that have driven Prince Charles to launch Terra Carta, his collaboration with Jony Ive, and the importance of the next generation facing environmental challenges globally.
Prince Charles in conversation with Sir Jony Ive
‘What really has driven [the Terra Carta] is the fact that finally, after some 40 years of trying to raise awareness about all these issues, and trying to bring a whole series of people together, particularly from the business sector to get them to understand more and more about the need for sustainability, one of the things we could never really do was get the financial services sector to take it seriously,’ said Prince Charles. He noted how he always believed that the private sector would be key to developing solutions to the global environmental crisis, and that exchanges between public and private sectors are key.
‘When His Royal Highness was describing the Terra Carta, I was hugely struck by the fact that in spite of the profound nature of the challenges that it was trying to address, the Terra Carta wasn't characterised by fear or terror, there was a rather beautiful optimism’
Jony Ive
As well as cross-sector conversations, the creative collaboration with Ive has been crucial to the development of the Terra Carta. ‘When His Royal Highness was describing the Terra Carta, I was hugely struck by the fact that in spite of the profound nature of the challenges that it was trying to address, the Terra Carta wasn't characterised by fear or terror, there was a rather beautiful optimism,’ he says.
The latest instalment in the collaboration between the two saw Ive and his LoveFrom team creating a paper and digital seal inspired by nature, symbolic of the Terra Carta’s mission. ‘I feel so strongly that we must reconnect with nature,’ observed Prince Charles. ‘Nature has to be put at the centre of the whole operation and [Jony Ive’s] design, I thought, brilliantly helped to encapsulate that. But this is another reason why it's always seemed so valuable to learn from nature. After all, nature has found answers to these problems over billions of years of evolution.’
As Douglas pointed out, the young generations are key to the initiative’s mission, and Prince Charles’ grandchildren have actually helped inspire his environmental work and desire to engage the next generations. ‘If you’re going to start young, I think there's a real opportunity,’ he said.
On that topic, when asked about his advice to the next generation, Ive responded: ‘Very often overlooked is how we actually begin the process, how we understand the problem, how we frame the problem, and if we don’t, we miss enormous opportunities before we really start. I think critical practice is that of being curious and inquisitive. But with real discipline and with real intention. And I think very often just looking at a problem in a curiously different way can make a whole range of solutions immediately clear.’
INFORMATION
sustainable-markets.org/terra-carta
-
Aesop’s Salone del Mobile 2024 installations in Milan are multisensory experiencesAesop has partnered with Salone del Mobile to launch a series of installations across Milan, tapping into sight, touch, taste, and scent
-
Dial into the Boring Phone and more smartphone alternativesFrom the deliberately dull new Boring Phone to Honor’s latest hook-up with Porsche, a host of new devices that do the phone thing slightly differently
-
Berlinde De Bruyckere’s angels without faces touch down in Venice churchBelgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s recent archangel sculptures occupy the 16th-century white marble Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore for the Venice Biennale 2024
-
Terra Carta Design Lab announces second editionFor the Terra Carta Design Lab’s second edition, students and recent alumni are invited to design high-impact, low-cost solutions to address the climate crisis
-
LoveFrom to offer design scholarships in USA and UKLoveFrom Scholarships address the lack of diversity throughout the creative industries, and will be available to prospective students at CCA, RISD and RCA
-
HRH Prince Charles and Sir Jony Ive on designing for a better worldFounded and led by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (as he was at the time of publication) and Sir Jony Ive – who headline the August 2022 issue of Wallpaper* – the Terra Carta Design Lab celebrates young designers developing high-impact, low-cost solutions to the climate crisis. Ive speaks exclusively to Deyan Sudjic, Wallpaper* contributing editor and director emeritus of the Design Museum, London
-
Wearables for cows and recyclable performance textiles among Terra Carta Design Lab winnersThe four winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab were announced by HRH the Prince of Wales and Sir Jony Ive in partnership with the Royal College of Art
-
Terra Carta Design Lab announces finalistsHRH Prince Charles and Jony Ive, in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, announce the 20 finalists of the Terra Carta Design Lab
-
Jony Ive’s LoveFrom unveils Terra Carta Seal designDesigned by Jony Ive to celebrate nature, with an intricate composition of flora and fauna, the Terra Carta Seal represents the charter’s values and will be bestowed upon private sector companies that distinguish themselves for their sustainability efforts
-
Jony Ive’s LoveFrom unveils official websiteLaunched today, 11 October 2021, LoveFrom.com reveals the creative collective’s visual identity, anchored in a Baskerville-inspired typeface called LoveFrom Serif, provides a statement of purpose, and pays gentle homage to Apple’s Steve Jobs
-
Jony Ive remembers Steve Jobs ten years onIn a published remembrance in WSJ Magazine – marking ten years since the death of Steve Jobs – Jony Ive, former chief design officer of Apple, reflects on his friendship and collaboration with Jobs, and how it inspired his LoveFrom creative collective
