WHAT IS GREEN GRADS?

“Innovators, makers and activists.”

GREEN GRADS, founded in 2021, is a platform to nurture and promote recent UK graduates with ideas to heal the planet. 

“We are fuelling UK environmental action with new talent from UK Universities. We do this through shows, panel discussions and other events, social and mainstream media, mentoring and a constantly-updated website.”

Barbara Chandler and Michael Czerwinski, co-directors of GREEN GRADS.

WHO IS RUNNING GREEN GRADS?

Barbara Chandler MBE & Michael Czerwinski

 

GREEN GRADS is founded and curated by multi-award-winning design journalist Barbara Chandler (@sunnygran). In the King’s Birthday Honours, June 2026, Barbara was awarded an MBE, with the following citation: Barbara Chandler, Design Journalist and Photographer, and founder of GREEN GRADS. For services to the Design Industry.

Barbara has written about UK design for over 60 years, latterly (for 27 years) at the London Evening Standard. She visits individual university degree shows, and thoroughly trawls the New Designers group shows in Islington. GREEN GRADS makes use extensively of her writing and editing expertise, and her industry contacts are invaluable. An experienced (and exhibiting) photographer, she records as she goes, creating essential material for promotion and our website. 

 

Trained as a ceramicists and an expert in public engagement, co-director Michael Czerwinski (@studioczerwinski) designs, coordinates and delivers our shows and special events. Michael also designs all our graphics. Previously he has created/presented events for many prestigious art/design bodies, notably London’s Design Museum (shows, talks, demos, seminars, and social media). Michael, who runs his own creative Studio Tucktite, is a visiting lecturer with the London College of Fashion, and the co-founder/curator of the very successful Illustrators’ Fair held twice a year in King’s Cross.

WHO ARE THE GREEN GRADS?

250 on our website, as of summer 2026

The GREEN GRADS are new graduates whose final projects have in some way addressed a wide range of eco-issues. These might include: 

• Nature and biophilia. 

• Regenerative design. 

• Natural materials, natural dyes, local production and traditional crafts. 

• Sustainability in design, manufacturing, administration, sales, transport, and delivery and so on. 

• The circular economy. 

• Biomaterials/materials from waste. 

• Recycling/upcycling. 

• Diminishing resources/water usage.

• Destruction of habitats and depletion of species. 

• Durability, restoration and repair. 

• Energy reduction and alternative energy. 

• Land and water pollution, including plastics. 

Graduates come from a wide range of disciplines, from art to engineering, and additionally include product and furniture design, materials innovation, animation, graphics, ceramics, glass, textiles, fashion, interior design and architecture. There is a huge age range, from just-qualified with Bachelor degrees through to MAs, often in midlife. And upwards! Our oldest GREEN GRAD is 72. Our main cohort each year for our autumn shows have graduated that year, but we may also include graduates from the past three years. We can consider graduates from abroad provided their degree is from a UK university and they will be resident in the UK for at least the next year.

We have added annually to our graduates’ number since our inception in summer 2021. Each year we recruit a new cohort, making five so far. We are now recruiting our sixth cohort for 2026.

There are now 250 GREEN GRADS listed on our website, each with an individual biography and portrait, and we continue to offer support even to our earliest recruits. 

 

ASSISTANCE AND PROMOTION 

“Once a GREEN GRAD, always a GREEN GRAD”

• We help our graduates showcase their projects in the best possible way, primarily through physical shows where they are present to demonstrate and explain. If funds allow, we assist them with bursaries for travel and accommodation. 

• We arrange transport to bring their work to our shows.

• We write their exhibition, PR and marketing material, gaining them industry contacts and significant media coverage in national and industry press, on web-based channels, and on social media, notably Instagram and LinkedIn.

• We design, install and in many cases physically build/paint our exhibition spaces. 

• We coordinate sophisticated talks programmes and host engaging demos and workshops. 

• We host informal SALONS and informative/fun networking events. (Networking is what they perhaps value most, say our GREEN GRADS (see ESSENTIALLY COLLABORATIVE, below).

• We offer individual guidance and support. 

Thus, in all these ways, we assist our GREEN GRADS to put their ideas into practice, to get publicity and funding, to create production and marketing opportunities for them and to build bridges with business/industry. Crucially, our GREEN GRADS gain confidence and experience in self-expression. In many cases, being selected for GREEN GRADS has validated their projects and spurred them further action.

 

WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR 

Samsung Experience Space, Yorkton Workshops, Grand Designs Live, GNCCF (Manchester), Surface Design Show, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, The Decorative Fair, Schools Days and more… 

Listed separately at the end of the report is a fuller account of all activities we have created for our GREEN GRADS from our first year of 2021, through to the present. Notably: 

• We have presented annually five of our own shows with major talent from recent degree shows. Our sixth show takes place in November 2026. Our prestigious venues have been the Samsung Experience Space in King’s Cross; Heal’s in central London; and (latterly) the Yorkton Workshops Gallery in the offices of design consultancy Pearson Lloyd in Hackney. 

• We have shown three times at the GRAND DESIGNS LIVE show in ExCel, in 2022, ’23 and ’24.

• And we have shown four times at the GNCCF (Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair) in Manchester in 2022, ’23, ’24 and ’25. We plan to show again in autumn 2026.

• We’ve presented three SCHOOLS DAYS in ’24, ’25 and ’26. We’ve been invited back for 2027.

• And we’ve shown twice at the SURFACE DESIGN SHOW in ’25 and ’26. 

 

Mindful of our unique assembly of talent, and its timely and crucial focus on the environment, organisers/curators have invited us into a wide variety of shows/events, because we bring outstanding content, plus integrity, media interest and public/industry engagement, all delivered professionally at little cost.

We design, deliver, populate, oversee and promote our installations at these shows, supplying our own display furniture, which we have accumulated and adapted gradually, thanks to sponsorship funds and the carpentry and painting skills of our GREEN GRADS, under the design and hands-on direction of show producer Michael. We also hire vans, write, print and install display material, provide website content and publicity releases/images, and generally nurture GREEN GRADS taking part. 

We have a strong profile on Instagram, @greengradsuk, with regular in-depth articles on LinkedIn. 

GRADUATE ACHIEVEMENTS 

Individual GREEN GRADS have already had notable success 

Many of our GREEN GRADS have now taken their university projects into the “real world.” A significant number have set up their ownbusinesses. A fuller, more detailed list is attached, headed SUCCESS!

• GREEN GRAD (2022) Sri Hollema’s Mat Zero heating mat is in distribution world wide

• GREEN GRAD (2021) Sara Howard’s Circular Ceramics tableware made entirely from waste is in full commercial production.

• GREEN GRAD (2021) Mathilde Wittock is distributing worldwide her furniture made from discarded tennis balls.

• GREEN GRAD (2023) Rosy Napper is selling lights made from ceramic waste from her own studio.

• GREEN GRADS Elizabeth Lee, Ori Blich, and Eden Harrison (2023) are producing Carbon Cell, a fully biodegradable, non-toxic and carbon-negative replacement for expanded polystyrene (EPS) and other polymer-based foams.

• GREEN GRAD Mobina Rajabimoghadam (2025) won a Green Concept Award for her material Egshel, made from food industry waste. She is developing this for market.

 

ESSENTIALLY COLLABORATIVE 

“You can do more together than you can do alone”

• At our shows, GREEN GRADS bond with each other

• As already mentioned, GREEN GRADS report that networking is perhaps what they value most. Many stepped outside their university curricula to pursue their sustainable and environmental projects. Thus, they are very pleased to find similar souls at other Universities. 

• A GREEN GRADS “mega group” on WhatsApp publishes news, tips, advice, and expertise – for example looking for a studio as a group, pooling materials, or sharing accommodation and transport for a show. 

• Last summer (2025) we enlisted past GREEN GRADS to find the new cohort. They are enthusiastic, committed and professional ECO SCOUTS who combed the graduate shows and New Designers (the North London show for new University talent) to find our GREEN GRADS of 2025. Ongoing, we have had similar offers of service for 2026 from several GREEN GRADS.

 

ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE

AND SPONSORS 

GREEN GRADS is run on a not-for profit basis 

For 2021 and 2022 professionals running GREEN GRADS took no fees, only expenses. Barbara and Michael received token fees in 2023 and 2024, but minimal fees in 2025, due to demands on funding. 

We would hope that our next rounds of sponsorship might yield modest fees for curation, presentation and administration. 

GREEN GRADS is currently financed by a unique industry cooperative of outward-facing forward-looking brands.

“We couldn’t do it without them…”

In the past, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour has been a very generous headline sponsor, and also hosted two GREEN GRADS shows. 

Heal’s (sponsors from the start) and their landlords General Projects, hosted our flagship show for LDF September2023. Also sponsors right through from our foundation in 2021 have been Anglepoise, Benchmark and PriestmanGoode. 

Other supporters include/have included Amara, Another Country, Camira, Case Furniture, Crucial Trading, Designers Guild, Dulux, Epson, Ercol, FESPA, Informare PR, Little Red Rooster PR, LSA International, Naturalmat, Neptune, Nick Munro, Planit-ie, SCP, Soho Lighting, The Futon Company, Tom Faulkner, Urge Collective, UFurnish, Viaduct, ZettelerPR, and Colour in Design. 

GREEN GRADS operates through Tucktite Ltd, the company of co-director Michael Czerwinski, holding professional insurance for events and so forth, and generously providing space for workshops, small events, meetings etc. 

In general, we spend our sponsorship money on: 

• Substantial Awards for graduates at our autumn shows (for fuller details of Awards, see below).

• Networking events and seminars for graduates.

• Exhibition/display materials.

• Transport to deliver exhibits and exhibition materials.

• Travel expenses for curators to visit universities out of London. This is vital for recruiting nationwide graduate talent and a unique part of GREEN GRADS.

• Professional help to build events and ensure smooth running.

• Film-makers fees and expenses, plus other documentation.

• Website management.

• Fees (or at least expenses) where requested from media moderators/judges contributing to our events.

• If funds allow, reasonable remuneration for our curator, exhibition director and consultants.

• If funds allow, help with travel and accommodation for our exhibiting GREEN GRADS. 

We prepare annual accounts for our sponsors, detailing monies spent. 

 

OUR SHOW AWARDS

Enough money to make a difference…

Typically, these include three main Awards each of £200 – £350 at our flagship autumn shows. These are THE SHOW IMPACT AWARD, THE CHANGE MAKER AWARD and THE EARTH AWARD. Additionally, we may give Runners-Up Awards for smaller amounts. We have also awarded bursaries for travel and accommodation to GREEN GRADS who in many instances could not otherwise have taken part. Our DESIGNERS DEN Award is £200, with runners up at £50. We have held several editions of DESIGNERS DEN, and this popular event is ongoing. 

We also orchestrate the Epson ECO STORIES AWARDS. We have also awarded prizes, including Epson printers, Anglepoise lamps and an Ercol stool, kindly donated by our sponsors. 

Last year, we added the GNCCF Award of £200 with £50 for runner up. 

 

WHAT DO WE OFFER OUR SPONSORS? 

“Sustainability is now a commercial imperative” 

• Sponsors enhance their credibility as a responsible brand. Customers are more interested in the transparency/sustainability of products than choosing their “favourite” brand and research has shown that up to 80% make choices based on the social responsibility, inclusivity and/or environmental impact of their purchases. 

• Sponsors are an ongoing supporter of GREEN GRADS, a unique UK platform for UK graduates engaging with essential eco-issues, including sustainability, biophilia, bio-diversity and much more. They can include support for GREEN GRADS in their PR and marketing. This can be an important part of their commitment to sustainability. 

• Sponsors are supporting new graduate talent. The graduates of 2020/21 were severely affected by lockdown, and the new wave of graduates of 2022 had also faced disruptions in their studies. Many missed out entirely on degree shows. The early editions of GREEN GRADS, curated across 20/21/22, gave at least some a chance. We are continuing our support to successive years, in a unique enterprise. 

• Sponsors can get ahead-of-the-game access to the cream of UK new talent. They can, for example, view the proposed exhibitors’ list before it becomes public – a fertile ground for recruiting. 

• Sponsors logos are on the GREEN GRADS website. Sponsors’ contributions are highlighted on Instagram and LinkedIn and we put on view a “thank you to Sponsors” with a full list of names at our shows and in numerous social media posts. 

 

WHAT DO OUR GREEN GRADS 

SAY ABOUT US?

This is really what keeps us going…

“Our generation is part of tomorrow’s solution.” 

“I am just so happy to be a GREEN GRAD – it’s joining me up with so many other like-minded creatives and I feel so much more effective!” 

“We graduates can work outside industry and show it’s urgent to act now.” 

“We makers must consider the impact of our design, and help others to do the same.” 

“I am a GREEN GRAD because design is a game changer for social and environmental injustice.” 

“We GREEN GRADS combine technology with activism.” 

GREEN GRADS WHAT WE’VE DONE

2021-2026

 

2021 and 2022

Kicking off in style 

• Our opening show (which was part of the Planted design event) was at the Samsung Experience Space, during LDF 2021(35 GREEN GRADS) and we showed there again in 2022 (50+ GREEN GRADS); each of these shows attracted over a thousand visitors in a single weekend. Emboldened by the popularity of our first show founder Barbara Chandler in autumn 2021 travelled to Birmingham to see the organisers of GRAND DESIGNS LIVE, and to Manchester to see the organiser of the GNCCF. Would they like to host GREEN GRADS? Yes!

• In 2022, we took a short film about GREEN GRADS to Salone Satellite the giant furniture fair in Milan, at the invitation of the organisers.

• Also in 2022, at the invitation of the organisers, Media 10, we showed at GRAND DESIGNS LIVE – we went on to show two more times at this prestigious fair. 

• And we were invited for the first time into the GNCCF. The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is a huge annual event in Manchester. It is held in the beautiful listed Art Nouveau Victoria Baths, and there is space for around 26 GREEN GRADS in the quirky blue-painted cubicles that were once changing rooms around the edge of a large public pool. We have gone on to show GREEN GRADS in the NORTH four more times at this huge concentration of creativity in the north of England.

2023

A huge hub at London’s oldest furnishing store…

• In early 2023, we showed for five days at ARTEFACT at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, again at the invitation of our then headline sponsor Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. 

• But THE GREEN GRADS HUB AT HEAL’S (September 2023) was particularly ambitious, filling the entire third floor of the Heal’s Building for three days during LDF. We showed 55+ GREEN GRADS in a series of rooms. Our special displays included THE WOOL HUB, THE REPAIR HUB, and the READING HUB. We built a theatre and at the weekend held our popular DESIGNERS DEN and our GREEN GRADS AWARDS. On the Monday we held seminars with industry experts introducing the Urge Collective, Design Declares and B Corp. Some of the hundreds of visitors stayed all day! 

• We showed for the second time at GRAND DESIGNS LIVE on an 18m run of stand accommodating 27 GREEN GRADS. Indeed the “show celebrities” Kevin McCloud, Oliver Heath and Max McMurdo, were among the growing band of high-profile endorsers of our enterprise.

• And we showed for a second time at the GNCCF.

2024

Full-on and a bit frenetic…

2024 was also somewhat hectic, culminating once again in two major shows in October and November. 

• We presented a small cohort of GREEN GRADS for LONDON DESIGN WEEK, March 2024, at the invitation of our headline sponsor Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, who hosted this event. 

• Later in March, we also created our first SCHOOLS DAY, at the invitation of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls in Islington. Here, 13 GREEN GRADS presented a full day of eco-activities, introducing around 360 11-13 year-olds to a variety of issues from energy saving and climate change to biomaterials, new materials from waste, new technologies such as 3D printing, and hands-on crafts such as weaving, drawing, collage and pottery. Plus valuing and conserving nature and much more.

• We delivered a special edition of DESIGNERS DEN at CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK 2024, with five GREEN GRADS pitching to six of our sponsors from industry, in front of an industry audience. This was very well received, attracting new sponsorship and offers of help (in particular with patent application.) And we were invited to fill a room with GREEN GRADS at the new CRAFTWORKS 2024 craft and design show at Shoreditch Town Hall. 

• As previously stated, GREEN GRADS is essentially collaborative, and during LDF 2024, we hosted a networking GREEN DAY to welcome new GREEN GRADS, who presented their work to each other and to established GREEN GRADS. 

• There was a SHARING seminar for hints and tips on project presentation, development and marketing, plus an evening party. 

• We also hosted a PARTY at the Cartoon Museum, where guest illustrators were invited to create portraits of our GREEN GRADS. 

• We showed once again at GRAND DESIGNS LIVE, on 18m run of stand accommodating 27 GREEN GRADS. This was the third time we exhibited at this lively fair. 

• As before, we took 23 GGs to GREEN GRADS IN THE NORTH at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF) in October. 

• And a further 23 GREEN GRADS showed in GREEN GRADS AT YORKTON WORKSHOPS in London’s Hackney in November. This was a new venue for us, a beautiful gallery, converted from Victorian stables, within the offices of the Pearson Lloyd design consultancy, who kindly hosted our show.

 

2025

Upping the numbers…

• An increasing number of graduates have taken the environment to heart. We officially split our cohort into two. In October we presented 23 GREEN GRADS IN THE NORTH for the fourth time at the invitation of the GNCCF in Manchester. We selected graduates with a strong element of craft/making in their projects, to fit the general ethos of the show. Not only were they able to showcase in person the environmental value of their projects, but in many cases concluded substantial sales for ceramics, woven scarves, prints and cards, and small items of furniture. And GREEN GRADS had their own shop! Two GREEN GRADS won show Awards – competing against over 150 professional crafts people.  Mobina Rajabimoghadam won the “CC Loves” accolade from the Crafts Council, who were looking for “excellence, innovation and personal connection. Plus environmental awareness and a clear and considered concept, that has been fully explored and realised.” Mobina’s robust new material from eggshells, turned into elegant lights, came up trumps. As did pots by Freja Boothroyd, who won an Award from a-n – “the artists’ advocate.” We also presented our own Awards.

• And in November we presented GREEN GRADS AT YORKTON WORKSHOPS for the second time with 24 GREEN GRADS.  Once again Pearson Lloyd kindly sponsored this event in their elegant gallery in Hackney. This was an outstanding success, with a constant stream of visitors, many with high professional and/or media profiles, of particular benefit to our GREEN GRADS. We also gained substantial media coverage.

• Earlier in the year, we took eight GREEN GRADS to the SURFACE DESIGN SHOW in the Business Design Centre in Islington. Here they made invaluable industry, media and education contacts. 

• We presented six GREEN GRADS in TALKING TEXTILES, a special show we designed and curated for the Chelsea Harbour showroom of sponsor Crucial Trading. Each GREEN GRAD had a different eco-agenda, from reusing waste to natural dyes and fibres. 

• We presented our second SCHOOLS DAY at the invitation of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls, who immediately booked us again – see above. 

• And at the invitation of House Directory, we brought a changing rota of GREEN GRADS to host demos and workshops over six days at the DECORATIVE FAIR in Battersea, including a popular panel discussion MEET THE GREEN GRADS. 

 

2026

• In early 2026, we took (for the second time) 14 GREEN GRADS to the SURFACE DESIGN SHOW – one graduate receiving over 40 substantial “leads.” At this show, we hosted two workshops. 

• We presented our third SCHOOLS DAY at the invitation of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls, as before.

• A panel discussion at the invitation of CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK was entitled: Going Green in the Real World: how GREEN GRADS are disrupting design.

• Plans for autumn 2026 include GREEN GRADS IN THE NORTH and GREEN GRADS AT YORKTON WORKSHOPS.

SUCCESS!

Meet 15 GREEN GRADS and share their achievements “in the real world.” This is just a fraction of our success stories. Many other projects are underway and multiple GREEN GRADS say that support from GREEN GRADS – from exposure at shows and confidence building to networking, media coaching/mentions, mentoring and hard cash – has been crucial. 

 

1. GREEN GRADS Elizabeth Lee, Ori Blich, and Eden Harrison (2023) have successfully taken their unique foam replacement material, Carbon Cell, out of the lab and into real-world production. Carbon Cell is a compostable, non-toxic and carbon-negative replacement for expanded polystyrene (EPS) and other polymer-based foams used in packaging, insulation, acoustics, and beyond. The company they created has raised over £1.8m in combined grant and equity financing. It has been named Dezeen’s top 25 designs of 2025, and is cited by the CleanTech Group as one of 50 top startups to watch.

www.carboncell.co

 

2. Following her stand at our Manchester show in 2022, GREEN GRAD Sri Hollema secured funding to bring to market her invention Mat Zero, a low-voltage solar-charged heating mat which warms people directly, rather than spaces. Originally developed for refugee camps and underserved communities, the product has since been deployed in the UK, Ukraine and Nepal. Mat Zero was one of just 15 out of 329 applications to win a share of the Energy Catalyst Early Stage Grant, facilitated by Innovate UK. The product is now fully tested, in production, and available worldwide and Sri has secured significant investment funding to scale the mission globally. Sri a Women in Innovation Award winner.

www.matzero.com

 

3. Jess Amaral is a GREEN GRAD of 2022.

Her graduate project Garma presented workshops that repurposed discarded sportswear, as an alternative to fast fashion. For the past four years she has worked in education promoting design, youth engagement and climate action in charities and schools. 

Now she is working with the Young Green Briton Challenge, in which secondary school students use design and entrepreneurship to  campaign for a greener Britain. “The GREEN GRADS platform and friendships gave me the early confidence to explore career aspirations beyond the traditional expectations of a fashion degree, and to view my design practice as a connective tool to engage with climate education and broader social issues.”

@_amaral_jess

4. Olivia Howick is a founding GREEN GRAD of 2021. Currently she is Senior CMF (Colour, Materials & Finish) Designer at design practice PriestmanGoode in London, where she develops strategies for transport and product design. Strongly motivated by material experimentation and the principles of circular design, she is also researching how single-use plastics can be repurposed into new surface materials.

@oliviahowick_design

@priestmangoode

 

5. Engineer and artist GREEN GRAD Luisa Charles, winner of our 2022 Change Maker Award, has supplied her FLOAT DIY and controlled water-testing robot to wetlands in Sri Lanka, and a river in Guyana. FLOAT. Constructed from found materials has been celebrated internationally, evolving into project SWIM for multiple different communities and device types. Currently Luisa is teaching Information Experience Design and Design Futures at the Royal College of Art. She has started a PhD in regenerative robotics applications in architecture (developing robots that reduce energy/tackle climate change) at Middlesex University with funding from Kinetic AI. Among her multiple projects is co-designing with primary school children to build robots to counter future climate change; and an immersive speculative design experience with the London Office of Technology and Innovation exploring the future of health in London with the NHS.

www.luisacharles.com

 

6. Following a win of £550 in our first Awards (2021), Sara Howard, designer and eco-activist par excellence (GREEN GRAD of 2021) spent two years in Bali with Kevala Ceramics, developing her pioneering “circular ceramics” made entirely of waste and now in full commercial production, with more designs underway. Her ambitious current project is called Crafting Coral which uses ceramics forms made in local workshops, initially in Indonesia, to regenerate coral reefs. “We’re creatives, passionate about coral, inviting the world to learn and restore our blue planet.” To date, over 3,500 coral “pods” have been made and placed in the ocean. She is also the co-founder of GoldenEarth, a project to rescue construction clay and put it in the hands of artists.

www.sarahowardstudio.com www.craftingcoral.com www.goldenearthstudio.com

 

7. A project to recycle tennis balls was launched by GREEN GRAD Mathilde Wittock at our inaugural show in 2021.

Tennis is considered one of the five most polluting sports in the world, because making the balls is a long carbon-intensive process, and yet they have a very short lifespan. Only around 1% of the 400 million balls produced annually are recycled and most end up in landfills. Now, five years on, Wittock’s SoundBounce is on the market, a patented acoustic material and furniture system, and winner of a Green Product Award, repurposing discarded tennis balls into circular, modular materials for acoustic dividers, wall paneling, and furniture. Wittock, now based in Belgium, has turned her degree project into a thriving business, with growing attention from the design, sports, architecture and sustainability sectors. “GREEN GRADS gave me the confidence to build on my ideas.”

www.mwodesign.com

 

8. GREEN GRAD Rosy Napper (2023) won the Material Transformation Award at the Surface Design Show 2026 for her invention ReCinder, a unique self-glazing material made from discarded ceramic and waste ash, diverted from landfill. Developed as a greener alternative to industrially processed clay, ReCinder is suitable for tiling, tableware and furniture. Uniquely, it is also translucent and so particularly suitable for lighting. 

www.rosynapper.com

 

9. GREEN GRAD Noé Chouraqui (2025) has invented Point, a long-lasting tennis ball to cut waste at source, made from a 3D-printed plant-derived filament called PLA-HR, rather than the conventional hollow rubber core covered in felt. This has the durability, strength and bounce of regular tennis balls, which it closely resembles in appearance for practical and regulatory reasons. It has been patented and tested prior to a planned UK launch. The ball is currently in active technical evaluation with industry partners and a governing body, with a French patent filed and international protection underway. The focus right now is on refining the next generation of prototypes and laying the groundwork for a UK-first launch. 

@noe__ch

10. GREEN GRAD Salma Garana ((2025) has invented a material made from cellulose acetate obtained from waste cigarette filters collected at customs (an abundant resource) blended with British wool. It is acoustic, moisture-resistant, non-flammable and thermally regulating. Possible uses range from sunglasses to insulation panels. Salma already has a manufacturing partner, and has bought shares in their company.  

@salma_garanadesign

 

11. During her BA at Falmouth University, GREEN GRAD   Libby Challoner (2022) developed a sustainable biomaterial which will biodegrade within two weeks; this is an environmentally-responsible alternative to conventional plastics. She also explored emerging manufacturing technologies such as Computed Axial Lithography (CAL) 3D printing. Libby went on to complete an MSc in Advanced Materials Science at UCL, where she further expanded her research into sustainable materials and additive manufacturing technologies. She continues to research into advanced manufacturing and 3D printing systems and their use for naturally derived seaweed polysaccharides, seeking sustainable alternatives to conventional petroleum-based plastics.

Her company Seaco Designs explores circular material systems and environmentally responsible design.

www.seacodesigns.co.uk

 

12. GREEN GRAD of 2025, Mobina Rajabimoghadam has invented Egshel, a truly biodegradable biomaterial from waste eggshells, transforming this food by-product into a sustainable resource. Her material with its appealing aesthetic is relatively inexpensive and comes in various thicknesses. It’s fully compostable and acts as a natural fertilizer. It’s also mouldable, machinable and compatible with CNC and laser cutting. A thin version is translucent, printable, foldable, and self-adhesive. It can even be embroidered.

“Materials made from unavoidable organic waste, such as residues from food production, are one of our most underutilised resources. While biomaterials have gained traction, their use in industrial design is still poor. Accordingly, I have developed my material for machinery and manufacturing.” 

Mobina won the UK Natural Materials Association Design Award,2025; Craft Council Innovation and Excellence Award 2025; and the Green Concept Award, Berlin. 

@biorecursive

 

13. Following exhibitions in London and Manchester, GREEN GRAD of 2022 Elena Branch now has her Climate Collection of fabrics in full commercial production. The bold and timeless patterns, suitable for domestic or public interiors, effectively highlight current climate issues. A second collection, entitled The Lost Jungle: Endangered Species, is already available as cards and art prints, with more products underway Elena is the illustrator of Sustainable Interior Design by Chloe Bullock, published by RIBA Publishing. As a freelance graphic designer, she works mainly with organisations committed to sustainability and environmental change. “Being a GREEN GRAD gave me the confidence to move away from a  full-time role into self-employment.“Elena contributes monthly to tree planting and carbon offsetting projects via Ecologi. 

www.elenadrewthis.co.uk

 

14. Sam McBride is a GREEN GRAD of 2023, with a BA in Product andFurniture Design. Now based in Brixton, he is “reimagining wood in innovative ways” – harnessing the material’s natural properties to create striking furniture. His passion for all things wooden led him to Wandsworth’s Opus Magnum Ltd, where he uses his background in sustainable design to help realise and manufacture projects in the most ecological way possible.

@s_a.mcbride

 

15. Alex Clark is a GREEN GRAD of 2025. Around 11,000 bikes are thrown away every year, while funding for youth services has fallen by £1.2 billion since 2010. Alex is addressing these issues through his project The Big Bike Build. His aim was a repairable, low-cost bicycle that connects environmental and social concerns through making. Accordingly, Alex has created a frame of interlocking plywood components, to which salvaged parts from scrapped bikes can be attached. A working prototype was built and decorated by young people from the Angell Town estate in Brixton (developed in partnership with the charities UpCycle LDN and Brixton Wings). It also had an outing at the Ride & Thrive community event at Herne Hill Velodrome – where it completed a few laps at speed! Alex is now planning a new community hub space on the Angell Town estate and has salvaged building materials for this. The furniture will be designed and made by young people in workshops inspired by the Big Bike Build.

AND IN CONCLUSION….

Could you be a sponsor?

GREEN GRADS is an inarguable double-whammy: promoting new talent and the environment at one and the same time. Our forward-looking outward-facing sponsors publicly affirm their support of these two vital causes.” 

Barbara Chandler, founder/curator GREEN GRADS 

 

GET IN TOUCH 

At the end of the phone…

Barbara Chandler @sunnygran 07970 700775; sunnyholt@aol.com 

Michael Czerwinski @studioczerwinski; 07947 600438; tucktite@gmail.com