Eco Ever After: A Web Guide for Creating a Ceremony to the Earth

<p><strong>Many young adults in Aotearoa New Zealand are eager to see positive action in addressing the pressing sustainability challenges facing us today. As the urgency of our rapidly changing climate exacerbates our ever-growing estrangement from nature, it is critical to explore new pathways that empower individuals to take meaningful and lasting environmental action. Despite their collective awareness and enthusiasm, and despite existing pathways for sustainability-related engagement, individual commitment to environmental action remains elusive. While programmes, policies, and grassroots organisations encourage young adults to support sustainability initiatives, few succeed in offering experiences that resonate with young adults. Situated in a research-through-design (RtD) framework, this project applies critical design and design activism to explore new ways of fostering ecological mindsets in young adults. The question guiding this research is: How might design activism be applied to reinterpret wedding traditions to cultivate ecological mindfulness among young adults? Offering an emotionally resonant and imaginative alternative to conventional sustainability messaging, this project presents a model for future-building through reimagined rituals and symbols from contemporary wedding ceremonies. Combining a mixed-methods approach with a RtD framework, this study draws on literature from eco-psychology, marriage traditions, sustainable practices, and design activism, and incorporates insights from surveys and usability testing conducted with young adults in Aotearoa. These insights informed the iterative development of an accessible web guide that facilitates the creation of a personalised “commitment ceremony” to the Earth. By demonstrating the role of critical design in supporting design activism and fostering ecological mindfulness, this research contributes to the growing field of ‘design for social innovation.’ The research outcomes suggest that emotionally meaningful and creative reinterpretations of familiar traditions, when framed through a counter-narrative addressing a wicked problem, have the potential to motivate young adults toward cultivating ecological mindfulness.</strong></p>