Let’s start by pressing fast-forward to the 2030s. Imagine a billionaire businessman in expensive shoes. He’s in the dock of the International Criminal Court at the Hague. This once-arrogant titan of industry, who has knowingly pushed profit at the expense of nature, stands where war criminals and genocidal maniacs have stood before him. Imagine the first ever person to be tried for crimes against the earth. The charge against him? Ecocide.

The literal meaning of ecocide is “killing one’s home”. According to the legal definition, it means “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”. Ecocide is currently advancing in the long process to become international criminal law, on track to join four other crimes – war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and acts of aggression – deemed so heinous that they are tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), recognised as the “court of last resort” by 123 countries. In the words of Richard J. Rogers, partner at Global Diligence and executive director of Climate Counsel, “Ecocide is a criminal law for the 21st century. If humanity is to reach the 22nd century.”

What is particularly significant is that international criminal law applies to individuals – not corporations. Making ecocide a crime establishes an arrestable offence. This means an individual perpetrator of habitat destruction can face criminal charges, a massive shift from the current system of environmental legislation, where suing provides little deterrent for those who remain faceless at companies which simply budget fines into the bottom line. Mass destruction of ecosystems tends to happen far from corporate boardrooms, yet an investigation of ecocide would join the dots – right to the corner office at the top. Also significant is the fact that it won’t replace current legislation, rather it will underpin and strengthen it. As an example, water companies polluting our seas will pay much closer attention to the damage they enact when those who run them could face the ultimate threat: jail time.

Industries engaging in practices such as deep sea bottom trawling, which destroys entire ecosystems on the ocean floor, might expect to be among the first under scrutiny when ecocide is ratified into law (which could take up to a decade). But the design industries will not be immune. Consider how some of the gold in watches and jewellery is mined, or the consequences for river systems of some chemical dyes. And think of how fossil fuels dominate in fashion. It is not inconceivable that a fashion CEO, who has never set foot on an oil rig, or indeed, been anywhere near the oil from which the plastic fibre derives, might one day be under investigation. Continuing to push for “cheap” clothes made of polyester when there are viable alternatives – and with full awareness that the microfibres they shed are damaging fragile marine habitats – could conceivably lead all the way to the dock in court.

That said, those pushing to make ecocide part of international law don’t yearn to see anyone in court. “What we're doing with ecocide law is putting a parameter in place,” says Jojo Mehta, co-founder and executive director of Stop Ecocide International. “One thing that we don't tend to do is finger-point at particular companies or particular sectors,” she explains when we meet for a cup of tea between her high-level meetings at parliament and a speech she is giving at London’s cultural hub, the Barbican.

Mehta co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017 alongside the late barrister and legal pioneer Polly Higgins, who passed away in 2019. While compelling, measured, and gracious, you need only be with Mehta for a short time to realise that, while she is open to listening to all views, she has no patience with a status quo in which those who damage nature are getting away with it.

She explains that everywhere she goes, from community gatherings to the corridors of power, she encounters “real frustration with how slow action has been in terms of our climate and ecological breakdown”. The will to change is almost everywhere, she says, although fear in the face of the scale of what needs to be done can render some of those with the power powerless because they are so discombobulated. Then there is anger that current environmental legislation leaves loopholes for those who continue to ignore or disregard it.

Making ecocide law “is like a criminal version of health and safety for the planet. When you think about building regulations, you're not going to build your factory in such a way that people almost break their heads open, but not quite. Having the boundary in place encourages you to stay well back from the boundary,” says Mehta. She explains how it will force those at the helm to ask questions, such as ‘where, exactly, do we get our concrete from?’, ‘how do we create our fibres?’, and ‘what are the side effects on the landscape?’ – these prompted by a more pressing, personal question, 'will I end up in the International Criminal Court if I ignore this?’. Mehta points to another deterrent that rears its head long before court or jail – stock values will plummet should there be an accusation of ecocide. “So instead of looking at 'what can I get away with?' the risk assessment becomes very different,” she says. “The decisions that lead to mass damage are ultimately made by people. A group of people sitting around a boardroom table.”

Then why isn’t ecocide law already? Mehta responds that things are moving fast in that direction and that, paradoxically, the world stopping for lockdown has proved advantageous. Reaching a legal definition of ecocide that was acceptable and workable to people across the world, from legal backgrounds encompassing human rights, environment, and criminal law, while also meshing in political, economic, youth, faith, and indigenous perspectives, required concession and consensus. Lockdown meant that an independent expert panel of some of the greatest legal minds on earth could be convened without the need to fund international airfares. By June 2021, a definition was reached of such clarity, it has been compared to that of genocide, defined in 1945.

You need a legal definition to amend the Rome Statute of the ICC (which confusingly meets not in Rome but mostly at The Hague, and sometimes in New York). But before that, you need one of 123 nations that are signatories to the Statute to get things started by proposing that it be amended.

We started with a fast-forward. Now, we need to flash back – to 2019, where the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu first proposed that the Statute of Rome be amended to add ecocide. Today, states from Belgium to Bangladesh to the Vatican are joining together with the aim of reaching a majority and moving to the next step in entering ecocide into international criminal law. While each process is long, and the final ratification of the law is a decade away, a multi-state announcement is expected as early as the end of this year.

So what does this all mean for designers? While ecocide may seem distant from design studios, it's essential that we start paying attention. The design world may do well to follow the lead of the big financial and investment institutions that are already making long-term decisions, and assessing long-term risk to investment, based on the assumption that ecocide will become law.

Let’s leave it to Jojo Mehta to define how it will impact all businesses. “Putting ecocide alongside genocide has that way of adjusting people's mindsets,” she says.

In other words, designers should filter every future design through the lens of “could this harm the planet?”. We should adapt our practices now, before the cracks close.

Sian Sutherland | CoFounder, A Plastic Planet / PlasticFree / Plastic Health Council

Igniting social change, creating brands, campaigns and businesses with soul is Sian’s passion. A multi-award winning serial entrepreneur, Sian co-founded A Plastic Planet in 2016, a pro-business, solutions focused organisation working with industry, governments and UN to reduce plastic at source.  In 2023 they launched PlasticFree, the world’s first solutions platform - igniting, empowering and educating the 160m global creatives to rethink how we design everything.

Recognising the plastic crisis is now a major health crisis, she co-founded the Plastic Health Council, bringing the most expert scientists to each of the negotiation sessions of the UN Global Plastics Treaty, ensuring we protect all future generations.

Sian also sits on the board of Foundation for Visionary Science and Art, supporting the use of psychedelics in mental health therapies at Imperial London and the new EXO Institute, exploring new science paradigms to prepare us for the 21st century future.