Designing for Sustainability (Changemaker Mindset Series #1)
📣 Come one, come all!
This first installment of COIE's Changemaker Mindset Series — Designing for Sustainability — focuses on how a mindset for innovation and changemaking can be honed and applied to create positive environmental and social impact. 🌱✨
With featured speaker Dr. David Oswald, participants will explore how design thinking can be applied to sustainability and implemented with a mindset framework inspired by martial arts. Join us to explore approaches, tools, and real-world examples of mindset development and learn how to use creativity, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving to address pressing sustainability challenges!
⚔️ Audience Takeaways
Practical tools for integrating sustainability into core business strategy
A framework for future-proofing decisions under climate and social pressure
How to align innovation, ethics, and performance toward measurable outcomes
Systems thinking for leaders navigating complex environmental shifts
A compelling narrative to engage stakeholders and drive transformation
How to apply Samurai Mindset principles — focus, flow, and balance — to modern leadership
🎤 About Dr. David Oswald
Dr. David Nicholas Oswald, Ph.D. is a global design and sustainability leader, university professor, and Aiki Ju Jitsu Sensei who helps leaders transform complexity into clarity. For more than 25 years, he has worked with the United Nations, World Bank, governments, and global corporations to design innovative, resilient systems for a changing world.
Dr. Oswald’s work bridges the science of sustainability with the discipline of the Samurai — integrating calm focus, adaptability, and decisive action into professional performance. As founder of Design + Environment Consultancy and West Coast Nintai Aiki Ju Jitsu, he brings a rare combination of strategic insight, embodied wisdom, and cross-cultural depth to every stage.
His talks inspire professionals to lead with integrity, awareness, and purpose — designing not only sustainable organizations, but sustainable lives.
🌍 About the Changemaker Mindset Series
The Changemaker Mindset Series by the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (COIE) at Centennial College brings inspiring changemakers from our community to share how ways of thinking can shape impact — and how cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit can drive positive change. Each session highlights practical tools and powerful stories that help you reframe challenges, spark creativity, and take meaningful action in your studies, career, and community. Whether you dream of launching a startup, leading change in your workplace, or building confidence in everyday life, this series equips you with the mindset to make it happen. 🧠✨