Leyla Acaroglu

Dr. Leyla Acaroglu is an internationally respected expert in sustainability and the circular economy, an educational entrepreneur and an award-winning creative change-maker. As a designer and sociologist, she weaves systems thinking, sustainability sciences, and creative approaches to develop global interventions in education, communication, business, and design.

For her work in advancing science and innovation in sustainability, she was named Champion of the Earth by the United Nations, a Change-Maker by LinkedIn, and is a mainstage TED speaker who leads presentations with leaders around the world on activating positive change for a sustainable, circular and regenerative future. As an educational entrepreneur, she founded The UnSchool, an experimental knowledge lab for adults, Swivel Skills, a corporate sustainability Updated August 2023 | leylaacaroglu.com training platform and developed the Disruptive Design Method. Leyla also created the Circular Classroom for Finland and the Anatomy of Action in collaboration with the UNEP.

Key links:

• Recent Articles by Leyla on Medium
• Leyla’s Linkedin Learning courses
• Link to her TED Talk
• UNEP Champion of the Earth Award
• Talks @ Google
• Ellen MacArthur Circular Economy Forum Opening Keynote

ABOUT THE UNSCHOOL
The UnSchool is an experimental knowledge lab for adults, designed to help activate agency and contribute to designing a future that works better for us all. We work with established and aspiring creative rebels, change pioneers, activators, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between who has a deep-seated passion to make a positive and meaningful impact.
We approach everything we do from a problem-loving growth mindset, and the foundational tools we teach are applied systems thinking, life cycle thinking, sustainability sciences, and creative ideation, to support more problem lovers (not avoiders!) that are taking action to
make a positive impact on the planet.

The UnSchool’s mission is to seed and activate creative leadership globally for positive, impactful social and environmental change to help design a future that works better for all of us.

ABOUT DISRUPT DESIGN
Creative agency Disrupt Design guides organizations and individuals to make change through our workshops, online training packages, and creative tools. Our mission is to build the knowledge, intervention opportunities, and tools that help activate a global community
focused on purpose-driven change for positive impact on the planet. We build capacity for organizations and individuals to be an active part of the new circular and green economy.
Using a robust scientific approach to understanding the complex systems that impact society, we developed the unique Disruptive Design Method, which leverages systems, sustainability, and design to understand, explore, and intervene in existing systems and to activate change
globally. Taking on big challenges such as gender equity, a post-disposable society, and cognitive biases with our method, we create substance-based training and toolkits that are helping tens of thousands of people globally to activate their agency and positively impact the planet.
About the Disruptive Design Method The Disruptive Design Method (DDM) is an approach to understand and creatively intervene in the world around us to enact positive social and environmental change. Developed by Dr.Leyla Acaroglu, the DDM is based on a 12-part methodology that covers a wide range of established academic approaches to systems, sustainability, and design.

ABOUT SWIVEL SKILLS
From the team at the award-winning Disrupt Design and The UnSchool of Disruptive Design, Swivel Skills offers large-scale organisational training in the capacities you need to level up and participate in the rapid growth of the circular and regenerative economy. From 1-100,000
people, we have a solution for your sustainability training needs.

Swivel Skills offers the business world unique and effective learning experiences covering foundational concepts through to advanced corporate training in sustainability, climate literacy and the circular economy.
The global transition to a circular economy is already happening, and starting now means you won’t be left behind as new policies and regulations come into compliance. Swivel Skills delivers actionable training for teams of any size, whether it’s introductory level to get
everyone on the same page, advanced executive up-skilling and knowledge leadership, or somewhere in-between.
We offer ready-to-go training, or design customised packages to support your company in building a healthier, more innovative, environmentally-responsible and future-focused workforce.

QUOTES AND TESTIMONIALS ABOUT LEYLA

• “People like Leyla Acaroglu are so important to driving this change. Leyla is a 2016 UN Environment Champion of the Earth for science and innovation. Leyla inspires and helps people to equip themselves with agency, tools, and knowledge they need to shape the world and transform our lifestyles.”
  — Erik Solheim, Former Executive Director, UNEP
• “The designer is one of those unique individuals who usessystems-based thinking to disrupt mainstream ways of thinking. And even though the processfor the person at the receiving end of her methods might initially be uncomfortable and unwelcome, we all need someone like Acaroglu to ‘shake things up a bit’ to enable a fresh perspective.”
  — Geraldine Faulkner, Recycling & Waste World Magazine
• “Asthe preeminent thought leader in her field, Leyla Acaroglu has been championing systemic life cycle sustainability as key to a sustainable future.”
  – Australian Design Review
• “Acaroglu doesn’t think socially responsible design should be driven by a moral imperative. Instead, sustainability is most powerful when thought of as‘a parameter’ that fuels innovation.” Updated August 2023 | leylaacaroglu.com
  – Madeleine Hinchy, Powerhouse Museum
• “Creative force Leyla Acaroglu usesinnovative design and systemsthinking to create positive change.”
  – TED.com
• “I really loved Leyla’s presentation – she issuch a powerful advocate for new ways of thinking about the world and itsresources – very inspirational.”
  – Sir Jonathon Porritt, Founder, Forum for the Future
• “Leyla did a super engaging talk at Made in Space that the audience really loved — she is a visionary, progressive thinker that, in an optimistic and constructive way, can address some of the big challenges we face as a human race and still leave a room uplifted and filled with hope.”
  – Simon Caspersen, Director of Communications, SPACE10
• “It was a pleasure working with Leyla on our opening session for our 2017 Annual Summit. Drawing from Leyla’s experience in working with groups, we were able to be creative on how we structured the session, engaging the audience in a participatory way whilst also sharing her insights and integrity of thinking about the role of design in systemic change. We look forward to continuing to work with her and the team on how circular design can create more regenerative and restorative systems in the world we create.”
  – Jules Hayward, Education Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
• “The enlightening keynote of Leyla Acaroglu reminded the workshop participants that it is essential to turn to systems thinking and to focus in priority on the needs to be met when designing products and services to avoid waste at their end of life. Her enthusiastic and solution-oriented speech sparked intense discussions and was the perfect intro for our workshop on circular outflows in the railway sector”.
  – Isabelle De Keyzer, Senior Advisor, Environment and Sustainability, International Union of Railways