This publication documents a special collaboration between AHEC, the Royal College of Art (RCA), Benchmark Furniture and thinkstep (formerly PE International) in which 12 sets of students designed chairs, manufactured them, considered their life cycle assessments and exhibited the finished work at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the London Design Festival 2012. The project is not only an extraordinary flowering of creativity, but also addresses some of the environmental issues that will face the designers and makers of the future.