About Leyla
Leyla Acaroglu is a leading sustainability and circular economy expert, social scientist, designer and educator driving transformative change toward a regenerative and nature-positive future.
Recognised globally as a TED Speaker, UNEP Champion of the Earth, LinkedIn Instructor, speaker and author, Leyla bridges science and design to tackle complex challenges with creativity and positive disruption.
Global Expert
Leyla is hired by Fortune 500 companies, governments and organisations to reimagine the future through sustainability and circular economy principles.
Inspirational Speaker
Captivating audiences with her provocative, activating style and multi-disciplinary expertise, Leyla has been invited to keynote hundreds of conferences around the world.
Designer & Writer
Leyla developed the Disruptive Design Method to apply a systems change approach to addressing complex challenges. She applies it, teaches it and writes extensively.
Global Circular Economy and Sustainability Expert
From Personal Disruption to Global Impact: Leyla’s Leadership Journey into Sustainability
In design school, Leyla learned the Gaia Theory, how everything is interconnected, which blew her mind open to the power of design. Realising that she would have far-reaching planetary impacts as a designer, this moment ignited a passion for change, and her career transformed into one dedicated to disrupting the unsustainability of design. Leyla quit design school, switched to majoring in sustainability, and then completed her PhD in Industrial Design, specializing in how to be a positively disruptive designer.
Now, Leyla has built an international reputation for her work in advancing science-based sustainability. She is uncompromising in her passion for actively designing a future that works better for all of us—beyond the superficial aspects of “saving the planet”.
Immersive Experiences For Systems Change
CO Project Farm: Active Participation in Regenerative Systems Design
After being named Champion of the Earth in 2016 by the UNEP, Leyla realised she had a personal knowledge gap around how nature does its magic. So, she took on an abandoned farm in rural Portugal to actively participate in systems regeneration. The CO Project Farm became a brain spa and systems-based learning lab that hosted hundreds of people for community open days, offsite retreats and UnSchool Workshops during its four-year operation. Sadly, the global COVID pandemic resulted in the project being closed down, but the learnings and impact live on.
“As the preeminent thought leader in her field, Leyla Acaroglu has been championing systemic life cycle sustainability as key to a sustainable future.”
– Lieu Thi Pham, Australian Design Review
Expanded Biography
Leyla Acaroglu, PhD
Design disruptor, creative boundary pusher and cultural provocateur, Dr. Leyla Acaroglu (A-jar-a-loo) embodies the innovation that ignites positive change. An award-winning designer, sociologist, and sustainability expert, Leyla is internationally recognized as a leading force in the movement for a sustainable, circular and regenerative future. She holds a PhD from RMIT University in Australia in pro-sustainability change-centric design and has a technical background in sustainability sciences, including life cycle assessment.
Leyla’s body of work spans across many disciplines, all unified by her 20+ year commitment to designing a future that works better for everyone. As a serial social entrepreneur, she has founded the design agency Disrupt Design, a global learning lab for adults with thousands of students called The UnSchool of Disruptive Design, and the circular economy consultancy Circular Futures. She also established a rural immersive systems-focused natural learning lab in central Portugal called the CO Project farm.
Known for pushing the boundaries of traditional thinking about complex problems, Leyla’s mainstage TED talk on busting eco myths has received more than 1.5M views. In 2016, the United Nations Environment Programme named her Champion of the Earth for her work in advancing science and innovation for sustainability. A few years later, Leyla was named a LinkedIn Changemaker, with an invitation to become a LinkedIn Learning instructor.
Regarded as a pioneer of designing for the circular economy, Leyla was invited to be the Chief Circular Designer for Circular Australia and is highly sought for her expertise in ISO 59000 standards and all forms of technical and cultural sustainability. Similarly, Leyla’s thought leadership and amplification of systems thinking has been instrumental in equipping individuals and organizations with the skills to tackle interconnected problems, as evidenced by more than 1M views on her online Systems Thinking articles.
She developed the Disruptive Design Method (DDM) to promote the application of systems thinking in complex problem-solving and has since engaged countless professionals in its methodology, having led thousands of hours of workshops, lectures, activations and educational experiences around the world. An internationally respected keynote speaker and trusted authority in her field, Leyla has delivered talks at over 250 conferences and written for major publications like Reuters and The New York Times.
Leyla has also authored several handbooks for change-makers—as well as a plant-powered cookbook—and regularly publishes new insights on her LinkedIn Newsletter, Sustainability in Action. As a designer, she has created works such as Design Play Cards, Game Changer Game, Secret Life of Things, Designercise, and the Gender Equity Toolkit, all exploring ways of engaging with activated experience design.
Leyla’s creative work is also highly acclaimed, having been featured in a permanent exhibition in the Leonardo da Vinci museum in Milan and earning commissions from the National Gallery of Victoria. She has developed projects with leading organisations, including Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations, and was an invited Artist in Residence with Autodesk, a visiting scholar at NYU and an Innovator in Residence at the Centre for Social Innovation NYC.
Leyla’s areas of work and expertise include:
Science-Based Sustainability
Systems Thinking
Regenerative Leadership
Circular & Sustainable Design
Life Cycle Thinking
Design & Innovation
Cognitive Activation & Experience Design
Circular Economy Business Models & Application
Social Innovation & Impact
Change Leadership
Environmental impacts
Strategic Foresight
Insights & Integrity
"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.”
Jules HaywardEducation Lead Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Amazing Speaker
"Leyla Acaroglu is an amazing speaker, and her concept of using environmental folklore to simplify and explain complex systems is brilliant. She engages even the most cynical to her thought-provoking conclusion that design and innovation can lead to a more sustainable future.”
Brock MacdonaldCEO, Recycling Council of British Columbia
A Visionary
"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 CaspersenDirector of Communications, SPACE10
Global Accolades
Awards & Initiatives
Leyla’s work has been extensively recognised and celebrated for activating forward momentum for a future that works better for us all, with her unique approach to sustainability, design and systems change earning her numerous accolades and collaborative projects.
UNEP Champion of the Earth
In 2016, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) named Leyla Acaroglu Champion of the Earth for her pioneering work in science and innovation for sustainability and social change.
From grassroots champions and corporate leaders to political pioneers and research institutions, UNEP celebrates Champions taking bold action for our world.
Established in 2005, the Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour, where grassroots champions and corporate leaders to political pioneers and research institutions are acknowledged for their pioneering work to protect the environment.
LinkedIn Changemaker
In 2021, Leyla was among a group of eight professionals named LinkedIn Changemakers and led #ConversationsForChange for six months on LinkedIn’s platform.
LinkedIn Learning Instructor
Shortly after being named a LinkedIn Changemaker, Leyla partnered with LinkedIn Learning to design and deliver three courses on sustainability and the circular economy.
150+ Clients Activated to Make Positive Change
As a highly accomplished leader with international recognition, Leyla offers engaging, unique and counterintuitive approaches to addressing complex problems. She has worked with an extensive roster of 150+ clients and given 220+ invited keynote talks.
Download Leyla’s Speaker Kit
Find out more details, and get in touch to bring Leyla in as a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator or to start a project.