This paper explores how practicing designers apply sustainability issues to design problems as catalysts for innovation. It was hypothesised that participants would integrate sustainability issues as part of the early design process only when prompted. The objective of this study was to observe the degree of variance between participants’ responses during a design task. In order to explore how designers apply sustainability issues an experimental approach was adopted. The pilot study experiment involved an initial interview, observation and concurrent and retrospective protocols. During the experiments verbal, visual and observational data were collected. All data were analysed and coded with the assistance of textual and observational analysis software. The preliminary findings suggest that including sustainability issues as part of the initial design problem affects design activity and prompts designers to consider more diverse ideas. The paper concludes by discussing the challenge for this research and future investigations.