Future visioning

Future visioning is a powerful tool for cultural change, allowing us to stretch beyond current limitations and imagine what’s possible. It encourages us to envision futures where sustainability is seen as a legacy and not a sacrifice, where interdependence and creativity replace individualism and extraction. Through speculative design, storytelling, and creative practices, future visioning helps us break free from the constraints of today and explore new pathways. By imagining regenerative, equitable futures, we can create a shared vision that motivates action and guides cultural transformation. Future visioning is a radical act of transformation, helping us design a world rooted in the values we want to see, rather than waiting for change to happen.

Reimagining relationships

Culture lives in relationship, not only what we think or believe, but how we show up for each other. From how we work and organise to how we grieve and celebrate, our relationships shape the culture we co-create. Changing culture means changing how we relate by healing collective trauma, building trust, and practising care and reciprocity in action. In a world shaped by extraction and isolation, relational culture offers a powerful antidote. Through mutual aid, listening, and solidarity, we can weave communities rooted in belonging. Deeply relational movements are more resilient, just, and powerful — and offer a model for the world we want to build.

Storytelling

Stories are how we make meaning. They give shape to our past, direction to our future, and coherence to our present. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to shift culture — because changing the story is often the first step to changing the system. Whether through film, art, campaigns, or community dialogue, storytelling helps surface invisible truths, elevate counter-narratives, and offer new frames of reference. Strategic storytelling can reframe climate action as legacy, not sacrifice; care, not burden; creativity, not constraint. By expanding whose voices are heard and how futures are imagined, storytelling makes space for new norms to emerge.

Shifting worldviews

Cultural change starts by questioning the worldviews that shape our beliefs, norms, and behaviours. These worldviews, often rooted in dominant narratives about time, progress, and success, are deeply ingrained but can be transformed. Shifting worldviews involves integrating diverse perspectives, such as Indigenous knowledge and long-term thinking. By exposing contradictions between values and actions, we can align collective intentions toward care, reciprocity, and regeneration. This shift can be embodied through new practices, decision-making processes, and rituals, slowly reprogramming culture to reflect these new values. Changing how we see the world opens up new possibilities, fostering a culture grounded in interdependence and sustainability.

Systems thinking

Systems thinking helps us understand the interconnected nature of the world — how social, environmental, economic, and cultural systems interact and influence one another. It’s a way of seeing the whole forest instead of just the trees. When applied to cultural change, systems thinking helps identify feedback loops, power dynamics, and root causes, rather than focusing only on surface-level symptoms. Crucially, it can reveal where hidden goals or values may be clashing within a system, and where leverage points for change exist. From addressing food systems to challenging economic assumptions, systems thinking invites us to slow down, zoom out, and re-pattern our mental maps of how the world works.

Ecosystem restoration

Rewilding focuses on restoring the fundamental systemic processes and natural functions that allow ecosystems to thrive. By reinstating key ecological processes—such as predation, grazing, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling—rewilding helps ecosystems regenerate naturally. These processes enable ecosystems to become self-sustaining and resilient without continuous human management. Example interventions include removing barriers like fences, letting rivers to flow naturally, or allowing natural flooding events that can create habitats for waterfowl and other species. This nature-centric approach ensures that wilderness can recover its balance, creating a healthy, dynamic, and thriving environment without ongoing human intervention.

Reforestation

‍Reforestation is the process of restoring forests that have been degraded or lost, thereby helping to rebuild ecosystems, sequester carbon, and support biodiversity. Planting trees in deforested areas can improve soil quality, regulate water cycles, and provide habitats for a wide range of species. And when done with a rewilding approach, reforestation goes beyond planting trees: it’s about creating functioning, self-sustaining native ecosystems. Rewilding-driven reforestation focuses on native species, ensuring that the forest being replanted reflects the original biodiversity of the area. In contrast, conventional reforestation techniques often prioritise the quick regrowth of green cover with a focus on timber production or carbon sequestration, often using non-native species or monoculture plantations. While it helps restore greenery, conventional reforestation does not always address the full ecological complexity needed for long-term ecosystem resilience. Rewilding-driven reforestation, on the other hand, prioritises rebuilding ecological systems that can ensure that forests become biodiverse systems that can thrive even in the face of climate change.

The 15-Minute City

The 15-minute city concept focuses on creating urban environments where residents can access all their essential services—work, education, healthcare, and recreation—within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their homes. By prioritizing mixed-use neighborhoods, active transportation, and local services, this model reduces reliance on cars, cuts emissions, and fosters stronger, more resilient communities. Shifting towards the 15-minute city makes cities more livable, sustainable, and equitable.

The Doughnut City

Doughnut Economics provides a framework for designing cities that meet the needs of all residents within the ecological boundaries of the planet. Applying this model to urban planning means focusing on both social and environmental sustainability. Cities can be reimagined as spaces that provide equitable access to resources, while ensuring that consumption does not exceed the local ecosystem’s limits. By integrating this approach, cities can prioritize regenerative design, social well-being, and environmental stewardship in their development strategies.

Retrofitting existing buildings

Retrofitting is one of the most effective ways to reduce the environmental footprint of our built environment. Existing buildings hold vast stores of embodied carbon, and adapting them instead of demolishing preserves this value while avoiding the emissions of new construction. Retrofitting can dramatically improve a building’s energy efficiency, reduce waste, and help cities retain their architectural heritage. By upgrading what we already have, we honour the past while preparing our infrastructure for a low-carbon future.

Participatory urban planning

Inclusive urban planning means designing cities with communities, not just for them. By giving residents the chance to contribute their knowledge, we create spaces that truly serve their needs. This approach also ensures that marginalized groups are heard, advancing urban justice. Empower communities to lead planning, zoning, and grassroots initiatives, ensuring solutions are adaptable and tailored to their unique environments.

Urban commons

Revitalizing urban commons—shared spaces such as parks, community gardens, and public squares—plays a key role in fostering sustainability and social cohesion. By prioritizing these communal spaces in urban planning, cities can enhance environmental quality, increase access to green spaces, and promote equitable resource distribution. These revitalized spaces also strengthen community ties, offering opportunities for social interaction, local engagement, and collective action, all of which are essential for creating cities that are both environmentally and socially resilient.

Nature-based urban infrastructure

Nature-based solutions like sponge cities use the natural environment to address urban challenges such as flooding, heat islands, and pollution. By integrating green spaces, wetlands, and permeable surfaces, cities can reduce stormwater runoff, promote biodiversity, and increase resilience to climate impacts. Nature-based infrastructure offers an innovative, low-tech solution to the pressures of urbanization while improving quality of life for residents.

Sustainable and natural materials

Incorporating local, natural materials like timber, bamboo, mud, and hemp crete into urban construction reduces environmental impact while enhancing cultural resonance. By blending traditional building techniques with modern design, we can create structures that are not only sustainable but also foster community identity and resilience. Materials like gluelam and natural stone offer low-carbon alternatives to conventional construction, while earth-based options, such as rammed earth and mud bricks, provide cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions. By prioritising sustainable materials, we can move towards cities that are both eco-friendly and deeply connected to local cultures.

Circular procurement

Public sector procurement wields immense influence, with governments and local authorities spending billions annually. By prioritising products that support reuse, remanufacturing, and regenerative materials, procurement policies can drive demand for circular businesses. For example, specifying that office furniture comes from remanufactured suppliers or requiring electronics contracts to include take-back and repair services. This approach reduces waste, cuts emissions, and fosters local green economies by supporting circular SMEs. Strategic procurement can mainstream sustainability, setting a clear example for schools, hospitals, and public offices.

Community repair networks

Repair culture is a core pillar of circularity, but access to tools, spaces, and expertise is often limited. Investing in community repair hubs, tool libraries, and creative reuse centres can turn circular practices into public services. These spaces offer workshops, repair assistance, and material diversion from landfills, while building local resilience, skills, and connections. When paired with apprenticeships or school partnerships, they can make circularity inclusive, accessible, and community-led, turning every neighbourhood into a hub for sustainable action.

Circular design standards

Design is the most powerful intervention point in a product’s lifecycle. Embedding circular principles—like modularity, repairability, and non-toxic materials—into design standards can drastically reduce environmental harm and extend product life. Modularity allows components to be upgraded or replaced rather than discarded; repairability empowers users and local repairers; excluding toxic substances protects both ecosystems and human health. These principles can be scaled through industry certification schemes or baked into national regulation—shifting entire sectors toward circularity by design.

Circularity in education curricula

From fashion to architecture, product design to communication, every creative discipline shapes how materials flow through our economy. Yet many design schools still teach with a linear mindset, focusing on novelty, aesthetics, or profit over sustainability. Reforming curricula to include systems thinking, lifecycle analysis, and circular design principles can equip emerging designers to become agents of transformation. This includes hands-on repair education, designing for disassembly, working with waste materials, and learning about social and ecological impact. Design education reform is key to seeding long-term cultural change—so that circularity is not a niche idea, but the foundation for how all creative practitioners think and work.

Community land trusts

Land trusts are non-profit groups that buy or manage land to protect it for long-term community or environmental use. Community land trusts are a powerful tool for securing land for habitat restoration and rewilding, while also redistributing control over how that land is used. When land is held in trust and governed collectively, communities gain long-term access to green space—and a direct role in its care. In urban and suburban areas, this helps address stark inequalities in access to nature and builds local capacity for ecological stewardship. In rural areas, there is great potential for turning depleted land back into biodiverse ecosystems. Beyond conservation, land trust collectives can also support commons-based governance, equitable food growing, indigenous or place-based knowledge practices, making rewilded areas socially and ecologically rich.

Citizen science networks

Citizen science strengthens both ecological knowledge and community connection. By taking part in wildlife monitoring, habitat mapping, or seasonal data collection, people become active stewards of local nature. These networks link public participation with scientific research, creating large open datasets that can inform conservation policy and land use decisions. Crucially, citizen science builds long-term engagement by inviting people to see and shape ecological change firsthand. Whether organised through schools, local councils, or grassroots initiatives, these networks help embed nature restoration in everyday life—bridging the gap between data, decision-making, and collective care.

Indigenous-led forest conservation

Some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems are protected by Indigenous communities, whose stewardship has sustained these landscapes for generations. Backing their land rights and governance aligns with rewilding principles—centering local knowledge, respecting ecological limits, and letting nature lead.

Rights of nature legislation

Rights of nature laws recognise ecosystems—like rivers, forests, or wetlands—as legal entities with the right to exist, thrive, and regenerate. This legal framework allows nature to be represented in court and protected from harm, just like a person or corporation. Campaigning for the legal personhood of wilderness or rewilded areas can shield them from future threats such as development, extraction, or pollution. It also redefines nature not as property, but as a stakeholder in legal and political systems. Countries like Ecuador, New Zealand, and Spain have already passed legislation recognising the rights of nature, setting a global precedent for long-term ecological protection.

Keystone species reintroduction

Keystone species are animals that have a disproportionately large influence on the ecosystems they inhabit. For example, the loss of apex predators like wolves can lead to overpopulation of prey species such as deer, which eat large numbers of tree saplings and prevent forests from regrowing. Other keystone species, like beavers, are ecosystem engineers that reshape landscapes by creating wetlands, while pollinators are essential to plant reproduction and the stability of entire food webs. When these critical species disappear, entire ecological networks can unravel. That’s why this approach is a key principle of rewilding: reintroducing keystone species helps restore natural population dynamics, reshape habitats, support wider biodiversity, and revive essential ecological functions.

Green corridors

Fragmentation is one of the biggest barriers to thriving ecosystems. When habitats are broken up by roads, development, or farmland, it becomes harder for species to migrate, find mates, and access food—leading to population decline and reduced biodiversity. Wildlife corridors are a key rewilding strategy that reconnects these fragmented habitats, creating safe passageways across the landscape. For example, green bridges over motorways, tree-lined wildlife corridors along farmland, and buffers of vegetation along rivers help restore connectivity. These corridors are vital for species like hedgehogs, which often struggle to cross roads and other barriers. By re-establishing safe pathways, ecosystems become more resilient to human impact, turning isolated pockets of nature into dynamic, connected systems.

Ocean carbon sinks

The ocean plays a vital role in regulating the climate, absorbing around 25-30% of global CO₂ emissions. Blue carbon ecosystems — such as seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, salt marshes, and kelp forests — are some of the most powerful natural tools for carbon drawdown. These ecosystems capture and store CO₂ both in the plant biomass and the sediments beneath, providing an essential service in the fight against climate change. Protecting and restoring these habitats offers a scalable, nature-based solution for mitigating ocean acidification and reducing atmospheric CO₂ levels.

A just transition for ocean economies

Coastal communities must be active participants in the shift to sustainable ocean economies. A just transition means investing in low-impact livelihoods like seaweed farming and restorative aquaculture, providing support for skills training, and protecting cultural traditions tied to the sea. Recognising the deep knowledge held by those who’ve worked these waters for generations ensures that coastal communities are co-creators of ocean solutions, rather than casualties of change.

Seascapes as cultural heritage

Coastal communities have long lived in relationship with the sea — shaping it and being shaped by it. Seascapes are not just ecological zones but cultural landscapes, rich with memory, identity, and tradition. Framing them as “heritage seascapes” opens up new avenues for legal and cultural protection, similar to ancient woodlands or historic buildings. In places like Scotland, the sea has influenced language, livelihoods, and storytelling — from selkie myths to Hebridean fishing songs. Recognising this heritage deepens community stewardship, supports local leadership in marine protection, and affirms the deep, intangible connections that bind people to the ocean.

Tackling overfishing

Industrial overfishing has pushed many marine ecosystems to the brink, with over a third of global fish stocks now overexploited. In UK waters, species like cod, herring, and scallops are already at risk. But marine life can bounce back — often surprisingly quickly — when given the chance. By choosing sustainably sourced seafood, supporting low-impact local fisheries, and campaigning for strong, well-enforced Marine Protected Areas, we can restore ocean biodiversity and build more resilient coastal communities. Thriving seas are good for both people and planet.

Seaweed farming

Seaweed is one of the most efficient natural tools for drawing down carbon. It grows rapidly, requires no fertilisers or freshwater, and absorbs CO₂ as it grows. Supporting seaweed farming helps reduce ocean acidification, restore marine ecosystems, and create sustainable coastal livelihoods. As seaweed is harvested, it can also be used as a nutritious, low-impact food source — making eating seaweed a delicious byproduct of climate action. From small-scale community farms to national pilot programmes, seaweed deserves greater recognition as a scalable nature-based climate solution.

Stopping plastic and chemical pollution

Stopping plastic and chemical pollution at the source is essential to restoring ocean health. This means shifting responsibility from consumers to producers by regulating the plastics industry, phasing out single-use products, and enforcing extended producer responsibility. It also requires investment in waste and water treatment infrastructure that can prevent pollution before it reaches waterways. At the policy level, governments can ban or restrict toxic chemicals, incentivise the redesign of products for reuse, and support international agreements that cap plastic production and reduce marine waste. By targeting the systems that generate pollution — not just its symptoms — we can protect marine biodiversity and create cleaner, safer oceans for future generations.

Participar en la ayuda mutua

La ayuda mutua es el intercambio voluntario de recursos y servicios entre individuos y comunidades para beneficio común. Frente a la crisis climática, promueve la resiliencia y colaboración en situaciones de desastres y escasez, permitiendo que las comunidades compartan alimentos, refugio, conocimientos y habilidades. Fomenta prácticas sostenibles, como jardines comunitarios y proyectos de energía renovable, y fortalece el activismo de base, permitiendo a las personas actuar en la defensa del cambio sistémico. La ayuda mutua no solo atiende necesidades inmediatas, sino que también crea una base para la sostenibilidad y resiliencia a largo plazo.

Participar en la acción colectiva

La acción colectiva es una herramienta poderosa para generar cambio sistémico al unir personas con objetivos compartidos. A través de la organización comunitaria, la creación de coaliciones o el trabajo con grupos de defensa, se pueden agrupar recursos y aumentar la influencia, logrando un impacto en políticas, normas sociales y prácticas industriales. Además de los objetivos inmediatos, la acción colectiva fortalece la comunidad y amplifica voces en la toma de decisiones, abordando causas profundas y generando responsabilidad a todos los niveles. Un ejemplo clave es el movimiento de desinversión, que ha impulsado el retiro de inversiones en combustibles fósiles hacia energías limpias.

Visibilizar voces marginadas

El movimiento ambiental debe ser más inclusivo y accesible. Debemos centrar las voces marginadas para que sus experiencias sean reconocidas y entendidas. Luchar por estas personas y comunidades no es un complemento opcional, sino un fundamento esencial. No solo para apoyarlas, sino también porque las necesitamos. El movimiento climático tiene mucho que aprender de otros movimientos sociales como el de derechos civiles, el de las sufragistas y el de los derechos LGBT. Del mismo modo, también hay mucho que aprender del conocimiento y la espiritualidad indígena. Además, los espacios que tienen diversidad toman decisiones más sabias y beneficiosas para el planeta.

Mutual aid

Mutual aid is the voluntary exchange of resources and services among individuals and communities for mutual benefit. In response to the climate crisis, it fosters resilience and collaboration in the face of environmental challenges. When natural disasters or resource shortages occur, mutual aid networks allow communities to support each other by sharing food, shelter, knowledge, and skills. These networks empower communities to implement sustainable practices, such as community gardens and renewable energy projects, promoting self-sufficiency. Mutual aid also encourages grassroots activism, enabling individuals to engage in climate action and advocate for systemic change, particularly in addressing social inequalities worsened by climate impacts. Additionally, it nurtures solidarity and interconnectedness, reinforcing the idea that collective action is essential for tackling climate change. By prioritising collaboration, mutual aid not only addresses immediate needs but also builds a foundation for long-term sustainability and resilience, demonstrating the power of collective action in times of crisis.

Collective action

Collective action is a powerful approach to creating systemic change by uniting people toward shared goals. This might involve community organising, forming coalitions, or working with advocacy groups to address climate issues or social justice. By joining forces, people can pool resources, increase influence, and make a greater impact on policies, social norms, and industry practices. The benefits extend beyond immediate goals. Collective action builds community, empowers individuals, and strengthens voices in decision-making. It also addresses root causes by shifting power dynamics and creating accountability at all levels, from governments to corporations.

A key example is the divestment movement, where global groups pressured institutions to withdraw investments from fossil fuels, shifting billions into cleaner energy. This movement transforms systems by fostering solidarity and shifting values towards sustainability, fairness, and resilience. Collective action is essential for tackling complex issues that no single person or organisation can address alone, making it a critical driver of meaningful change and long-term impact.

Accounting for externalities

Externalities, the often overlooked costs of our economic system, must be better integrated into our economic and decision-making frameworks. This means recognising and addressing the environmental and social impacts of activities that are ignored by businesses today and passed on as a cost to society as a whole. A cultural shift is needed where businesses account for and take positive ownership of the social and environmental impacts of their activities. This involves fostering a corporate culture that emphasises long-term thinking, public transparency, and prices that internalise costs.

Investing in social impact

Investment in socially productive companies, organisations, and projects can function as the great accelerator of change. Socially responsible investments are not simply investments that don’t make things worse — they’re investment that actively make things better. It’s not enough to divest from fossil fuels; that capital must be redirected to positive activities that regenerate our badly damaged world.

By channelling resources into projects that promote community well-being, environmental stewardship, and equitable economic prosperity, we can drive systemic change on a scale we haven’t yet seen.

A green transition with broad democratic support

Creating positive change for tomorrow necessitates a broad-based societal shift. For this momentous transformation to occur, we need political approval and widespread democratic support across all levels of society.

Governments, businesses, and individuals must collaborate to secure a “leave no one behind” approach that prioritises genuine inclusivity. An inclusive approach means involving all actors in society — all social strata and all racial communities — in shaping and creating new collective value that they can all feel positive ownership towards.

The prioritisation of diverse representation, investment in local economies, genuine stakeholder engagement, community empowerment, and bottom-up approaches are essential for fostering the transformation we need for both people and planet.

Regenerative practices

‍Regenerative practices are not only a practical solution to climate change, but also a powerful cultural shift towards a more sustainable and just future. Through practices such as regenerative agriculture and forestry, improving soil health and enhancing biodiversity we can not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also adapt to them.

Perhaps even more powerfully than that, regenerative practices help us to challenge the dominant culture of consumerism and exploitation that has driven the climate crisis. By prioritising regeneration over exploitation, we can cultivate a deeper sense of connection and responsibility to the planet — we can recognise that we are part of a larger ecosystem that we depend on for our survival.

A culture of reciprocity

Indigenous communities around the world have long practiced systems of reciprocity, which involve mutual exchange and sharing of resources, knowledge, and support among community members. These systems prioritize relationships and community well-being over individual gain and are rooted in a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things.

Incorporating systems of reciprocity into our culture can act as a powerful tool in shifting our culture and systems towards sustainability. In doing so, we can create a culture that values collaboration and cooperation rather than competition and individualism. Ultimately, incorporating systems of reciprocity into our culture requires a shift in values and priorities. By embracing the reciprocity and local community-based initiatives, we can create a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

Radical imagination and future positivity

Radical imagination refers to the capacity to envision and create radically different futures that challenge the status quo and move us towards a more just and sustainable world. By using radical imagination to explore new possibilities, we can break free from the constraints of current thinking and systems and create new pathways for action.

Thinking of alternative futures involves reimagining our current economic, social, and political systems and considering how they could be transformed to prioritize sustainability and equity. This process requires us to challenge our assumptions about what is possible and to explore alternative ways of organizing society that prioritize the well-being of people and the planet.

Long-term thinking and intergenerational solidarity

The youth movement understands the burden placed on young people and future generations through climate inaction today. Globally, over 60% of young people feel very or extremely worried about climate change and 45% consider how climate change will impact their everyday lives. This stress, otherwise known as climate anxiety, is a justified and logical response. Especially as recent reports highlight how people born today will experience disproportionate increases in floods, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and crop failures due to climate change. For young people, long-term thinking is fundamental for preventing climate catastrophe. Other generations must act in intergenerational solidarity and can come together in recognition of what their legacy means to the generations that suceed them.

An empowered youth movement

The rise of protests and young people using their platforms to talk about climate change has captured the attention of the media and the public by storm. Young people’s demands have put pressure on politicians and driven change. Moreover, it has been instrumental at calling out inadequate policies and greenwashing behaviour. Young people are more than a megaphone for climate issues, it is also important that young people are involved in decisions that will impacts their future. The young generation should be able to drive meaningful, impactful, and positive change on a local, national, and international level.

Systems change for climate justice

Young people are often a voice for climate justice, as they represent a generation who will receive a disproportionate burden of climate change compared to their contribution. The call for climate justice recognises that those who have contributed the least are the most vulnerable to climate change and demands that those who have contributed the most should take responsibility. The youth movement also recognises the interconnectedness of climate change with many other systemic injustices and crises the world is currently facing. The social structures and inequalities related to large systemic issues such as capitalism and colonialism produces climate change and increases climate vulnerabilities. The concept of climate justice acknowledges that climate change is a threat multiplier that can exacerbate inequality and have different impacts on key groups. Therefore, as per the climate justice slogan, the youth climate movement demands “system change not climate change”.

Making environmentalism intersectional

An intersectional approach to climate change understands how climate change is interlinked with other systemic problems such as colonialism and capitalism. Aspects of a person’s social and political identity (such as gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, etc) combines to create unique forms of oppression and privilege. The environmental movement must examine how different marginalised groups are more negatively affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis. Interrogating your own environmental beliefs and how we might be upholding these systems is extremely important, otherwise, we will end up reproducing them. Do your own research, share with others and support better education about our colonial and racist history.  It also means not just fighting for the environment, but for black lives, women’s rights, indigenous rights, LGBTQ+ rights, refugee rights, disability rights and all other inequalities.

Mainstreaming marginalised voices

The environmental movement must be more inclusive and accessible. We must centre marginalised voices to ensure that their experiences are recognised, addressed and learned from. Fighting for these people and communities is not an optional ‘add-on’ - it is an essential part. Not only to support them, but also because we need them. The climate movement has so much to learn from other social movements such as the civil rights movement, the suffragettes and the LGBT rights movement. Likewise, there is also a lot to learn from Indigenous knowledge and spirituality. Moreover, diverse spaces make smarter decisions that are better for the planet.

Systemic change

Climate change is a global issue that needs global solutions. However, despite the fact that many of the causes of climate change come from systems-based decision-making, individual and private solutions are often championed over the far more effective and far-reaching systemic solutions. Large corporations such as Big Oil have been very effective at shifting the blame and shame of the causes of climate change onto the individual. While these corporations must shoulder a lot of the burden, they are not currently capacitate to do so by the systems in which they exist and continue to grow. Individuals can of course make changes to their eating habits, transportation methods, or other related behaviour, but ultimately such actions will be futile unless large-scale changes are also carried out. Collective action will turn the tide and bring about the system changes that will truly be effective.

Slow food

Our eating customs as a society have a huge impact on our culture, identity, health and environment. There are many approaches to eating more sustainably, but the Slow Food movement is one particularly close to a traditional relationship to food. Started in Italy in the 1980s, the Slow Food movement is underpinned by the particular eco-gastronomic traditions of Italy, which is characterised by a diversity of regional cuisines, unique local produce, fresh ingredients, and mealtime conviviality. The stress is on authenticity: a sustainable food and community culture for generations to come. A concept deeply tied to this is "0 km food": food that has not traveled far before being eaten, is traded directly with no middle-men, and preserves the unique flavours of its terroir (i.e. the complete natural environment and soil characteristics in which it is produced). The Slow Food movement's principles are Good, Clean and Fair, and focus just as much on flavour and positive food cultures, as on ecology, biodiversity, and ethics.

Local food systems

You cannot study a culture without understanding the role food and food production has on all levels of the community — food is culture, identity, heritage, and place. Modern urban life has distanced from our food and land, so we have a lot to learn from traditional knowledge of local food systems. Healthy nature and ecosystems go hand in hand with a vibrant cultural food heritage that preserves genetic plant diversity, supports local livelihoods, and nurtures the soil. Unfortunately, a lot of these indigenous techniques, from agroforestry to sustainable aquaculture, have been forgotten in favour of industrialised exploitation of the land. Localised food systems have huge benefits, not only from the point of view of taste and abundance, but also from the perspective of community building, diversified economies, civic engagement, and climate resilience. Our food futures look a lot like our past: with shorter supply chains, strong communities, traditional techniques, closer producer-consumer relationships, and respect for the ecosystem.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is the cumulative body of local knowledge that a people group passes down through generations. Often tied to religion, ethics and cultural worldviews, TEK is rooted in a deep understanding of place. Through a long history of living close to the land, locals can develop complex and holistic understandings of natural rhythms, ecosystems and land management that hold immense value in healing modern human-nature dysfunctions. There's a wealth of TEK anywhere in the world — in places as different as the Amazon and the Alps — but the concept of TEK becomes particularly important to understand in the context of tribal and indigenous people, whose culture has been oppressed and undervalued by settlers societies and colonialism. We must actively platform the unique contributions of indigenous knowledge in preserving harmonious and sustainable relationships to the ecosystem, from protecting our ice caps, fish stocks, forests, and much more.

Leapfrogging

We often think that progress is linear. This may make us worry about the extra stress developing countries could put on the planet as their economies and energy needs grow.

However, the concept of leapfrogging offers an inspiring alternative perspective: instead of following the West down the same path of fossil fuel dependency and overconsumption, developing countries can learn from the winning strategies, ditch the destructive ones, and skip ahead to become leaders in sustainability. Technological advances make leapfrogging very possible: for example, many developing countries completely bypassed the infrastructure-heavy landline phone of the 20th century and skipped directly to widespread mobile phone adoption.

Through leapfrogging, developing countries can avoid the most environmentally harmful stages of development and self-determine their own trajectory towards a sustainable future by jumping straight to distributed, agile and clean micro-grids. The West can help by sharing technology, providing financing, and participating in broad coalitions for systemic change.

Small energy producers and off-grid homes

Small-scale solar systems, typically sited on rooftops, are booming from Germany (with 1.5 million solar home systems) to Bangladesh (with more 3.6 million). Whether grid-connected or off-grid, they offer the world a new vision for hyper-local, clean electricity generation that's in the hands of everyday people. Becoming a small energy producer can be an incredibly exciting journey towards resilience and self-reliance, as well as cost-cutting. What's more, in areas of the world where the grid is inaccessible (due to high energy prices or lack of infrastructure), localised energy production offers an affordable and immediately deployable way out of poverty and energy insecurity for "last-mile" communities.

Community energy micro-grids

A micro-grid is a localised network of renewable energy producers, connected to an energy storage and load management system. Micro-grids allow communities to become independent from the national energy grid, increasing community resilience, boosting the local economy, and empowering regular people to democratically decide where their energy should come from — without having to wait years until the national grid offers them the option to have 100% clean and affordable power. Community-owned energy is often organised in cooperative structures, which can democratically control the energy, produce it efficiently, and keep its jobs and profits local.

A green energy grid

Moving away from fossil fuels is the single most crucial solution to climate change: that's why a massive acceleration of the shift towards clean power is needed across our energy grids. It's very important to modernise our national energy grids and rapidly increase the share of energy they source from renewables, while decreasing and eliminating reliance on gas, oil, and coal. It's particularly important to make clean power technologies the default option for any country investing in building any new power grids. This must also be combined with cross-border trade in renewable energy, to allow connecting areas with a surplus of renewable energy with areas of the world where solar, wind or geothermal may not be as reliable or abundant.

A sustainable and fair sharing economy

The sharing economy fights the notion that as individuals we should privately own every gadget and tool that we might ever need to use in our life. The urge to lead perfectly self-contained lives with garages stocked full of dusty stuff is an arbitrary ideal popularised by the 20th century suburban American lifestyle. Enter the sharing economy: a modern way to share the costs and burdens of the things we want, across a large community connected via digital platforms. Essentially, the sharing economy turns products to own into services to subscribe to or use on-demand, which can lead to great efficiencies and lower carbon footprints. A thriving sharing economy would mean that every community has a tool library where you can rent that power-drill you need to use once a year; that people would default to ride-sharing rather than owning a car; that someone's pre-loved dress can be someone else’s seasonal favourite. Green innovators like Too Good To Go or Library of Things show that there is a path forward for the sharing economy that is guided by principles of sustainability, fairness and social good.

Universal right to repair

Many of our electronic products are purposefully designed to be difficult or expensive to repair. In fact, companies use a strategy known as planned obsolescence to incentivise consumers to purchase brand new products as frequently as possible over repairing their devices or buying refurbished. Planned obsolescence means that, whether you like it or not, your device will become unrepairable, uninsurable, and incompatible with most new software after an artificially short timeframe. The right to repair is an answer to this. Right to repair laws would make it easier and cheaper for people to repair their devices, thus extending a product's lifespan and creating stronger economies around spare parts and repair services. Some proposals for the right to repair would even like to see “repair scores” shown on product labels so that consumers can make purchasing decisions that consider how easily repairable a device is. Connected to the right to repair is the concept of “modular design”, where components (e.g. a phone’s camera) can be swapped and upgraded on their own, without requiring buying a whole new device.

Making design circular

There is no waste in nature — only humans produce waste. Our current approach to the lifecycle of a product is as unsustainable as it gets: we extract finite materials from the earth, manufacture short-lived products, and then discard them as ever-accumulating waste. Nature, instead, works in a circular way — nothing is wasted, everything is transformed. We can design our way out of waste and inefficiency, by implementing a circular economy inspired by nature. Circularity is all about turning the lifecycles of products into closed loops so that when a product reaches the end of its life, its materials can easily be used to create new products. Circular designs are often modular, repairable, timeless and made to last. This regenerative way of understanding “making” is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and sustainable materials. Circularity gives us an exciting model to reimagine our whole economy for a better future — while creating prosperity and amazing products in the process.

Rewilding unproductive land

It’s very important to understand that “green” doesn’t always equal “sustainable.” For example, green lawns are highly damaging to the natural environment as they lack diversity, consume huge amounts of water, and need inputs such as fertilisers. Enter rewilding: a forward-looking approach to ecosystem restoration that reinstates natural processes (and sometimes missing animal species) allowing nature to take care of itself. Rewilding can be done at very large scales, for example by reintroducing wolves to the UK or reconnecting patches of ancient woodland, but it can work brilliantly on a small scale too. With roughly 30% of England being owned by only 25,000 landowners – typically members of the aristocracy and corporations – huge leaps forward can be made when landowners decide to rewild their land. You can do your part by turning your front lawn into a meadow of wildflowers — a fun and easy weekend activity that can do wonders for your local ecosystem!

Permaculture

Permaculture is a broad, holistic design culture based on whole-systems thinking. The concept was developed in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, with the aim to foster self-sufficient, resilient and sustainable human systems that draw inspiration from natural ecosystems. Permaculture shares a lot of practices with agroforestry and regenerative agriculture, but goes beyond the agricultural field by encompassing social, cultural and economic aspects. Permaculture tackles how to grow food, get energy, design houses, create communities and build resilience, while working with nature, rather than against it. Key permacultural practices include producing no waste, creating closed loop systems, capturing and storing energy, integrating rather than segregating, and valuing diversity. Permaculture is very space-efficient and can empower anyone to grow food pretty much anywhere, including in spaces as small as a balcony! As the urban and suburban permaculture movement grows, we can all take part in even in a small way.

Rewilding brownfield sites

There's a new way of thinking about urban green spaces: as self-sufficient and productive ecosystems that benefit people, city, and environment, rather than as ornamental manicured lawns. Densely planted, quick-growing forest works as a nature-based solution to purify the air, while also cooling down the area and producing fruit. Permaculture-inspired forests can also combat one of root causes of air pollution in the Global South: the widespread burning of agricultural waste after harvest, which causes disastrous levels of air pollution. That’s because organic waste can be bought from farmers and turned into mulch, which is essential for permaculture, thus giving farmers a monetary incentive not to burn it. This shows how any kind of unused land in any city can be turned into productive assets to the public and the environment, with minimal input or maintenance.