Transitions to sustainable futures
How do we build a sustainable world?
The world is at a tipping point. The actions we take over the coming years will have a profound impact on the future of our planet. But finding the best way forward can be hard – especially given the scale and complexity of the challenge facing us.
That’s why we need to approach the problem in a new way.
Focusing on transitions
This website is based on a research report jointly created by the R&D Group of Hitachi, Ltd. and Takram, a design innovation studio based in Tokyo, London and New York. The report explains nine transitions we can make toward a more sustainable world.
A transition is a gradual, progressive shift from one state to another. In this context, we’re talking about moving from one social, political, or economic system into another.
The power of transition thinking
It’s hard to imagine a world you don’t yet live in. Before World War II, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, or the modernisation that came with Japan’s Meiji Restoration, few could have imagined what life would be like afterwards.
Thinking in transitions can give us a much fuller picture of how we build a sustainable future. And it gives us practical, concrete steps we can take to help get us there.
— Terry Irwin, Director of the Transition Design Institute‘When you are forecasting a future, you’re thinking within the paradigms that you’re already embedded in. Your social, political, and economic paradigms and current worldviews. All of which are part of the problem, because all of those paradigms are inherently unsustainable in the long term.’
Crises showed us that, when we act together, rapid, multi-dimensional transformation of the way we live is possible.
2020 as a tipping point
2020 was a year of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic caused untold disruption to mental and physical wellbeing, as well as to the global economy. Meanwhile, wildfires, extreme weather, conflicts, famines and political upheaval devastated many corners of the globe. These problems are linked, and illustrate both the scale and the urgency of the challenge we face.
But 2020 also showed us that, when we act together, we can achieve incredible things.
The same is true when it comes to building sustainable futures. Multi-dimensional transformation of the way we live is possible. But if we are to succeed, we need to act decisively at every level – as societies, companies, communities, and individuals.
How we created this report
This report covers:
people and organisations
key frameworks
Detailed interviews and profiles of 12 leaders in sustainability:
Arup, Dan Hill, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Forum for the Future, Human After All, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, IPBES, Kiko Network, Renewable Energy Institute, Terry Irwin, The International Energy Agency, Yoji Yoshimura
Transitions
Degenerative → Regenerative
IPBES
We still treat the planet as a resource for humans to exploit. How can we live in a way that allows nature to continually regenerate?
Zero-sum → Balanced
ARUP
Is there always a tradeoff between environmental protection and prosperity?
Profitable → Purposeful
Human After All
Can companies exist to do more than just generate profits?
Fossil → Renewable
Renewable Energy Institute
The shift from fossil fuels to renewables has been an urgent priority for decades. How can we finally make it happen?
Mechanistic → Systemic
Forum for the Future
The world is made up of interconnected systems. How should this affect the way we act?
Fossil → Renewable
International Energy Agency
The shift from fossil fuels to renewables has been an urgent priority for decades. How can we finally make it happen?
Centralised → Distributed
Yuji Yoshimura
Can distributing power to communities and people help us achieve more?
Fast → Slow
Dan Hill
Our economies and cultures rapidly accelerated in the 19th and 20th centuries. What if we embrace a slower way of living in the 21st?
Extractive → Just
Kiko Network
How do we move away from extractive and exploitative practices to build a just society that works for all?
Zero-sum → Balanced
IGES
Is there always a tradeoff between environmental protection and prosperity?
Linear → Circular
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Currently under preparation.
Mechanistic → Systemic
When we start thinking about the world as a set of interconnected systems, everything changes.
The organisation
Forum for the Future
Forum for the Future is a nonprofit that encourages ‘systems thinking’. Instead of looking at each problem in isolation, Forum for the Future advocates seeing them as part of an interconnected set of global systems.
This way of thinking can help us better understand problems like climate change, and lead to radical and unexpected solutions.
— James Payne, Associate director, Transformational Strategies at Forum for the Future‘Things are viewed in isolation and I think with a system, what's really really important is to understand how living beings, social issues, and environmental issues aren't separate things.’
Key concepts
Systems thinking
Treating the world as a set of interconnected systems.
Leverage points
Places where you can intervene in a system to create change.
Key frameworks
6 STEPS TO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
Adapted from 6 significant steps to change ↗, Forum for the Future (2018)
Creating systems change for sustainability
Forum for the Future believes we can harness systems to build a more sustainable future. This framework shows how systemic change is created.
KEY DYNAMICS SHAPING THE 2020S
Adapted from The Future of Sustainability Report 2020 ↗, Forum for the Future (2020)
Key Dynamics Shaping the 2020s
Forum for the Future have defined five dynamics they see as key to shaping the decade. Understanding these can help us spot signals of change, and transform systems.
LIVING SYSTEMS ARE NESTED
Adapted from Four Levels of Work framework in Regenerative Development ↗, Regenesis Group
Working on multiple levels
Systems operate on different, interconnected levels. The inner levels describe activities that are already happening; the outer levels describe future potential.
SYSTEMIC PRACTICES
Adapted from Systems practices — what might these be? ↗, Forum for the Future (2019)
Systemic practices
Thinking in systems means working in a different way. Here are the shifts Forum for the Future believes we need to make.
Transition in detail
Systems are naturally resistant to change. But leverage points can help us make big changes that ripple across systems, multiplying their effect.
Transition pathways
Forum for the Future’s pathways to change involve empowering people and communities to support the emergence of regenerative, self-sustaining systems. Traditionally, this has been seen as a side-effect of thriving systems, rather their starting point.
— James Payne, Associate director, Transformational Strategies at Forum for the Future‘Things aren't simplistic and linear, but equally they're not completely random. Navigating complexity is what systems change is all about.’
What you can do
Think in systems
Embracing interconnectedness helps us all understand the wider effect of our actions.
Be transparent (and ask for transparency)
Transparency helps us see connections more clearly. We should demand it from organisations, as well as embed it in our own lives.
What this research tells us
We need to move beyond our current way of thinking
Many of the organisations featured in this report are radically different, and see different pathways towards the future. But there are also several common themes.
Perhaps most importantly, these organisations agree that we must move beyond the status quo in a few important ways:
Addiction to the short-term
Our actions are biased towards immediate or short term effects, whether that’s annual profits or personal convenience. This means we can overlook long term outcomes.
Consuming without consequences
People and companies ignore the external effects of their actions, focusing too narrowly on the ‘bottom line’.
Endless growth narrative
If we pursue growth in all circumstances, it is almost impossible to reduce our impact on the planet.
Faster is better
Some activities need to be fast – but many don’t. Fast behaviour is generally more destructive, especially when we don’t fully understand its consequences.
To build a sustainable world, we have to work together
It’s tempting to look for quick fixes or technological innovations that could make our current way of living more sustainable. But this report shows that there are multiple transitions we need to make, at every level of society.
This research also underscores the vital role consensus-building has. By listening to those who have been ignored in previous conversations about sustainability, and by shifting decision making to local people and communities, we can create a future that everyone owns, and bring fresh ideas and perspectives into the conversation.
Ultimately, a sustainable future will only work if it works for everyone.
What you can do
Frameworks for seeing the world differently
Together, these frameworks help us better understand our world, and the transitions we need to make toward a more sustainable future.
They are not an end in themselves. Rather, they are a starting point for a diverse set of actions, which can be undertaken by individuals, communities, businesses and governments to improve our relationship with the natural world – and with each other.
These ways of thinking can be applied to other complex, multi-faceted problems. They help us make progress on issues that would otherwise feel too big or too difficult to contend with.
By taking the time to understand these frameworks, we can make them second nature, so they drive our choices and actions day to day.
— Terry Irwin, Director of the Transition Design Institute‘If you really want to work on behalf of sustainable transitions, if you want to ignite positive, systems-level change, you have to change many things about yourself. You have to change your posture, you have to change your attitudes toward collaboration. You have to, I think, revise your ideas.’