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
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
Fast → Slow
‘Slowing down’ isn’t about stifling innovation or giving up on prosperity. Instead, it’s shifting the focus from growth-at-all-costs to balancing growth and sustainability.
The organisation
Dan Hill
Dan Hill is strategic director at Vinnova, the Swedish government’s innovation agency, and previously worked at Arup.
Hill argues that we need to move away from growth as the only measure of our progress, and understand the changes we need to make as productivity and population growth slow down.
— Dan Hill‘The idea is that you can still carry on living in a community as people and take care of each other, without the engine of economic growth that we've become used to over the last 100 years.’
Key concepts
Slowdown
The new societal and cultural structure that emerges as population and GDP growth decelerate, and climate urgency grows.
Universal Basic Infrastructure
The idea that everyone has a right to the basic infrastructure that supports life.
Slow and fast layers
Different rates of change within different parts of society, occurring at the same time.
Key frameworks
HARNESSING THE PANDEMIC TO TAKE ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Adapted from The curves beyond the curve ↗, Slowdown papers, 7 April 2020
Harnessing the pandemic to take action on climate change
Hill points to 2020 as an opportunity to rethink how we live. The pandemic broke our ‘fast’ world, and showed us what’s possible when we collaborate to solve an urgent problem.
CATCHING UP WITH SLOWDOWN
Adapted from Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100 ↗30677-2/fulltext), The Lancet, 14 July 2020
Catching up with slowdown
Slowdown is already a reality: many societies are already experiencing rapid ageing and slowing productivity growth. Yet our ways of living haven’t changed to reflect this.
A MIX OF FAST AND SLOW
A mix of fast and slow
Slowdown isn’t just about slowing everything down. While economic and population growth will slow, we can speed up in other areas, such as climate action and cultural change.
Transition in detail
At the core of this transition is a recognition that growth isn’t the only desirable outcome for a society. By embracing slowness, we can help other values take root.
Transition pathways
The slow city contrasts with the fast – and precarious – city. Changes to build slowness include creating active neighbourhoods and promoting citizen-led decision making.
What you can do
Stand up for slowness
We can all make ‘slow’ choices, from walking and cycling to choosing products built on sustainable business models.
Learn from Covid
While Covid has had a devastating impact on our lives, we use it to glimpse some of the positives of slowing down, from reduced work hours to not having to commute.
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.’