Deep transition or shallow transformation | The Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward

Part Three of Forum’s ongoing Future of Sustainability series dives into how the world is responding to today’s multifaceted challenges, and explores some of the biggest questions proliferating across the sustainability movement if we are to drive change at the scale and pace we know is needed.

To kick us off, Forum’s Chief Executive, Dr Sally Uren, and Forum’s former Principal Futures Specialist, Joy Green, revisit four trajectories Forum for the Future identified in late 2020 as emerging from the disruption of COVID-19. These trajectories were based on the mindsets we were seeing proliferate in response to the pandemic, and provided us with a framework for looking at how the world might proactively shift on to a more transformative footing. With new analysis, we look at how things have moved on over the last 15 months.

Learn more at thefuturescentre.org/fos2021

About the Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward

Produced by international sustainability non-profit, Forum for the Future, the Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward is a unique opinion and commentary series set to explore lessons learned from the last 25 years in the sustainability movement and what they mean for the future.

Based on new and exclusive insights from diverse voices across the sustainability movement, we'll examine where we have succeeded and where we have failed in creating real change. We’ll consider how the world is responding to today's multifaceted challenges and opportunities, and what pivots might be needed if we’re to deliver at scale and pace. Lastly, we'll look forward - exploring how we can reframe the goals of the system, reset our ambition, and encourage the adoption of new mindsets and approaches critical to creating what’s really needed: a truly just and regenerative future.

With thanks to our partners
Looking Back to Go Forward was made possible thanks to the generous support from our partners: Laudes Foundation, GSK, Target, M&S, Capgemini, Bupa, 3M, CTPA, Burberry, Olam Food Ingredients, and in particular our headline sponsor, SC Johnson

All opinions expressed by their interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Forum for the Future.
Interview recorded on 7th October 2021.