“How do you keep your message positive, whilst making sure people understand how dire the situation is?”

“How do you keep your message positive, whilst making sure people understand how dire the situation is?”

This was an audience question posed to Rob Hopkins during his morning keynote at this year’s Sustainability Symposium, and got to the heart of our theme for the day.

Can we create visions of a sustainable future that are compelling, yet grounded in reality? Recognising the seriousness of the situation, but also bringing a sense of hope and joy?

Our day started with the Grantham Centre Co-Director Rachael Rothman showing how people of different ages experience a different world and have different priorities which on the surface could be seen as the roots of intergenerational division. But there are more threads that bind, more commonality than it might appear.

We had lightning talks in the morning and afternoon, a deliberate mix of disciplines, experience and scale, but each answering the provocation “What is the future of…?”

We covered Paint, Science, Fashion, Street Trees, Liveable Cities, Heating and Cooling, Plastics and Chemicals, Healthcare, Lifecycle Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Aviation,  Hydro-social Communities and Cooking Beans in Lesotho. 

Each very different subjects, but during the 5-minute talks and in the discussion afterwards links were revealed, similarities in approach, potential and obstacle.

How to Fall in Love with the Future

Rob Hopkins’ enthusiasm is infectious. He speaks of a future that is already here in part, but as he quotes from William Gibson, not evenly distributed.

Some of the examples seem so obvious it makes the audience wonder why we don’t see them everywhere. It leaves us feeling hopeful, but also wanting to take action to build the neighbourhoods, communities and world we would like to live in.

This is not just a pipedream dreamt up by Rob - he not only lives in a transition town, he was instrumental in founding it.

Before the lunch break Grace Darbyshire told us the background to the artwork on display, produced by the RivelinCo Young Creatives group. They are 11-16 year olds in North Sheffield who responded to the question ‘What does a good future look like to you?’. Their answers were illuminating, from the prosaic to the profound. What is clear is these are not unreasonable asks, but it’s not their responsibility to create that world - they deserve to inherit better.

At the back of the room, amongst the pastries and pasta salads, were the Grantham Scholars research posters. For most they are 1 year into their PhD journeys, but the depth of their knowledge and creativity is already evident. The Sustainability Leaders Training Programme aims to represent true disciplinarity and this cohort perhaps demonstrates that more than ever.

Delivering for now and the future 

For our afternoon keynote we were immensely grateful to be joined by Jane Davidson, who battled the worst of the UK rail network to get to us from rural Wales to tell us all about how respect for the future not only can, but needs to be woven into legislation. More than that it needs the understanding and cooperation of everyone involved, every agency, every politician, all communities. Wales is perhaps the perfect test bed for such interventions, fiercely proud and independent, whilst still containing multiple identities, the antithesis of some of the messages of populist division.

Jane is obviously rightly proud of what was achieved and stressed over and over again: this is not about strategy, it’s about delivery. A salient message to take away - headlines are easy, but delivering real impact is hard.

The test of these conferences is how the audience reacts and engages, and this year the energy in the room was evident, with probing questions from the floor, and so many connections made and conversations had.

Grantham Centre Co-Director Tony Ryan wrapped the day up in his usual inimitable way, drawing together the threads of all the day’s speakers and weaving the stories into not just one, but many Visions of a Sustainable Future. And in what seemed too perfectly timed not to be made up we had the announcement of the birth of a member of a new generation to celebrate.

We’re looking forward to next year already.

All photos by: Andy Brown Photography