VISION AND PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY ROOTED IN ACTION
In this portfolio I am sharing a few highlights of projects I have been developing within the past 15 years. Although, for much of that era, I have been based in Asia - 2012 - 2021- I am now based in Europe to be closer to family. I've worked across cultures and continents - from Southern Africa, to Central and South America to Europe, the Middle East and North America. My passion and focus sits at the intersection of applied systems transitions design, sustainable and regenerative development, and inclusive (social, environmental, policy) innovation. I am also an active practitioner of systemic and circular design - striving to find emergent pathways where upstream and downstream change can take shape. My work is sparked by an intention to contribute to the conscious uplifting of collective society so that our earth and future generations may thrive.
SHORT AND LONG HORIZONS OF CHANGE
As mentioned, for nearly 20 years I have been working – especially on sustainability, climate, systems and innovation - around the world and have lived in the US, Thailand, Japan, Uruguay, South Africa and Costa Rica, and now France.
These experiences, working in various contexts, cultures, and conditions have impacted my world view, so it is with that lens that I share experiences and provocations that come from my current work as a consultant, researcher and practitioner: especially working on innovation teams among the United Nations system, and research that I have co-lead with the Oxford Climate Tech Initiative, as well as a recent book project on Inclusive Innovation and cofounder of the Circular Design Lab of Bangkok.
If you happen to be reading this then I suspect you are well informed and deeply care when it comes to conversations about climate change and the innovations needed to meet the demands and urgency of the times. Maybe you have some of the same questions that I have: how do we keep up with what is changing in our world full of shocks and how can we make the most impact? Where do we have a role to play? Where do we intervene? What do we need to learn, and just as crucially, what do we need to un-learn?
In this sense a lot of my work focuses on the "Green Transition" elements that can not be ignored: finance, tech, politics and innovation – and of course the relational aspect - the social dynamics and humans that comprise any system or community. In many contemporary cases social systems, economic and political stability is declining; in many ways we are in the midst of a perfect storm which has spiraling feedback loops which is taking us to unprecedented territories. Perhaps it seems obvious, but our environmental issues are also social justice issues. As someone who is a visual learner, and also has taught social, climate and systems innovation, I believe frameworks can be helpful. I have two to help contextualize and locate the conversation. This first one is the Berkana Two Loops Model. In short we observe that the incumbent and legacy systems are in decline as we transition. And in this case I mean the green transition too. There are emergent systems at play, and in some scenarios, these edge innovations, experiments, ideas consolidate; and at the risk of being trite, these emergent systems are the bridge towards new models.
A FRAMEWORK FOR SYSTEMS TRANSITIONS WORK
Building on this (and this will be the most visually intense), is that of the socio-technological transitions ‘multi-level perspective’. The part I want to highlight is this yellow band, the so-called regime, or “rules of the game” – the left side, in particular, represents our current status quo: the way we have been educated, or experience the inherent systems that are now under pressure, and which are up for re-writing, deconstructing, reconstructing. Although this amazing research by Geels and Schot, deserves more explanation, the other aspect that is important, to highlight as well, is green band – the innovative approaches, the niche efforts that, as they mature start impacting the legacy, incumbent 'world', and become mainstreamed.
I believe that the aggregate of positive social and climate impact efforts made by local leaders across the world will result in the systems change society needs to calibrate for the imbalances- environmentally, economically and socially. For the past several years I have been experimenting and testing various hypotheses through public sector and market based solutions, and co-enquiry with global academic networks.
To continue this enquiry, this year I will be working with my global UNDP team on launching the C3 Labs - an initiative seed funded by the Global Environment Facility, with R&D innovation pilots in Thailand and Kenya, focused on deep collaboration around the climate-biodiversity-food systems nexus. And I also look forward to the publishing of my co-authored book chapter, 'Why Leveraging Digital Tech for Decarbonization Pathways Matters Now' (Taylor & Francis), speaking at the The Economist Sustainability Week in London and ESCP Impact Week, and collaborating with many others on funding for systems transitions.
A HISTORY OF PRACTICE & INQUIRY AROUND INNOVATION IN SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT
Other past examples include work with the UNICEF Global Innovation Team working on climate innovation R+D, UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Innovation Center, as Head of Exploration, cofounding the Bangkok based Circular Design Lab , or previously founding the Designing for Systems Innovation and Leadership (DSIL) Course- a pilot turned into a scaled global endeavor. Additionally, in parallel another relatively recent project includes the coleading and authorship of a book on Inclusive Innovation. You can see (and join) our latest community of practice based initiative from theory, to field to policy through the The Inclusive Innovation Learning and Stories Lab. Prior to this, I launched Green Loop Nashville, a campaign to restructure an old ironworks factory into a circular economy hub for closed loop systems and green sustainability entrepreneurs in 2011. Other important stops along the way include working with Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship initiative in the Washington, D.C. area and teaching at the university level in Japan. Today, I see my executive committee and board experiences (8 years serving as a representative of North America to the Swiss based World YMCA) as being equally influential- they have been moments where the value of governance, policy and generative thinking have been powerful shape shifters to dynamic organizations. My article, Why the Next Generation of Designers Will Save the World, published in the Design Management Review's social innovation issue has more on the intersection of practical strategies and international development, yet was written for a 'time', admittently, that was when bigger bets were placed on human centered design in a market based context - much of my thinking has evolved to expand towards complex systems that must prioritize nature and ecology centered design. And my more relatively recent piece in the G20 Dossier From Climate Emergency to Climate Asset: Leveraging Transition System Dynamics and the Circular Economy speaks to the intermediary innovations required for large scale societal shifts. Reach out to connect and explore synergies.
