2023 was a big year for Pilot Projects as we co-labored on publications, policies and built projects, right up to COP28 where we led a workshop synthesizing ideas from our year’s work in the dirt and sawdust, on stage, and at the drawing-and-key-boards >> https://bit.ly/47r5f1l
Did we make a difference? The problems are so big, and so “systemic” that our valiant pilot projects seem dwarfed by the scale of the voracious needs, habits, desires and entrenched systems that dynamically and unequally serve billions of people in all parts of the world. Can this AI-satellite-guided fossil-fuel-powered flying-container-ship-freight-train of strip-mined rare-earth metals be slowed down for even one second? Would I still get my Amazon Prime packages?
Our work focuses on built environment sustainability (more livable/ less harmful buildings) and forest geography (how to conserve, use and restore land populated by trees). This year at COP28 country leaders finally woke up to the interdependent roles of the built environment and forests. Building on the Glasgow Declaration on Forests, we saw the launch of the FCLP’s Greening Construction with Sustainable Wood and the Buildings Breakthrough with countries committed to “net zero” construction by 2030
This is a tailwind for “forest-positive buildings”. For humans to thrive in the future we’ll need a lot more climate-neutral "regenerative” buildings and cities, made mostly of wood, bamboo and other bio-based materials. We’ll also need more forests of all kinds: mangroves and rainforests, boreal spruce, Appalachian ash, Balinese bamboo and Australian eucalypts. More and healthier forests, and more timber for more and healthier buildings.
This goal can seem like a distant mirage from inside a silo. And there are some critics of its viability. But when the right people are in the room the pieces come together and we see that "we can do this!"
Collaboration means working together. A no-brainer? It should be an “all-brainer” Navy-Seals-level skillset requiring all of our brains (and most of our bodies!) Collaboration is how we address big challenges that we can’t face alone, as organizations or even governments. But to “scale-up” collaboration to meet our challenge we have to move beyond simply working together. "Systemic collaboration” calls for a design to our collaboration.
At the end of this intense year testing these concepts I formulated three interdependent questions for all collaborators in the climate action space. They seem simple, but they are not:
1 How can I help? (Commitment by individual/organization to a shared goal)
2 What is my role? (Subjecting my own efforts and capabilities to a larger system, designed with interdependent components and relationships)
3 How can/should the collaborative system be redesigned? (Recognize that assumptions, components and relationships in the current system are in constant need of refinement, and reconfiguration to address new contextual factors and new goals)