Jennie Suddick
Moderator
The Good Enough Transformation calls for a global urban 'Green Transition' at the human scale, connecting small landscapes of grassroots communities around the world –where humanity's green future is now.
The Good Enough Transformation (GET) is a global community of practice that brings together 9 cities from 4 continents - Mexico City, Lund, Bobo-Dioulasso, Aarhus, Nicosia, Kuching, Toronto, Casablanca and Paris. This panel will present and discuss a perspective on sustainable urbanization driven by local communities, grassroots culture, and the interaction between traditional knowledge systems, small creative economies, and accessible urban innovations.
GET members will share insights from ongoing action-research and testbeds that tap into nature-based agricultural heritage in Mexico City, vernacular architecture in Burkina Faso, community gardens in Cyprus, upcycling material explorations in Malaysia, and grassroots creative neighborhoods worldwide —engaging indigenous farmers, scientific researchers, cultural entrepreneurs, community leaders and periurban youth. The panel will lead to an open discussion on the future of cities from a local perspective through simple, affordable, and easy-to-implement green urban transformations from communities around the world coming together.
The panel will offer unique expertise from cultural civil society organizations, including
- The Global Centre for Climate Action, a research center at OCAD University that draws on creative vision, sustainable design, and artistic practice to imagine new approaches to sustainability.
- The Gardens of the Future, a grassroots, citizen-led organization based in a repurposed heritage space in Nicosia that engages communities in sustainable practices.
- Culturans, a Mexico-based NGO that uses art, culture, and social innovation to build sustainable communities and cities, empowering citizens to transform urban life.
- Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde, a non-profit organization that develops and promotes placemaking initiatives in disadvantaged areas using the performing arts.
- Trans Europe Halles, a social incubator based in Sweden that has created a European network of grassroots arts and cultural centers from preserved and restored abandoned buildings.
- Tamadia, a grassroots performing arts company leading local community development, social, and environmental work in Bobo-Dioulasso.
- To provide a unique and challenging perspective on the theme of "Stronger Together" that addresses bottom-up urbanism, local and global collaborative networks, and local, human-scale contributions to the New Urban Agenda.
- To share knowledge, experiences and insights from GET's ongoing mission to research, document and develop community-based solutions that better integrate traditional wisdom, community engagement, sustainable architecture, circular design, productive landscaping and responsible agricultural practices in response to local urban and community challenges.
- To highlight potential innovative, yet accessible solutions to sustainable urbanism that leverage the role of the creative and cultural sector, local knowledge systems, community-based initiatives and culture-based climate action.
- To create and develop new collaborative relationships with WUF participants and stakeholders that extend beyond the Forum, and to encourage and guide creative and cultural sector stakeholders to engage in the field of sustainable urbanization.