Our Approach
Like every proper sandbox we need some rules or guidelines to ensure we make the best use of this space. The following rules are not created with the aim of limiting the activity or the perspective within the sandbox, but wish to bring clarity and focus to this space, providing a clear signal about the questions we need to ask and the type of work we need to do to move away from sustainability-as-usual. These rules are the first version of sandbox Zero’s rules and will evolve together with this space.
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Act with urgency in mind
The work in this space is grounded first and foremost in a clear sense of urgency, reflecting Bill McKibben’s point that “winning slowly is the same as losing”. At the same time, don’t get into a panic mode as urgency ≠desperation. We operate with optimism and confidence that we can move the needle!
2
Be radical + practical
Speed and scale are essential for any meaningful change to occur -> Exponential approach (scale) to sustainability requires radical thinking. The need to act quickly requires us to be practical.
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Explore what’s beneath the tip of the iceberg
No matter what you’re working on you’re dealing with systems, which means you need to apply systems thinking.The iceberg model is a good example of what is required of you, suggesting that you shouldn’t look only at what’s happening above the surface, which is only a small part of the iceberg, but also explore what’s beneath it in order to gain a better understating of the whole system and how to transform it.
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Think of humans, not users
Don’t confuse user-centered with human-centered and look for paths reflecting the latter, not the former.
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Learn from nature and design for it
Embrace a more humble posture when it comes to nature, remembering that while it may be interesting to consider life on Mars, we still live on this planet and thus our real challenge is to redesign our relationships with nature, or as Bill McDonough articulated it: “How do we make humans supportive of the natural world, the way the natural world is supportive of us.”
Use technology responsibly
Technology can be a powerful tool, enabling the exact changes we desperately look for. At the same time, you don’t want to end up creating a new episode of Black Mirror! If you’re not sure what responsible use means in this context, just check if the technology you’re considering and its usage are aligned with other rules, especially no. 4 & 5.
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Embrace a cosmopolitan localism mindset
Promote local-based response to global issues, in which you consider the local environmental and social conditions, as well as the connectedness and openness of the local communities, which operate as nodes in a global system. Aspire for what Ezio Manzinidescribes as the “creative balance between being rooted in a given place and community and being open to global flows of ideas, information, people, things and money.”
Become a culture warrior
This is not just a joint effort to develop new solutions. This is a culture war over values with opponents that will fight back. To win this culture war you need to accept first that this is the context in which you operate and apply it accordingly to the content you create.
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Enhance resilience
Your work needs to enhance resilience (defined by Andrew Zollias “the capacity of a system, enterprise, or a person to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances”) on at least one of these levels, if not more: Ecological, personal, organizational, social and urban.
Tell a persuasive story
“Human beings share their values and their views of the world by telling great stories” (Jonah Sachs). No matter how great your proposition is, you won’t be able to realize it unless you are able to communicate it effectively. You don’t operate in a vacuum, which means that you need to win over some very persuasive stories told for decades by business-as-usual and later on sustainability-as-usual advocates. You can do it, but not without creating a story that is clear, engaging and inspiring.
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Background
Sustainability in 2030 will be determined by the path we choose to take now. The current path was challenged earlier this summer by John Elkington’s recall of the term ‘Triple Bottom Line’ (TBL), which he coined in 1994. Elkington made the case that while the concept was valuable in helping many companies rethink how they do business it did not succeed to serve as a catalyst for system transformation, as he was hoping for. “To truly shift the needle, however, we need a new wave of TBL innovation and deployment,” he wrote.
Indeed, TBL was instrumental in shaping business thinking about sustainability issues in the last couple of decades, helping create a sandbox in which most corporations operate now to address their social and environmental impacts. While this sandbox was fresh and promising in the 90s, offering companies new ways to shift from business-as-usual practices, it is growingly becoming a quicksand, where companies get stuck with a sustainability-as-usual mindset that puts our future in danger.
This sandbox pushed companies to listen to their stakeholders, not just their shareholders, and take notice of sustainability issues, but didn’t provide them (and us) clear benchmarks articulating what ‘good enough’ actually means. Furthermore, there was no clear sense of urgency in this sandbox. Even if we had a sense that we’re in danger of crashing our airplane into a mountain as Elkington puts it, the underlying assumption was that the mountain is far enough and we still have time to change course. This may explain perhaps why the sandbox tolerated incrementalism and inconsistent action.
Now we have two options in front of us. One is to keep working on improving the sustainability-as-usual sandbox, assuming that given the systemic constraints (e.g. markets driven by short-termism and shareholder primacy) on implementing a more radical sustainability agenda, this route is still our best hope. The second option is to design a new sandbox, one that may offer new approaches and strategies to addressing the most critical sustainability issues we face.
We believe that while a new sandbox is not a guarantee for success, staying within the current one is a recipe for failure. One reason is time, or the lack of it, especially when it comes to climate change. We are at a point where “winning slowly is the same as loosing”, and it seems growingly unlikely that we can win fast enough with the current sustainability-as-usual mindset.
Therefore, inspired by John Elkington’s TBL recall, we’re launching an effort to explore a new path to 2030 and beyond. Entitled “Sandbox Zero”, this will be a space of exploration, serious play and inquiry, aiming to create a new paradigm of sustainability thinking, one that is grounded in a clear sense of urgency and focuses on designing human-centered solutions that are both radical and practical in order to make a difference in time.
Sandbox Zero will take a designerly approach to consider the opportunities and challenges around the implementation of new business models, policies, technologies, tactics and strategies aimed to support a sustainable future. This approach reflects what Ezio Manzini calls the “design mode”: “The outcome of combining three human gifts: critical sense (the ability to look at the state of things and recognize what cannot, or should not be, acceptable), creativity (the ability to imagine something that does not yet exist), and practical sense (the ability to recognize feasible ways of getting things to happen)”.
Initial work created in sandbox Zero, includes propositions considering behavior change strategies, sustainability reporting and the implementation of the Paris Agreement. We hope to see more work created by a diverse group of stakeholders that share sandbox Zero’s vision and is ready to take action to challenge the sustainability-as-usual status-quo.