Synopsis

If we want to understand where we are going as a global  civilisation and get out of the societal crises rooted in the  overexploitation of Earth’s resources and currently exacerbated by the  effects of the pandemic, it is not enough to define the targets of  sustainability and push towards them. Understanding the extent of C02 emissions reductions as well as other civilisational targets, captured by the SDG concept, encourage us to reach out to ambitions like the  level of literacy or equality and life expectancy we would like to  achieve, besides the environmental sustainability targets. The SDGs  pinpoint a holistic societal transformation. Therefore, a shared  understanding of a more integral concept could get more people involved  and motivated to active themselves to achieve a more sustainable and  inclusive society. Imagining where we are headed can help us all to  distinguish the right moves from the wrong ones on our pathway into the  future. We are talking about »Ecocivilisation« – a concept initiated by Violeta Bulc, that still needs to be fully imagined, described and understood. 

First, we must all be able to engage in innovative solutions that  contribute to transformations at multiple levels, namely the systemic,  business and cultural genres. It is important to be able to clearly understand our common goals and to imagine our common destination.  This way we can increase the proactive engagement of citizens as voters  and taxpayers, as professionals, experts, businesspeople or as family  members, students or mentors of all sorts. Broad and active  participation is needed in order for Ecocivilisation to thrive.

Therefore, we are launching a series of debates, dedicated to  imagining the concept of Ecocivilisation as a final destination of a  common societal journey. The exercise aims at a common understanding of  the future, explaining the paths to take and metamorphoses we are going  through on this voyage. Together with other interlocutors and  expert panelists we will visualise and clarify several relevant  dimensions of this phenomenon.