Then, Now & What’s Next for SustainAbility
Friday Archive
Sometimes our projects, for one reason or another, don’t make it into our portfolio. Often the reason is nothing more than the fact we already have one project from that client, or multiple projects of the same type. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t proud of the work or there isn’t value in sharing it with the wider world.
So Friday Archive is the start of a regular place where we can feature past projects that perhaps didn’t get as much love as they could have done first time around.
Now is their time in the spotlight!
Making the future the cause of our present
We start with a project to mark the 30th anniversary of SustainAbility, an organisation who inspire and enable business to lead the way to a sustainable economy.
To understand SustainAbility’s importance to the sustainable development agenda you need look no further than the name itself. It was founded by activists John Elkington and Julia Hailes in 1987, the same year that the Brundtland Commission (the UN World Commission on Environment and Development) published Our Common Future and its foundational definition of sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Throughout those 30 years SustainAbility has helped define and evolve the sustainable development agenda and the role of business within it.
The danger with these kind of anniversaries is to get a little too backward looking. To be overly self-congratulatory. But that is not in the DNA of SustainAbility. Constantly looking forward the organisation is consistently focussed on the work still to do.
In this spirit we set out to create a communication that would not only prompt reflection on the progress made but act as a call to action for the future. To open up a dialogue around the trends we are seeing and the priority areas for sustainable development going forward.
Our idea was to create a fun interactive infographic illustrating how the developed world has changed and is continuing to change. In collaboration with the team at SustainAbility we looked at how people have shaped the world — from our landscapes and physical world to the economy and broader society.
The infographic charts three time periods: 1987 (the year of SustainAbility’s founding), 2017 (the present day as it was then) and looks toward a possible 2047. The viewer is prompted to click on a series of pulsating dots to read and view the data that has built up the picture of these eras.
We considered changes in our climate, lifestyles, where and how we work, how we access and use energy, how we are connected and communicate, what we eat, and global migration.
And we explored the opportunities and possibilities of a regenerative and equal future where we meet, and possibly exceed, the 2030 Global Goal obligations and harness these developments for the better.
Working in close collaboration with the wonderfully talented illustrator Eugene Borodulin we developed a clear and engaging style that showed the unique aspects of each world with great clarity and humour.
Past and present, together
The project coincided with an event which brought people from SustainAbility’s past and present and across the sustainable development space together for an evening of reflection.
To showcase the infographic to the attendees we created a range of informative animations which played across screens at the venue. The facts and figures designed to stimulate conversation and spark debate about the changes seen across the decades SustainAbility has been active.
The project is still live on the SustainAbility website.
We invite you to have a browse and see what you recognise and remember.
