Technology

Farm Hack: open source technology for small-scale resilient agriculture

How can small-scale farmers network to share ideas, innovations, and inventions to increase the resilience of sustainable agriculture and rural economies? Before the industrial revolution, low-input agriculture was the norm, but now, farmers must make a conscious choice if they want to avoid large scale mechanization. Many small-scale farmers in the US are discovering new means of food production and in the process, innovating tools and equipment. Innovations can range [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-08-02T14:00:42+00:00sustainable living, United States|Comments Off

Makapads

How can reconfiguring small-scale industrial production enable a community to tap local ecosystems services sustainably to address social challenges? In Uganda, and in much of the developing world, when school-aged girls hit puberty, they are often forced to miss school during menstruation due to the inaccessibility of affordable sanitation products. Fifteen years ago Moses Musaazi, an engineering lecturer from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, was asked by social [...]

Megan Lindow2016-05-06T18:41:56+00:00business, health, sustainable living, urban ecology|Comments Off

Fairphone

Can items we use every day be more sustainable? Can we, as consumers, promote and invest in more socially conscious products to diversify the marketplace? Fairphone is a non-profit company that produces phones that are ecologically and socially conscious. They aim to create a positive social impact at each step of production, which includes mining, design, manufacturing, life cycle and social entrepreneurship. They are expanding the market for products that [...]

ciararh2016-04-07T18:52:03+00:00business, Integrated social-environmental, stop destructive action, sustainable living|Comments Off

MEGA

Can an online gaming platfom lead to real-world learning and behavioural change? How widespread can its impact be? MEGA Game is a gamified web platform & smartphone app that give you knowledge, skills, and power to create sustainable world by playing for impact. The Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) represents an innovative solution to the world’s most pressing social and environmental issues, such as inefficient natural resource management, environmental pollution with [...]

ciararh2015-12-11T21:29:39+00:00Education, Skills Development, Social-Ecological Seeds, sustainable living|Comments Off

Adaptive Resilience in Drylands (ARiD) in Ricote, Spain

Can the knowledge developed by observing a small dryland village adapt to climate change be used in other places? In spite of the challenges they pose, drylands have been successfully settled by humans over time, and constitute a “hot spot” for the study of adaptive resilience in dry climates. Ricote, in SE Spain, provides an example of adaptive resilience in drylands. For over 1000 years, the village of Ricote (c. [...]

ciararh2015-10-13T09:05:45+00:00Food system, Integrated social-environmental, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Lufa Farms

What combination of food production innovations will allow us to feed a growing global population sustainably in the future? Objective: To grow food where people live, and to grow it sustainably. To Lufa Farms, this means growing food on no new land; capturing rainwater; recirculating 100% of irrigation water and nutrients; reducing energy use; composting green waste; using biological controls instead of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and delivering produce to customers [...]

ciararh2015-07-08T17:24:11+00:00Food, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Foresight Engine – Game Connected Citizens

An experimental method using technology to connect thousands of people to develop creative solutions to governance problems rapidly Objective: to improve governance and decision-making, as well as the design of interventions, using crowd-sourcing methods Connected Citizens (http://game.connected-citizens.org/about) is a global conversation about how connectedness will change the relationship between citizens and governments, and how government services will be designed and delivered in the future. New civic technologies are changing the relationship between people [...]

ciararh2015-05-11T22:20:59+00:00Social Seeds|Comments Off

Seeds are existing initiatives which hold potential to shape the future. They are likely not widespread nor well-known. They can be social initiatives, new technologies, economic tools, or social-ecological projects, or organisations, movements or new ways of acting that have that appear to be making a substantial contribution towards creating a future that is just, prosperous, and sustainable.

We gather seeds from diverse research disciplines, communities of practice, and individuals that have different world-views, values, and problems. This diversity means that not everyone will agree on the importance or value of every seed.