I’m designing a project to implement a Climate Futures Design Team to both support sustainability reporting and to develop ideas for potential transformative climate solutions as an evolution from incrementally responding and adapting to climate change.
This is the final project for the course, Leading Change in the Context of Climate Change.
The goal of the project is to develop idea propositions for equitable, transformative change which requires the team leader to consider approaches that help the team to act responsibly to all other beings, in other words, to do the work to ‘right relations’ (Gram-Hanssen, 2021). The biggest challenge that I see emerging out of this is with integrating ideas across industry and cultural boundaries.
For lessons learned in cross cultural practices I looked to research conducted, in part, by Albert Marshall, a Mi’kmaw elder, who introduced the concept of Two-Eyed seeing in 2004. Since its introduction, there has been a strengthening consensus across Western and Indigenous researchers that successful integration of Western Science and Traditional Knowledge is fundamental to getting to equitable, transformative solutions (Hathaway, 2020, Bartlett & Marshall & Marshall, 2012).
Two-Eyed Seeing is the gift of multiple perspective treasured by many aboriginal peoples and explains that it refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to using both these eyes together, for the benefit of all
Bartlett 2012, citing citing Bartlett 2006, 2011, 2012, Bartlett et al. 2012; Hatcher et al. 2009, Iwama et al. 2009; Hatcher and Barlett 2010; Marshall et al. 2010, IISH website, P.335
To achieve this objective the leader will need to include Indigenous representation to co-design potential future solutions in a way that helps weave ideas across western and Indigenous worldviews. This is a challenging objective for a couple reasons. First, this project has a strong information systems foundation and Indigenous people are under-represented in STEM education so getting Indigenous team members could be challenging (IndigeSTEAM. ND). Second, the demands on Indigenous community member’s time are many and are increasing. A couple of examples are the time demands related to changes on the regulatory front in B.C., such as the implementation of UNDRIP and the Modernization of the Emergency Management Act.
Given the time constraints, one option that might work would be to create, or to connect with, an Indigenous advisory council. This idea of bringing together a knowledgeable group of stakeholders across Western and Indigenous communities was presented by Bartlett et al. as a lesson learned from decades of research into integrating western science and Indigenous knowledge (Bartlett et al., 2012). Their lesson is based on academic research, which could be tested in an Industry environment to determine viability.
Finding or establishing such a council would take time and could be done in parallel with establishing the organization’s internal team. Keeping Indigenous principles in mind, Bartlett et al. extend the principle of two eyed seeing to multiple eyed seeing, explaining the belief that no one person has more than a small piece of knowledge and that we need to tap into the collective consciousness (2012). This concept aligns to what in Western research is referred to as Transdisciplinarity (Corman & Cox, 2020). Bartlett et al. describe how their research maps to transdisciplinary research, describing the key characteristics of relating to social issues, integrating across disciplines, and participatory research (Bartlett et al., 2012).
My project is also embedded in the renewable energy industry as a response to the challenges emerging from the broader societal energy transition. Research into iterative risk management within the electricity sector has identified the value of integrating transdisciplinary knowledge into the process to meet the demands of climate change impacts, both for the Utility and the population it serves (Gerlack et al., 2018). Research in this area has been unable to find examples of cross sectoral collaboration (Gerlack et al., 2018), which means that this challenge will continue as transdisciplinary approaches are tried and tested. While this research was centered in risk management practices, the researchers have made a case to shift away from what they refer to as a fragmented approach, to consider greater collaboration beyond the utility sector (Gerlack et al., 2018). This shift would not only open the opportunity for new perspectives but would allow for a shift from risk at the center to one of uncertainty at the center. This would support designing for the uncertainty inherent to Climate Change projections and open space for collaborations around scenario-based analysis, leading to the benefits that come with developing strategic foresight.
However, there are benefits with starting with a small and agile team which can be done by starting in the center of climate risk management and at the intersection of the common interests of Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation practices. This would provide the leader with an opportunity to start from practical, established business functions, centered in managing risks, before creating a bridge to broader objectives, once trust in the leader, the team, and the outcomes that they achieve, is further established.
References
Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2(4), 331–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-012-0086-8
Corman, I. & Cox, R. (2020). Transdisciplinarity: A Primer. Royal Roads University. https://commons.royalroads.ca/macal/wp-content/uploads/sites/88/2021/04/MACAL_Transdisciplinary_Thinking03-31-21-3.pdf
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). (2022, Oct. 18). Indigenous science. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/science-technology/indigenous-science.html
Gerlak, A. K., Weston, J., McMahan, B., Murray, R. L., & Mills-Novoa, M. (2018). Climate risk management and the electricity sector. Climate Risk Management, 19, 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2017.12.003
Gram-Hanssen, I., Schafenacker, N., & Bentz, J. (2021). Decolonizing transformations through ‘right relations.’ Sustainability Science, 17(2), 673-685. Retrieved 10 May. 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00960-9
IndigeSTEAM. (ND). Indigenous perspectives in STEM & STEAM opening doors for all. https://www.indigesteam.ca/
Institute for Integrative Science and Health. (ND). Two-Eyed Seeing. http://www.integrativescience.ca/Principles/TwoEyedSeeing/
Irwin, T. (2021). Transition Design: Design for systems-level change. American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) National Conference. Terry Irwin [Presenter]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KEzrqICi7hI
OECD. (ND). Strategic Foresight. Web Page. https://www.oecd.org/strategic-foresight
