A Better Tomorrow: Five creative initiatives that are leading the new way.
Sometimes it can all feel so heavy – the eco-anxiety, the everyday injustices, the constant media buzz humming one “unprecedented event” after the next. The world’s problems seem to stack up 1000x faster than we can act on them. I see it and hear it constantly from clients, who want to create better solutions through their businesses but feel stumped by the reality of available materials and production capabilities that don’t quite meet expectations or meet the sense of urgency we feel for what’s needed, right now, to create change before it’s too late. I see and hear it in myself when I become too cynical and the “what’s the point?” thoughts creep in too much. Underneath all that gloom, it can be hard to let your eyes focus on the good – but we have to. The truth is, seek and you’ll see it!
Never more than in the past year have I come across so many amazing initiatives and individuals focusing their productive energy on the greater good. It reaffirms for me… with all great challenges comes a host of wildly creative and wonderfully clever minds, all driven to find carefully considered paths forward. Their can-do attitudes and conscious philosophies guide us towards a better future where a new rubric for success awaits – where doing well is done by doing good. Here are some of those companies and individuals (from a breadth of industries) that are inspiring me at the moment. Get behind them and get inspired, too!
SEA FOREST
In the fight against global warming, it's a panic-inducing truth that there’s a finite amount of time to act. One that all too many find easier to ignore than to face. Not Sam Elsom.
A fashion designer and brand guardian of sorts by trade, Sam was slightly out of his field when he got into the business of seaweed, and yet he was driven by the immense potential of its impact. Sam’s company Sea Forest cultivates Asparagopsis, a common seaweed native to Tasmanian waters that has the capacity to effectively eliminate methane emissions from livestock when added in small amounts to their diet. Not only does this solution greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from meat, wool and dairy industries, it generates more food with fewer resources and also pioneers the development of a new environmentally positive industry for Tasmania. You could say it’s a big game-changer. I find the whole process and Sam’s personal creative transitioning journey fascinating - check it out here
MAGPIE GOOSE
Founded with a mission to help create the best version of Australia, fashion label Magpie Goose isn’t afraid to dream big. An ongoing exhibition of sorts, the brand partners with Aboriginal artists and art centres to share different stories through textile art, while paying royalties back to the creators for each metre they print. New people, new places, new realities – each powerful fabrication presents a different perspective that is woven into clothing to truthfully share and celebrate Aboriginal culture.
On top of championing community and creativity, Magpie Goose aims to create impact in every step of their business. This includes sticking to environmentally friendly processes and providing work opportunities to the less fortunate. Basically, what good business should be. Read more here
JOOST BAKKER’S FUTURE FOOD SYSTEM
If the goal of living green is self-sufficiency, nature is the one truly sustainable habitat. Regenerating itself perpetually, it’s this ecosystem that designer Joost Bakker – commonly known as the poster boy of zero waste living and someone I have long been inspired by – looks to when designing new buildings.
Set in the centre of Melbourne’s Federation Square, Bakker’s Greenhouse is an innovative 87-square-metre home and urban farm that demonstrates the potential of our lodgings to provide shelter, produce food and generate energy. Designed to mimic the cycles and processes of the natural world, each element is carefully thought through to feed into the sustenance of another part of the building. Steam from the shower is utilised to grow mushrooms, a rooftop aquaponic system creates nutrients for surrounding plant life, a biogas digester transforms organic waste into fuel to power the stoves while 200 species of plants fuel the inhabitants. Completely zero-waste and non-toxic, Greenhouse demonstrates not only a new way of living, but a new way of thinking that will guide us towards a better, much greener, tomorrow. Get inspired here
FAST FORWARD
There are millions of women in the world of photography, and yet so often their work is forgotten and erased from its archive, losing with it an entire gender’s worldly experience. Founded to ensure the female gaze is highlighted through the news and our history books, Fast Forward is a significant research project that engages women in photography from around the globe.
Started in 2014 at the University of the Creative Arts in the UK, the project not only promotes female photography, but aims to provoke thoughtful debate that ensures women – and their experience – remain in the news. With these new ways of discussing, showing and distributing their work, Fast Forward is carving a new global narrative that should have been told all along. Another step forward for gender equality in the arts. Read more here
NOT AMAZON
Quite literally sticking up for the little guy, Not Amazon is a Canadian directory of sorts that has taken on the online giant to bolster small businesses. Designed to connect shoppers to merchants in their community, the empowering platform was started during these difficult times of lockdowns when small business have faced struggle after struggle, while e-commerce giants like Amazon have seen their profits skyrocket – a disparity that called for some fightback, according to founder Ali Haberstroh.
The site, which Haberstroh started as a simple spreadsheet, now lists over 4000 retailers in Toronto, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver, and has connected them with over 350,000 shoppers. Support for those who need it – now there’s no excuse not to shop local. Get behind it here
If your business or one you know is championing creativity to contribute to the world in new and innovative ways, I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to reach me for a chat at jess@jessmester.com.au
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