Nine TRANSFORM researchers and practitioners will be delivering an interactive dialogue session at the International Sustainability Transitions Conference (IST) at Carleton University this June.
Dr. Sarah Burch, Project Director (University of Waterloo), will be leading a panel discussion and small-group session alongside Dr. Derk Loobach and Dr. Niki Frantsezkaki (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions), Dr. John Robinson (University of Toronto), Dr. Jose Di Bella and Christopher Luederitz (University of Waterloo), Dr. Linda Westman (University of Sheffield) and Tova Davidson (Sustainable Waterloo Region).
The panelists will speak to the role of small businesses in transformative processes and highlight the lessons learned after several years of collaboration. They will discuss TRANSFORM as an innovative model of engagement with the private sector, one that offers transitions scholars the opportunity to challenge and radically change the existing understanding of the SME sector. The model builds in-depth knowledge of how small firms contribute to sustainable transformations, shifting traditional perspectives, and at the same time builds capacity among SMEs to take advantage of partially funded experimentation opportunities.
In small-group sessions, participants will be asked to discuss the potential for SMEs as social actors at the core of the sustainability debate, at a time when evidence suggests that incremental approaches to sustainability are insufficient to deliver the change necessary to address the challenges of climate change. Together, scholars will experiment with radical new views of transition into sustainable and resilient social-ecological systems.
More details on the session can be found at the IST website here: https://www.conftool.org/IST2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentations=hide&search=burch
