Building Natural Connections Webinars

“Building Natural Connections”: the title of the webinar series organised by the Future Spaces Foundation in collaboration with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) - University of Cambridge, followed by Floornature as the exclusive media partner of the event. The series was created by the Future Spaces Foundation, founded in 2013 by architect Ken Shuttleworth as the research and development arm of the London-based Make Architects studio. Research carried out by the Foundation explores the socio-economic, demographic and technological factors that influence how we interact and operate as individuals and communities, taking a critical look at how we can shape the cities of the future.
Specifically, the webinar series explores how we can leverage the interdependence of nature, society and economy to provide solutions for a sustainable built environment. It does so by adopting a transversal approach, since the important issues concerning climate, nature and human well-being involve everyone, from the worlds of business, politics and finance, to the academic and civil society spheres.
The first webinar held on September 29 and entitled "Changing climate, changing culture" was moderated by Eliot Whittington, Director of Policy and Director of the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group at the CISL. Among others, the event was attended by Anton Cartwright, economist at the African Centre for Cities, founder of Credible Carbon and Director of Econologic, Carolina Urrutia, Secretary for the Environment in the office of the mayor of Bogotá, Guy Grainger, Global Head of Sustainability at Jones Lang LaSalle, Dr Judit Kimpian, Chair of Architects Council of Europe's (ACE) Sustainability Work Group and author of Energy People Buildings and Zelda Bentham, Group Head of Sustainability at the Aviva PLC Group. Different points of view on how to achieve decarbonisation without worsening problems such as poverty and inequality, thoughts on how to integrate nature in our cities, as well as considerations from the world of insurance, for which the climate crisis has long been a point of discussion. “If things are difficult today, they will be even more difficult tomorrow”, therefore we cannot wait any longer to take action.
Guests who took part in the second webinar – moderated by Dr Nina Seega, Research Director for Sustainable Finance at the CISL – were of the same opinion. They included: Ursula Hartenberger, Independent Senior Consultant, formerly Global Head of Sustainability at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Emily Hamilton, ESG Head at Savills Investment Management and Trustee of the National Park City Foundation, Ehab Sayed, founder of Biohm and Pierre Rousseau, Senior Strategic Advisor for Sustainable Business, BNP Paribas. The event looked at the issue of “Banking on bio-resilience”. How can we rethink the financial system with a view to sustainability?
The October 13 webinar will conclude the series with the theme of “Unlocking social value”, exploring the importance of all parties to participate at the beginning of the design process, drawing on community experience.
Involving figures from disciplines that are not necessarily connected to these aspects of sustainability not only opens up the discussion to new ideas and perspectives, but makes the concept of interdependencies between nature, society and economy perfectly clear. Only together, by creating natural connections, can we really fight to save our planet.

Christiane Bürklein

Additional information https://www.futurespacesfoundation.org/our-work/building-natural-connections-webinar-series/
where you can find links to access videos of the first two webinars and register for the third webinar
Images: courtesy of Make Architects - sketch by Peter Greaves