Agile futures for transformative change: Lessons from envisioning positive climate futures emerging from the pandemic in Ontario

We aimed to create a transformative space that builds inspiration and shared commitment for climate action while exploring the unique inflection point created by the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we constructed a creative participatory futuring process for participants involved in climate action in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region (Canada) to imagine desirable futures emerging from the crisis. Because we needed to move quickly and accommodate pandemic-related constraints to explore this unique moment in time, we also aimed to reflect on considerations for an agile futures practice in service of transformative change.

Through a virtual workshop and surveys, participants envisioned future worlds in which “seeds” of positive climate futures emerging during COVID-19 become mainstream. They wrote science fiction stories of characters navigating those worlds. Observing artists depicted the futures through visual art. Participants were inspired and learned a new tool to capture opportunity in crisis.