Dear Subscriber First Name,

We’re embracing the renewed energy that comes from a regenerative summer rest, and look forward to sharing some updates with you. In this September newsletter we’re sharing:

• Fruit trees: The Future of Design

• New shoots: Multispecies connections

• Sowing seeds: Our Transitions Design toolboxes in the wild

We see this newsletter as a catalyst for conversations, relationships and collaborations - so we’d love to hear from you! If anything resonates with you, don’t hesitate to drop us an email at collective@falayconsulting.com

Fruit trees: Design for transitions

In a world desperately in need of sustainable transformation, what is the role of design beyond traditional disciplines? And what are the barriers holding designers back from their impact potential?

As a part of Helsinki Design Week 2023, we’ll be joined by Gaia Consulting and Petra Ilonen in a talk and panel discussion on the future of design. Together we’ll build on the discussions Zeynep had last month on “Design as a tool for social change” at Sitra’s Heräämö event.

We’ll be exploring design’s historic role as an active contributor to our economy of over-consumption, and where design skillsets can be redirected to build regenerative futures.

Join us on Thursday 14th September at Merikortteli, 5-6pm.

And in the meantime, you can read more and watch Zeynep’s talk here:

New shoots: Multispecies connections

September is the month of mushrooms – and multispecies! 🍄 🐜

Our collective member Iines recently worked with a fellow Aalto student team designing and building a pop-up research station, bridging the gap between multispecies theories and practice.

The Multispecies station fosters playful observation beyond the obvious human and more-than-human encounters, encompassing gatherings, storytelling, and the concept of 'living in ruins,' where life and death coexist. The station is part of ‘Children of the Anthropocene’ research project.

You’re welcome to visit the station, alongside many other inspiring multispecies practitioners at Living with Feral Ecologies festival on September 16th, as part of the Helsinki Design Week - hope to see you there!

Sowing seeds: Imagining the projects and change the world needs

Our Transitions Design Toolbox in the wild
Last month we launched our Transition Design Toolbox, a series of tools to help collaborate, imagine and facilitate your organisation’s sustainability journey. So far we’ve had over 150 people download the resources.

We’d love to see how these tools are being used! If you’ve downloaded them, please do share photos, feedback with us.

Sunshine: A dose of energy, uplift and hope

Each newsletter we want to share something that has given our community some sunshine in the past month - nurturing our hopefulness and balancing the doom and gloom of the world.

If you live in Finland, or keep up with Finnish politics, you might be aware that there have been some concerning anti-immigration policies proposed as the new government comes into power.

The Me Emme Vaikene march last weekend has given us all a glimpse of hope, with many of our collective members attending, alongside over 20,000 others.

Similarly, we also celebrate Aalto University (where many of our collective have studied) taking a strong stance against these proposed policies and recognising the strength of a multinational, diverse Finland. Watch president Ilkka Niemelä’s speech below:

Let’s build a better future together.