Dear Subscriber First Name,

Like many, we have been feeling the weight of world events as we entered the new year. We turn to each other, to community and to the wisdom of visionary elders like adrienne maree brown to stay grounded, who encourages us to “focus back down on what you can do, and get specific with your support. who can you actually show up for? who can you ask for help and let show up for you? everything large is made up of the small.”

This February’s newsletter we’re sharing:

🍊 Our fruit trees: Launching the Ornamo Responsible Design Manifesto

🌱 Our new shoots: Exploring Sustainability Policy Futures with the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office

🌰 Sowing seeds: The River Dôn Project

🌞 Sunshine: Timely wisdom and support on responding to the challenges of this moment

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

Fruit trees: Ornamo’s Responsible Design Manifesto is Launched – A Call for Action!

Ideas, projects and practices that are active and already fruitful with learnings and impact.

Last week, the Ornamo Responsibility Circle (ORC) launched the Responsible Design Manifesto at the Helsinki City Hall. This self-organised, volunteer-led initiative is exactly what we need right now—designers feeling the urgency of our current moment stepping up, and calling for real action on sustainability.

A huge congratulations to the creators of the manifesto Angelos Arnis, Milja Havusela, Anna Kokki, Adithya Varadarajan, and Tarja-Kaarina Laamanen – also for the inspiring event and hard work bringing this vision to life!

Katja Soini's opening speech beautifully framed the role of design in Finland - from shaping Finnish national identity in the early 20th century to now defining what sustainable life within planetary boundaries looks like.

After the keynotes, Zeynep Falay von Flittner moderated a fantastic panel discussion with an inspiring group of panelists—İdil Gaziulusoy, Linda Vanni, Emma Berg, and Sauli Laitinen— unpacking the manifesto’s potential, the challenges we face as design industry, and the opportunities ahead. Let’s keep this momentum going – when designers organise and mobilise, we can shift narratives and drive impact! How do you see design shaping a sustainable future? Join our discussion here.

New shoots: Exploring the future of sustainability policy with the Prime Minister’s Office and Demos Helsinki

Emerging work that’s inspiring us, or that we are beginning to nurture

Kicking off with Sustainability Panel Workshops

We are excited to announce our selection by the Finnish Prime Minister's Office to explore the future of sustainability policy through futures simulation. In collaboration with Demos Helsinki, we are supporting the Sustainability Panel's new initiative: the Futures Project.

This project aims to craft positive, multi-perspective visions of life beyond the sustainability transformation, with citizens at the heart of the process. With a focus on societal impact, this initiative seeks to spark action across all levels of society. We began with an energetic and inspiring start of January and the new year with a Sustainability Panel workshop in Hämeenlinna. Take a peak into our workshop take-aways in Anni Leppänen's LinkedIn posts 1 and post 2.

Based on the 3 futures imaginaries from Demos, and enriched by the experts of the Panel in the workshop, we are now crafting a Futures Voyage for the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development. The Voyage is a 5 day digital journey into a future scenario. We are inviting the Commission members (politicians, NGO leaders, civil servants and other groups) to imagine the transition and future together in this experimental simulation. Each day will introduce a new speculative concept and theme for the Committee to discuss and develop. We will use the Voyage insights to build futures prototypes to engage citizens this Spring in a series of open events.

“What if we could all have double citizenship with a planetary passport? What if a global ethics dialogue sustained planetary rules for shared rights, responsibilities and principles?”

- Example provocations from the sustainability panel workshop, captured by Anni Leppänan

Sowing seeds: The River Dôn Project - a new UK collaboration and VKRF application

The River Dôn Project - Support us to find funding for an exciting potential partnership!

Last week we submitted a grant application to a call for proposals by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundationon ‘Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making’ together with the River Dôn Project (RDP). Wish us luck! This would enable us to kickstart an exciting new partnership helping advance the RDP’s transformative work via our local UK based Member Eloise Smith-Foster.

The RDP is oriented around the River Don, an extensive waterway in the UK. The partnership are developing experimental, radical 21st-century nature-centric infrastructures and ethical frameworks for value allocation, sensemaking, distributed stewardship and governance, enabling ecological citizenship and decision-making to manifest.

Initiated in 2022, the project is led by a multi-disciplinary coalition of nine radical organisations ranging across academia, digital, arts, legal, community and systems change organisations. It includes: Hive IT, Sheffield Hallam University, Lawyers for Nature, University of Sheffield: Urban Flows Observatory, Dark Matter Labs, Don River Catchment Trust and South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre.

Read more about the vision and thinking behind the project:

We are still seeking other sources of funding. Are you aware of resources or funds that could support us to advance this important work and new UK partnership?

Sunshine: A dose of energy, uplift and hope

Sharing more of what resonated most from adrienne maree brown’s post on making meaning and moving forward in these times. Her ‘Bucket 3’ focused on rearranging boundaries and developing healthy relationships with news felt very prescient for our members. Which advice feels most affirming and supportive for you to try right now?

“bucket 1: accept reality and decide what you will do […] the reality is bleak and chaotic, but not permanent. remember the future is unwritten.

bucket 2: find others to do it with! be intentional about who you are in community with […] don’t get attached to the experiments, stay attached to the well being of the community. 

bucket 3: rearrange your boundaries when it comes to communications and information. 
- notice what overwhelms you and place boundaries. reclaim your precious precious attention.

bucket 4: Ritual! […] notice the sacredness of the moment, of your emotions, of the change, of all that you love.” - adrienne maree brown

We’re also taking heart from proactive, grassroots Positive.News stories, and work by the likes of Sam Chavez (Roots of Change), who supports heart-first activists through the news. Check out their upcoming event on Feb 13th, ‘Media Consumption: Staying Updated without Drowning’:

Let’s build a better future together.