The Long and Not-So-Winding Road to Sustainability

You know how people just love Barcelona? Plan A does too. Also, Barcelona loves sustainability. In June, we were invited over to Universitat Pompeu Fabra for their sustainability week. Plan A participated in a most interesting panel conversation with Manchester-born Post-Crash Economics Society and Professor Giorgios Kallis and Toni Pujol.

Giorgios Kallis is an environmental scientist working on ecological economics and political ecology at SOAS in London. His current research is motivated by the double global economic and ecological crisis. He explores the hypothesis of sustainable de-growth: a smooth economic downscaling to a sustainable future where we can live better with less.

Toni Pujol is the Environment Officer at the Urban Ecology Division of the Barcelona City Council. Toni currently works at the Urban Ecology Division, contributing to the implementation of city-wide urban projects such as the Barcelona Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plan.

The question we tried to answer: Which are the leading paths towards a sustainable society? Vast topic. Given the talkativity of all participants, we had to stop the clock at some point and let people go on with their lives. Still, the conversation led to fruitful lines of thought. Discover the panel talk in full in the video below. Chill, it’s in English.

Barcelona is eternal. Because, or thanks to this, it is becoming one of the cities of the future. If you should remember one thing from this panel your actions matter a lot more than you think. Local behaviours shape and infect the global action plan.

We’ll throw in an extra take away: Plan A is the way for you to gather knowledge, build your impact and drive change. Be one of the good guys, there is no plan B for our planet.