Sustainable Together

‘Sustainable Together’ is a regional project that focuses on sustainability and civil society initiatives that seek to make an impactful contribution to improving (local) environments.

‘Sustainable Together’ is a regional project that focuses on sustainability and civil society initiatives that seek to make an impactful contribution to improving (local) environments. The programme aims to initiate and support creative and community-based interventions related to ecology and sustainability issues and priorities. It also aims to raise awareness, facilitate dialogue and provide a higher level of visibility to ecology and sustainability related matters. Through providing financial grants for the conceptualisation, design and implementation of projects run by local structures and through creating a digital platform for dialogue forums of various stakeholders, ‘Sustainable Together’ hoped to strengthen the impact and the visibility of projects and discussions on ecology and sustainability-related matters. The focus lies on working out sustainable approaches of living to actively contribute to shaping our future(s) and improve the quality of life for all communities.

Besides Johannesburg, the Goethe-Instituts Addis Ababa, Kigali and Luanda are involved. In South Africa, the project is carried out in partnership with the British Council. In South Africa, as from 2020 the programme provided small grants to six South African-based organisations, creative practitioners and organisations whose focus is in the area of sustainable futures, with a specific focus on community-based practice and collaboration.The programme has also explored the potential of building an online community through webinars and hybrid formats in order to grow new audiences and access to a pan-African exchange on sustainability matters and explore sustainable approaches of living that might contribute to a long-term change of perspectives and ways of living.

Receiving this grant has greatly assisted converting conversations with valuable players into concrete partnerships that are helping the broader project to gain momentum and progress that is visible within the community for the better. We feel that there has been a breakthrough with regards to the community learning that there can be opportunities and jobs from cleaning the environment and rehabilitating the river. - Romy Stander, Water For The Future, 2021

In an open-ended and participatory process, the programme might take on new forms and methods in the future and while traveling globally, also find new partners, materialities and temporary structures to work with.

Read more about the projects here by downloading the Digital Booklet:

Indigenous Plants for Resilient Futures Booklet

It provides a small taste of the rich knowledge the trainers, speakers and participants brought to the live workshops and online event during the course of the project

Return to Origin

Waste Not, Want Not

Water for the Future

Precious Waste

In this conversation, we learned more about building an inclusive circular economy, how Covid-19 has affected reclaimers and their business and how each and every one of us can support it.

Planetary Design

The second edition took a closer look at the concepts of circular economy, wellbeing economy and degrowth as counter concepts to our currently linear economy in which we take resources to make products and then turn them into waste when we no longer need them.

Urban Farming

The third and final edition of 2020 of the Sustainable Together talk series took a closer look at the topics of food sovereignty and food security.

Watch the Webinar recordings link