“The future has an image problem” is the kick-off statement of the GoodLife 2030, an initiative by Purpose Disruptors that was presented at ADCE Festival 2021, during our second panel “How to Enact and Accelerate Change in the Creative Industry”. The headline conveys a problem that many in our community of creators have long identified, but also often unconsciously contributed to by focusing too much on the dark side of the climate emergency. Can painting a brighter future be the key to unlocking it?
Futerra, one of the leading change agencies in the world, which was also present at ADCE Festival in 2019, has recently changed its mission to reflect and tackle this issue, inviting people to suspend their disbelief and move from the Sustainable Development goals to the Awesome Anthropocene Goals (AAG). The AAG focus on maintaining the SDG achievements by focusing on the awesomeness that can stem from reaching them and making sure their legacy lasts.
Before the publication of the AAG, Futerra had already reframed the SDGs with the Good Life Goals, simple actions stemming from the SDGs that anyone could understand and work towards with a view of aiming for a good life. The Awesome Anthropocene Goals is one more step in their mission to make the future brighter, in their words: “The Anthropocene means ‘the age of humans’, and it could be an apocalypse… or it could be awesome. The goals are wildly optimistic, deliberately ambitious and far beyond where we are today”.
Like Purpose Disruptors, Futerra, and many in our community, we believe that imagining a better future is more encouraging, exciting, and inspiring than visualising doomsday, and even if it can feel a bit unrealistic and even uncomfortable given the current state of the world, we believe it is a path worth taking. It is also perhaps the most important brief we should be working on, if not for us to enjoy, for our future generations.
With Earth Day taking place this Friday, 22nd of April, we encourage you to change your mindset and think beyond the current problems by focusing on looking for solutions that will make us ancestors to be proud of. Whether it is by working for the achievement of the SDG from the perspective of the Good Life Goals and the Awesome Anthropocene Goals, getting involved with initiatives like Purpose Disruptors, Creatives for the Future, Clean Creatives, Creatives for Climate or Change the Brief Alliance, or taking your own path, achieving a brighter future demands envisioning how amazing it would be and daring to imagine it. Perhaps, as David Ruiz shared on our 2020 Festival, to Stop and Think could also be a good start, and an opportunity to realise that Earth day is our day.