The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Shipping and Ports was launched at the COP25 in December 2019 in Madid, Spain. This initiative aims at bringing together researchers and technology developers, shipbuilders, shipowners, ports, policymakers and politicians, from around the globe, to work on technological and policy innovations seeking net-zero emissions in the maritime sector by 2050.
The Initiative will be composed of a monthly participatory workshop, seeking to co- design a sustainable future vision and to identify technological solutions and financing tools that can support the identified pathways towards the future vision. The methodology followed by SDSN Greece, which has a more than 10-year experience on Living Labs and roundtables organisation, is Systems Innovation approach.
The Systems Innovation approach is in the core of the hereby-suggested methodology for solving complex, multi-parameter problems. Following this approach, emphasis is given on the functions of the ecosystem “as a whole” and on the variety of services that can be beneficial for human well-being, instead of just focusing on specific functions and relevant beneficiaries. This enables us not only to better understand the total value of an ecosystem and its benefits for human welfare, but also to identify the complex links among actions that affect the function and balance of the ecosystem (deciding for example whether LNG is the optimal power solution), and the effects on various economic sectors and stakeholders.
When it comes to the systems innovation, envisioning the desired future and learning from that becomes necessary. Visioning and backcasting are two pillars of the approach and should be done under a participatory approach. Since stakeholders have radically different world views and different frames for understanding the problem, you should incorporate their perspectives, even if they are wildly different to your own. Because of the different stakeholders’ perspectives, they all have their own priorities and agendas. Involving them in the backcasting process will allow you to draw more than one plan from the same process. In complex and wicked problems, as sustainability is, the problem definition might come to focus after adopting a future vision. In such cases, the vision is the seed for the challenge and not a consequence of it. Visioning should be a participatory tool in which a large diversity of stakeholders ensures a richer and broader vision.
Find more information in the attached presentation and please communicate with us.
