30 ‘Bright Spots’ highlighted by Forum for the Future — in partnership with Earthshot Prize and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors — reignite hope by demonstrating that transformational change is not only possible, but already happening.
A new campaign from Forum for the Future will, over the next 12 months, showcase 30 examples of individuals and organizations that are fundamentally reimagining how we live and work — with game-changing potential to create a future in which both people and the planet thrive.
The Future of Sustainability: Reimagining the Way the World Works comes on the back of COP29, which resulted in a new, $1.3T climate finance package. This will see developing countries receive $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035 from industrialized countries, with funds supporting shifts to low-carbon economies and adaptation to extreme weather. But many argue the amount falls well short of what’s needed, while COP itself is facing questions of efficacy and whether it remains ‘fit-for-purpose.’
Against this backdrop, the campaign reveals the first six of 30 “Bright Spots” — examples of impactful change in action — with the rest to follow throughout 2025, and in the run up to COP30. Among the six Bright Spots bringing a much-needed focus on solutions are:
- Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI): a non-profit working with small-scale fisheries in 161 communities in Mexico to co-design place-based approaches for healthy oceans and livelihoods. COBI’s citizen-science model is empowering local fishers and strengthening their resilience while also engaging historically underrepresented groups in key decision-making.
- Safi Organics: one of the fastest-growing organic fertilizer manufacturing companies in Kenya. Safi’s fertilizer is made using locally available biomass waste, such as rice husk, and leverages state-of-the-art technology to ultimately increase the yields of more than 20,000 smallholder farmers while drastically reducing their input costs.
- ‘Our Zero Selby’: focused on reducing the North Yorkshire, UK town’s carbon footprint while addressing issues of inclusivity, skills, jobs, health and wellbeing. Rooted in the voices and aspirations of residents, the initiative offers practical ideas and support to make homes more energy-efficient, reduce waste and save residents money.
Forum for the Future’s annual flagship campaign, The Future of Sustainability, considers how and why the world is changing today, and what the implications might be for tomorrow. The 2024/25 edition, “Reimagining the Way the World Works,” draws from Forum’s 20+ years of experience exploring the future of sustainability, along with desktop analysis and research, to highlight six characteristics of transformational change and 30 ‘Bright Spots’ demonstrating one or more of them.
“For too long, social and climate initiatives — while well-intentioned — have fallen short of driving what’s urgently needed: transformational changes in how we live and work,” said Forum for the Future Chief Executive Dr Sally Uren. “While delivering on some areas, COP29 has raised many questions; for me, we’re simply not going far enough or fast enough — whether that’s on climate finance or new technology pledges. It’s against this uncertain backdrop that The Future of Sustainability is showcasing the success stories from which we can learn how transformational change is really created.”
Launched in partnership with The Earthshot Prize and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and with support from Trane Technologies, the campaign is reigniting hope by focusing on the successes and innovations already playing out on the frontlines of sustainability — as well as what can be learned from them. The campaign also looks to shift discourse from the need for transformational change to how it can be done.
Chris Large, Director of Prize and Portfolio at The Earthshot Prize, said: “Innovators hold the keys to tackling our environmental challenges. Whether they are startup founders, city officials, NGOs, indigenous leaders or policymakers, we are continually amazed and inspired by these ingenious changemakers. It is incumbent on all of us to urgently find them, follow them, fund them and partner with them to protect and repair our planet.”
What constitutes a ‘Bright Spot’?
Initiatives or organizations were selected as Bright Spots if they demonstrate one or more of six characteristics consistent with transformational change:
- Shifting the goals of our social and economic systems.
- Tackling the root cause(s) of sustainability challenges and the past imbalances that have helped create them.
- Cultivating new ways of collaborating that embrace different perspectives on shared challenges, and that allow experimentation with new ways of doing things — from new business and governance models to new products and services.
- Repatterning the power dynamics that for too long have hindered progress.
- Showing potential to make a difference at scale, and potentially in other geographies, within 5-10 years.
- Enabling people to develop the skills and expertise, as well as the agency, needed to transform how things are done.
“The time has come for all of us to act faster, bigger, better, bolder. To do so, we must leverage the collective power of insights and ideas to become not just forward looking but futures focused,” said Olga Tarasov, VP of Inquiry & Insights at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. “We have a responsibility to ensure that envisioning and creating positive, sustainable futures is not a luxury but a necessity. We need to envision transformative paths that center perspectives of the Global Majority; perspectives rooted in centuries of communal wisdom and tradition. The ‘Brights Spots’ enable us to do that — they will help us radically reimagine and put resources behind not what will be but what could and should be.”
More Bright Spots will be revealed every month through to November 2025. New analysis of their implications for transitions in how we produce and consume both food and energy, and in why and how businesses operate, is set for Spring and Autumn.