Sustainable Tuesday

On Sustainable Tuesday (September 7) it became clear in The Hague that it was going to work. In the large hall of the New Babylon conference center, pledges for more cooperation were already presented by some 35 organizations. October was then announced with great fanfare as the Month of the Sustainable Breakthrough. The site www.duurzamedoorbraak.nu was also launched. After that, the Breakthrough group grew rapidly. The agenda on the site immediately gave an impressively beautiful overview of the many activities that were organized there daily.

All kinds of initiatives

More than ever, many are now active with sustainable ideas and projects in all kinds of concrete areas, such as construction, energy, reuse & recycling, agriculture, transport, food. For many social organizations, sustainability is now the much-desired future. Think of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the trade unions, the work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the various organizations for a new economy. And let's not forget the environmental and development organizations, who have been working on the transition to a just society on a healthy planet for much longer. Together they are in fact striving for a sustainable economy.

Future generations

A sustainable economy is desperately needed, because the current growth economy is extremely harmful to people and the environment, to current but especially to future generations. Climate change in particular can continue to cause great misery for at least a few thousand years, with millions of victims. The serious loss of biodiversity cannot possibly be quickly restored either. That is why such problems are experienced as extremely threatening. And it is exasperating that even the poverty issue is still not being tackled fundamentally and we have developed more extreme wealth and increasingly luxurious facilities, even to the point of space travel; in fact a disgrace to humanity.

The Transition Engine

Partly due to such frustrations, all those initiatives and organizations have now found each other, helped by the corona period. This happened mainly through the many zoom meetings under the name of the 'Transition Motor', an initiative of the transition institute Drift in Rotterdam and a large group of volunteers. The transitions that had already started in many areas now came together and everyone experienced the value and the necessity of bundling ideals and forces. In order to be able to put an end to the dire poverty, the decline in biodiversity and the increasingly dangerous climate disruption together. Other organizations are therefore cordially invited to participate in the Sustainable Breakthrough.

Activities agenda

It is exciting to see how things will continue. Hopefully, the unique bundling of knowledge and strengths can soon lead to more political influence. The activities agenda on the site can increase both mutual cooperation and attendance at actions, lectures, demonstrations and the like. So that agenda is an important source of information, which also offers an attractive perspective for new participants. Do you know national or regional organisations that are not yet participating? Make them aware of the site www.duurzamedoorbraak.nu and point them to that ongoing agenda. All participants can be found behind the 'Organisations' button. On the site, you can also fill in the participation form.

Breakthrough Dialogues

In order to strengthen contacts and cooperation with the participating organizations, the Doorbraak Dialogues have recently been organized online. They started twice a month, on Fridays from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The intention is to present and discuss certain themes together with several organizations. The kick-off was on January 14 with the theme climate and the need for an up-to-date Climate Act. The Social tipping points were on the program on January 29. And for the coming period, for example, the themes 'Reverse development aid' and 'Personal CO2 budgets' are planned. And in this way, the ideas for the following Dialogues will continue to be put forward by the participating organizations. These can be found on the aforementioned site. The joint agenda will also continue there, thus strengthening each other for the much-needed breakthrough.