• About Towards

  TOWARDS is a think tank to support the transformation of cities and communities towards socially just and sustainable futures.

  Complex global challenges such as climate change, COVID-19 and rapid urbanisation bring into focus the deeper health and well-being dimensions of sustainable development, including social belonging, everyday interactions, and the environmental quality of local surroundings.

  Rising polarization, crises of legitimacy and social inequalities highlight the ethical and equity dilemmas inherent in any practical solutions aimed at sustainability transformations.

  

• Goals

  TOWARDS fosters interdisciplinary co-learning regarding transformations towards sustainable development in cities and settlements. It does this through:

  • Piloting experiments with green technologies and nature based solutions in people’s lived environments
  • Examining equity and ethical dilemmas in best practices for promoting health, well-being and environmental qualities of local communities
  • Exploring new modes of policy and planning required to govern sustainability transformations

  Through these experiments and analyses, we bring into dialogue the development contradictions and dilemmas inherent in sustainability transformations across disciplines.

  Innovating to support local transformations also requires transforming how we conduct research and teach, including a closer integration between research, education and public engagement. For this purpose, TOWARDS serves as a thinktank that opens up space for deliberation between researchers, students, civil society and public and private sectors actors.

• Interdisciplinary Masterproject - Lillestrøm

  TOWARDS organizes an interdisciplinary Masterproject in 2023 to gain greater insight into the breadth of sustainability challenges across disciplines.

  The masterclass explores transformation, covering master theses (individual or in group) that address sustainability challenges within the themes of green technologies, social justice and health and lived environments.  

  For more information, contact ingrid.odegard@nmbu.no

  NMBU Sustainability Series No. 3: Tverrfaglig masterprosjekt 2023: TOWARDS - LillestrømDownload
• International Master Course: Disability, Social Justice and Climate-Resilient Development

  The Master's course (FHV341), a collaboration with the University of Exeter and Makerere University, offers novel opportunities for interactive, cross-cultural student learning and collaboration, alongside lectures by international expert scholars in the fields of climate justice, transformative and place-based adaptation, climate resilient development, wellbeing, and disability.

  The course is open for all Master Students and will be conducted entirely in English.

  Read more and apply

  

• Participants

News

The Road Ahead After TOWARDS: Insights from Four Years of Sustainable Collaboration

On May 20, 2025, NMBU brought together researchers, students, and community stakeholders for an inspiring closing seminar for TOWARDS, the university’s sustainability arena for sustainable cities and communities. After four years of interdisciplinary exploration and collaboration, the day was both a celebration and an important knowledge workshop for the road ahead.

Read about the road ahead here (Norwegian)

Music video: Climate Resilient Development – A Musical and Scientific Journey

Article: If interdisciplinarity is the goal, what are the means?

Interdisciplinarity is necessary to solve society's complex challenges. But when academia is largely organized into distinct disciplines and structures do not facilitate interdisciplinarity, how can we encourage more collaboration across fields?

Read the article here (Norwegian)

The IPBES NEXUS Report was launched on December 17th

With contributions from TOWARDS members Siri Eriksen and Frode Degvold, the report highlights how climate change and biodiversity loss are mutually reinforcing crises with significant negative impacts on health, water resources, and food security. The report identifies 71 concrete actions to promote integrated progress across sectors and outlines the necessary changes in financial, economic, and governance systems to ensure a sustainable and just future.

Find the report here

The Sustainability Festival - In pictures

On November 5th, the library at NMBU buzzed with activity as the
university hosted its third annual Sustainability Festival. This year, students from the EDS355 course – Climate change and society –organized events that explored climate-resilient development in both local and global contexts.

Read about the festival here

Siri Eriksen and Frode Degvold with article in Nature climate change

Read the paper here

Siri about COP29: "NMBU Researchers on Climate Financing: – Far From Enough" Read the article here (Norwegian)

Are area neutrality and ecological compensation the path toward sustainable land management?

In collaboration with the Follo region, TOWARDS and KRED held a policy dialogue on area neutrality and ecological compensation, gathering experts to discuss challenges, solutions, and legal frameworks.

Read about it here

Center for Climate Resilient Development – CRED

The Center for Climate-Resilient Developemnt (CRED) is a collaboration between NMBU, the Follo region, politicians, businesses, and civil society in the Oslofjord area, with the goal of creating local solutions to climate challenges.

Read about CRED here

New TOWARDS Policy Brief: Jelle Philippus Ronaldus Buijs - former NMBU Master student - writes about his research on the lived experiences of protesters and how it can lead to a better understanding of the personal sphere of transformations.

Read our newsletter

Here we share the latest updates and events from the first quarter of 2024.

Read the newsletter here

On the 19th of March, researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) convened a policy dialogue on climate resilient development in Laikipia County in Nanyuki, Kenya. NMBU and JOOUST have been jointly conducting research in Laikipia North around the Mukogodo forest since 2017. Read more about the policy dialogue here.

During COP28, an agreement was reached with funding pledges to help countries at the frontline of climate change and with limited capacities pay the costs of the irreversible impacts of climate change. In January, TOWARDS organized a seminar in collaboration with C-Hub (Learning Hub for Climate Change Adaptation in Development) on climate loss and damage in January at Litteraturhuset in Oslo. Read more about it here.

The 21st of November, students in the course EDS355 organized the Sustainability Festival in the Økonomikantina. Read about the festival here.

Exploring the subnational take on climate resilience – a journey towards Paradiplomacy by David-Pierre Giudicelli

What does it take to do urban climate resilient development? Insights from four urban contexts during the Adaptation Futures conference

New podcast mini-series by PhD candidate Edwige Marty explores humanitarianism through the lens of climate resilient development

Towards deep sustainability at the university - Insights from cCHANGE intern Jelle Buijs

Klimaforsker Siri Eriksen om robust utvikling - NMBU podcast

New Report by the IPCC: Climate Adaptation Is Happening Too Slowly - PRIO blog

Addressing Hunger and Exclusion of Small Scale Farmers in the Context of Climate Change: Lessons from the Ceres2030 Study - Seminar

Events

• 2023

  27

  Mar

  IPCC's Synthesis Report - Important takeaways

  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report, which synthesizes findings from across the working group and special reports that have come out during the sixth assessment cycle, is launched internationally on March 20th.
  
  The NMBU Sustainability Hub will present key report findings in a seminar on March 27th (physical and digital). Siri Eriksen, who is an author on the report, will co-present key findings along with other invited international Synthesis Report authors. This is an opportunity to get an insight about into the impacts of climate change, options to address climate change through the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions as well as adaptation, and the implications for how we advance sustainable development for all in a context of climate change.
  
  Siri Eriksen says:
  "The negative consequences of climate change are increasing noticeably all over the world. Ongoing warming also amplifies the effects, especially when warming approaches and exceeds 1.5 degrees. Emissions must urgently and dramatically be reduced and we must adapt society to inevitable changes.
  The UN climate panel's synthesis report compiles the three previous sub-reports in the UN's sixth main report on climate change. The synthesis report gives an interdisciplinary picture of climate change and its effects and puts the interim reports' findings into context. It has the answer to how we must change to a more climate-robust and sustainable society."

  25

  May

  Disability, Social Justice, and Climate Resilient Development

  Welcome to this seminar in the NMBU Sustainability Hub. The topic of disability, social justice and climate resilient development is increasingly emerging on the international agenda.
  
  Through presentations and discussions with Dr Sarah Bell and Dr David Mfitumukiza, this seminar seeks to bridge the two fields of disability studies and climate change to provide important insights into how we understand the role of social equity in climate change action and support sustainable development for all.
  
  Dr Sarah Bell, Exeter University, UK: Living dis/artfully: “Disability, nature and environmental change”
  Dr David Mfitumukiza, Makerere University, Uganda: “Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change: Capacity Building for Locally led Adaptation”

  22

  Jun

  Scientists are people too: Linking science with emotional ways of knowing to guide climate action

  The seminar takes place as a dialogue between five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) authors: Siri Eriksen, Shobha Maharaj, Lisa Schipper, Elisabeth Gilmore, Sherilee Harper
  
  Siri Eriksen and Elisabeth Gilmore will be present physically in the NMBU Sustainability Hub, the rest digitally. The seminar takes place on June 20th from 14:30 to 16:00 CEST. For those who can, joining physically is probably most useful for this seminar, but you are also welcome to join digitally.
  
  In this seminar, we reflect on what it takes to understand and act on climate change not only as climate scientists but as whole human beings – and the dangers of not doing so. In studying the climate change and its implications for people and nature, we often encounter moments of anger, fear, frustration and grief. Yet, these aspects and emotional forms of knowing tend to be silenced in climate change science-policy processes, serving to disempower as well as undermine climate action. In this seminar discussion, we explore what is often left unsaid, and discuss why taking on our burden of responsibility to engage with the existential and emotional understanding of climate change requires both courage and vulnerability. Can holding such engaged discomfort help engender deep urgency, that is, a richer understanding of climate change and determination to act?
  
  First, the authors each give brief introductions by connecting selected key findings from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report to emotional encounters. We then discuss the implications of placing ourselves as whole human beings, rather than just scientists, within climate change. Scientists are not supposed to be angry – but how can climate change not make you angry? What are the consequences of silencing emotions like anger, and how can interrogating our emotional knowing of climate change build a richer, more compassionate, equitable and actionable understanding of climate change?
  
  All welcome! Looking forward to rounding off the semester by reflecting deeply together regarding how we think and engage as scientists and fellow human beings in the face of climate change!

  11

  Oct

  Dystopia/Utopia - PechaKucha Night

  Is the world progressing? Or will forest fires, food shortages, water loss, artificial intelligence, and global unrest put an end to the good life out there in the future?
  
  Join in as we dive deep into tomorrow's urban and local communities and explore sustainable solutions for tomorrow's cities, food, energy, and social justice. Join us at Campus Ås at Vitenparken, Doors open at 5:00 PM on October 11th. The event starts 5:30 PM.
  
  Our speakers will share innovative projects and research, sparking interdisciplinary discussions on the opportunities and challenges of our rapidly changing world. A detailed program with an overview of the speakers will follow closer to date.
  
  Don't miss out – be part of the conversation!"
  
  17:00-17:30 Mingling
  17:30-18:00
  Pesentation: How to handle the increasing danger of heat waves: Anna Badke, Lene Eieland, Tiril Rødder Sægrov, Alva Håseth Julsrud
  Presentation: Plants on the move, Alex Clarke
  Presentation: Urbant landbruk: Alle kan bidra til økt matsikkerhet i Norge Maria Pettersen
  18:00-18:20 Pause
  18:20-18:50
  Presentation: Use of Ecological Sanitation Toilet and human Urine Application in school garden: sharing experiences from Rupantaran NORHED project Manoj Pandey
  Presentation Foodsharing, Milo Schulthes
  Presentation Battery futures: Imagining industrial utopias in a contested energy transition, Anna-Sophie Hobi
  Presentation “How your idea can change the status quo”?, Eva Nagelhus
  18:50-19:00 Closing of the event, Hugo Nilsen, GreenSmart Sustainability Arena, NMBU
  
  What is a PechaKucha?
  PechaKucha is a Japanese presentation format in which a presenter has 20 seconds per slide for a total of 20 slides, resulting in an overall presentation lasting no longer than six minutes and 40 seconds. This unique yet engaging approach is used to effectively present challenging topics to the audience. Vitenparken is one of the few venues officially certified to host PechaKucha events in Norway and the only certified venue to host PechaKucha events in Ås

  13

  Nov

  Educating in times of climate change - a philosophical perspective

  The TOWARDS Sustainability Arena invite you to a seminar with Dr. Luis Fernández Carril on Monday the 13th of November from 15.00-16.00 at the Sustainability hub in the economy building.
  
  Prof. Luis Fernández Carril is a leading climate change expert, and a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Climate Change Research Program and teaches Environmental Philosophy and Ethics at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Puebla Campus. With a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science from Tecnológico de Monterrey, he's published articles and spoken at Oxford University and UNESCO in Paris, focusing on international environmental governance, climate negotiations, and climate change ethics.
  
  Grab a cup of coffee or tea and please join us for an interesting and educational afternoon!

  21

  Nov

  The SUStainability Festival - Don't be sus, be sustainable!

  Let’s celebrate our planet on the 21st of November at 12–15 at the Sustainability Hub (Økonomibygningen). There will be various interesting activities. 🌿
  
  For more updates, check out our Instagram @sus_festival and you can also find the event on the Sustainability hubs Facebook page.
  
  We can't wait to see everyone there! ✨
  

  29

  Nov

  Sustainability & Urban Development

  What does sustainable urban development really mean? What is land-use neutrality, and can social, ecological, and economic interests be reconciled?
  
  We will delve deep into Norwegian and international research while examining ongoing local political processes to learn more about sustainability in urban development on November 29th. Join us digitally or on Campus Ås at Vitenparken from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM!
  
  Date: November 29th
  Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PMLocation: Campus Ås at Vitenparken
  Serving: Food & drinks
  
  We look forward to welcoming you to an informative and inspiring afternoon with knowledgeable researchers, entrepreneurs and experts in the field. Together, we can explore the path to a more sustainable urban future. Please feel free to bring questions and contributions to the discussion!

• 2022

  13

  Oct

  Open Seminar - Global Goal on Adaptation

  What do Norwegian and international experts envision for the global goal on adaptation? How will climate change adaptation be addressed at COP27?
  
  On October 13th, C-Hub (Learning Hub for Climate Change Adaptation in Development) invites you to an open seminar discussing the "Global Goal on Adaptation", one of the important topics at COP27. The seminar will consist of short presentations from Norwegian and international experts followed by an open discussion.

  29

  Nov

  We are Waves of Potential: Engaging with climate change

  We are all confronted with global climate change challenges and the urgent need for climate action. Welcome to a student-driven conference on climate change and the potential for engaging with transforming society. 29 November at Vitenparken.
  
  What happened at COP 27 (UN Climate Conference)? Why are multiple knowledges and ways of knowing important to act on climate change? How do we communicate climate change in the science-policy-public interface? How does climate change affect key aspects of our well-being, such as health? And what does climate economics tell us about how we can act on climate change?
  
  The conference will engage you through inspiring and interactive formats – expect some surprises! With this in mind, it is recommended that you join physically at Vitenparken, though online attendance will be possible.
  
  We hope you’ll join and form part of our wave of potential.

• 2021

  17

  Nov

  Digitalt Seminar - Guest Speaker Carin Smaller: Lessons Learned from Ceres2030

  The Ceres2030 research studies sustainable solutions to eradicate hunger, double the incomes of smallholders, and reduce agriculture´s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. GIZ and the European Commission requested to conduct a country level version of the study that integrates resilience and healthy diets for Ethiopia, Malawi and Nigeria. Carin Smaller will present the main lessons learned from this study, suggesting how different levels can strengthen their efforts to eradicate Hunger.

  9

  Dec

  Digitalt Seminar - Sustainability and Justice: Linking social and environmental limits

  NMBU's new Sustainability Arenas and C-Hub network invite you to explore the social and environmental limits to adaptation and sustainability. Join Cornell University's Rachel Bezner Kerr and some of our in-house sustainability experts and students for speed-talks and discussions. 9 December online.
  
  We kick off with a short introduction to the Sustainability Arenas. With Erik Gómez-Baggethun, we explore the dilemma of how meeting human needs within planetary boundaries is a central idea of sustainability, yet formal recognition of limits contrasts with the promotion of unlimited economic expansion in policy and prevailing consumerist lifestyles.
  
  Siri Eriksen will then take us through some key ideas underpinning how local transformation of cities and communities towards socially just and sustainable futures can take place in the face of global challenges.
  
  Four of our students then take the floor in speed-talks that present their personal missions/projects that pursue sustainability and its social and environmental limits.
  
  Following is an introduction to the Learning Hub for Climate Change Adaptation in Development (C-Hub) and a discussion of the linkages between the limits to adaptation and planetary boundaries. Cornell University's Rachel Bezner Kerr will present recent collaboration with NMBU on the limits to adaptation in food systems, and how the space for sustainable forms of adaptation is shaped both by societal processes and climate change.