TC/ESG25 is now underway! The official opening of the conference began this morning in Johannesburg, South Africa, bringing our community from around the world – all committed to shaping just and sustainable futures.
With more than 130 sessions and 330+ speakers spanning climate justice, biodiversity, arts & wellbeing, and systemic change, TC/ESG25 is a living space of dialogue, creativity, and collaboration. From early morning mindfulness and artistic expression to powerful plenaries, panel talks, and evening gatherings, the energy here is electric.
Morning & Day 1 Highlights
The Opening Plenary set a powerful tone for the days ahead, bringing together voices from government, academia & the arts. Mikael Karlsson and Bruce Goldstein welcomed the ESG and Transformations Communities, followed by reflections from Maesela Kekana and Zeblon Vilakazi, and a monologue performance by Mpume Mthombeni. In a resonant keynote, David Obura spoke to the urgency and possibility of transformation in times of collapse and regeneration.
Parallel sessions unfold across the venue, offering a range of perspectives on social-ecological transformation:
🌀 Art, land & spatial politics: South African practitioner case studies in sustainability transformations | Local practitioners explore the intersections of artistic expression, land access, and spatial justice within South Africa’s complex socio-political landscape.
🌀 Empowering Communities for Sustainable Change | Stories and strategies from rural villages, forest stewards, and coastal communities reflect how local agency and collective care drive real transformation.
🌀 Feeling and Doing Sustainability Transformations: Embodiment in Research and Practice | This session explores how emotional and embodied knowledge can inform sustainable futures — connecting theory and experience.
🌀 Who Shapes Coral Futures: Imagination, Voice, and Power in a Time of Collapse | A critical conversation on coral ecosystems, intergenerational knowledge, and the power dynamics that shape conservation narratives.
Afternoon Plenary
Situating African Issues Within the Broader Transformation Context
This important plenary foregrounds African-led initiatives and contributions. With Coleen Vogel, Joel Onyango, Mia Strand, Janet Solomon, Dineo Sithole, and others, the session spans themes of renewable energy localization, youth-led environmental justice, and climate narratives rooted in lived African realities.
Arts & Wellbeing Today
🌀 The Work That Reconnects Spiral Workshop
A hands-on practice of inner development & collective processing through the Work That Reconnects.
🌀 Inner Development in Academic Education
How values-based education and emotional learning support sustainability leadership.
🌀 Climate Future Readings with ECOtarot
An artistic and intuitive approach to exploring climate futures through symbolic readings.
🌀 Healing and Finding Meaning
Art as a lens for processing grief, uncertainty, and renewal in climate work.
🌀 The shared experience of mindfulness priming
A collective practice and discussion on mindfulness as a tool in learning and collaboration.
Art of the Anthropocene by Estelle Gautier
A Week of Learning: ECR Winter School
Before the conference officially began, 20 emerging researchers from across the globe gathered for the Wits-GCI Transformations & Sustainability Winter School in Kruger National Park. Over five days, participants engaged with themes of climate justice, adaptation, and shared futures — all while immersed in one of South Africa’s most iconic ecological landscapes.
Led by experienced facilitators and enriched by field experiences, the Winter School created a foundation of reflection, curiosity, and connection that now feeds into the TC/ESG25 gathering. Read more.
Still Ahead
🎭 Empatheatre x Unruly Natures: UNRULY
This week’s performance of Unruly has sparked strong interest at TC/ESG25. While the first showing is fully booked, a second performance will take place tomorrow morning. Blending storytelling, art, activism, and social commentary, this powerful production invites us to rethink our relationship with the more-than-human world.
🍽️ Conference Dinner – August 20
On Wednesday evening, participants will gather for the TC/ESG25 Conference Dinner — an evening of food, conversation, and connection under the stars.
Special Moments From Yesterday
Storytelling as a Political Act
Yesterday’s session, Meaning ∞ Making: Artistic Transgressive & Transformative Research in the Polycrises with the Empatheatre collective, reminded us why storytelling remains such a vital force for transformations. Led by co-founders Dylan McGarry, Neil Coppen, and Mpume Mthombeni, participants were invited into a space where theatre becomes a form of research, resistance, and deep listening. Through slow, collaborative processes rooted in care and accountability, Empatheatre creates “social sculptures” that challenge audiences to listen differently, not to fix the crisis, but to stay with it. As Dylan shared, “The ultimate scientific instrument is the human being and the body.” In a time of complexity, it’s this kind of embodied, relational work that builds new ways of seeing and unexpected friendships along the way.
We Stand With Leocadio
One of our speakers, Leocadio Juracán Salomé, a Guatemalan Indigenous leader, has been facing politically motivated charges. His absence is a reminder that transformative systems change isn’t an abstract ideal — it’s lived work, often at personal risk. We received news this morning that most of the charges against him have been dropped. He will still face one spurious charge and remains under travel restrictions, but he is expected to be released on bail later this week. Observers note that this outcome was due in part to international pressure — including our collective efforts. We can breathe a little easier knowing he is in good spirits. At the same time, his case reminds us of the ongoing criminalization and state violence that campesino and Indigenous land defenders face across the world. So as we begin our work here, let’s hold Leocadio and all those on the front lines of transformation in the circle with us. We’ve set up a table at the conference with information and a collective statement to sign, and we’ll be sharing daily updates.
