Local and regional authorities have a crucial role in driving resilience – societal ability to adapt and react. Due to the complexity of sustainability challenges, there is a need to mobilise all levels of society to develop solutions that enable a needed change in our unsustainable practices. Various civil society actors – associations, social entrepreneurs, cooperatives, communities, individuals – can have a pioneering role in enhancing ecological and social sustainability.

We make transition! project engages a great number of regional and local authorities, civil society, and other innovation actors from the Baltic Sea region. Partners from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany and Norway cooperate with altogether 12 cities and municipalities in implementing local transition arena workshop processes. Transition arena is a series of workshops including co-creation of a joint vision, pathways, concrete solutions and initiatives. The key focus in We make transition! is on engaging the civil society actors. Topics of the arena processes are related on either 1) sustainable lifestyle, 2) agriculture & food, 3) biodiversity, or 4) circular & sharing economy.

The project has invited altogether 30 change agents from the six partner countries to co-create a sustainability vision and recommendations on empowering the cooperation between local authorities and civil society actors to enhance ecological and social sustainability. The transnational change agent group includes representatives of civil society, entrepreneurs, and local authorities. The Baltic Sea region vision of sustainable life 2035 has provided an inspirational framework for all the local transition arena workshop processes.

The main output of the project will be a practical manual for applying the transition management approach to make strategy processes such as climate plans, roadmaps, and local strategies more interactive involving different levels of society. The project has already empowered civil society actors and raised the general understanding of their role and potential in making transitions.

In Estonia, to strengthen collaboration between civil servants of local government, civil society actors (including Russian communities) and local entrepreneurs in Estonia, with the aim to foster the transition to the ecologically and socially sustainable society (degrowth). Collaboration will be strengthened through preparing and organising transition arenas in two pilot regions, and supporting the implementation of the initiatives arising from these arenas.