How to Develop Local Solutions for Global Issues

I live in the largest city in Appalachia. The city built on steel. The state in bed with fracking. I’ve seen how extractive industries have shaped this region—driving wealth for a few while leaving too many with polluted air, poisoned water, and economic uncertainty. But I also know what’s possible. Appalachia is more than the industries that have exploited it. It’s rolling hills and deep forests, tight-knit communities, and generations of resilience. And while climate change is hitting us hard—rivers that flood more often, hotter summers, worsening air quality—we have the power to shape a different future. A future where circular economies replace extraction, where abandoned coal mines become hubs for renewable energy, and where climate finance is used to rebuild communities, not just corporations. Here’s how we get there: ✅ Community-Owned Energy – Expanding solar and AI-driven microgrids in schools, homes, and businesses to lower costs and increase resilience. ✅ Sustainable Industry & Workforce Development – Transitioning workers into green manufacturing, regenerative agriculture, and clean tech jobs. ✅ Climate Finance for Local Economies– Ensuring investments flow to Appalachian communities through green banks, public-private partnerships, and targeted federal funding. ✅ Restoring Land & Water– Cleaning up abandoned mines, protecting our rivers, and using nature-based solutions to prevent flooding. ✅ Circular Economy Innovation – Scaling up reuse, repair, and sustainable production to create jobs and reduce waste. The Private Sector Has a Role to Play: 🔹 Invest in Appalachia’s Future – Direct capital toward green infrastructure, renewable energy, and circular economy startups. 🔹 Create Quality Green Jobs – Commit to hiring and training workers in clean industries, ensuring fair wages and benefits. 🔹 Partner with Local Communities – Engage with Appalachian leaders to develop solutions that prioritize people, not just profit. 🔹 Decarbonize Supply Chains – Transition to sustainable materials, invest in regenerative practices, and minimize environmental impact. As Hazel Dickens once sang, “Can’t you feel those hills around you? Can’t you feel that touch of home?” This land has always been home to hard-working people who deserve more than boom-and-bust cycles. It’s time to invest in what sustains us, not what depletes us. A thriving, green Appalachia isn’t just possible—it’s necessary. Who’s ready to build it? #JustTransition #ClimateFinance #CircularEconomy #EquitableInvestments #AppalachiaRising

It is often said that local communities do not understand how climate change or environmental realities affect them. But this notion is far from true. The real issue is the disconnect – inadequate investment in local human capital, disrupted livelihoods, and the lack of proper resilience approaches to support frontline and coastal communities to thrive, especially where government support is limited or non-existent. We become so fixated on our own definitions of what the adverse impacts of climate change or environmental degradation should look like at their level, and the solutions we invent, that we forget this: 🍃 Local, rural, and indigenous communities who live these realities daily have a major role to play in how we define and create solutions to achieve Goal 14 and other Sustainable Development Goals. Communities may not describe how climate change affects them in our scientific terms, but here’s what I have discovered over the past five years, mobilising communities for climate and policy action: 💡Communities often describe how climate and environmental changes affect them better than we assume. 💡They build resilience even where education or technological aids are limited or non-existent. 💡Backing local knowledge with technology protects traditional wisdom while creating innovative solutions that merge tradition and modern technology for climate and ocean challenges. 💡 Lastly, co-designing solutions with communities is key to sustaining and scaling impact. This ensures policies are deeply rooted to serve not just minorities, but the majority, particularly those in the informal sector with no social security, who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. Whether you are an environmentalist or not, keep this in mind: 🍃 It is not enough for our solutions, policies, or innovations to serve minorities. True impact lies in ensuring they serve the majority, enabling people to live with dignity. And one way to achieve this is through: 💡Inclusion: ensuring communities have a seat at the table; and 💡 Integration: ensuring their wisdom, practices, and priorities shape the table itself. I hope this helps #abimbolaabikoye #communityresilience #frontlinevoices #sustainability #UNSDGs

☀️🕶️Hey Eco-Warriors! Have you heard of Jugaad Innovation? 💡 Disruptive innovation, the motto of Silicon Valley, emphasizes breakthrough technologies and market-disruptive products. The relentless drive for the next big thing frequently leads to over-extraction of resources, increased pollution, and a disregard for broader societal impacts. 📲 Take the smartphone industry, for example: each new generation comes with minor improvements yet results in massive electronic waste and the depletion of finite resources like rare earth metals. The race for innovation in sectors like this can exacerbate environmental degradation and contribute to a throwaway culture that is anything but sustainable. 💚The Jugaad Philosophy: Innovation with a Conscience Jugaad, a Hindi term for an improvised solution born from ingenuity and resource constraints, offers a counter-narrative. This approach is about simplicity, efficiency, and local solutions tailored to specific needs. It’s about doing more with less—leveraging limited resources creatively to solve pressing problems. ⚡️Resource Efficiency: Jugaad innovation emphasizes minimal resource usage, transforming constraints into opportunities. This contrasts sharply with the resource-intensive nature of many Silicon Valley innovations. 🌲Environmental Impact: By focusing on sustainability, Jugaad reduces waste and promotes recycling and upcycling. 👥Social Inclusion: Jugaad often arises from grassroots initiatives, addressing local challenges with locally sourced solutions. This inclusivity ensures that innovations are accessible and beneficial to wider segments of the population, not just the affluent. The Case for Local Innovation Hubs In this context, the value of creating local innovation hubs within cities makes sense. These hubs, deeply rooted in their unique contextual environments, foster solutions tailored to local needs and resources. Moving away from the obsession with scaling, these centers emphasize the importance of local and regional solutions over global ones. Not every innovation needs to be a one-size-fits-all answer; instead, we should embrace the diversity of local challenges and opportunities. By focusing on regional solutions, we harness the power of localized knowledge and community-driven initiatives, ensuring that innovations are not only effective but also sustainable and culturally relevant. This shift from a global mindset to a local one aligns perfectly with the principles of Jugaad, reinforcing the idea that true progress is often found in context-specific approaches that respect and enhance their immediate environments. The time has come to rethink our innovation strategies. Jugaad is not just a methodology; it’s a mindset that champions ingenuity, sustainability, and inclusivity. Let’s champion Jugaad innovation as the new standard for sustainable progress. Find more insights on MOONFLARE here: https://lnkd.in/dgvv3253 📷 artist: Tanaka Tatsuya