retreats
Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) conducts and hosts retreats on specific aspects on urban sustainability. BSF invites about 30 people to be a part of the retreats.
Here, the idea is to have a healthy mixture of researchers, policy makers, educators, representatives from the informal sector, journalists, active citizens, artists, and representatives of the corporate sector and the government. The thought is to get together people who are all in one way or the other connected to the topic of the retreat but might otherwise not meet or interact. These retreats are as much about listening and learning as they are about speaking.
BSF hopes that these sort of meetings spark collaborations across fields and brings out new ideas and approaches for tackling the issues of urban sustainability. Besides that, these conversations also gives a good idea of the status quo of the city on a certain topic – what is currently going on, who is doing what and where are the gaps in knowledge and implementation. BSF documents these retreats and wishes the participants benefit by getting fresh perspectives for their on-going work.
As this event took place during the Covid pandemic, all the events were conducted online.
retreats held
Urban Climate Resilience Retreat – January 2023
This was BSF’s first in person retreat post the pandemic and it brought together a diverse group of people from various fields to discuss and explore climate resilience; from what it might mean and look like in real life for different sections of the society, to how it could be built in the spaces and communities in which the participants worked.
Urban Climate Change Retreat – April 2019
This retreat was planned for interdisciplinary conversations on what climate change touches and influences in the urban context. The keynote talks focussed on socio-economic challenges, biological and ecological aspects and the urban infrastructure.The breakout sessions were guided by the questions of status quo in Bengaluru and the possibilities and challenges with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Urban Biodiversity Retreat – September 2018
he objective of the retreat on “Urban biodiversity” was to assess the status quo of knowledge and understanding of biodiversity in the urban context by various stakeholders, as well as collating ideas to improve this status quo.
Urban Water Retreat – April 2018
The objective of the retreat on “Urban Water” was to understand the broader picture of the water situation in Bengaluru in the context of its regional growth. An overview of Bengaluru’s water management with respect to its water requirements, migration and urbanisation was also discussed at the retreat.