In November/December 2024, we held our first workshop “Embodied Ways of Knowing”on systems thinking and systems being. In this workshop, you are invited to step beyond traditional frameworks of thought and explore a holistic approach to understanding the world. Through systems thinking and systems being, we will journey into the art of ‘staying with the trouble,’ learning to remain fully present and engaged in an ever-evolving reality.

Collaborations with universities and higher education institutions are an important part of our work, fostering awareness-based and systemic approaches to sustainable change.

These monthly online gatherings, designed, facilitated, and hosted by collaboratio helvetica from 2022–2024, were spaces where we explored topics of actuality and around systems change, co-created and hosted with practitioners and experts from our community. In total, we have organised and held over 20 community calls, reaching over 300 community members.

The Changemaker Workshop “Bundling Forces” has been brought to life in collaboration with One Planet Lab and Impact Hub Zürich. The event brought together representatives from foundations, institutions, NGOs, NPOs, SMBs, start-ups and project leaders. In a moderated format, we focused on key questions around funding, impact, and the necessary networks for systemic change.

We collaborated with ZHAW sustainable from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) to create “Re:Act”, a dialogue series, designed to increase sustainability awareness and foster project initiatives across the ZHAW community.

Collaboratio helvetica co-facilitated the Inclusive Institutions project led by Catalyst Nora Refaeil. Nora is a mediator and facilitates systemic transformation processes with an intersectional, diversity-oriented, and power-sensitive lens.

Collaboratio helvetica designed and facilitated an international and multilingual workshop for the Biodiversity Lab, a project by the Swiss association Brainforest. The workshop aimed at mapping the systems that contribute to biodiversity loss in the Peruvian Amazon to allow for a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issue, recognise the involved sectors and identify possible leverage points for developing impactful solutions.

The Catalyst Lab is a 9-month-long learning process, designed to empower changemakers and enables collaboration toward the SDGs. The process is intended for dedicated individuals (Catalysts) and their teams, who are committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda in Switzerland.

Plastic pollution is a global challenge and in its 2021 Sustainability Mission Report, Breitling committed to achieving zero plastic waste across operations by 2025. To engage key internal and external stakeholders on this ambitious goal, Breitling has collaborated with collaboratio helvetica and Let's Talk Waste to effectively address the topic with the relevant stakeholders.

Together with Sentience and the Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, collaboratio helvetica designed and carried out the Protein Lab, contributing to the protein revolution by uniting stakeholders from different parts of the food system, analysing systemic barriers and promoting collaborative solutions.

As part of our project Youth4Switzerland, collaboratio helvetica has had the privilege of facilitating plenary discussions at the IC Forum 2023. Our co-founder, Nora Willhelm, and Youth4Switzerland's coordinator, Loukina Tille, engaged with prominent figures like Bundesarat Ignazio Cassis, Patricia Danzi (Director General SDC), the Honourable Awut Deng Acuil (Minister of Education for South Sudan), and Ursula Renold (ETH Professor in Education Systems).

Collaboratio helvetica was commissioned with the process design and implementation of The Citizens' Assembly for Food Policy to engage the Swiss population in redesigning the food policy with the support of key government agencies.

Youth4Switzerland is a collaborative effort led by collaboratio helvetica and partner organisations, responding to the urgent call from young people who advocate for sustainability and SDGs.

The Funding Systems Change Initiative is a collaborative effort driven by a coalition of foundations and changemakers in Switzerland, and led by Ashoka Switzerland and collaboratio helvetica. Recognizing the need for systemic solutions to tackle complex challenges, this initiative seeks to transform conventional funding practices and empower foundations to adopt and embrace transformative funding mechanisms.

For the federal celebrations of August 1, 2022, collaboratio helvetica was invited to celebrate on the Rütli. Nora Wilhelm held an inspirational speech on traditions and our obligation to embrace change with curiosity, compassion and courage.

ChangeNOW 2022, one of the world’s largest events addressing our planetary challenges, hosted a panel discussion with change-makers of our time. Collaboratio helvetica was represented by Nora Wilhelm, who engaged in an inspiring discussion with Satish Kumar from Schumacher College, proposing the systemic approach to the environmental challenges.

These quarterly in-person gatherings, designed, facilitated, and hosted by collaboratio helvetica from 2022–2024, were spaces where we got to know each other, exchanged ideas, knowledge and learned about different projects.

Systemic change is needed to successfully implement the 2030 Agenda and achieve the SDGs in Switzerland as well as to tackle the deeper laying root causes that are driving today's polycrises.

Humanity’s current rate of resource consumption eventually means we will run out. In Switzerland we consume 3 times what we should aim for a sustainable development. Meanwhile, we produce “waste” unlike any other species on the planet – it is a man-made problem.

Our vision is that organisations in Geneva and beyond leverage their full potential to use innovation to respond to societal needs by transforming their employees into intrapreneurial leaders, connected to a wider community of changemakers and disruptors that are paving the way for the new economy.