Social Technology for Sustainable Futures
- TCLP Staff
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 33 minutes ago
By Chloe Spurr, The Compassionate Listening Project Summer 2026 Intern
When I first met with Kirsten Szykitka, The Compassionate Listening Project’s (TCLP) Interim Executive Director, to interview for the summer internship, the opening question she asked was something along the lines of “How do you see this role fitting into your coursework in sustainability?” While I knew wholeheartedly that the two were intertwined, I had never put the connection into words before.
Nervously, I explained to her the Three E’s of sustainability¹: environment, economy, and equity. For a policy, plan, or project to be sustainable, it must consider all three of these pillars; however, these sectors are often at odds with one another. Traditionally, a policy that promotes economic growth is detrimental to the environment and benefits the few over the many.
An issue that lies at the intersection of these ecological and social systems is often referred to as a wicked problem², involving multiple stakeholders with conflicting interests, opinions, and values. To solve a wicked problem and address each of the pillars of sustainability, I explained to Kirsten, people across different fields and backgrounds must have the skills to engage in dialogue with one another.
A week after the interview with Kirsten, I was participating in a mock community forum for a class in urban planning. The goal of the forum was to decide on whether a new development should be built on the banks of a river despite the likelihood of erosion due to climate change. At one end of the spectrum were the developers, who thought the development should occur no matter what; at the other end of the spectrum were the environmental conservationists, who fiercely opposed any riverbank development. I, as one of the members of the Planning and Zoning Department, was positioned to argue for the development to occur with significant flood protection measures in place.
Sitting in the classroom, listening to the developers speak of monetary gains with no concern for the environment or mind for logic, I became increasingly frustrated. Realizing that this was, in fact, a mock community forum, I knew I had to cultivate skills in patience, presence, and listening if I were to ever succeed as an urban planner or community engagement specialist in a real life setting.
After hearing from Kirsten that I had been chosen for the summer internship, I set out to further my understanding of the connection between dialogue and sustainability. The necessity for sustainability to balance economic, social, and environmental objectives and negotiate compromises between varying stakeholders is discussed across the academic literature on sustainability. The authors write, “Social dialogue can facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable economy by developing a joint understanding of the challenges and a way to address them.”³ Science communication literature supports the assertion that group dialogue centering emotional awareness and embodied knowledge is crucial to devising creative solutions that embrace multiple perspectives.⁴ These are crucial tools to help spread awareness and promote action around environmental conservation.
Dialogue is one of the most important, if not most important components to working on complex problems. In the field of sustainability, progress can depend more on informing and consulting people, than the solutions themselves. Success in sustainability “requires spaces where participants can listen, test assumptions, build shared understanding and work through differences.”⁵ Dialogue is the “art of talking together that enables a flow of meaning among people.” Negotiation holds the purpose to reach a compromise between stakeholders of differing ideas; dialogue, on the other hand, seeks to reach new levels of understanding and collectively devise alternatives.⁶ This immediately reminded me of Compassionate Listening’s goal of holding space for differing perspectives as a tool for creating new pathways forward.
With a better understanding of the intersection of dialogue and sustainability, I set out to explore how Compassionate Listening (CL) as a specific framework plays a role. Since my only knowledge of CL was what I had read on the website or learned through staff meetings, I began by reaching out to CL facilitators and board members who also worked in this intersection.
The first person I met with was Raquel Garcia, the Executive Director of Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision (SDEV) and a certified TCLP facilitator. SDEV’s mission is to "improve the environment and strengthen the economy of Southwest Detroit”⁷ Raquel discussed how CL has contributed to the culture within her office. By using the tools offered by CL and sending her coworkers to trainings held by TCLP, SDEV has cultivated an office built on shared values and visions for the future. “We’ve got a shared values document, and if you look at that, it’s the values from the Compassionate Listening workbook,” Raquel said. For the community environmental justice work to sustain, it must start with a base of strong relationships within the team, which is cultivated through the practice of CL.
I also had the pleasure of having lunch with Nancy Jo Chabot, one of TCLP’s board presidents. Nancy Jo and I discussed her role as Museum Curator at the Hopkinton Historical Society where she collaborates with the Nulhegan Band of Coosuk Abenaki on the Abenaki Trails Project, whose mission is to “visibly honor and share a more inclusive history of the Abenaki people, to highlight historical Abenaki sites and to accentuate the positive influences our ancestors had with Colonial America and the towns we, as modern Abenaki people, still live in today.”⁸
Nancy Jo explained how listening sessions between the historical society and the tribe at sacred sites around the area resulted in a traveling exhibit full of Abenaki artifacts and artwork. Using the skills offered to her by CL, Nancy Jo says her only job during those conversations was to listen and through that listening, the partnership developed to bring education, justice, and healing to the community.
I spoke with Andrea Cohen Kiener (who I share a hometown with!). As a community member and former rabbi in Greenfield, MA, Andrea has been involved in food justice, sovereignty, and sustainability in the area, contributing to the local community garden and collective chicken coop. Throughout our conversation, Andrea and I bonded over our shared connections at Stone Soup Cafe, a pay-what-you-can restaurant, and Redistro, a free store.
I asked Andrea how she perceived the relationship between CL and sustainability. “I call Compassionate Listening the social technology of the changes that we’re trying to manifest,” Andrea says. CL provides people with “inner clarity that can lead to better dialogue that can lead to better sharing of resources that can lead to a more interactional and satisfactory life.”
Laurie Archbold is a certified TCLP facilitator who has led nature based CL retreats in Washington and New Hampshire. Laurie previously worked for the Wilderness Awareness School, whose mission is to “help children and adults cultivate healthy relationships with nature, community, and self.”⁹ As someone who believes that people must be connected to their environment in order to care for it, I was thrilled to talk with Laurie about her experience using CL to connect people with nature. Laurie told me about her experience and shared her agendas for the nature based retreats she’s led through TCLP. In the agenda for the Rogue River retreat, there lay an invitation to “connect with one new being in this place,” and the Umbagog Lake retreat asks participants to reflect on “how to be in relationship with plants in a good way.”
On the similarities between her work in environmental education and her work with CL, Laurie offered the words, “relational, holistic, and emergent.” She also used the phrase “sustainable solution” to describe the work being done by the Wilderness Awareness School and TCLP because both aim to get at the core of people’s values and beliefs before moving forward.
Last but not least, I met with Yael Patretti who also lives in Western Mass. Yael has dedicated her life to anti-racism work and has been a certified facilitator with TCLP for many years. When I first reached out to Yael, she was unsure of how she could help me with my research regarding sustainability. I explained to her that social equity is one of the key pillars of sustainability and that anti-racism plays a huge role within that sector.
Yael and I discussed her work as an activist and how she has incorporated CL into her activism. She explained to me that CL helps remove hatred towards the other person, allowing activists to carry on longer without feeling burnout. She also described how listening can be used as a tool in advocacy to influence people. “By listening, you can really influence people in a gentle way, and they’re so shocked because it’s so unusual, so it’s a very powerful tool,” reflects Yael.
Through my scholarly research and personal conversations, I began to piece together the puzzle of what I had originally set out to do which was to map out the relationship between Compassionate Listening and sustainability.
I learned that what I had told Kirsten at the start of this process was just one piece of the puzzle. Dialogue can be used to bring together stakeholders across the three pillars of sustainability and start working towards solutions on wicked problems, but it can also be a powerful tool for communicating the science of climate change and conservation. Compassionate Listening can create healthy and strong work environments for organizations focused on environmental justice and community led development. It can build relationships with Indigenous tribes who have forged sustainable relationships with the land for generations. It can connect us with nature in a way that we have lost. It can help activists stay grounded in their fight for change. It can act as a social technology for building sustainable futures and communities, where people are connected to themselves, their human neighbors, and their environment.
As I look towards a future in community planning and engagement, I now know why I have to listen to both the developers and the conservationists and why they also have to listen to each other. If I were to be placed in a real community forum today, I believe I would be able to sit there much more patiently and presently than I did three months ago.
Chloe Spurr is the summer intern with The Compassionate Listening Project who recently graduated with her Master’s in Sustainability Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she worked for the Office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning. She is based in Massachusetts and splits her time between the Pioneer Valley and North Shore. After finishing her internship, Chloe was hired to work part time with TCLP as the Administrative Assistant. She is interested in urban planning & community engagement roles.
¹ Bailey, L. (2023). What are the Three E’s of Sustainability?” Popular Education.
² Stony Brook University. (2026). What’s a Wicked Problem?
³ European Commission: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
(2019). Sustainability and governance: The role of social dialogue. In Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2019: Sustainable growth for all: choices for the future of Social Europe (pp. 203–229). Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2767/305832
⁴ Toomey, A. (2023, January 24). Facts Don’t Change Minds – Social Networks, Group Dialogue
and Stories Do. LSE Impact. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2023/01/24/facts-dont-change-minds-social-networks-group-dialogue-and-stories-do/
⁵ Allen, W. (2026). Supporting dialogue in complex settings. Learning for Sustainability.
⁶ Buddenberg, J. (2014). Stakeholder Dialogues: A Way to Engage Stakeholders for
Sustainability. Open Citizenship, 5(1), 88–93.
⁷ Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. (2026). Mission and Vision.
⁸ Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. (2025). The Abenaki Trails Project.
⁹ Wilderness Awareness School. (2026). About Us. https://wildernessawareness.org/about/
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