Who gets to imagine: Learnings from the Without Walls Green Lab by Frederik Larsen

In March 2026, the Without Walls Green Lab took place in Hebden Bridge, bringing together artists, producers, and festival organisers who are championing work to bring sustainable and just practices into the arts sector.

This time, the Lab convened with the aim of building community and reenergizing our collective work on environmental action and climate justice. During our three days together, we gathered around discussions, workshops, meals and shared tasks. We listened together. We explored the surrounding landscapes, shared experiences, created games and learned new skills – all ways of amplifying and intensifying our work. I was invited by the Without Walls team to co-host and help shape the connections between knowledge, practice, communities and creativity. In this article, I want to share some reflections from the Lab.

In my work as an advisor and facilitator, I focus on how to build meaningful practices around change, especially change towards thriving futures. Futures where people and other beings, communities and ecosystems can thrive. Creating pathways to thriving requires dismantling barriers and challenging injustices, as well as building new practices and tools. In my experience, it starts with building relationships with others and feeling part of a collective movement.

During the three days, we explored different tools for creating more sustainable and just practices. A central ambition of the Lab was to offer ways to address climate and social justice as a fundamental aspect of sustainability work. We know that the root causes of human-caused climate change are closely linked to colonial and exploitative structures, so we cannot tackle environmental and climate issues without addressing inequalities and injustices. Prompted by a powerful talk exposing the connections between climate, justice and militarism by Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Head of Programmes at Julie’s Bicycle, three central questions became our tools to shape our conversations: Who gets to pollute? Who benefits? And who pays?

As tools, the questions helped us explore what climate justice means. Who gets to pollute turns the question of environmental degradation on its head and asks us not to fix the symptom, but the cause. Pollution is not an accident; it is part of a system built for the few at the expense of the majority. Who benefits helps us examine why some systems are so slow to change. The few have little incentive to change the systems they benefit from, and most of the time, the few are the ones who hold power. And who pays demands that we address the huge inequality in who is affected by the consequences of climate crises. People and communities who are already marginalised and vulnerable are often the ones hit the hardest. Questions such as these help address the root causes of unsustainability and injustice.

On the last day of the Lab, another central question emerged from our final collective reflections: Who gets to imagine? This question addresses the fundamental role of art in creating pathways to thriving futures. We need spaces to imagine and to tell stories. We need to hear stories that challenge exploitative and destructive powers. It also addresses the injustices that exist within the arts sector itself. Who gets to imagine? Who gets to shape conversations and decide which stories are told? Who has access to the spaces where imagining futures can happen? I believe this is one of the most important questions we can ask.

In times when spaces for imagining, expression, and for exploring and challenging norms are shrinking, finding power in community is essential. Nurturing relationships with others who bring different perspectives, experiences and knowledge creates resilience, and reminds us that we are part of a collective movement, even when it does not always feel that way. 

My experience from the Lab was that deep engagement with one another – through discussions, workshops, meals and shared tasks – can create the conditions for both reflection and action. By coming together in this way, we not only strengthen our individual practices, but also our collective capacity to imagine and build more just and thriving futures.