Global Goals Jam (GGJ)

What is Global Goals Jam (GGJ)?

Global Goals Jam (or “GGJ”) is a workshop for implementing the SDGs by using design-oriented thinking. One particularly noteworthy feature of this workshop is that it is open to everyone, so people who do not have a deep understanding of the SDGs or design-oriented thinking can still experience the process of implementing the SDGs using these unique tools.

Workshops and prototyping activities provide participants with a chance to talk and work with their hands, enabling them to gain an overview of the SDGs and to cultivate a more personal connection with these topics. Furthermore, this represents an opportunity to connect with a community of people who are interested in or want to take action on a particular topic.

A prototype put into practice

One team’s prototype from the 2019 Global Goals Jam was actually put into practice. “doki Earth” is aimed at busy families living in urban areas, offering a box that collects food waste. Users select a pickup date and time using an app, and then the waste collected in the box is used as compost. The organic vegetables grown using this fertilizer are subsequently delivered back to the user via the same box. Current business development efforts are focused in the city of Sendai, with almost 150 kg of fertilizer collected.

Forming an SDG-centric community

FabCafe Tokyo and Loftwork have partnered as domestic Japanese organizers to put on GGJ for the past 4 years.

There are also many other talk events and meetups besides GGJ which are focused on forming a lasting community via on- and offline events.

GGJ Tokyo and FabCafe

FabCafe has been the organizer (host) of GGJ Tokyo since 2017, and FabCafe Tokyo CCO Kelsie Stewart has been in charge of operations since 2018. In addition to planning and running the official program, we also form a community with people who think about and take action on sustainability in and around Tokyo.

FabCafe is equipped with tools such as laser cutters and 3D printers so that ideas proposed in the workshop can be prototyped on the spot. This is an environment where ideas do not remain ideas, and where the GGJ’s “Act Fast” attitude is put into practice. Furthermore, as the world’s first initiative by a GGJ host organization, more than 60 ideas born from GGJ workshops are being shared through the online platform AWRD, a related FabCafe service, where we are tapping into Loftwork’s own community by making these ideas open source.

View past outputs.

In this way, FabCafe itself is constantly functioning as a space for fostering action, making GGJ not just a one-time workshop but a starting point for projects that can be connected to rel-world implementation and community building.

“YOLO Truck” actually had a video prototype created for it at a past GGJ Tokyo.

Based on the “Sustainable Cities and Communities” SDG goal, the YOLO Truck visits on-site locations of events involving various projects and social experiments, seeking to provide support for communities solving environmental health issues. This truck is equipped with tools such as the YOLO app, which collects air pollution data and uploads it to a free, largescale public database.