• Good Life X’s work in creating a thriving future for Sri Lanka and beyond is deeply intertwined with breaking barriers between sectors, and championing a regenerative system

Challenges such as climate change, economic instability, social or political disruptions are found to be increasingly interconnected, but the solutions are often found in silos.

For example, traffic is heightened by the increasing number of automobiles on the road. It affects those driving to work, children making their way to school, public transportation users on crowded vehicles, the increasing emissions on the environment, street vendors trying to make a living, and so forth.

Most would look to the municipalities and government, to bring solutions. While their role is crucial, sustainable transformation requires a wider pool of interconnected stakeholders.

For instance, regulations on private transport will not increase the favourability of public transport. Urban planners, school representatives, public transport drivers, private transport users, local residents, designers and architects need to join forces to institutionalise the change and approach the issue systematically.

Community led initiatives often emerge from lived experience and local knowledge. They are the strongest foundation for an equitable and sustainable change.

However, solutions are made by those furthest from the problem, and do not address real challenges. Governments formulate policies with minimal consultation with the public; researchers gather data from limited sources; private sectors formulate solutions for limited and biased interests; aid organisations often fail to reach the most vulnerable.

By contrast, a bottom-up approach recognises that meaningful change doesn’t emerge from a single discipline, governing body, authoritative figure or party. Everyone facing the problem must be involved to form the solution.

This enables a system in which those providing support are fully attuned to the needs of those receiving it, bridging the gap between intention and impact, with increased transparency and interconnectedness. Walls of division, structure, hierarchy, and sector which keep us from seeing the reality of challenges faced by communities and groups should then be broken.

Good Life X’s current projects also contribute to this form of systems thinking

‘The Routes we Take’ is an initiative formed in 2024 to document and showcase creatives all over Sri Lanka working in themes of sustainability, circularity and regeneration.

Through the formation of a digital map, these creatives can portray their innovative work and form connections with others who are featured. The digital map is key to fostering a network of those in the creative industries who take their place in creating a better reality for the future generations.

So far, the map is embedded with over 180 creatives from all provinces of Sri Lanka, and the project promises more excitement in 2025. Based on the activities held in Colombo during 2024 edition, The Routes we Take has now taken on a new path to Kandy, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Galle.

The project is funded by the EUNIC Cluster in Sri Lanka, and recently concluded its activities in Kandy, which was a two-day exhibition with immersive workshops on the 25 and 26 July.

The exhibiting creatives from the region explored topics on urban narratives, ecophobia, pain and memory, traditional craft, AI and so forth.

Capacity building workshops were also held by two established creative practitioners Anurangi Mendis and Poornima Jayasinghe to share knowledge on improving the creatives’ practices, processes and communication.

You can learn more on the project or view the map through ‘www.therouteswetake.com’.

‘Heat Futures at 78°E’ is another living example from Good Life X’s current work portfolio, of what it means to break the wall.

As a multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary platform, it brings together creatives, urbanists, researchers, social entrepreneurs, policy makers, and citizens to confront the rising challenge of urban heat, an issue that, like many others, sits at the crossroads of climate, infrastructure, health, and justice.

Taking place in Colombo and Bengaluru, two cities grappling with similar climate pressures, this initiative recognises that a single sector or discipline cannot hold the final answer. By creating a shared space for collaboration across traditional boundaries, Heat Futures enables a new kind of climate dialogue rooted in both scientific data and lived experience.

It is not just about understanding the heat, but about co-creating cooling solutions that are socially inclusive, culturally relevant, and structurally sound. This is the essence of breaking the wall: Dissolving barriers between expertise and experience, between institutions and individuals, and building regenerative systems through collective imagination and action.

To truly break the wall, we must dare to imagine solutions from a different consciousness than the one that built the barriers. It calls for creativity, humility, and the courage to design from connection rather than control.

If you are interested in learning more about Good Life X’s work, contact us at ‘connect@goodlifex.com’ for more information.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.)