Our Bureau
New York, NY
As climate emergencies intensify worldwide, Goonj — an India-based organization with 26 years of pioneering work across South Asia in circular development and disaster resilience — is launching the Goonj Climate + Circularity Hub (C+C Hub) during Climate Week in New York City.
The C+C Hub responds to a deep gap in global climate dialogue: the absence of frontline voices and lived wisdom from communities most impacted by disasters.
Located in the Lower East Side’s Satellite Gallery (Sept 23–27), the Climate + Circularity Hub will feature workshops, performances, screenings, and dialogues designed to invite co-creation from climate leaders, media, and the public. The Hub will also host Goonj founder Anshu Gupta’s travelling photo exhibition, Of Disaster And Dignity, opened up in a new participatory format. As Bill Drayton, Founder, Chair & CEO of Ashoka, remarked in Goonj’s 100 Stories of Change book,
“Anshu is one of the world’s best social entrepreneurs. He has created a simple, powerful engine that sparks and enables thousands to dream and become community-redefining change makers. How many people in the world do you know who have created a new currency or who have opened up a framework-changing redefinition of essentials of development?” said Bill Drayton, Founder, Chair & CEO of Ashoka.
At the hub, Goonj will present its SARRD framework — Societal Alliance for Resilience and Response to Disasters — a model to reimagine disaster response and resilience through community ownership, dignity, and circularity. Goonj aims to build out its SARRD framework alongside peer organisations across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
“The biggest resource in any disaster is human potential. Yet, too often, communities are reduced to recipients of aid rather than recognized as experts in their own resilience. The Climate + Circularity Hub and SARRD are about changing that paradigm,” said Anshu Gupta, Goonj Founder.
Through this hub, Goonj invites practitioners, funders, artists, and institutions to rethink resilience — and to join in building coalitions that extend far beyond Climate Week.
