Pro(to)topia is a not-for-profit think and do network dedicated to imagineering caring futures.
“Prototopia is a place, neither in utopia nor dystopia. It is a " space of possibilities" and a "pocket of hope" questioning the ways in which we can inhabit the planet, to repoliticize the relationship to the world, and remove excuses from influential decision-makers tempted to affirm they could not conceive of the consequences of what they were planning to do.”
Yannick Rumpala
Our story
After many years of working in the field of sustainability, we decided in 2022 to create a not-for-profit think and do network centered around the concept of care. Our vision is for people to live in green caring societies in which everyone can care for self, for others and for the rest of the living world. Proto(to)topia's ambition is to co-create and implement care-positive visions of the future through political, social and cultural engineering.
To change the everyday reality of policy-making, politics, communities and organizations in Europe and elsewhere, we conduct projects at different levels:
The macro level: futuring, policy relevant research and engagement and artivism
The meso level: field building of the sustainability & care ecosystem
The micro level: prototyping arts&policy projects to bolster transformative resilience of communities
We also offer consultancy services to support initiatives projects of like-minded change makers, including philanthropy, NGOs, and public authorities and artists.
Pro(to)topia is registered as an association in France.
Meet the team
Founder and CEO
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Céline Charveriat is currently the founder and director of Pro(to)topia Consulting, as well as an adjunct professor at the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA). She is also the part-time program director of the Vaerekraft Foundation (Norway).
After studying law and political science (Sciences Po Paris), geopolitics (Paris XIII), and international relations (SAIS, Johns Hopkins University), Céline Charveriat started her career as a researcher at the Peterson Institute and the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. She then worked for 15 years at Oxfam International, where she led Oxfam’s global campaigns on inequality, climate change, humanitarian crises, and conflict, and managed advocacy offices in Addis Ababa, New York City, Washington, D.C., Geneva, and Brussels. Under her leadership, Oxfam campaigns began addressing inequality, including her decision to launch Oxfam’s work on that issue at Davos, which led to the most successful campaign in Oxfam’s history.
After leaving Oxfam, she served as Executive Director of the Institute of European Environmental Policy (IEEP) from 2016 to 2022, a period during which she worked on several policy files, helped shape the European Green Deal, and created a new pan-European network called Think2030, as well as Think Sustainable Europe.
After serving as chair of the board of Climate Action Network Europe for a few years, Céline Charveriat is now chair of the board of Climate Catalyst. She also advises several EU institutions on sustainability issues (DG Research, JRC), as well as individuals as a coach and mentor (systemic psychology), supporting professional women in leadership positions, and organizations on strategy and organizational development.
Céline Charveriat’s current research focuses on new economics, including beyond-GDP indicators, with a forthcoming report on Sustainable Prosperity: Options for GDP+3, and on the concept of green caring societies.
Co-founder and Policy Officer
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Eloïse is a sustainability policy expert and co-founder of Prototopia with over 8 years’ experience in policy-making, advocacy, strategic planning and research on climate and environmental justice. She has worked with the European Commission, the French Parliament, NGOs and think tanks, leading initiatives such as the Think2030 conference and coordinating high-level EU policy dialogues.
She also creates podcasts and artistic projects that spotlight environmental struggles and amplify frontline movements worldwide. Eloïse holds a Bachelor’s in International Business from Grenoble Ecole de Management and an MSc in Political Economy of Europe from the London School of Economics and Political Science
Our Board
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Board NGO
Armelle Ledan is a senior expert with 30 years of experience in European programmes and projects management, EU policies and EU funding, having worked at international, EU and national levels with various organisations. She coordinated several EU projects with multiple partners in her respective fields of expertise, notably social innovation, being the project manager of the Social Innovation Platform (SIE) (2015-2016) and the H2020 Social Innovation Community (SIC) project (2016-2019) leading to the Lisbon Declaration on social innovation, as well as for the assessment of EaSI social experimentation projects (2020-22). She is the author of the “practical guide for project promoters on social experimentation (2022). In her other field of expertise, migration, she coordinated the Young Migrant Capacity Building (YMCB) project on migrants entrepreneurship and contributed to several publications. Armelle also has a solid background in ESIF and ESF in particular, having worked for the French ESF Managing Authority, DG EMPL policy advisor for the ESF Director and the ESF Transnational Cooperation Platform. She is the Lead Expert for the ESF+ Social Innovation Community (CoP) since 2023, combining the experience gained over time on ESF, social innovation and transnational cooperation. She also worked for UNDP in Sudan, and regularly gives professional lectures and training (Montpellier University, CNFPT). She is qualified in facilitation for collaborative workshops (FORMAPART) and holds a master’s degree in Legal European Studies (Bruges) and in Social Economy (Montpellier). She is a native French speaker and fluent in English.
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Board NGO
Nathalie been a scientist at the Center for Global Change and Sustainability (gWN) at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) since 2021, where she co-leads the Foresight Group. She also works closely with the Millennium Institute and the Earth4All initiative by The Club of Rome. Her focus lies on the application and teaching of systems thinking and system dynamics tools to address global challenges and find ways to ensure wellbeing within planetary boundaries. She has experience in an international inter- and transdisciplinary research environment and has developed and worked with a number of different system dynamics models. These are successfully used both for research purposes and in (policy) consulting. She currently focuses primarily on participatory modeling and project approaches at different levels (i.e. urban, regional and national). Thanks to her diverse experience in various areas of sustainability and her expertise in qualitative and quantitative systemic modeling, her focus is on holistic and long-term sustainable development paths. Nathalie holds a PhD in environment and life sciences from the University of Iceland and a PhD in economics from CERDI at Université Clermont Auvergne in France, as well as a Masters in socio-ecological economics and policy from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Our Associates
We work with associates to bring their expertise and collaborate with us on various projects. We aim to create a community of change-makers, who can work together on our impactful mission to build a fairer and greener world.
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Associate
Kate is an experienced leader in non-profit and philanthropic organisations, with a deep commitment to enabling societies that are fair, resilient and sustainable. With a Master ́s degree in anthropology, she has 24 years’ work experience in the non-profit sector. She has worked as a network-builder, innovator and facilitator, and her work includes philanthropic grant-making, programme leadership, academic research, and non-profit project management. In her roles, she has developed pioneering projects and found like-minded funding partners -like Pro(to)topia- to co-create high ambition action for greater social impact. Kate uses an entrepreneurial spirit to develop new concepts and get them up and running. Her professional skills include research, project development, fundraising, convening, and designing engaging workshops -including online events. Kate has built a reputation for creating motivating, energising and respectful spaces to tackle difficult issues and controversial topics such as climate justice, overconsumption and the need for caring economies.
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Associate
Jane Lonsdale explores how systems learn and adapt, providing strategic and leadership advice in the face of change. With over 25 years working in Africa, Asia and the Pacific on topics from social accountability to women’s rights to community resilience building, she brings a deep curiosity about how governance, power, gender, and citizens’ voice intertwine to shape fairer societies that can exist within our planetary boundaries.Holding an MSc in Wellbeing in Public Policy and International Development from the University of Bath, and with significant leadership experience on adaptive programs for Oxfam and more recently DT Global, Jane’s work provides guidance on how to design and manage organisations or programmes in complex settings, on complex issues, based on principles of listening, learning and evolving.
Jane combines evidence, empathy, and experimentation with imagination, focusing on how we can be and manage in new ways to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
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Associate
Pierre Leturcq (He/His) is a Brussels-based independent think tanker and public affairs consultant with nearly a decade of experience at the intersection of EU public affairs, climate diplomacy, trade, and sustainability. He advises leading research organisations on strategy and outreach, is a Senior Associate with the Institute for European Environmental Policy and Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), and a Fellow at CISDL.He focuses on EU trade policy and environmental sustainability, particularly on the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) aspects of EU Free Trade Agreements and the international dimensions of Green Deal policies such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Pierre is an Affiliate Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris (Paris School of International Affairs - PSIA), where he teaches the course "EU Sustainability Policies in an International Perspective" in PSIA's Master's programme. In 2021, Pierre led the creation of the Green Trade Network (GTN), a group of over 50 policy experts conducting evidence-based research and outreach activities on the trade and environment nexus. Until 2023, Pierre was Director of Studies of Europe Jacques Delors, a Brussels-based think tank which he contributed to creating in 2020 with former EU Trade Commissioner and former WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.
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Associate
Olivier Consolo has been a professional and activist for solidarity, human rights, feminism and the democratization of our societies since the early 90s.
As an activist, Olivier has been a member of the European SmartCSOs network (2011–2019), the International Solidarity Committee of the Fondation de France (2011–2017), and the French citizen movement Utopia (2011–2024). Within the Bureau of the Utopia movement, he is one of the referents for issues related to municipalism, citizen transition, the commons and democratic renewal in France and Europe.
Olivier Consolo worked for seven years (between 1992 and 2003) in Guatemala as country director of a French NGO (Enfants Réfugiés du Monde), then within the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUGUA), and finally for three years with the Embassy of the European Union in charge of civil society relations and funding.
From 2003 to 2013, Olivier was the founding director of CONCORD Europe, the European Confederation of Development and Humanitarian NGOs.
Since 2014, Olivier Consolo has been an independent consultant. His main contracts include work with organisations on participation of civil society, democracy, human rights, and education for citizenship, such as Coordination SUD, France Volontaires, the foundation “Un Monde Par Tous”, the Open Society Foundation Europe (OSIFE), the OECD (“Open Governance” department), the European pilot project “Frame Voice Report”, and feasibility studies for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on NGO support funds.
He has also collaborated with international civil society networks, including FORUS (World Federation of Development NGOs), WINGS (World Federation of Philanthropic Foundations), GCAP (World Movement Against Poverty), FIACAT (International Federation of Christian Associations Fighting Torture and the Death Penalty), Act Alliance International, and CLONG Volontariat.
Olivier has been involved in bi-regional dialogue between the southern Mediterranean and the European Union through initiatives such as the MAJALAT civil society project (2014–2025), as well as with Solidarité Laïque, the Euromed France Network (REF), and Multi-Actor Concerted Programmes (PCPA) in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania.
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Associate
Clare is an experienced gender, economic and environmental rights and justice leader, connector, and strategist. With a legal background, she has held positions at think tanks, charities, and governmental agencies in Europe and Africa. She has a respected record in harnessing the law, policy, campaigning and learning for collective public good, working across a range of thematic areas from fisheries and biofuels, to fiscal justice, care economy and women’s rights.]
Always curious for new ways of doing, thinking and learning, Clare’s recent focus has been on systems change for green and care centred economies and societies, specifically building collective coalitions and challenging deep narratives. In this work, her priority is shifting power in the system, supporting the collective agency and leadership of people and communities in the just transition for people and planet.
Associated Artists
We works with artists to create new narratives and societal visions as a key part of our mission to imagineer green caring futures. We know art is essential to engineer perspective shifts in how we envision common futures, so we collaborate with artists on projects relating to Green Caring Societies, and give them a platform to share their creativity.
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Nonhuman Nonsense
Art & Design Collective
Nonhuman Nonsense is a research-driven art and design collective working in the realm of social dreaming and world-making. Their projects engage with the nonhuman: animals, objects, ecology, technology, and the spectres between and beyond categories. They use nonsense as an antidote to “common sense” – embracing paradoxical stories to explore the ethical and metaphysical layers of our relationship with the (nonhuman) world.
They create contradictory scenarios & propositions in which they appropriate ideas from fields such as science, computing, law and mythology. Their projects take various forms - interactive installations, workshops, short films, public sculptures, campaigns, chatbots and books.
They recognize that separating the human from the nonhuman is nonsense.
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!["Sam Nester, Australian trumpet player and sound artist based in New York, creating environmental sound installations and compositions"]()
Sam Nester
Trumpet Player, Composer and Sound Artist
Sam Nester is an Australian-born trumpet player, composer, and sound artist based in New York. His work explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, harnessing natural processes to create immersive sound installations and musical compositions. He has been the artist-in-residence for the Center for Genomics & Systems Biology at NYU Abu Dhabi, the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment, Bruny Island (Australia), the US National Parks in Hawai’i, and the Festival of Arts Design Acerenza (Italy).
Nester often collaborates with scientists and policy officers on the creation of work at the nexus of art, science, and policy, and his commissioned works include site-specific environmental sound installations and compositions for the US State Department, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Colby College, George Mason University, New York University, EcoArt Project, XPANSE, Metropolis Ensemble, the National Parks Arts Foundation, the City of Houston, and the City of Hobart (Australia). He serves on The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music faculty.
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!["Margherita Pevere, visual artist and researcher working with living matter, ecology, and biotechnology, exploring art and science collaborations"]()
Margherita Pevere
Visual Artist
Margherita Pevere is an artist and researcher acclaimed for her otherworldly work with living matter, ecology and biotechnology. Her practice embraces object-making, installation, performance, and writing. Her works are regularly exhibited internationally, and she has a record of art and science partnerships in prestigious research centres. She holds a doctorate in artistic research on biological arts and queer and feminist studies.She collaborated with Pro(to)topia on community engagement as part of her project Lament about post-wildfire ecologies. Lament was awarded the COAL Prize / Transformative territories mention 2024.
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!["Honey & Bunny, Vienna-based cross-disciplinary atelier creating EatArt and ClimeArt through video, photography, performance, and design"]()
Dr. Sonja Stummerer & Martin Hablesreiter- Honey & Bunny
Photographer and Videographers
Honey & bunny is an inter- and transdisciplinary (or call it crossdisciplinary) atelier for research and performance in Vienna. Basically we do EatArt and ClimeArt and therefore we develop (arts & science) positions by using video, photography, performance, publication and design. Among others, honey & bunny have worked for European Commission´s Joint Research Center, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Indaba in Capetown, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna. -
!["Mathilde Schoenauer Sebag, Brussels-based sound artist and writer, exploring sound ecology and experimental music with scientific research"]()
Mathilde Schoenauer Sebag
Sound Artist
After a Ph.-D. in Material Science at ESPCI in Paris, Mathilde swapped her lab coat for a synth and a couple of microphones. She went from an academic approach to address global warming to a sensitive and an artistic one. Her sound research first evolved around concrete, improvised and experimental music, before she explored sound creation for radio. She quickly discovered the field of sound ecology, and slowly her domains of interests converged again: in her first radio drama Rock also die we can hear atoms talking about extractivism. It has received international interest (selected in 2023 for the Prix Nova, Bucarest and the Prix Europa, Berlin, and third price for fiction at UKRDIF, Canterbury). Today, she is based in Brussels and balances her work as a writer at the border between fiction and essay, a high school science teacher, and a sound artist. -
!["Penelope Cain, storyteller and artist working at the science-art intersection, creating speculative narratives about the Anthropocene and Post-Carbon world"]()
Penelope Cain
Storyteller and Writer
Penelope Cain is an artist with a research science background working at the science-art intersection in a speculative and open-ended storytelling mode.She undertakes expanded storytellings of the lands, waters and air of the Anthropocene and Post-Carbon. Drawing from scientific research, her art practice is located between scientific knowledge and unearthing connective untold narratives in the world. She works across media and knowledge streams, with scientists, datasets, people, stories and land to storytell about molecular level connections between places and across time.
She has been awarded research residencies including most recently for S+T+ARTS The Hague, the Glenfiddich Contemporary Art Residency, Scotland, and HAWAPI, Peru. She is currently working on a commission for the EU Digital Deal, making a speculative post-human play between a robot and the plants it is programmed to care for.
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!["Heather Bourbeau, award-winning writer and poet, exploring overlooked histories, climate change, and environmental themes through literature"]()
Heather Bourbeau
Writer
Heather Bourbeau’s award-winning poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. Her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin, and her latest poetry collection, Monarch, examines overlooked histories from the US West (Cornerstone Press, 2023). Much of her creative work is influenced by her work as a researcher/analyst on climate change, conflict, and migration with various UN agencies, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and UNICEF Somalia. In addition, she is a winter wildlife docent at Point Reyes National Seashore and organizes the annual Reyes the Pen writing workshop. She is currently working on a poetry collection and multi-media exhibition about protected lands in the Western United States. -
!["Wilson U., Mozambican interdisciplinary visual artist, entrepreneur, and social activist, engaging with climate research and artistic practice"]()
Wilson U.
Visual Artist
WILSON U. (MZ) is an interdisciplinary visual artist, entrepreneur, and social activist. He has participated in research and various creative cultural activities. Research related to climate issues, such as gathering opinions and perceptions on climate change and natural resource management from young people aged 16 to 35 across Mozambique, through organised consultations, as part of the Clima de Mudança (Climate of Change) project. As an artist, he has had various artistic experiences, including solo and group exhibitions, as well curating his own exhibitions in Maputo. Namely: Sonhos (Dreams) at the Kulugwana Gallery in 2024; O Regresso at X-Hub in 2024; Por de Trás da Pele (Behind the Skin) at X-HUB in 2023; Powerful African Beauty at the 16 Neto cultural space in 2022; Garden Exhibition in 2021. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Meteorology from Eduardo Mondlane University – Mozambique. Currently, in addition to being involved in business practices and artistic productions, he is also pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering from the same University.
What is Care for you?
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![A woman with shoulder-length red hair, smiling, wearing a cream sweater with black stripes and a white beaded necklace.]()
“From the cradle to the grave, care is a fundamental and innate aspect of being human. Reimagining the state of nature to include care breaks decisively with the defunct and dysfunctional model of homo economicus driven solely by self-interest and competition. Reclaiming care as an intrinsic human trait and as a foundation of society would constitute nothing less than a Copernican revolution—one urgently needed to confront the growing disconnection from ourselves, from one another, and from the rest of the living world that lies at the heart of humanity’s current existential crisis.”
Céline Charveriat
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![A woman with curly dark hair, wearing a white embroidered blouse and a green cardigan, standing outdoors in front of green foliage, smiling at the camera.]()
“To care is to see the sacred in every being and act to protect it.”
Eloïse Bodin
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!["Pierre Leturcq, Brussels-based expert in sustainability and EU trade policy, Senior Associate at IEEP and E3G, and lecturer at Sciences Po PSIA"]()
"Care means patience. It is to recognise the possibility of life in all things. Like the gardener waking up each morning to water the plants, giving the same attention to the small as to the large, with no aim beyond the simple act of watering and watching life unfold."
Pierre Leturcq
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"Despite centuries of promoting values like domination or exploitation, caring - the natural instinct to protect and nurture life - remains the essential biological and societal foundation (promoted by ecofeminist movements) for preserving nature, defending the vulnerable, and building a more solidarity-driven and sustainable world."
Olivier Consolo
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![A smiling woman with gray hair tied up, wearing black glasses and a navy blue blazer, standing against a plain white background.]()
“Our current system normalises exploitation of people and nature: a caring society is one that promotes the wellbeing of all non-humans and humans, through valuing and celebrating care work, while reducing harmful overuse of resources in richer populations.“
Kate Power
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![Close-up of a middle-aged woman with blonde hair, glasses on top of her head, wearing hoop earrings and a necklace, smiling slightly, indoors with a blurred background.]()
“For me, care is about our ability to listen and consider all living beings, beyond human beings, the recognition of our interdependencies and fragilities, which alone allows for an harmonious and peaceful cohabitation based on these connections.”
Armelle Ledan
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![A woman with glasses, blonde hair, and red lipstick smiling, wearing a black and white striped shirt, standing against a plain wall.]()
“I see care in the sense of the nurturing of people and planet, collectively supporting, repairing and regenerating, and standing defiantly in opposition to violence and depletion.”
Clare Coffey
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!["Sam Nester, Australian trumpet player and sound artist based in New York, creating environmental sound installations and compositions"]()
“To me, care means deep relationships – nurturing connections that encourage community, wellbeing, and a healthy relationship to the environment.”
Sam Nester
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!["Mathilde Schoenauer Sebag, Brussels-based sound artist and writer, exploring sound ecology and experimental music with scientific research"]()
“Care is one way among others to interact with our surroundings, maybe the one leading to the most trustworthy relations, whether it’s with a human being, an acacia or a stone.
Mathilde Schoenauer Sebag
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!["Penelope Cain, storyteller and artist working at the science-art intersection, creating speculative narratives about the Anthropocene and Post-Carbon world"]()
“Care extends beyond humans and beyond human scale, it is part of a wider ecosystem. Care can be as simple as the collaborative relationship between algae and fungi in lichen, where fungi express a pigment to protect algae from sun damage. Care is collaborative.”
Penelope Cain
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!["Margherita Pevere, visual artist and researcher working with living matter, ecology, and biotechnology, exploring art and science collaborations"]()
“Care is an essential element in art but also a driving force for coexistence. She sees art as a way to understand the world and created the idea ‘arts of vulnerability’. Caring for vulnerabilities, thus, is an agent of change in troubled times.”
Margherita Pevere
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!["Heather Bourbeau, award-winning writer and poet, exploring overlooked histories, climate change, and environmental themes through literature"]()
“Care means ensuring the protection of rights and the physical, mental, and environmental health of all peoples and lands, so that current and future generations may live sustainably and thrive.”
Heather Bourbeau
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!["Honey & Bunny, Vienna-based cross-disciplinary atelier creating EatArt and ClimeArt through video, photography, performance, and design"]()
“Care – is our connection to the world. Without care, we would not survive. Care is humanism.”
Dr. Sonja Stummerer & Martin Hablesreiter- Honey & Bunny
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!["Wilson U., Mozambican interdisciplinary visual artist, entrepreneur, and social activist, engaging with climate research and artistic practice"]()
"We live and create in an environment in which care is an essential benchmark for a prosperous future."
Wilson U.
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"Care is the attention we gift to sustain relations. With care, we attune ourselves to a world of interdependencies."
Nonhuman Nonsense
Join the team
Interested in joining Prototopia? Whether you're an associate with valuable skills or an artist passionate about a greener, more caring future, we’d love to hear from you. Send your CV, a brief description of your contribution, and (if applicable) samples of your work to info@prototopia.eu. We're always open to growing our community.
