Lauren Hermanus

Co-founding Director Southern Transitions

Lauren Hermanus is a co-founding director of Southern Transitions, an organisation rooted in Southern Africa, working to unlock transformative economic opportunities in and for the Global South. She is a researcher and strategist with more than fifteen years of experience working on sustainable development. Her work has focused on intersecting issues of infrastructure, climate action, and development. Her experience spans different economic sectors, working with diverse actors from government, business, IGOs, and civil society. Her work has included on-the-ground economic diversification experiments through Just Transition Lab, as well as contributing to South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) and leading the Just Urban Transitions project, both through How We Adapt, a network-based advisory practice, which she started in 2016. In 2024, she was a finalist for the WIN WIN Gothenburg Award for her work facilitating partnerships for just transitions. She has worked extensively with several research institutions, including the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, and the African Centre for Cities, where she is currently a research associate, publishing on topics related to transitions, infrastructure, and futures. She holds a Master of Art in Philosophy (Stellenbosch University) and a Master of Philosophy in Development Policy (University of Cape Town).