Boa Foundation

We work in alliance with indigenous communities to preserve and protect sacred land, culture, and ancient wisdom. We support projects including strategic land buybacks, restoration of native ecosystems, cultural exchange, and sustainable living solutions.

Our planet is a miracle. Life has evolved for millions of years, creating a rich and diverse ecosystem, an intricate web where all life can thrive. The climate crisis is the result of a deep man-made imbalance on the Earth. Our species has been extracting, producing, and polluting without much consideration for other forms of life, even our own. This imbalance is a symptom of our alienation from natural rhythms, cycles, and systems, and our lack of a caring relationship to our world. This also manifests in ever-increasing crises in mental health, breakdown of communities, and auto-immune diseases being diagnosed at alarming rates. The Boa Foundation works together with indigenous communities worldwide to address these issues holistically, ​supporting both cultural and natural diversity, and the healing of our selves and the planet.

Little Treehouse

Little Treehouse is a non-profit organization founded in 2013 to support initiatives focused on human rights, environment protection and communities in need with a primary focus on youth and future generations.

Our lean structure and committed team provide us with no additional costs, allowing us to allocate approx. 100% of funds directly to our projects.

Little Treehouse’s goal is to provide continuous support to our projects, not limited to financial relief. We believe that hands on means of support such as regenerative work, personal commitment and emotional care create strong connections, and lasting and self-sustaining change for good.

TES Academy – International Academy Environment and Sustainability

In order to shape a sustainable future, we need people on all levels from local to global who are capable of implementing transformation processes for the environment and sustainability. Also, developing structures and networks of such people that deal with sustainability challenges in different contexts and with different knowledge are essential.
The TES Academy addresses these actors and accompanies them to jointly identify and address topics of transformations that have a high potential to increase their implementation by international knowledge exchange and joint learning activities across countries.

Fackenthal, Jeremy

Jeremy Fackenthal is an independent filmmaker and NGO director. After completing a PhD in Philosophy of Religion and Theology from Claremont Graduate University, he began using his philosophical background beyond the academy to raise questions and craft narratives. In recent years, Jeremy’s work has included video content produced for clients and shorter independent documentary projects. Jeremy most recently served as Managing Director of the Institute for Ecological Civilization, and he is currently exploring new nonprofit possibilities that wed sustainability and storytelling.

Wuppuluri, Shyam

Shyam Wuppuluri is an independent researcher working in the domain of foundations of sciences and philosophy. He has long standing interest in the interdisciplinary approaches to sciences, deep ecology and sustainability. He is the recipient of prestigious Albert Einstein Fellowship 2021 from the Einstein Forum at Potsdam & Caputh and is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

​As a primary editor, he has edited various highly interdisciplinary volumes to disseminate and address the issues underlying the foundations of sciences by gathering world’s leading scientists and intellectual leaders including Noam Chomsky, Sir Roger Penrose, Sir Martin Rees, Daniel Dennett, A. C. Grayling, Nicholas Humphrey, Gregory Chaitin, Gerard ‘t Hooft, Ian Stewart, Barry Mazur, Stephen Wolfram, Paul Davies, Tyler Burge, Doron Swade, Julian Barbour, Newton Da Costa, Francisco Antonio Doria, Reuben Hersh, Nicholas Maxwell and many others.

the school of nothing

the school of nothing is investigating the realm of nothing.
As an applied research project it develops and implements artistic and scientific interventions in the public space and open performances | workshops for people being interested into exploring the qualities conntected to nothing, e.g. nothingness, silence, emptiness, darkness, pause, serenity, Lassenskraft, waiting, withdrawing, contemplation, doing nothing, leisure

Curious Leaders

Our philosophy as business coaches and transformation facilitators is rooted in an understanding of identity that integrates executive branding expertise with our experience in designing multiple leadership programmes for FTSE 50 companies, SMEs, social enterprises and as adjunct faculty members of a corporate university.

How an organisation communicates externally with customers from a product or service perspective is only one dimension of identity. The quality of relationships, credibility and trust is determined by the congruence between what is said on the outside and what is practised internally.

The ongoing dialogue between these internal and external relationships defines who we are. It creates a sense of identity ® that, when managed consciously, can act as a powerful resource for positive growth.

Organisations and individuals that have a clear understanding of who they are, what they stand for, and how they make decisions have more inner resilience, agility and access to creativity.

We help individuals, teams and organisations leverage identity as a leadership practice through a proprietary sense of identity ® framework and Strategic Identity Management™ coaching process.

Margaret and Matthias manage the overall client relationships. They co-create and deliver programmes with senior associates they trust and know well. When engaged on large projects CuriousLeaders collaborates with global partners to deliver on the scalability required.

The 3 core values that guide us are: Creative, Honest, Compassionate. We believe that:

  • Curiosity sparks transformation
  • Good decisions come from the head. Great decisions comes from head and heart
  • Change is constant. You can choose to run it or to be run by it

About Us

The Communities of Practice Playbook

Working through communities of practice has never been more encouraged in organisations than it is now. Better gathering, sharing and using of data, information and knowledge in public organisations such as the European Commission are essential to deliver integrated policy work and overcome silo mentalities. This is highlighted explicitly in European Commission President von der Leyen’s work guidelines stipulating transparency and the ambition to become a digitally transformed, user-focused and data-driven administration. Communities of practice are an excellent instrument for fostering collaboration among internal and external stakeholders: they can bring groups with different knowledge perspectives together and can strengthen their capacity to work and learn creatively together. Thus, communities of practice harness the collective intelligence in organisations and help improve performance.

Buen Vivir SchoolHouse

We want a Good Life in Togetherness.
Individualism, isolation and fear are among the plagues of western societies. They could be overcome by living a sense-making, happiness-oriented, future-building community life.
But where to start? We are convinced that the first step to salvation is knowledge. Not just our own knowledge, but the wisdom that comes from relying on the collective knowledge of the people we know and we are close to.
And we also think that we need to learn to be brave showing our vulnerability when we ask others for help or support.

Our dream is to use this place as a permanent laboratory of conviviality and reciprocity, where we can…
… learn, together with others, to share and develop manual skills, techniques and abilities.
… deepen our knowledge in reciprocity, to respond to the challenges of the future in an exportable and networked way.
… shape the opportunities to slow down, reflect, think and understand reality and ourselves in a continuous and deep way.
… re-learn to trust others and ourselves.
We believe that “exchange without money as a mediator should be a daily component of everyone’s life“. 
This is why we propose to our visitors to explore together how to regulate our exchange of space and time in order to avoid the use of money as much as possible and lay the foundations for a relationship of true reciprocity (barters can be circular, not necessarily dual). 
In case guests want to reciprocate the hospitality, they can:
1.Choose a way to help us maintain or manage these spaces, by picking from the list of objects and works still needed in the house.
2.Consider expanding our respective network and skills, by offering a workshop (or think of someone they know that could offer one).
3.If nothing we to exchange falls within their possibilities or preferences, then they can help us cover some running costs (for example leaving a “suspended fee” as cash offer for a future offer or some works or bringing a bag of pellets) or propose other exchange possibilities.

Gaupp, Franziska

Dr. Franziska Gaupp is interested in food systems and food systems transformation. She has experience in systems analysis using quantitative and qualitative methods to foster transformative change towards a resilient future. Recently, she is interested in the topic of ‘multiple ways of knowing’ in transformative processes.

Hafner, Judith

Her context of languages (German, Italian, English, French, Chinese) and professional experiences (business, international cooperation, community building) speaks of her longing to connect spaces through listening.

Her body-felt and mind-opening experience of flow in different trainings (Presencing Institute, Seele und Sein, Thomas Hübl, Art of Hosting) shifted her deeper into inner alignment and availability as basic drivers for growth.

She coordinates, together with four other women, the network future.bz.it in Nortnern Italy around the Agenda 2030, and tries to stay in service of the emerging field, driven by simplicity, curiosity and a sense of connection.

Schönwitz, Tobias

Tobias Schönwitz is a program director and Coordinator of the funding department at the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany’s largest private, non-profit organization engaged in the promotion and support of academic research; not a corporate foundation and not affiliated to the Volkswagen automobile manufacturer).

Bruhn, Isabella

I am writing this text about myself and it is not exactly easy.

The most amazing compliment ever, was given to me by my teacher Gary Friedman who said he had never seen such integrity.
It is a very special and no light compliment but I handle it with great respect and care.

It describes how I try to approach my clients as they offer me their trust in the midst of their life crisis.

So with the appreciation of their confidence in me, I try to stay respectfull and be honest about myself. I keep them informed, I share my intuitions, I hold but do not control, I do not manipulate by using methods, and I try to envision their system outside in and inside out.

I love life, I love this world, and I deeply believe in the inner strength of our eco system.

I am mother of 2, an occasional farmers market apple seller to get some balance in my work life, a gardener and very happy about my bicycle :)))

Muten, Erik

Kailo Mentoring Group serves to integrate Ego & Soul through individual, couples, families, groups, & organizations. Erik work/plays with his life and business partner, Amelia Perkins (www.ameliaperkins.com)

Erik has been a Psychologist for over 35 years and spent over 30,000 hours exploring both the the conscious and unconscious patterns in people and organizations. He has consulted to some of the biggest corporations in the world on Emotional Intelligence as well as non-profits and family businesses.

With individuals, Erik mentors them in the Socratic Method with the assumption that the people seeking out his services are willing to take responsibility for creating the story of their lives. Erik believes that each individual has the responsibly to be their Unique Self. At the age of 67, he now only work/plays with people who are consciously focusing on their Agency in the world and their Connection. Erik spends most of his time in individual mentoring sessions, leading seminars, and mentoring ‘high performance teams’.

Erik loves his profession and his work in the world. While taking into consideration the ‘big picture’, most of what he does is practical and draws on his experience in participating and creating the forms and forums for transformation. Erik is an applied researcher and has gathered many ‘maps’ to guide himself and others into the unconscious epigenetic patterns that can rule lives if not explored and uncovered.

Zeng, Yilan

After demolition and resettlement in 2017, we are still in flux. During the slow recovery, we first focused on the establishment of a visualized online community, hoping that by finding like-minded partners, we can once again restore and rebuild the green art entrepreneurship park on the earth.

Beyers, Felix

Felix is working as a research associate in the TranS-Mind Research group at RIFS after finalising his PhD at Leuphana University on “Political challenges of a textile transformation”. He focussed on interaction and learning spaces in collaborative governance initiatives between market, civil society and industry actors. Today he …

Palmer, Michael

Worked on the development and early implementation of the Wellbeing of Future Generations law in Wales, UK. Senior Fellow at IASS from 2019 to 2020 where I shared insights gained from the experience of Wales. Colleagues in the IASS were extremely generous in sharing their time, expertise, and experience, which made it possible to explore sustainability through a range of prisms and perspectives. The Institute provides a unique space for collaboration. The nexus of natural sciences, social science, artistic endeavour, and the implementation of public policy inspires us to rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities facing us.
https://www.iass-potsdam.de/en/events/future-now-sustainable-development-goals-innovative-ways-deliver-accelerated-action-and

Huber, Andreas

Andreas is the CEO of the German Association to the Club of Rome. He is coordinating the COR networks activities in Germany and active as a keynote speaker.

LeGrand, Thomas

Thomas Legrand is a wisdom’s seeker, living in France next to Plum Village, the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Holding a PhD in economics, he works in the field of sustainability for UN agencies, NGOs and companies.

Holding a Ph.D. in (Ecological) Economics and having studied international development, political science, and management, Thomas Legrand works in the field of sustainability for UN agencies, private companies, and NGOs. His focus is on forest conservation, climate change, sustainable finance, and organizational transformation.

His spiritual journey began at the age of 23 with an encounter with native spirituality in Mexico, before embracing the wisdom of a wide range of traditions and practices, including meditation, energetic healing and Tai-chi-chuan. He lives with his wife and their two young daughters near Plum Village, the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the South West of France, his country.

His spiritual search, his thought as a social scientist and his professional experience have gradually converged on the importance of spiritual wisdom in humanity’s ongoing transition. Searching for a way to mainstream this understanding in the political and sustainability conversation, he has dedicated much of the last 10 years to researching and reflecting how we can radically rethink our model of development. The result is this book.

HIS JOURNEY

“What do we have except the possibility to walk a path with heart?”

-Thomas Legrand

You can find more on Thomas’ journey in the book, in particular at the end of the introduction. It is part of the excerpt you can receive by clicking here. You can also read the following blogposts on his spiritualscientific, and professional journeys.

Center, Athena

We are a center bridging science, business, and “ancient wisdom” from different traditions to bring sustainability and equality to the (business) world.

Infinite Potential – The life and ideas of David Bohm

He was one of the 20th Century’s most brilliant physicists. Albert Einstein called him his spiritual son. The Dalai Lama relied upon him as his “science guru.” So why is it that hardly any of us know the name: David Bohm?

By telling the little-known story of David Bohm and evoking the realms he explored in his research, INFINITE POTENTIAL takes us on a mesmerizing and immersive journey into the mystery of Consciousness––through the use of hypnotic music and rich visual tapestries. The film includes interviews with luminaries such as H.H. the Dalai Lama, esteemed artist Antony Gormley, Oxford philosopher and physicists Sir Roger Penrose, and many more who were influenced by Bohm’s revolutionary work.

Growing up in a poor Pennsylvania coal-mining town during the Great Depression, David Bohm possessed a rare and maverick intelligence that baffled his parents and peers. After earning a scholarship to go to college, Bohm got the attention of the greatest minds in science, including Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the Atomic Bomb, who became his thesis advisor but would eventually turn against him.

Bohm’s explorations led him to intuit a hidden order to reality––the Quantum Potential––that underlies both the microscopic world of subatomic particles and also the macro world of stars and galaxies. Bohm had turned to Eastern thought and the wisdom traditions of India to talk about something that underlies all of creation––a realm that mystics have known about for millennia and modern science is only just beginning to explore. Bohm’s revolutionary ideas were way ahead of their time––a threat to the scientific orthodoxy. And that’s why he was dismissed.

John Sterman, 2016

Research shows that showing people research doesn’t work. (John Sterman, MIT)

Institute for Ecological Civilization

Core Belief

The present trajectory of life on this planet is unsustainable, and the underlying causes of our environmental crisis are inseparable from our social and economic systems. The massive inequality between the rich and the poor is not separate from our systems of unlimited growth, the depletion of natural resources, the extinction of species, or global warming. Social and environmental movements require an orientation that is neither too narrow and short-term, nor too abstract and long-term to offer concrete guidance. Formulating the requirements for the flourishing of life in all its forms ― an ecological civilization ― will provide the roadmap that leaders need and will ground a hope that stimulates the necessary reforms.

Vision 

EcoCiv works internationally to design and scale solutions toward long-term sustainability, focusing on water, economies, and human communities. We conduct research, convene experts, and facilitate the quest for solutions. We then help implement solutions through engagement at both the local and global levels: multi-sector teams in city or regional “hubs,” combined with online forums for building networks and disseminating solutions. Other activities include consultations, think-tank gatherings, and policy engagement. The goal is to develop collaborations among government, business, and civic leaders and among scholars, activists, and policy makers.

Working at the intersection of theory and practice, we amplify narratives of hope that motivate, guide, and direct.  As humanity works its way from social and environmental threat toward an ecological society, only the transformative vision of a positive new story will suffice.  Where hopelessness arises, we call others to join us in walking toward ecological civilization, one step at a time.

(Taken from: https://ecociv.org/our-mission/)

You Matter More Than You Think. Quantum Social Change in Response to a World in Crisis

You Matter More Than You Think is the starting point for an inquiry about quantum social change and its implications for climate change. The book explores how the metaphors and meanings of quantum physics can contribute to new understandings of the relationship between individual change, collective change, and systems change. It considers how paradigms and practices can change the way we relate to each other, the environment, the planet, and the future.

This is a book for those who are interested in social change, and open to the possibility that each of us can contribute to an equitable and thriving world. It is also for those who are concerned about climate change and may be feeling a deep anxiety about the future and if /how they matter. Most of all, it is about why you matter more than you think.

von Meibom, Barbara

Alles Leben ist Bewegung und ein ständiges Ringen, um das rechte Gleichgewicht, um lebensfördernde Balancen und um Synthesen zwischen vermeintlich unvereinbaren Widersprüchen. Dabei haben wir ein feines Gespür dafür, wenn etwas „aus der Spur geraten“ ist und destruktive Entwicklungen für uns selbst, für das Miteinander und für das Leben auf diesem Planeten entstanden sind.

Ich habe in meinem Leben erfahren müssen, was es heißt, sich der Welt zu sehr kognitiv zu nähern. Als Universitätsprofessorin, Politik- und Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin hatte ich gelernt, meine mentalen Fähigkeiten mit aller Kraft in den Dienst der Wissenschaft zu stellen.

Doch ich musste erfahren, dass damit mein Leben in ein destruktives Ungleichgewicht rutschte, und nicht nur dies:  Auch mein Menschen- und Weltbild wurden durch die mentale Perspektive verengt.

Ich begab mich also auf die Suche nach einem neuen inneren und äußeren Gleichgewicht, einem Gleichgewicht, das dem Leben dient.

Dazu entwickelte ich ein zweites Standbein, erschloss mir die Welten der transpersonalen und humanistischen Psychologie und Psychotherapie, vertiefte meinen Zugang zur spirituellen Dimension des Seins durch ausgedehnte Studienreisen nach Asien und erprobte mich seit Mitte der 90er Jahre, zuerst neben der universitären Tätigkeit und dann selbständig mit CommUnio.

Mit diesem reichen Hintergrund, in dem sich Unterschiedliches vereint, bin ich bis heute unterwegs und mit mir die vielen Menschen und Organisationen, die ich im Laufe meiner 20jährigen selbständigen Tätigkeit begleite und begleitet habe. Geholfen hat mir dabei, dass an meiner Wiege „Thron und Altar“ standen, repräsentiert durch zwei übermächtige Großväter, die so unterschiedliche Welten wie Macht und Liebe vertraten und eine Mutter, die sich mit hohem Engagement in den Dienst von Verständigung stellte.

Zugänge, die ich im Laufe meiner langen beruflichen Tätigkeit gewählt habe, sind vielfältig: Einzelarbeit, Lehrgänge, Moderationen, Mediationen, Vorträge, Publikationen. Doch immer geht es mir darum, gemeinsam Wege zu ebnen, in denen sich Stimmigkeit im Innen wie im Außen herstellt, eine Stimmigkeit, die sich aus der produktiven Synthese unterschiedlichster Sichtweisen, Interessen, Anliegen und Weltzugänge herstellt.

taken from https://www.communio-fuehrungskunst.de/ueber-uns

 

Adam, Barbara

Prof Dr Dr Barbara Adam, FAcSS, FLSW is Emerita Professor at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Social time has been the intellectual project throughout her academic career, which facilitated a unique perspective and produced path-breaking publications on the subject, resulting in five research monographs, five edited books and a large number of articles in which she sought to bring time to the centre of social and socio-environmental analysis. Two of her books have been awarded book prizes and she successfully competed for numerous social theory-based research grants. She held Fellowships in Italy and UK, the Max Weber Professorship at Munich University and the prestigious ESRC Professorial Fellowship (2003-2007), which enabled her to explicitly focus on the social relations of the future. In 1992 she founded the journal Time & Society, which she edited for ten years and has been supporting ever since as Consulting Editor. Her work is read and taught across the disciplines from the Arts and Humanities to the Social and Environmental Sciences.

 

taken from https://www.iass-potsdam.de/en/people/barbara-adam

Manuel-Navarrete, David

Titles

  • Senior Global Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
  • Associate Professor, School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures
  • Affiliated Faculty, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation

Biography

David Manuel-Navarrete applies an existential perspective to study deliberate transformations in social-ecological and technological systems, such as cities or coastal communities, including the subjective dimension of such transformations. His research aims at enhancing societies’ capacity to purposely deliver structural changes that simultaneously reduce inequality and sustain the planet’s web of life. As a sustainability scholar, he focuses on promoting climate change adaptation, and tourism sustainability. His most recent research explores adaptation, resilience and transformation of water infrastructures in Mexico City, and the promotion of indigenous languages to advance sustainability in the Amazon.

Professor Manuel-Navarrete worked as a consultant for the United Nations, and as a researcher at King’s College London and the Free University of Berlin. He has conducted sustainability research and assessments in Argentina, Brazil, Central America, and Mexico. He teaches international development and sustainability and sustainability science.

Education

  • PhD, Geography, University of Waterloo, 2004
  • MS, Ecological Economics, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 2000
  • BA, Environnmental Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 1998

Expertise

Taken from https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/david-manuel-navarrete/

Spirit of Humanity Forum

A global platform for leaders and change makers

To offer a global platform for leaders and change-makers seeking to contribute towards a lasting transformation in the world in which core human values such as love, respect, solidarity and compassion become integrated in our decision-making and relational processes, enabling systemic change in organisations, communities and nations. This is part of our ‘duty of care’ for the Earth and for Humanity at large.

Langner, Fanny

Ihrer Vision einer nachhaltigen, sozialen und ökologischen Transformation nähert sich Fanny Langner auf multiperspektivische Weise. Sie ergänzt ihre akademischen Grundlagen in Philosophie (B.A.), Kunst, ökologischer Landwirtschaft und Global Change Management (M.Sc.) mit Achtsamskeitspraktiken als auch künstlerisch musischen Tätigkeiten. Als Mitglied des Performancekollektivs „gez. Euer Ernst“ (euerernst.de) schaffte sie Erfahrungsräume die philosophische, gesellschaftliche, spirituelle sowie nachhaltige Themen und deren künstlerische Vermittlung in einen Wirkungs-zusammenhang bringen. Sie arbeitet als Yogalehrerin, betreut psychisch labile Menschen und engagiert sich als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (HNEE). Als Veranstalterin von Musikevents und Phase Odyssey Bandmitglied versucht sie ihre Leidenschaft für Musik und die Magie des Zelebrierens zu teilen.

Ihre Verbindung zu sich selbst und ihrer Mitwelt hilft ihr sich zu erden. Es inspiriert zugleich auf spielerische Weise ihre Mitmenschen, neugierig auf die Natur und sich selbst zu werden.

Kay, David

Initially trained as an economist, I work as a senior outreach faculty member at Cornell University. I am affiliated with the Community and Regional Development Institute in Cornell’s Department of Global Development. I am interested primarily in community decision making and governance; the institutional, policy and personal changes needed for an energy transition in the US; and the responses of individuals and communities to the increasing risks posed by climate change.

Herrmann, Lukas

Lukas investigates the cultivation of generative social fields through long-term whole-school co-creation processes based on a training program in 3 elementary schools with over 1,000 school kids in Berlin, Germany. The training program addresses in particular the schools’ 180 teachers by developing their mindfulness, empathy, and relational competence. Furthermore, Lukas works with Peter Senge and Mette Böll from the center for systems awareness to foster systems change within the education sector in California.

Specking, Heiko

specking+partners advises on sustainability issues, and engages with corporations, charitable structures, wealthy individuals and their families. In this respect we support the enhancement of responsible behaviour both for business related and personal activities. As an independent Swiss-based company, we ensure that value-based practices can become part of the DNA of a project or an organization.

Together with our clients, we build long-term, holistic strategies for responsible engagement, philanthropic activities, sustainable investment and social entrepreneurship. We then work to support implementation of their strategies and to realize the desired impact.

Clayton, Philip

As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection points of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization.

Schwab, Nicole

Master’s in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; MA in Natural Sciences, Cambridge University. Formerly, worked on health sector reform projects in Latin America, World Bank and the Ministry of Health of Bolivia. 2004-06, Founding Director, Forum of Young Global Leaders. 2009-2018 Co-Founder and President, EDGE Certified Foundation, a global scheme certifying organizations for closing the gender gap in the workplace. Facilitator and Strategic Advisor to non-profit organizations active in reforestation, wellbeing and women’s empowerment. Author of The Heart of the Labyrinth, a spiritual parable offering a message of Earth-centered wisdom.

Lanying, Zhang

Lanying is currently the Executive Deputy Dean, Institute of Rural Reconstruction of China in Southwest University at Chongqing. Here she has developed and implemented projects, training/workshops and study programs in the area of sustainable agriculture, environmental education, health education and participatory development approach for poverty reduction. Her own field of interests includes participation for better governance, rural education for individual development and collectivism as well as sustainable development for the poor and marginalized people to be out of poverty and inequality.

Petranker, Jack

Jack Petranker holds a law degree from Yale and an M.A. in political theory from the University of California, Berkeley.  A former Dean of the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, he has also served as North American Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (1988-92).  His own academic work is in the fields of consciousness studies and organizational change.  He has been director of Mangalam Research Center since its founding in 2009.

Mangalam Center explores new ways of bringing wisdom to the modern world. We embrace Buddhist, spiritual, secular, and integrated approaches to learning about our mind and ourselves, opening as many doors as possible to the means of healing and transformation.

Our goal is to communicate the heart of traditional teachings in an accessible way, while still maintaining their depth and authenticity. Recognizing the difficulty of translating ideas across time, cultures, and communities, we focus on having conversations and asking questions. We also emphasize bringing meditation or mindfulness practice into ordinary activities, to allow our own embodied experience to guide our understanding.

Lichtenberg, Jonas

Sociologist
Systemic Counselor
Research Fellow of Institut für Sozialpädagogische Forschung Mainz e.V.

CommUnio – Institut für Führungskunst

CommUnio wird geleitet von Prof. Dr. Barbara v. Meibom und geht –  je nach Aufgabenstellung – Kooperationen mit Menschen und Institutionen ein, mit denen wir eine gemeinsame Vision teilen. Wir sind dankbar für ein Netzwerk mit jahrelang gewachsenen Vertrauensbeziehungen.

Im Zentrum unserer Arbeit steht die Entwicklung von Führungskunst, die dem Leben dient, von einer wertschätzenden Führungskultur und von Führungspersönlichkeiten, die fähig sind, die Potenziale von sich und anderen zu entfalten.

(Taken from: https://www.communio-fuehrungskunst.de/ueber-uns)

________________________

CommUnio is led by Prof. Dr. Barbara v. Meibom and – depending on the task – enters into cooperations with people and institutions with whom we share a common vision. We are grateful for a network with relationships of trust that have grown over many years.

At the heart of our work is the development of leadership that serves life, of an appreciative leadership culture and of leaders who are capable of developing the potential of themselves and others.

(Translation from English into German, originally taken from: https://www.communio-fuehrungskunst.de/ueber-uns)

 

 

World Human Forum

Our work is guided by the outcome of a collective intelligence process we followed at our inaugural Delphic Gathering “Imagining and Building the WHF” in 2017:

1. Seeds of change
Bring together self-empowered & responsible citizens who act or want to act as agents of change

2. A Catalyst
Become a place of convergence and reference for change processes led in a bottom-up way

3. Critical mass
Create a critical mass to impulse the urgent transformation

4. Interdisciplinary
Allow the Renaissance effect by abolishing silos and fostering synergies among all disciplines

5. Know thyself
Pursuing personal transformation, connecting the heart, mind & body, as a prerequisite for social change

6. Human scale
Small gatherings to faciliate the emergence of personal relations of trust and friendship

7. Every day – Everywhere
The Delphi annual gathering is a climax of an ongoing worldwide process

8. All Peers
Breaking down the glass ceiling between elites and (extra)ordinary citizens

9. Micro-Mega
Strongly impact oriented, aiming at answering global questions with practical local solutions

10. Delphi – Omphalos
A symbolic location, connecting us to the wisdom of our ancestors, while we explore and co-create the emerging future

(Taken from: https://worldhumanforum.earth/whf-at-a-glance/)

Inner change and sustainability initiatives: exploring the narratives from eco-villagers through a place-based transformative learning approach

Abstract

In an earlier work, we suggested that connection, compassion and creativity could be used as key analytical dimensions of transformative place-based learning (Pisters et al. in Emot Sp Soc 34(8):100578, 2019). This analytical framework was cre- ated to study processes of place-based transformative learning which evoke shifts in our consciousness. This inner change might well be critical in the development of regenerative practices and places. This article aims to critically investigate the framework empirically using life-story interviews with people living in three different ecovillages. Ecovillages are so-called intentional communities which aim to develop sustainable, regenerative ways of living. Methodologically, the research is grounded in an ethnography and narrative inquiry. Following the empirical results, we will reflect on the merits and short- comings of the analytical framework. The article concludes that the framework proved useful for its purpose if it includes a fourth dimension of ’transgression’ and portraits the dimensions as continua.

(Taken from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-019-00775-9)

A relational turn for sustainability science? Relational thinking, leverage points and transformations

ABSTRACT

In sustainability science, revising the paradigms that separate humans from nature is considered a powerful ‘leverage point’ in pursuit of transformations. The coupled social-ecological and human-environment systems perspectives at the heart of sustainability science have, in many ways, enhanced recognition across academic, civil, policy and business spheres that humans and nature are inextricably connected. However, in retaining substantialist assumptions where ‘social’ and ‘ecological’ refer to different classes of entity that interact, coupled systems perspectives insist on the inextricability of humans and nature in theory, while requiring researchers to extricate them in practice – thus inadvertently reproducing the separation they seek to repair. Consequently, sustainability researchers are increasingly drawing on scholarship from the ‘relational turn’ in the humanities and the social sciences to propose a paradigm shift for sustainability science: away from focusing on interactions between entities, towards emphasizing continually unfolding processes and relations. Yet there remains widespread uncertainty about the origins, promises and challenges of using relational approaches. In this paper, we identify four themes in relational thinking – continually unfolding processes; embodied experience; reconstructing language and concepts; and ethics/practices of care – and highlight the ways in which these are being drawn on in sustainability science. We conclude by critically discussing how relational approaches might contribute to (i) a paradigm shift in sustainability science, and (ii) transformations towards sustainability. Relational approaches foster more dynamic, holistic accounts of human-nature connectedness; more situated and diverse knowledges for decision-making; and new domains and methods of intervention that nurture relationships in place and practice.

(Taken from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26395916.2020.1814417?needAccess=true&fbclid=IwAR2_Xw9Nv21rLb-7tp5zUpoO2IDTWuSHYX7MRNMYgCWTSmOjsxv0FHOesYw)

Conscious Food Systems Alliance

The Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), convened by UNDP, is a movement of food, agriculture, and consciousness practitioners united around a common goal: to support people from across food and agriculture systems to cultivate the inner capacities that activate systemic change and regeneration.

It aims at establishing the cultivation of inner capacities as a key evidence-based approach to envision and create regenerative food systems, while building legitimacy and understanding for this approach.

CoFSA does this by:​

  • Convening a Community of Practice and Learning: CoFSA brings together an intentional community of peers, supported by a collaborative digital platform, where individuals and organizations can connect, learn and exchange knowledge, support and inspire each other, and collaborate to build conscious food systems.
  • Pioneering the application of consciousness approaches and practices: across food systems, through a global portfolio of interventions, including the delivery of trainings, coaching and facilitation services, supported by research and learning frameworks. 

Our Values

  • Bringing our whole selves to this work: emotional, embodied, and authentic
  • Willingness to undertake inner work
  • Equity, inclusivity and acknowledgement of power dynamics
  • Deep listening
  • Valuing diverse points of view
  • Embracing complexity and working with emergence

Connecting to Change the World: Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact

Something new and important is afoot. Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are under increasing pressure to do more and to do better to increase and improve productivity with fewer resources. Social entrepreneurs, community-minded leaders, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropists now recognize that to achieve greater impact they must adopt a network-centric approach to solving difficult problems. Building networks of like-minded organizations and people offers them a way to weave together and create strong alliances that get better leverage, performance, and results than any single organization is able to do.

While the advantages of such networks are clear, there are few resources that offer easily understandable, field-tested information on how to form and manage social-impact networks. Drawn from the authors’ deep experience with more than thirty successful network projects, Connecting to Change the World provides the frameworks, practical advice, case studies, and expert knowledge needed to build better performing networks. Readers will gain greater confidence and ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities.

Easily understandable and full of actionable advice, Connecting to Change the World is an informative guide to creating collaborative solutions to tackle the most difficult challenges society faces.

 

(taken from https://islandpress.org/books/connecting-change-world)

Nachhaltigkeit braucht Spiritualität

“Das Wissen steht bereit, Umsetzungsmodelle ebenso, doch der große Wurf zur Nachhaltigkeit lässt auf sich warten. Anlass genug, bei der gängigen Übersetzung des Drei-Säulen-Schemas Ökologie – Ökonomie – Soziales anzusetzen und es auf Fehlstellen zu untersuchen. Spiritualität gehört zum Menschsein, der Umgang mit und die Lösung von ökologischen Problemen kann hier eine Erweiterung erfahren, die angesichts der aktuellen Entwicklung dringend geboten ist. Nachhaltige Entwicklung kann es nicht geben, wenn nur der Verstand der Menschen oder ihre Bereitschaft zu moralischem Handeln angesprochen werden, so die These dieses Buches: Die Menschen müssen auf einer tieferen Ebene des Menschseins erreicht werden – in ihrem Herzen. Konkret geht es dabei um die Verknüpfung von Leitwerten und dem menschlichen Streben mit einer ausgewogenen Wirtschafts- und Lebensweise, wie sie sowohl im Christentum als auch im Buddhismus gefordert und angestrebt wird. Ob tibetisches Kloster oder Benediktinerabtei: Diese Publikation führt zusammen, was Parallelen besitzt, und eröffnet neue Horizonte für die religiöse Beschäftigung mit Nachhaltigkeit.”

Wir sind dran. Club of Rome: Der große Bericht: Was wir ändern müssen, wenn wir bleiben wollen. Eine neue Aufklärung für eine volle Welt

“In seinem ersten, weltweit beachteten Bericht zur Lage der Menschheit (»Die Grenzen des Wachstums«, 1972) prognostizierte der Club of Rome den ultimativen Kollaps des Weltsystems in den nächsten 50 Jahren. Seitdem hat sich viel verändert und wir verfügen über genügend neues Wissen für die erforderlichen Veränderungen zum Erhalt unserer Welt. Sehr wohl sind laufende Trends aufzuhalten und sind wir in der Lage, bestimmte Philosophien und Überzeugungen ad acta zu legen. Somit können wir uns auf eine aufregende Reise in die Zukunft machen.

Der hier vorliegende neue Bericht des Club of Rome formuliert die Agenda für alle gesellschaftlich relevanten und möglichen Schritte der nächsten Jahre: faktenorientiert und debattenstark.”

Die harte Landung der Achtsamkeit in der westlichen Konsumkultur

Das aus dem Buddhismus stammende Konzept der Achtsamkeit bettet sich nach und nach in die verschiedenen Lebensbereiche der westlichen Kultur ein. Was bedeutet dieser Kontextwechsel in einer von Konsum geprägten Gesellschaft? Welche Potenziale der Meditation an sich und des “mindfulness-movements” im Allgemeinen lassen sich hinsichtlich einer ökologisch-nachhaltigen Zukunft festmachen? Und vor allem: welche Gefahren birgt dieser Prozess? In der Bachelorarbeit “Die harte Landung der Achtsamkeit in der westlichen Konsumkultur” werden die Wechselwirkungen, welche zwischen den westlichen Adaptionen der Achtsamkeit und den Entwicklungen der Konsumgesellschaft bestehen, analysiert und kritisch beleuchtet. Die Verfasserin nimmt dabei abwechselnd eine anthropologische, philosophische und soziologische Betrachtungsweise ein.

O’Brien, Karen

Karen O’Brien is an internationally recognized expert on climate change and society, focusing on themes such as climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation including how climate change interacts with globalization processes and the implications for human security. She is interested in how transdisciplinary and integral approaches to global change research can contribute to a better understanding of how societies both create and respond to change, and particularly the role of beliefs, values and worldview in transformations to sustainability. She is passionate about what potential there is in quantum social theory and the implications for climate change responses. She currently leads a Norwegian Research Council Topforsk project called AdaptationCONNECTS (Adaptation: Combining Old and New kNowledge to Enable Conscious Transformation to Sustainability), that aims towards developing new understandings of whether and how transformations can contribute to successful adaptation to climate change. She has been heavily involved in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Global Change Programmes and the transition to Future Earth, a 10-year global change research initiative. She is the co-founder and partner in cCHANGE, an Oslo-based company.  cCHANGE is a beacon for individuals and organizations seeking a new perspective, inspiration, knowledge, and tools on climate change and sustainability transformations.

Paulo Freire Zentrum

Das Paulo Freire Zentrum bietet Akteur:innen und Institutionen unterschiedlicher Disziplinen an, ihre Arbeit kritisch zu reflektieren und setzt sich für kritische Entwicklungsforschung ein. In dialogischer Bildungsarbeit werden hier Weltprobleme im Zusammenhang mit lokalen Problemen bearbeitet. Das Zentrum bildet einen Knotenpunkt, in dem an Projekten zu entwicklungspolitischer Bildung, globalem Lernen, Friedenspädagogik etc. gearbeitet wird.
Das Lebensziel des Namensgebers Paulo Freire war der Versuch, die Unterdrückten durch Volksbildung zu befreien, indem er in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren für Solidarität und Gerechtigkeit kämpfte. Seiner Ansicht nach ging die Befreiung der Unterdrückten mit einer Befreiung vom Kapitalismus, welcher auf Egoismus und Gewinn beruht, einher.

 

A relational turn for sustainability science? Relational thinking, leverage points and transformations

In sustainability science, revising the paradigms that separate humans from nature is considered a powerful ‘leverage point’ in pursuit of transformations. The coupled social-ecological and human-environment systems perspectives at the heart of sustainability science have, in many ways, enhanced recognition across academic, civil, policy and business spheres that humans and nature are inextricably connected. However, in retaining substantialist assumptions where ‘social’ and ‘ecological’ refer to different classes of entity that interact, coupled systems perspectives insist on the inextricability of humans and nature in theory, while requiring researchers to extricate them in practice – thus inadvertently reproducing the separation they seek to repair. Consequently, sustainability researchers are increasingly drawing on scholarship from the ‘relational turn’ in the humanities and the social sciences to propose a paradigm shift for sustainability science: away from focusing on interactions between entities, towards emphasizing continually unfolding processes and relations. Yet there remains widespread uncertainty about the origins, promises and challenges of using relational approaches. In this paper, we identify four themes in relational thinking – continually unfolding processes; embodied experience; reconstructing language and concepts; and ethics/practices of care – and highlight the ways in which these are being drawn on in sustainability science. We conclude by critically discussing how relational approaches might contribute to (i) a paradigm shift in sustainability science, and (ii) transformations towards sustainability. Relational approaches foster more dynamic, holistic accounts of human-nature connectedness; more situated and diverse knowledges for decision-making; and new domains and methods of intervention that nurture relationships in place and practice.

Awaris

We transform mindsets, build capabilities and help give birth to new ways of seeing, working and organising.

We embody a deep grounding in systems thinking, mindfulness, neuroscience, and leadership development with a touch of courage thrown in.

We believe that resilience, awareness, and collective intelligence play a central role in transformations and the future of organisations.

Evolutionary Leaders

EL Circle Purpose Statement:

Our purpose is to collectively inspire, support and serve conscious evolution.

EL Circle Mission Statement:

United by a shared commitment to strategically engage our collective field of potential, we serve our purpose by providing opportunities for synergistic engagement among evolutionary leaders who are forging a movement for the conscious evolution of humanity.

The Evolutionary Leaders Circle gathers annually in retreat to come into communal relationship with one another, deepening our collective consciousness and strengthening our mutual intention, thus setting the foundation for the emergence of the next steps of our evolutionary journey.

The retreat balances silence, relaxation, collaborative inquiry, and sharing amongst peers, inspiring and fostering new pathways of consciousness, capacity, collaboration, and community among us.

Together we explore ideas, perspectives and modalities that support an evolutionary worldview, pushing the edge of our collective thinking, knowing, and evolution. We seek to make insights that emerge from our exploration accessible to the public through diverse media, educational, and other relevant platforms.

Our engagement with one another inspires cooperative partnerships within the EL Circle and also enhances and amplifies the work we are already doing in our various fields of endeavor.

The EL Circle strives to inspire and support evolutionary leadership and visionary action throughout the world by giving voice to conscious, transformational and evolutionary ideas that meet the challenges of our time.

EL How We Engage Statement

We are a network of people who feel deep caring and a sense of urgency about the state of our world, and who each dedicate our lives and work to expressing a passionate commitment to both the inner work of human transformation and the outer work of social transformation.

We come together to catalyze and contribute to the evolution of one another and everyone whose lives we touch, and to magnify our ability to be of benefit. We aspire to pioneer the processes by which evolutionaries themselves continually evolve holistically, personally and in our service to all life.

We are committed to mentoring, coaching, inspiring and loving one another dynamically. Our convergence helps us, individually and collectively, to become more and more authentic, aligned, humble, cooperative, courageous, vulnerable, co-creative, innovative, and effective. Our engagement with one another inspires synergistic collaborations in self-organizing partnerships, in service to the emergence of a movement for the conscious evolution of humanity.

One Resilient Earth

Humanity is not prepared to live in a climate altered world. And no policy, plan or initiative happening today to reduce or respond to climate change matches the scale of this global existential threat.

For our team, the climate emergency is both the result and the accelerator of a deeper ecological crisis, which stems from a vision of the Earth as resources to tap. We need to transform that vision and all resulting practices now to limit, address and cope with the crisis. We propose to move away from exhausting ourselves, others and nature for some temporary relief or pleasure, and start protecting and regenerating all the ecosystems we host and belong to. Only then can we ensure that humanity cuts down greehouse gas emissions and becomes more resilient to unavoidable climate instability. We do not have much time to limit the damage that is underway. And even if we had more time, the team has not found a more fulfilling nor joyful work than fostering resilience and regeneration.

 

What do we do?

We believe that a change has to happen within individuals’ minds, in how they relate to living beings, time, and space, to foster the transformation needed to respond to the current crisis. We also believe that individuals are resilient, in the sense that they can recover from hurt and limiting beliefs, and have the ability to adjust to change easily. Last, we believe in creativity and daring actions to transform the way humanity thinks and acts, and give rise to regenerative and climate-positive initiatives.

We co-design projects with a variety of partners who are open to experiencing and growing their inner resilience as they engage into the regeneration of communities and/or ecosystems through context-specific initiatives. We mobilize ancient wisdom and modern science, work across disciplines and generations, integrate new technologies when impactful, and value art as a channel for transformation. Our three main areas of work foster inspiration, global connection, and responsible experimentation, through Tero magazine, the Tapestry programme for local communities, and our Resilience Nests.

Milton, Mark

Founder and Director of the Swiss-based foundation Education 4 Peace (E4P)

Created in 2002, the Foundation works internationally to promote the incorporation of skills in self-awareness, deep listening, and mastery of emotions into the educational curriculum of youth, including sports education. His earlier experiences first as a volunteer and then as director of an organization that operates hotlines for emotional support and suicide prevention and his successful career as a business consultant specializing in communication, marketing and organizational development have greatly contributed to the work of E4P. From 2001-2010, Mark was chairman of the International Federation of Telephone Emergency Services (IFOTES), with 600 centers in 28 countries. He initiated many activities to promote listening skills, as well as the first international congress on the theme of Emotional Health in 2007, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). He has led the E4P’s groundbreaking work with international and national football federations to officially introduce self-awareness, teach listening skills and empathetic communication that pave the way for resilience and relational consciousness. He is the co-author of Master of your Emotions and Football, a Path to Self-Awareness.

Stiftung Freie Gemeinschaftsbank

Die Freie Gemeinschaftsbank Genossenschaft setzt sich zum Ziel, Menschen zu begleiten, die sich in den Dienst von Mensch und Umwelt stellen. Wir fördern einen bewussten und verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit Geld und engagieren uns dafür, Geldprozesse zu durchschauen.

 

Gestützt auf die Erkenntnisse der Anthroposophie, arbeiten wir mit Menschen und Institutionen zusammen, die sich für Mensch, Tier, Pflanze und Erde einsetzen.

Geld ist weder Ware noch Spekulationsobjekt.
Zentrale Aufgabe der Freien Gemeinschaftsbank ist es, zwischen Menschen zu vermitteln, die Geld zur Verfügung stellen können, und Menschen, die Gelder für das Erreichen ihrer Ziele benötigen. Die Freie Gemeinschaftsbank fördert verantwortungsvolle und zukunftsgerichtete gemeinnützige Initiativen. Geld soll dabei der Entwicklung des Menschen dienen.

Geld ermöglicht sozial, ökologisch und ethisch verantwortbares Wirtschaften.
Die Freie Gemeinschaftsbank fördert Projekte, die Mensch, Tier und Umwelt zugute kommen. Sie versteht sich als gemeinnützige, nicht gewinnorientierte Bank. An profitmaximierenden Unternehmen ist sie nicht interessiert.

Geld arbeitet nicht, es sind immer Menschen, die ihren Zins erwirtschaften.
Den Zinssatz bei ihren Spargeldern können die Anleger bei der Freien Gemeinschaftsbank bis zu einem bestimmen Maximalzinssatz selber bestimmen. Jedes Jahr verzichten viele Bankkunden auf jegliche Guthaben-Verzinsung und ermöglichen damit günstige Kreditkonditionen für Kreditnehmende. Diese richten sich – so weit möglich – nach der wirtschaftlichen Situation des Kreditnehmers.

Geld wird nach Möglichkeit so eingesetzt, wie es der Anleger wünscht.
Anleger der Freien Gemeinschaftsbank haben die Möglichkeit zu wählen, in welchem Kreditbereich sie ihr Geld einsetzen möchten. Die Einleger wissen, wofür ihr Geld eingesetzt wird.

Geld ist mit Transparenz nicht unvereinbar.
Grosse Bedeutung misst die Freie Gemeinschaftsbank dem transparenten und solidarischen Umgang gegenüber all ihren Anspruchsgruppen bei. Sie veröffentlicht beispielsweise in ihrem Jahresbericht sämtliche Kreditnehmende.

Geld besitzt verschiedene Qualitäten.
Die Freie Gemeinschaftsbank fördert das Bewusstsein für die verschiedenen Geldqualitäten “Kaufen”, “Leihen”, und “Schenken”.

Ki Culture

Cultural organizations are uniquely positioned to become leaders for a sustainable future by decreasing their impact on the environment and increasing their impact on their communities.

Ki Culture is the only non-profit organization in the world dedicated to making this a reality. We provide solutions for cultural institutions and tools to educate the public on all issues connected with sustainability.

We help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) through tangible actions, effective communication, and education. Our original programs make sustainability easy to implement, while our resource centers make it accessible. We develop and support exhibitions and outreach programs that inform and empower people with solutions.

Ki Culture promotes sustainability through culture, holistically and globally.

Southwick, Caitlin

Caitlin Southwick is the Founder and Executive Director of Ki Culture. She holds a Professional Doctorate in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the University of Amsterdam. Caitlin has worked in the conservation field and in museums around the world, including the Vatican Museums, The Getty Conservation Institute, and Easter Island. She was a professional member of the American Institute of Conservations Sustainability Committee and is the Secretary of the Working Group on Sustainability for the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

Heschel Center for Sustainability

Who we are

The Heschel Center is Israel’s leading advocate for a sustainable Israel: a just society with a robust democratic economy and a healthy environment, now and for future generations. Founded in 1998, we are based in Tel Aviv, and have a national reach and presence, with a network of change-makers spread all over Israeli society that are committed to integrate sustainability practices and values among their communities.

Poisoned air, climate disruption, growing gaps between rich and poor, isolation and discrimination against the other, despair and violence, are all examples of how unsustainable policies and practices are rife and deeply imbedded in Israeli society. Our vision is a healthy world, where people and planet flourish with dignity.

The twin challenges of climate change and social justice lie at the heart of the human agenda in this century. The Heschel Center provides the inspiration and ideas while building collaborative platforms to empower effective leadership for transition to a sustainable Israeli society that can rise to those challenges.

What we do

Through creating a home for leaders and developing and disseminating ideas and skills, the Heschel Center:

  • Creates frameworks through which potential change agents can become sustainability leaders, and support the implementation of their initiatives.
  • Connects theoretical knowledge with practical skills, and spreads the vision of broad sustainability in creative ways.

Heschel’s flagship initiative, The Sustainability Leaders Fellows Program, now concluded its 19th cohort of 14 new Fellows, continues to be the leading training program for social-environmental leaders in Israel. With 340 alumni, the Fellowship represents leadership in diversity. The program targets potential change makers in positions of influence – business, politics (including several MKs), media, free professions, social change; Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews, center and periphery—providing them an in-depth learning process along with the tools to develop joint projects that have a real and lasting impact. The successful alumni network implements our vision of promoting sustainability through a widening interlinked community, whose work we catalyze and nurture

The Center for Local Sustainability works directly with municipalities, regional councils, and their leadership and professional staffs in national and local training programs tailor made for their realities and needs, and has created 20 Local Sustainability Centers in the social and geographic periphery of Israel.

The Center for Sustainability Studies provides intensive transformative learning courses for leaders, professionals and change agents from all over Israel, currently including: Strategic Planning for Sustainability, Community-Based Sustainable Education, Regional Fellows programs, and tailor-made programs for different organizations and institutions such as the Israeli Scouts, Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Society of Nature Protection in Israel.

The Center is focusing its efforts on developing a new online platform to engage a more massive amount of people and bring them to the world of sustainability.

The Israel 2050 Project (The Heschel Climate Project) 

Probably our most ambitious wide-scale collaboration yet is the multi-sectoral participatory process for the Israel 2050 plan, which Heschel has spearheaded as part of the climate initiative. Inspired by the Paris Climate Accords, Heschel headed the 2016 Maof Seminar, which led to our recruiting relevant officials in the Israeli government and convincing them to champion the Israeli Climate Plan 2050, which includes a complete transition to renewable energies. After engaging with various stakeholders to join the process, we organized the largest climate convention in Israel’s history, with a separate event that included 11 roundtables, and that has laid the foundation for the 2050 plan.

The Heschel Center has succeeded in recruiting leading strategic partners in government, civil society and industry: five central government ministries (Energy, Transportation, Industry, Treasury, Environment), the OECD, the IDI (Israel Democracy Institute), and the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Through our work with key people in the government, we have convinced the government to be the lead partner, and to adopt the program as a government initiative, with all that entails. As part of our plan for a broad-based process, we have enlisted a wide range of supporters from civil society, academia and the commercial-industrial sector. Additionally, we have prepared a professional knowledge base and relevant materials that will serve the working groups in the multi-sectoral participatory process of fulfilling the Israel 2050 plan. We have also developed a methodology for locating and successfully utilizing experts from abroad who can share their experience and best practices from processes similar to those we are trying to promote.

Today, the Heschel Center is focusing on bringing the voices of the underserved – people with disabilities, youth at risk, the elderly, etc – to the 2050 planning process and ensuring that the plans are bettering their conditions.

In addition, the Heschel Center has launched its Renewable Energy Project, aiming to develop a plan for Israel to transform to a 100% renewable energy economy. The plan includes an important component of proving the economic case for a weak municipality to earn income by providing renewable energy for its residents.

Where we’ve been:

We have trained hundreds of entrepreneurial leaders and created effective networks of change agents amongst all Israelis (Jews and Arabs, secular and religious, center and periphery) in a broad range of fields. We have incubated and launched dozens of innovative social ventures in areas as diverse as renewable energy, local sustainability, and environmental justice.

After a period of challenge and transition, Heschel Center 2019 has an inspired new leadership, and an energetic staff made up of some of our veteran visionaries, along with new blood, who come with innovative skills and ideas to take the organization forward, and ensure our place as the premier institution promoting a broad based social, environmental and economic vision for Israel.

Where we’re going:

We seek to create alliances and financial support, both inside Israel and abroad, to put this vision of sustainability which we believe is the key to Israel’s future, squarely on the agenda of Israeli society and the Jewish people.

Sustainability represents the call for the “triple bottom line” of profits, people, and planet, which has been adopted in the realm of corporate social responsibility (CSR) worldwide. For too long, the environment has been a narrowly-defined niche issue, and the focus of much work has been reactive and confrontational in nature. We represent a broad, proactive agenda, integrating economic, political and social change, and training and partnering with key players in all those realms.

While there are any number of organizations in Israel devoted to advancing specific aspects of sustainability—environmental NGOs, social change organizations, economic institutions—only Heschel is doing the big-picture conceptualization of what defines sustainability in Israel and how to achieve it.

The Heschel Center is a registered non-profit (“amuta”) that depends on contributions to do the work that is so critical for Israel’s future. To donate click here.

Join us to help improve Israel’s present and ensure Israel’s future as a healthy, prosperous, just and democratic society for all.

Björkman, Tomas

My name is Tomas Björkman and I am an applied philosopher and social entrepreneur.

One of the strongest personal drivers in my life has always been to unlock the hidden structures of the world around me. Curious and exploring, I constantly strive for a better understanding of science, people and social phenomena. Based on my understanding of human and societal needs in a world that is in many ways falling apart, I have committed myself to facilitating the co-creation of a more conscious society.

I want to give momentum to the right kind of changes

I am by no means the only person trying to become more conscious about the problems in the world. Many are also actively doing something about it. My main contribution is to bring change-makers together by creating arenas and initiatives with the goal of stimulating the right kind of development at both an individual and a societal level. The overall goal is to co-create a future at a higher level of individual, cultural, societal consciousness.

In 2008, I started my personal journey by founding Stiftelsen Ekskäret (Ekskäret Foundation) together with a number of future-oriented thinkers, social entrepreneurs and change-makers who became members of the board or creative partners. The Foundation’s strategic vision is to “support a sustainable world where people are creating more well-being for themselves, each other and the planet”. I strongly believe that personal development is a prerequisite for societal change.

Under the umbrella of the Ekskäret Foundation, we have created primarily two venues for events, Learning Labs and exploratory meetings etc.: the workshop facility at the island of Ekskäret (literally: the island where the oak-trees grow), located in the Stockholm archipelago, and the co-working space Ekskäret Klustret in central Stockholm.

The workshop facility on the island of Ekskäret welcomed its first curious and creative visitors in 2011. The facility provides a breath-taking venue and is a perfect arena for exploring existential questions and personal development – for teenager as well as adults. All activities on the island are carried out according to the principles of the Foundation. Ekskäret Klustret, a creative, activity-based co-working space located in the very heart of Stockholm city centre, opened its doors in 2016.

I believe that providing physical and digital meeting venues will create fertile soil for change. Gathering change-makers under one roof will stimulate sharing of ideas and creativity and lead to the co-creation of new initiatives and projects. It will also expand the networks of all participating entrepreneur and generate greater momentum for their important work.

I like to think of these two arenas as important incubators for co-creating positive changes. They are physical manifestations of the idea that a more conscious and sustainable society is possible, and we do watch and guide the ripple effects that result.

More recently I have taken the initiative to create K9 Co-living, Stockholm; Perspectiva Institute, London; the Co-creation loft, Berlin and the digital initiatives 29k.org and ‘Emerge’: www.whatisemerging.com.

von Lüpke, Geseko

Uns verbindet, dass wir bewusst und respektvoll mit uns, mit anderen, mit Tieren und Pflanzen umgehen – und dass wir gemeinsam wachsen wollen.

Beck, Marie-Luise

Marie-Luise Beck

Geschäftsführerin des DKK

Marie-Luise Beck ist seit 2012 Geschäftsführerin des Deutsches Klima-Konsortiums. Projekte wie die Online-Vorlesung zum Klimawandel auf Deutsch und Englisch sowie der K3 Kongress zu Klimakommunikation entstanden unter ihrer Leitung. Zuvor war sie in dem Projekt „Forschungsforum Öffentliche Sicherheit“ an der Freien Universität Berlin verantwortlich für den Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. In den Jahren 2000 bis 2009 arbeitete sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Büroleiterin bei verschiedenen Abgeordneten des Deutschen Bundestages. Dort steuerte sie ab 2007 den Aufbau der Parlamentsinitiative „Zukunftsforum Öffentliche Sicherheit“, dessen Vorstand sie heute angehört. Ihr Studium der Biologie, Germanistik und Erziehungswissenschaften absolvierte sie an der Marburger Philipps-Universität mit dem Abschluss Erstes Staatsexamen.

Bayr, Tobias

I am Meteorologist, deep ecologist and passionate “feelings worker”

Ragnarsdottir, Kristin Vala

I am originally an Earth Scientist with emphasis on geothermal systems and behaviour and fate of pollutants in the natural environment. Since 2000 I have been working on issues related to sustainability.

Voggenreiter, Valerie

Sustainability – Self – Silence
Silence Spaces is a collective of four people, which resulted out of sustainable higher education at the Eberswalde University for sustainable development. During the M.Sc. program we realised, that the inner dimension is under represented when sustainability efforts come into action. Hence, we created a space for the self to empower sustainable behavior in silence and finally helping to transform mindsets and societies. Silence Spaces are physical as well as symbolic spaces. They are free of cyber activities, talking, reading, writing or any kind of input as long as there is not a a conceptualized learning journey taking place. In Silence we learn how to drop into ourselves, observe, reflect, relax – deep learning can take place and this environment can help us to deal more sustainable with ourselves instead of exploiting our own resources. Finally, Silence Spaces want to empower each single individual to invite inner change in order to initiate and shape sustainable outer change – and Silence is the container where this processes can origin from. Silence allows to LISTEN to our inner needs, become more empathic and caring towards oneself as well as the surroundings.

Relational Uprising

The inspiration for Relational Uprising was born from our 20 years of learning at the intersection of deep social justice organizing work and somatic healing and education.

Before launching as Relational Uprising, the core curriculum for the Relational Culture framework was incubated, developed and launched in collaboration with Mark Fairfield, Relational Gestalt scholar and social worker with published groundwork being laid since 2000 in group development, harm reduction and shared leadership, and founder of the Leadership Institute at the Relational Center, an innovative Los Angeles-based non-profit dedicated to building capacity for psychotherapists to shift culture toward one that values empathy, diversity, and interdependency, and that sponsored in 2012 our inaugural project called the Culture of Radical Engagement. Since then, we have had direct experience working with over 1,200 activist leaders from over 200 movement-building organizations and communities.

In the Fall of 2016, the Relational Uprising training project was launched in the east coast with the sponsorship of  The Watershed Center in Millerton New York, a social justice retreat center for changemakers, where we currently hold our foundational residential training series.

Whyte, David

The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid.

Poetry is a break for freedom. In a sense all poems are good; all poems are an emblem of courage and the attempt to say the unsayable; but only a few are able to speak to something universal yet personal and distinct at the same time; to create a door through which others can walk into what previously seemed unobtainable realms, in the passage of a few short lines.

Silence Space

What is sustainability? Often, environmental aspects are in the foreground, while the social dimension is neglected. A transformation towards a more sustainable society, though, needs to consider the social and individual dimension as inner change causes outer change – and vice versa. We see the inner dimension underrepresented in public spheres.
We raise the awareness, that we need more than a technological understanding of sustainability, which cares primarily about the ecological consequences of our actions. We call for a shift in consciousness, too, which influences our thinking and action.
To think critically and acting according to it, is asked from each one of us. We believe that these capacities can be found in Silence. It offers a container for subjective transformation processes – by pausing consciously and taking part at learning journeys on (self)transformation. Deep inner change towards sustainability can’t happen in times of overwhelming stress and acceleration.
Silence Spaces in public places allow a transformation on both levels with the emphasis on internal spaces. The potential to become a part of the solution of grievances lies in every one of us and is able to unfold here. Silence Spaces are physical as well as symbolic spaces. They are free of cyber activities, talking, eating or any kind of input as long as there is not a learning journey taking place. In Silence we can drop into ourselves, observe, relax and reflect. We can gather strength and become observers when we exploit ourselves or witness exploitation of others and the environment. We need an economic and political shift and therefore promote spaces where critical thinking can happen, which is needed to bring along system change. The time for cool headed action is now.

Gerasimenko, Darya

Darya Gerasimenko is a Professor for Sustainability Science at Samara (State Aerospace) University (SSAU) focusing on social innovation and circular economy, and a Lecturer in Economics at the University of St. Gallen (HSG). She holds a PhD in Political Economy (of Industrial Policies and International Trade) from the University of St. Gallen (2015). As a Research Scientist in Circular Economy at the Chair for Green Economy at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) together with the partners from various institutions she has co-designed and co-facilitated first awareness led social lab “Beyond Waste: circular resources lab” 2018 for Switzerland. Darya is also a certified Qigong/meditation trainer from Huang Ting TCM (Beijing, China; E-Mei School) and was teaching it at UniSport of St. Gallen University in 2015-2016. She is an education & research innovator with various courses (regular university courses as well as adult education) within awareness led format with application of mindfulness and unity consciousness calibration work. She is a designer and a catalyst of practical social spaces for enhanced cross-sectoral innovation capacity in various cultural contexts. Her research interests are Societal Innovation for Circular Economy, Innovation in Emerging Economies, Awareness led Social (Living) Labs, Partnerships in Ecosystems, Awareness led Innovation (Mindfulness & Meditation), Unity Consciousness for Innovation.

Ruf, Stefan

Wir verfolgen das Ziel, jungen Menschen in einer seelischen Krisensituation einen tragfähigen Wohn- und Arbeitsort in Form einer therapeutischen Wohngemeinschaft (TWG) zu verschaffen. Wir wollen einen Ort schaffen, an dem neben einem Wohnkonzept weitere Therapie, Prozesse der Nachreifung und gesunde Begegnungen möglich sind. Zielsetzung ist, den jungen Menschen durch das Erleben von sinnvoller Tätigkeit, die pädagogisch und psychotherapeutisch begleitet wird, eine Lebensplattform zu bieten, die gleichzeitig therapeutisch und entwicklungsfördernd ist. Eingebettet in ein haltgebendes, strukturschaffendes pädagogisches Jugendwohnen sollen mit Hilfe der intensiven therapeutischen Arbeit die jungen Menschen lernen, die Anforderungen des Alltags zunehmend selbstständig und selbstsicher zu bewältigen.

The Great Mindshift – How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations go Hand in Hand

This book describes the path ahead. It combines system transformation research with political economy and change leadership insights when discussing the needfor a great mindshift in how human wellbeing, economic prosperity and healthy ecosystems are understood if the Great Transformations ahead are to lead to more sustainability. It shows that history is made by purposefully acting humans and introduces transformative literacy as a key skill in leading the  radical incremental change.

Integrating Personal, Social, and Ecological Transformations toward Ecological Civilization

This invitation-only workshop will convene fifteen leading Chinese environmentalists, international sustainability scientists, grassroots organizers, and spiritual activists to share their knowledge and expertise working on Ecological Civilization. We will employ a highly participatory process of creative inquiry to explore the following question:

“How can we integrate personal, social, and ecological transformations toward Ecological Civilization? What strategic steps can we take to cultivate such an integrated understanding among key stakeholders?”

This workshop will examine how a relational approach to Ecological Civilization may better align its philosophical and political dimensions across sectors, cultures, and contexts. We will invite guests who offer case studies that bridge theory and practice and who are interested in taking a relational approach to their work. The workshop will apply methods that integrate knowledge, experiences, and skills (knowing, being, and doing) in sessions designed to consider case studies from three different orientations: forward, inward, and looping (FIL).

EcoCiv Workshop Agenda

Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

PETAL: Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

PETAL: Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence Lab is a humanities laboratory based at the Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan University. Co-directed by Daniel Lim and James Miller, the lab promotes research into the future of the humanities in the areas of planetary ethics and artificial intelligence. It hosts events and activities designed to enrich the intellectual life of the DKU campus, and trains students in humanistic research.

The lab’s main research question is: what does it mean to be human in an age of artificial intelligence and planetary civilization? This research question arises out of the conviction that traditional humanistic research must be reconfigured to take proper account of the planetary context from which human life has emerged, and to respond to the challenge of artificial intelligence. In one sense, this is an age-old question in the humanities: what is the difference between nature, people, and machines? But this question takes on new significance because of scientific and technological developments that are overturning ordinary conceptions about the uniqueness of human beings.  Read more about the intellectual context and rationale for the lab’s research.

In addition to conducting research in these areas, the lab also has an exciting student fellowship program. Students receive a stipend, research training, and help design events related to the lab’s themes.

The lab will take place over the 2018-2019 academic year.

Workface

Workface is a network of currently around 1 million entrepreneurs all across China organized in dezentralized learning communities that meet once a week. We cultivate a practice along the three aspects serve – learn – support.

Dierksmeier, Claus

Claus Dierksmeier was appointed director of the “Weltethos-Institut” (Global Ethic Institute) in 2012 to an endowed chair (sponsored by the Karl Schlecht Foundation). Since summer 2018 he has been working at the Institute for Political ScienceP as a professor for “Globalization Ethics with special consideration of the Global Ethic Idea”.

The general focus of his work is the ethics of globalization with regard to its economic and political applications. The current focus is on a secular foundation of a global ethic based on an idea of “qualitative freedom”.  His courses are mainly in the field of political theory.

taken from https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/faculties/faculty-of-economics-and-social-sciences/subjects/department-of-social-sciences/ifp/institute-of-political-science/people/chair-of-globalization-ethics/

 

Bornemann, Boris

Ich interessiere mich für Emotionen und Bewusstsein – und welchen Einfluss Meditation und Achtsamkeit darauf haben können. Ich forsche dazu mit Methoden der Psychologie, Neurowissenschaft und Phänomenologie. Ich betreibe Meditation seit vielen Jahren und unterrichte sie in verschiedenen Kontexten. Gerne helfe ich Ihnen oder Ihrem Unternehmen dabei, einen einfachen und hilfreichen Zugang zu Meditation und Achtsamkeit zu finden.

taken from https://www.borisbornemann.de/

Evolver

“Catalyzing a culture of spirituality, healing and connection through content and community.

Who We Are

The culture of the future is conscious. It acknowledges spirit. It’s designed around healing. It’s based on our interconnection with one another. It celebrates humanity’s role as part of a living planet and cosmos. Since 2007, Evolver has been an innovation hub for this emerging consciousness culture. We produce a podcast, publish articles, offer online courses, and organize events in our home city of New York and across the country. Our botanical dispensary, The Alchemist’s Kitchen, is dedicated to the power of plants.
Our Core Values
  • Love of nature and deep caring about its preservation, and its natural balance
  • Strong awareness of the planet-wide issues of sustainability and a desire to see more action on them
  • Belief that change is the constant
  • Thinking global, acting local
  • Investing time as volunteers with one or more good social causes
  • Wellness of mind, body, and spirit are high priority pursuits
  • Optimistic about the future
  • Concern and support of the wellbeing of all women and children
  • Love and respect for the animal kingdom
  • Design science, innovation in technology and artisanship are desirable

Awareness Through the Body: A Way to Enhance Concentration, Relaxation and Self-Knowledge in Children and Adults.

“ATB started in July 1992 in the schools of Auroville as a programme to help children increase their capacity for attention, concentration and  relaxation, and to enhance their ability for self awareness and their sense of responsibility. Nowadays, it is offered to adults as well as to children.

Through a wide variety of exercises and games, ATB offers individuals opportunities to come to know themselves better, to explore the complexity of their being, and find ways to integrate and harmonise this complexity around the inmost centre of their being.”

(source: https://awarenessthroughthebody.wordpress.com/)

The shallow and the deep, long-range ecology movement. A summary

Abstract: “Ecologically responsible policies are concerned only in part with pollution and resource depletion. There are deeper concerns which touch upon principles of diversity, complexity, autonomy, decentralization, symbiosis, egalitarianism, and classlessness.”

Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification

“Can we hold hope that positive psychology will be able to help people evolvetoward their highest potential?” The classification described in this bookbegan with this question, posed by Neal Mayerson to Martin Seligman in 1999.The Mayerson Foundation was concerned that inadequate progress was beingmade from well-worn problem-fixing approaches and that an approach basedon recognizing people’s strengths and aspirations might prove more effective.Mayerson turned to Seligman to explore the intersection of the emerging fieldof positive youth development and Seligman’s new push to articulate a newpositive psychology. It soon became clear that two prior questions needed tobe answered: (1) how can one define the concepts of “strength” and “highestpotential” and (2) how can one tell that a positive youth development programhas succeeded in meeting its goals?”

(from the preface of the book)

A new psychology for sustainable leadership: the hidden power of ecological worldviews

“During the last decade, the sustainability position in multinational corporations has grown in influence. Much literature has explored how corporations can play an important role in solving the environmental challenges facing the planet. However, until now, there has been little research on sustainability leadership at the individual level. In this book, Schein explores the deeper psychological motivations of sustainability leaders. He shows how these motivations relate to overall effectiveness and capacity to lead transformational change and he explores the ways in which the complexity of sustainability is driving new approaches to leadership.

Drawing on interviews with 75 leaders in more than 40 multinational corporations and NGOs, Schein explores how ecological and post-conventional worldviews are developed and expressed in the context of global sustainability practice. By empirically grounding key theories from developmental psychology, integral ecology, and eco-psychology in sustainability leadership practice, the author encourages us to think about leadership in a different way.

A New Psychology for Sustainability Leadership will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience of educators, students, corporate executives, social science researchers, and concerned citizens. The insights from this book can be usefully integrated into leadership curriculum and development programs to help the next generation of leaders respond to global challenges.”

(Source: http://steveschein.net/books/a-new-psychology-for-sustainability-leadership/overview/)

Integral Yoga at Work – A Study of Practitioner’s Experiences Working in Four Professional Fields

“Formerly a research psychologist in the USA, the author conducted a qualitative study of sixteen long-term practitioners of the Integral Yoga working in the fields of business management, education, health care, and the arts. Initial chapters frame his research methodology and examine some general findings regarding the participants’ practice of the Yoga in work. Results of the study in each field are based largely on interviews with the participants, and include textual references from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the author’s reflections on central themes and common experiences. The final chapter identifies the various principles and insights regarding the application of Integral Yoga in these four professional fields and presents some of the broader implications of the study.”

An Integral Theory of Consciousness

“Abstract: An extensive data search among various types of developmental and evolutionary sequences yielded a `four quadrant’ model of consciousness and its development (the four quadrants being intentional, behavioural, cultural, and social). Each of these dimensions was found to unfold in a sequence of at least a dozen major stages or levels. Combining the four quadrants with the dozen or so major levels in each quadrant yields an integral theory of consciousness that is quite comprehensive in its nature and scope. This model is used to indicate how a general synthesis and integration of twelve of the most influential schools of consciousness studies can be effected, and to highlight some of the most significant areas of future research. The conclusion is that an `all-quadrant, all-level’ approach is the minimum degree of sophistication that we need into order to secure anything resembling a genuinely integral theory of consciousness.”

Ecological Footprint of the Findhorn Foundation and Community

“The study was commissioned by HIE Moray, a Highlands and Islands Local Enterprise Company, to measure the Ecological Footprint of the Findhorn Foundation and Community. The ecological footprint method has been used to determine the extent to which the Findhorn Foundation’s sustainable practices are reducing the Community’s environmental impact.”

Restoration of the tropical dry evergreen forest of peninsular India

“Abstract: The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) ofIndia is only found on the south eastern seaboard of thepeninsular. It has a very limited range, and extends only 60km inland. The TDEF occurs in an area of high populationdensity and consequently it is the rarest type of forestecosystem found in the subcontinent.The establishment of the Auroville International Township in1968 initiated a major work of eco-restoration which has turneda highly eroded lateritic plateau into a re-emerging ecosystemof the TDEF.The work now spreads out beyond the boundaries of theinternational township and involves working with local people,especially women and children. Many lessons have beenlearnt and the work continues to reintegrate the forest in thesocial fabric of a rapidly changing rural environment.”

(source: Blanchflower, P. (2005). Restoration of the tropical dry evergreen forest of peninsular India. Biodiversity, 6(1), 17-24.)

Sadhana Forest

“Sadhana Forest started its ecological revival and sustainable living work on December 19th 2003.

The vision of its founders, Yorit and Aviram Rozin, is to transform 70 acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville. In a spirit of human unity, their aim is to introduce a growing number of people to sustainable living, food security through ecological transformation, wasteland reclamation, and veganism. Our energy and resources are focused on the creation of a vibrant, indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF).

Sadhana Forest won the third place in the Humanitarian Water and Food Award (WAF) 2010. The ceremony took place in the Marble Hall of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 25th, 2010. Shri Ashok Kumar Attri the Ambassador of India to Denmark honored Sadhana Forest by attending the ceremony.
This award is an international recognition of the quality of the ecological and humanitarian work done by Sadhana Forest in India and Haiti.”

(source: https://sadhanaforest.org/about-us/)

Films for the Earth

“Films for the Earth: sharing knowledge and raising awareness with the most moving films about sustainability.

Films for the Earth is an educational initiative awarded by the UNESCO which creates settings, in which important films are showed to move gathered people and to develop visions and aims for a more sustainable society. You are on the most comprehensive website about films and sustainability, ecology and environment.

Films for the Earth means: hundreds of volunteers and contributing companies, active members and thousands of fans!

Find film screenings, free environmental movies for passing on, nature movies or watch right now films on the website!

Films for the Earth is an international centre of excellence for environmental documentaries and a network of environmental country sections. We want to reach as many people as possible with selected films, pass on knowledge about sustainability and inspire them to act.  

We know the best films about sustainability and how they can be used. We make this expertise available in an advisory capacity but also online, on our most comprehensive film and sustainability directory in the world. In three countries we reach over 100,000 people a year with our international festival, school events and member network. Films for Earth inspires, amazes, creates awareness and moves!”

(source: https://filmsfortheearth.org/en/about-us)

Tomorrow

“WHY THIS FILM ?

TODAY, we sometimes feel powerless in front of the various crises of our times.
TODAY, we know that answers lie in a wide mobilization of the human race. Over the course of a century, our dream of progress commonly called “the American Dream”, fundamentally changed the way we live and continues to inspire many developing countries. We are now aware of the setbacks and limits of such development policies. We urgently need to focus our efforts on changing our dreams before something irreversible happens to our planet.
TODAY, we need a new direction, objective… A new dream! The documentary Tomorrow sets out to showcase alternative and creative ways of viewing agriculture, economics, energy and education. It offers constructive solutions to act on a local level to make a difference on a global level. So far, no other documentary has gone down such an optimistic road…
TOMORROW is not just a film, it is the beginning of a movement seeking to encourage local communities around the world to change the way they live for the sake of our planet.

Start small to grow big, and write a new story for the generations to come.”

(source: https://www.tomorrow-documentary.com/)

InnSaei – the Power of Intuition

“The ancient Icelandic word for intuition is “innsæi,” but in Iceland it has multiple meanings. It can mean “the sea within” which is the borderless nature of our inner world, a constantly moving world of vision, feelings and imagination beyond words. It can mean “to see within” which means to know yourself, and to know yourself well enough to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes. And it can mean “to see from the inside out” which is to have a strong inner compass to navigate your way in our ever-changing world.

In the inspiring and thought-provoking InnSæi – the Power of Intuition, Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir and Kristín Ólafsdóttir go on a soul-searching, global journey to uncover the art of connecting within in today’s world of distraction, disconnection and stress. They meet with world-renowned scientists like Marti Spiegelman, an expert in neuroscience and indigenous consciousness who believes that we are only using a fraction of our capacity as human beings, with devastating consequences for the planet; artists like Marina Abramovic, the “grandmother of performance art” who teaches that “in order to create something new human beings need to go into the unknown”; and spiritual leaders like the captivating Malidoma Patrice Somé, a West African elder and author who reasons that “intuition binds us together. Without it we lose our sense of purpose and belonging.”  They also meet an extraordinary group of British schoolchildren who are learning how to better cope in today’s world by unlocking the power of nature and mindfulness.

Illustrated with gorgeous animation and stunning imagery, InnSæi is a film like no other, and one that offers radical insights into how we think and sense the world today.”

The Bridge

RESEARCH EXCHANGES IN AUROVILLE

Auroville is the largest and longest-standing intentional community in the world, practically researching into the evolutionary potential of humankind, developing award-winning transformational practices across fields of culture, economics, governance, education, environment, and health, recognized by UNESCO, the Indian Government, and major industries such as Tata. Visiting researchers can bridge this future-facing body of experimentation with developments in their fields worldwide, for the benefit of humanity as a whole.

WHO WE ARE

The Bridge promotes exchange between Auroville and visiting researchers similarly dedicated to the progress of human society.
We curate presentations and forums that facilitate exchange and the intiation of collaborative projects between Aurovilian and visiting experts.

WHO ARE YOU?

Are you an Aurovilian or visiting expert – in any field? We invite you to offer a presentation of your work.
Contact: thebridge@auroville.org.in
Are you an Auroville community member, volunteer, or visitor? You are welcome to attend our public events series!

Wasteless

Waste is a serious and growing global problem. The way we use and discard it is quickly destroying the earth and damaging our health faster than most people realise. Our planet can’t handle it, and neither can we.

Presently, when we think of waste we follow a linear model. A product is created, we purchase it and, when we’ve used it, we throw away whatever’s left. However, this approach generates an amazing amount of ‘unseen’ waste long before consumers touch it. Conservative experts claim that each kilo of garbage we dispose of in our bins produces 40 kilos of waste upstream (extraction, production and distribution).

After waste is generated, it is typically transported from our lives without much thought. For us, it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’. For our public systems, it’s a nuisance to be dealt with cheaply and quickly. For future generations, it’s one of the biggest mistakes we are making.

We urgently need to raise awareness, change behaviour and inspire an estimated 7 billion+ people to generate less waste.

(Source: wastelessindia.org)

Mitchell, David

In 2014 I was introduced to the initial nucleus of AMA; Tom Bruhn, Mark Lawrence and Zoe.  We quickly realized we had a lot in common on a very deep level. I contributed a presentation to AMA in 2015. Since then I have pursued spiritual transformation and scientific research; the latter I will elaborate on now. One of the aims of the scientific research is to determine whether a climate intervention technique known as cirrus cloud thinning (CCT) is viable. A cirrus cloud remote sensing method was developed that could indicate when and where there are cirrus clouds that were probably formed by homogeneous ice nucleation (a precondition for CCT to work), based on their ice crystal number concentration.  The results of this research were published in 2018 in ACP, and while CCT was not mentioned (requested by a co-author), the paper shows that the right conditions exist for CCT to be effective.  While no scientist I know wants to deploy climate intervention methods, these may be needed in the future due to lack of progress on GHG mitigation efforts and limitations regarding CO2 removal methods.

I am also the president of a yoga organization teaching various yoga practices like meditation, and am a board member of the newly formed Order of Universal Interfaith (OUnI). This places me at the cross-roads of science and spirituality, especially given the spiritual/religious issues surrounding climate intervention research.  I am the “eco-spirituality” board member for OUnI.

While I do not have any AMA contributions immediately in mind, I sense there is that possibility, and therefore want to keep that option open.

Pacific Integral

Pacific Integral is a developer of educational and social change technologies and a global community of leaders and practitioners of transformative change. We aim to support the emergence of a sustainable, equitable and beautiful future for humanity and all of creation. We believe that humanity is in the midst of a profound period of change, and that addressing the opportunities of our time require that we embrace universal human values and ethical action, awaken to and engage in our evolutionary potential, and enact more conscious, integral forms of leadership and collective action in the world, grounded in our deepest wisdom. To this end, we endeavor to impact human development, leadership, and social change at the emergent edge of consciousness and action.

We serve individuals and organizations who see their life and work as an opportunity to make a positive contribution to the future of our world. Our clients are curious and committed. They know they are evolving as people and tend to already have experience in their own development. Our individual clients have a passion for their own growth and for engaging in life deeply and ethically. Our organizational clients tend to have a social purpose or see themselves as serving multiple bottom lines, and have leaders who are interested in working novel and emerging leadership and organizational approaches to foster healthy, transformative work environments.

taken from https://www.pacificintegral.com/about

Litfin, Karen

Karen Litfin, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of political science at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1992. Karen’s first two books were Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooperation (Columbia University Press, 1994) and The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics(MIT Press, 1998). She has also written on the politics of earth remote sensing; the political implications of Gaia Theory; the relationship between climate science and politics; the ecological politics of sacrifice; the global ecovillage movement; and contemplative pedagogical practices. For links to some of these publications, please click on “Research” tab.

Karen’s latest book, Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community, traces her yearlong journey to ecovillages around the world in language that is at once intellectually and emotionally engaging. The book explores these micro-laboratories of deep sustainability through four broad windows—ecology, economics, community, and consciousness—or E2C2, and gleans their lessons for a viable human future at every scale, from the neighborhoods to cities to countries to global governance. Click here for her video.

In her teaching, Karen takes an innovative “person/planet politics” approach rooted in two questions: What does it mean to come of age at the dawn of the Anthropocene, as we learn that prevailing institutions, practices and values are unraveling the tapestry of life? And how does one serve as a mentor under these conditions? Karen is currently working on a book based upon her twenty years of experience with contemplative pedagogical practices in environmental and global education.

taken from https://www.polisci.washington.edu/people/karen-litfin

Whidbey Institute

Whidbey Institute is a home for transformational learning and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Our mission is to nurture the conditions for transformational learning, and our purpose is to grow the human capacity to respond generatively to the challenges of our time in service to a future in which people and planet thrive together.

We partner with a network of program leaders working in the areas of generative leadership, ecosystem vitality, community resilience, and more to offer one-day and multi-day workshops, conferences, and retreats. Our 106-acre conservation forest campus on South Whidbey Island is open to the public and features integrated gardens and a four-mile trail network.

taken from https://whidbeyinstitute.org/about-us/

Lawrence, Mark

My role in the team:

Setting up a project like AMA was a keen interest of mine already before starting at the IASS.  After the first years of developing our program on our core topics like air pollution and climate change, and connecting to the spiritual and religious communities through dialogues and workshops, the time was finally ripe to kick off a pre-AMA project with Tom Bruhn, Zoe Lüthi and other colleagues.  Watching that grow into what the current team has made out of AMA today has been deeply fulfilling, and I’m pleased to continue to interact with the team however I can connect to and support their efforts.

Background & expertise

  • PhD in Atmospheric Science
  • Habilitation in Physics
  • Research focus on air pollution and climate geoengineering
  • Additional research: the Anthropocene and Earth-system science
  • Transdisciplinarity & co-creation
  • Various facilitation & moderation forms
  • Leadership experience and deep interest in Taoist leadership principles
  • Black belt in Aikido

My responsibilities:

  • Advisory role, mainly reflecting on major developments with the team
  • Connecting to like-minded colleagues and stakeholders
  • Representing AMA and its principles at academic and public events

Emerge

Emerge is an independent, non-profit media platform highlighting the initiatives, individuals and ways of thinking that are sowing the seeds of a new civilisation.

We are exploring how to act wisely in a world that seems out of control. We aim to explore the emerging cultural narratives of our time by collecting useful content from across the web, profiling change makers and thinkers, publishing thought-provoking commentary and producing original videos and podcasts.

We are living in times of profound transition where our ways of working, communicating and governing are quickly transforming. Many of our received wisdoms, habits and perspectives are becoming obsolete. What will emerge in the vacuum created by this disruption is not yet clear, but some critical questions hang in the balance:

Will we manage to avert ecological crisis? Will our new technologies enable powerful collaboration, or create intense polarisation? What does it mean to live a meaningful life in relationship with ourselves and others?

Nobody knows what the world will look like in 20 years time. At Emerge we believe that we all have a part to play in weaving a new story for humanity and our planet.

In fact, we are already doing it.

By combining live events with the power of the internet, Emerge is a hub for people and initiatives searching for solutions to pressing global challenges, asking the question: What new patterns of living, working and existing together are currently emerging?

We are a network and a movement that celebrates people and projects, and we offer an invitation to each of us to discover our role in this new story.

What We Believe

 The challenges facing our world today are more complex and species-threatening than ever before in human history. The global threat of climate change and the social impacts of digitalisation and globalisation are currently far more complex than our collective capacity to comprehend. In order for us to move forward, our thinking about global problems has to evolve to match their complexity.

Our personal psychology is of huge consequence to the outside world. If we are going to transform as a society then the personal development of individuals must be taken seriously as a societal, as well as an individual, concern.

There is no one ‘true’ way of seeing the world. In order to move forward we need to transcend binary thinking.This means moving beyond left and right political divides, thinking in terms of individual and collective responsibility, national and global identity, honoring individual identities and recognising the need to focus on a greater “we”.

Our world is socially constructed in more ways than we habitually tend to think. Human beings are dependent on and connected to the natural world, but when it comes to human society we are the creators. This means that we have more power than we realise to change it.

The emerging future will be co-created by all of us. The world is learning to come together in new ways and each of us has a vital role to play. Emerge is a place where all are called forth to bring our gifts to the greater circle.

Across the world, there are hundreds of initiatives, projects and persons who are already tackling real world problems from this place of deeper awareness. Our aim is to bring awareness to this growing movement and connect the dots between the people and projects contributing to this emergence.

This is a time of profound collaboration and we see you as a vital part of this mission. We’d love to weave your voice and vision into all that is being created and keep you updated on the launch of new projects, events and initiatives around the world.
Text from http://www.whatisemerging.com/about

A Mindset for the Anthropocene

The AMA project is a science-based reflection and empowerment hub for change agents engaging in inner transformation in the context of socio-ecological transformation. Institutionally the AMA project is operating as a transdisciplinary research project at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. Beyond its research work, the AMA project acts as a network catalyst for an emerging global community that aims at cultivating ethical and virtuous qualities of the human mind as drivers of socio-ecological transformations to sustainability.

Manemo

Ganzheitlicher, weil wir langfristig und umfassend Ergebnisse, Freuden und Sorgen mit unseren ›Kunden teilen wollten. Also haben wir auf Basis unserer Kompetenzen einen ›Blauen Ozean entwickelt, der ›Managementtraining, ›Organisationsentwicklung und ›Unternehmensberatung in einer Nutzeninnovation kombiniert.

Konsequenter, weil die Anfrage eines Kernkraftwerksbetreibers unsere ›Wasserlinie offensichtlich und die Arbeit mit einem Öko-Pionier uns glücklich gemacht hat. Seit dem gönnen wir uns den Luxus, nur mit Kunden zu arbeiten, die uns am Herzen liegen und die an ›nachhaltigen Transformationsprozessen Interesse haben.

Wir wollen nichts weniger als unsere Berufung leben und gemeinsam mit ausgewählten Kunden ein klein wenig die ›Welt retten. Denn die Welt ist unsere Freundin…

MANEMO ist ein kunterbunter Haufen mit ausgeprägten Persönlichkeiten und vielfältigen Kompetenzen: wir treten den Beweis an, dass eine ›ökosoziale Marktwirtschaft jetzt und hier schon gelebt werden kann.

taken from: https://www.manemo.de/wer-wir-sind/

WeAll – Wellbeing Economy Alliance

WEAll is a new global collaboration of organisations, alliances, movements and individuals working together to change the economic system to create a wellbeing economy: one that delivers human and ecological wellbeing. It is registered as a UK Trust, hosted by registered English charity The Equality Trust.

Text from https://wellbeingeconomy.org/how-will-we-change-the-system

GAIA Initiative

Gaia Initiative is a non-profit organization which advocates a shift in the core values of the society.
Gaia Initiative undertakes various forms of educational activities for different players in the society as well as supporting programs for corporations.

The 21st century requires not only “money” and “efficiency” but also the 3rd element, G-axis (Gaia – axis), as the core values of the society. It is nothing new. It is nothing difficult. It is to remember what we have forgotten while busy pursuing economic outcome – to be conscious about and thankful to your life and Gaia. Keep it in mind everyday and express it in your action.

Personal life is no longer measured by income, size of your house, school names, and positions. More people choose a lifestyle in which their achievement is not necessarily expressed in numbers. More people choose to buy environmentally-conscious products. More people are interested in where vegetables for dinner come from. People always want to do something that makes your family smile. However small it is, your action matters.

 

Text from http://www.gaiainitiative.org/en/about_gaia.html

HEED Institute for Human Engineering and Empathic Design

Das Ziel von HEED besteht darin, die Gründerkultur in Deutschland zu stärken und Studierenden die Entwicklung zu innovativen und unternehmerischen Persönlichkeiten zu ermöglichen. Dadurch soll ein gesellschaftlicher Wandel vorangetrieben werden, der Risikobereitschaft nicht mehr stigmatisiert, sondern als einen positiven Wert erachtet.
Um dies zu erreichen, tauscht HEED Hörsaal gegen Werkstatt und versteht sich als ein Innovationslabor, das seine Wirkung durch das empathische Zusammenspiel kreativer Menschen an einem inspirierenden Ort entfaltet. Der von HEED entwickelte Innovationsprozess ist ganzheitlicher als traditionelle Ansätze. Er stellt den Menschen ins Zentrum und bildet den gesamten Produktlebenszyklus ab, von der Invention über die Produktion bis zur Distribution. Möglich wird dies durch die Synergie von Kompetenzen, die sich aus der Zusammenarbeit aller drei Fakultäten der Hochschule Pforzheim ergibt (Technik, Wirtschaft  & Recht und Gestaltung). Gemessen an der Zahl der in den drei Fakultäten Lehrenden und der in ihnen angebotenen Studiengänge ist dieses Zusammenwirken einzigartig.
Konkret arbeiten in HEED je nach Aufgabenstellung unterschiedlich zusammengesetzte multidisziplinäre Teams aus Studierenden aller drei Fakultäten der Hochschule Pforzheim zusammen, um miteinander und voneinander zu lernen. Begleitet und beraten werden sie nicht nur von multidisziplinären DozentInnen-Teams der Hochschule Pforzheim, sondern auch von externen ExpertInnen, beispielsweise erfolgreichen Startup-GründerInnen, u.a. im starTUB-Format, Ein besonderer Stellenwert kommt dabei Maßnahmen zur Persönlichkeitsbildung zu.
Die praktische Arbeit in Projektseminaren geht Hand in Hand mit einer Forschungstätigkeit, die Möglichkeitsbedingungen von Kreativität, Innovation und verantwortungsbewusstem Entrepreneurship untersucht. Die Ergebnisse dessen werden veröffentlicht und in die Lehre zurückgeführt.

Text taken from www.hs-pforzheim.de/forschung/institute/heed/

Carbon Conversations

Carbon Conversations was started by Rosemary Randall, a psychotherapist, and Andy Brown an engineer. Drawing on Rosemary’s therapeutic experience with groups and Andy’s technical expertise they created a unique psycho-social project that addresses the practicalities of carbon reduction while taking account of the complex emotions and social pressures that make this difficult.

Between 2006 and 2010 the project was hosted by the charity Cambridge Carbon Footprint. From 2011 to 2012 it found a home with the Oxford charity, Climate Outreach and from 2013 to March 2017 it was managed by the Surefoot Effect Community Interest Company. We think that over two thousand people may have participated in facilitated Carbon Conversations groups in the UK.

A number of projects around the world have also used Carbon Conversations, including groups in Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, France, Finland and Spain.

Over the years the project produced detailed, professionally designed materials on carbon reduction, culminating in the publication of the book In Time for Tomorrow? in 2015. The project also developed considerable expertise and materials on the psychology of climate change and the use of small groups to help people overcome their fears and defensiveness in dealing with it. These materials can all be downloaded from this website.

The project is indebted to all those who helped in its development and use over the years but we should particularly mention Shilpa Shah whose work for the Akashi project developed its use of personal testimony, Peter Harper who generously contributed his expertise on carbon calculation and the three organisations who successively hosted it – Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Climate Outreach and Surefoot

Great Transition Initiative

The Great Transition Initiative is an online forum of ideas and an international network for the critical exploration of concepts, strategies, and visions for a transition to a future of enriched lives, human solidarity, and a resilient biosphere. By enhancing scholarly discourse and public awareness of possibilities arising from converging social, economic, and environmental crises, and by fostering a broad network of thinkers and doers, it aims to contribute to a new praxis for global transformation.

Correspondingly, GTI maintains a cosmopolitan outlook that is attuned to critical questions of scale and the ways nested systems operate across global, regional, and local levels. It gives voice to diverse contributors motivated by both ethical and pragmatic concerns about the need for revised ways of thinking, learning, acting, and being. It aims to deepen understanding of values and cultural dimensions of global change, along with social, economic, political, and scientific aspects of a Great Transition.

Journey of an Idea

GTI’s roots extend back a quarter century to the early discourse on the meaning and implications of sustainable development. Then, as now, sustainability’s abstract call for a just and enduring mode of development found broad adherence, but little consensus on specific goals and strategies. Views have broadly fallen into two distinct approaches: reform and transformation.

The reform strategy relies on market adjustments and policy measures to hasten the deployment of green technology and the reduction of poverty. Critics of this mainstream approach find it inadequate for the task, as it treats the symptoms of unsustainability instead of the underlying disease. They fear it will be unable to overcome powerful countervailing forces: the growth imperative of conventional development, the resistance of vested interests, and a spreading consumerist culture. Advocates of a transformational strategy thus seek deeper cultural shifts, a new sustainability paradigm to drive and guide development.

In 1995, prompted by these concerns, Gilberto Gallopín and Paul Raskin convened the Global Scenario Group (GSG), an international and interdisciplinary body for illuminating the requirements for a transition to sustainability. Under the organizational aegis of the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute, and with support from diverse foundations and United Nations agencies, the GSG conducted a series of studies and simulations to illuminate global challenges and possibilities. It summarized its insights in the valedictory 2002 essay Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead, which set a broad historical, conceptual, and strategic framework for contemplating the global future.

The time had come to engage a far larger group in clarifying the meaning of a Great Transition and moving from ideas to ideas-in-action. Therefore, in 2003, the Global Scenario Group segued into a new effort: the Great Transition Initiative. GTI became a worldwide network of hundreds of engaged thinkers and thinking activists, supported by a coordinating unit at Tellus, which provided a forum for enriching the scenarios, sharpening the theory of change, and spreading awareness.

In 2014, the Tellus Institute reimagined and relaunched GTI, seeking to extend its reach and influence. In its new phase, GTI serves as a formal journal of Great Transition studies, offering a rolling series of essays, viewpoints, reviews, and interviews. The GT Network continues to expand and diversify as a forum for engaged thinkers and thinking activists to advance together toward a vision and praxis for a decent planetary civilization. The journey continues.

Berkana Institute

The Berkana Institute and our partners share the clarity that whatever the problem, community is the answer. We prepare for an unknown future by creating strong & sustainable relationships, by wisely stewarding the earth’s resources and by building resilient communities. We rely on our experience that most human beings are caring, generous and want to be together. We have learned that people can get through anything as long as we’re together. Berkana was founded in 1991 to create communities of support and inquiry for those working to create a future of promise and possibility that benefits all people. We are based in the U.S. and operate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

We work from an evolving, coherent theory of change. Since 1991, we have been learning from life (living systems) about how to create systems that are interdependent, adaptive and resilient. Everything we do is a conscious experiment to better understand two of life’s robust capacities: self-organization–life’s process for creating order (effectiveness) without control, and emergence–life’s means for creating system-wide change, taking things to scale. Read Lifecycle of Emergence: Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze.

We work at the level of community. The Berkana Institute works in partnership with a rich diversity of people around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environments. Berkana and our partners share the clarity that whatever the problem, community is the answer. We prepare for an unknown future by creating strong and sustainable relationships, by wisely stewarding the earth’s resources and by building resilient communities. We rely on our experience that most human beings are caring, generous and want to be together. We have learned that human beings can get through anything as long as we’re together.

We focus on four key activities. In many ways, Berkana’s work is quite straightforward. We name trailblazing leaders and communities, connect them to one another, nourish them with relationships, learning, resources, and support, and illuminate their stories as important examples of the future taking place right now

Center for Ecozoic Studies

From its beginning in 2000, the Center for Ecozoic Studies (from 2011 to 2017, known as the Center for Ecozoic Societies) has been concerned with the integration of the human world in the natural world. “Integrate,” as used here, means to make whole by bringing all the components of Earth’s community of life together in a coherent and mutually enhancing manner. This is first and foremost an ecological challenge, but it cannot occur without cultural changes and changes in human relations.

Our work has been inspired and guided by Thomas Berry’s vision and insight. Berry taught that the primary flaw in human development is the radical discontinuity between humans and other modes of being. He also taught that human activity has disrupted major life patterns and systems such that we are bringing to an end the Cenozoic era in Earth’s history. For there to be a hopeful future, we need to bring into being an “Ecozoic era.” Bringing this into being, he called “the Great Work” of our time, one surpassed by no other great work given to humans in history. To accomplish the Great Work will mean re-inventing the human and establishing a new intimacy with the natural world.

Our work involves teaching, translating, further developing and applying these ideas. We see the movement into the Ecozoic era as involving a transition from economic-industrial societies (including the visions, understandings and ways of relating in these societies) to ecological-cultural (ecozoic) societies. Thus, our mission is to offer new ideas and new ways of living for an ecological-cultural age.

We divide our work into four main areas described elsewhere in this website:

  • Publications
  • Education
  • Events, and
  • Action

This is our expanded mission statement:

The mission of CES is to advance new ideas and new ways of living for an ecological-cultural (ecozoic) age, through publications, education, arts, and action. CES emphasizes critical reflection, story and shared dream experience as ways of enabling the creative advance needed to bring into being a new mode of human civilizational presence, and also of discerning the practical steps leading to the Ecozoic. CES understands the universe as meaningful, continuously evolving, and relational. In such a universe, the Ecozoic is not something to be arrived at, but something ever to be created. Its hallmarks are inclusiveness, interdependence, and appreciation; communion, differentiation, and subjectivity; and sensitivity, adaptability, and responsibility. It involves more just and cooperative relationships among humans, as well as transformed relationships of humans with the larger community of life.

Global Ecological Integrity Group

The Global Ecological Integrity Group (GEIG) includes more than 250 scholars and independent researchers worldwide, from diverse disciplines, including ecology, biology, philosophy, epidemiology, public health, ecological economics, and international law.
Our mandate is to push the boundaries of scholarly endeavour through inter- and trans-disciplinary engagement on matters affecting and governing the sustainability of life for both present and future generations.
GEIG holds an Annual Symposium at different locations around the world, with diverse partner organizations. The conference focuses on a particular theme and usually results in a publication with selected presenters, launched at the following year’s meeting.

Emerging Earth Community

Emerging Earth Community is an effort to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns so as to respond with longer term perspectives and goals

Emerging Earth Community represents the creative work of John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker for the last several decades both within academia and beyond. This website illustrates the importance of a comprehensive epic story, spiritual and cultural values, and an integrating ethical framework. It suggests that responding creatively to the challenges of this critical moment in Earth’s history requires that we:

  1. Understand our personal journeys in relation to the large scale story of the emergence of the universe, Earth and life itself. The Journey of the Universe is an epic story that illustrates our profound relatedness to the larger Earth community thus providing a context for creating the conditions for flourishing ecosystems and human cultures
  2. Engage the religions of the world and the many spiritual paths in drawing forth their ecological sensibilities and practices, often focused on particular bioregions, that are necessary to create a just, sustainable and peaceful future
  3. Embrace an ethical framework, the Earth Charter, that guides us in reinventing our lifestyles, institutions, and policies to create a viable human presence on Earth, both locally and globally

Ecological Law & Governance Association

The Ecological Law & Governance Association – ELGA – was established as a network to support the creation and implementation of ecological law and governance. ELGA was founded in response to the 2016 Oslo Manifesto.

We are a network of academics, professionals and organisations committed to tackling the causes, and not just the symptoms, of global environmental degradation. We develop law and governance from a wide ecological perspective, rather than from a narrow economic, utilitarian and anthropocentric perspective. You can read more about our Mission and Aims here.

Both modern science and indigenous wisdom view Earth and nature from a holistic perspective. As our understanding expands to encompass truly ecological thinking and practice, what is required is a moral and philosophical change, and a subordination of our material expectations and desires to the delicate balance of our planet. Our laws and governance systems must reflect this change in our understanding and mindset.

ELGA is managed by a Steering Committee, which co-ordinates activities, organises conferences and develops projects.

Initiative Psychologie im Umweltschutz e.V.

Die Initiative Psychologie im Umweltschutz e.V. (IPU) ist ein bundesweiter Verein von Studierenden und Berufstätigen, die das Ziel der Förderung des Umweltschutzes mit den Mitteln der Psychologie verfolgen.

Great Transition Initiative

The Great Transition Initiative is an online forum of ideas and an international network for the critical exploration of concepts, strategies, and visions for a transition to a future of enriched lives, human solidarity, and a resilient biosphere. By enhancing scholarly discourse and public awareness of possibilities arising from converging social, economic, and environmental crises, and by fostering a broad network of thinkers and doers, it aims to contribute to a new praxis for global transformation.

Künkel, Petra

Petra Kuenkel is a full member of the Club of Rome, an accomplished author and a leading strategic advisor to pioneering international multi-stakeholder initiatives that address complex sustainability issues. In 2005 she co-founded the Collective Leadership Institute a not-for-profit social enterprise that promotes the scaling-up of collaboration skills globally for change agents who have the sustainability of this world and the future of humankind as their focus. With more than 1800 Alumni the institute has built collaboration competence for change agents from public sector, private sector and civil society around the globe.

With the Institute and her ground-breaking conceptual work in stakeholder collaboration and collective leadership she brings a strong female voice not only to the Club of Rome, but also to the way international initiatives for sustainability and large systems change are designed. Her focus is on empowering people to make multi-stakeholder collaboration effective in addressing complex global and local challenges. She advocates for an approach to tackling complex sustainability challenges that models successful patterns of collaborative human interaction.

Her mission is to identify and disseminate knowledge about success factors for individual and institutional collaboration at scale – to find solutions to complex challenges such as water scarcity, environmental degradation, climate change impact, social tension, or unsustainable value chains. She raises awareness for the potential of collaborative inventiveness and invigorates the human competences to change the current state of affairs towards an agenda of sustainability.

As an expert of dialogue she contributes her profound experience for making dialogue and stakeholder engagement action-oriented to ensure real-time change in people’s behaviour as well as tangible results. She is a pioneering thinker on re-inventing leadership as a collective competence of a group of leaders that catalyse positive change for the common good.

She fosters mind-set change among decision-makers and has developed a methodology for invigorating human competences that foster result-oriented and value-based collaboration for the common good. Petra Kuenkel is part of an international think tank on large system’s change and co-founder of the Partnering Alliance, an initiative aiming at improving the quality of partnering for sustainability between the public sector, the private sector and civil society.

Prior to the founding of the Collective Leadership Institute she facilitated value-based leadership development programs for executives from multinational companies and held a management position at an international development Organisation.

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is the oldest, largest and most widely recognized fraternal organization in the world. Founded in London, England in 1717, its current worldwide membership totals 3.6 million members, 1.6 million of which are in North America. With 120,000 Masons and 530 local Lodges, Ohio has one of the largest Masonic memberships of any state in the country.

As a fraternal organization, Freemasonry unites men of good character who, though of different religious, ethnic, or social backgrounds, share a belief in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind.

The traditions of Freemasonry are founded upon the building of King Solomon’s Temple, and its fraternal ceremonies use the working tools of the stonemasons to symbolize moral lessons and truths. For example, Masons are reminded at Lodge to “meet upon the level of equality, act by the plumb of uprightness, and part upon the square of virtue.”

Like most organizations, one will get out of Freemasonry what he is able to put into it. However, membership in Freemasonry is not meant in any way to interfere with an individual’s commitment to his faith, family, or occupation. Freemasonry is not and never can be a replacement for these important institutions, but rather it is a positive environment that reminds every Mason of his duty to God, his community, his family and himself.

Freemasonry provides opportunities for sincere, honest, forthright men who believe in God and desire to contribute to the improvement of their communities and themselves. Through our Masonic Fraternalism, we reaffirm our dedication and unity to become involved citizens who have a strong desire to preserve the values that have made and continue to make America great.

Club of Rome

The Club of Rome is an organisation of individuals who share a common concern for the future of humanity and strive to make a difference. Our members are notable scientists, economists, businessmen and businesswomen, high level civil servants and former heads of state from around the world. Their efforts are supported by the Secretariat in Winterthur, Switzerland, the European Research Centre registered in Constance, Germany and National Associations in more than 30 countries.
The Club of Rome conducts research and hosts debates, conferences, lectures, high-level meetings and events. The Club also publishes a limited number of peer-reviewed “Reports to the Club of Rome”, the most famous of which is “The Limits to Growth“.
The Club of Rome’s mission is to promote understanding of the global challenges facing humanity and to propose solutions through scientific analysis, communication and advocacy. Recognising the interconnectedness of today’s global challenges, our distinct perspective is holistic, systemic and long-term.

Dynamic Planet

Dynamic Planet advises, develops and invests in businesses that restore nature. We believe in a business approach that makes conservation projects sustainable for the long term. Our goal is to maximize ecological, social and economic returns with local stakeholders.

We live in an era of unprecedented global hyper-connectivity. Yet we often don’t have the context, history, or perspective to make the best decisions related to ourselves and our larger living system. The majority of the world’s population now lives in cities far removed from the sea and land that support us. Yet everything is connected through our common atmosphere, our one ocean, and our humanity. Trash and pollution produced in one place often ends up in other places. What affects one affects us all.

Dynamic Planet is developing a number of platforms and products to connect us more deeply to our living system so that people can make daily decisions that are less damaging to our environment. We have learned much from the indigenous communities we’ve worked with, and like them, place a high value on reflection, calm, and strategic long-termism.

Nature is our great teacher – nurturing patience, judgment, and courage. While we work to restore nature, our projects also aim to improve the lives of the local people and visitors. We believe that the well-being of our environment is in itself a fundamental human right.

UniverCity of Compassion

The UniverCity of Compassion (UCC) is a space for discovering and nourishing ideas for compassionate action, within the setting of a self-organized community of learning. The UCC is an initiative of Sadhana Forest, a reforestation project and conscious living community which offers the framework for collective learning. The term UniverCity comes from the understanding that living is learning.

As She Is

For years there was this deep sense of insecurity inside…or rather a wrongness about my existence that I did not know how to describe. I tried to live the values of the culture, follow the roadmap to success imparted to me through community, family and school. I was determined to be an “acceptable” kind of woman, even though I was obviously not. So I got educated, went into business, wore suits, thought rationally, competed against others and was successful for a time, but then my life fell apart.

I had been looking outside— in what I did, what I had, who I knew—for who I was, but it didn’t work. The best way to say it was the outside was not connected to the inside so I was living someone else’s idea of me (who I wonder?) I was not free and did not know how to live what I valued. I had no idea if there was a more natural way for me to be.

It became clear that the only way I could understand was to explore from the inside…to renounce what the culture valued and reconnect to my inner knowing. I now know this unknown inner dimension of myself as the feminine…. so I started with a simple question that guided my journey. What is the feminine?

I ask some remarkable people who embody these traits to find out how they would describe the feminine, to get a sense of how being connected to this part of themselves informs their lives and how it is lived in balance with their masculine aspect.

This is my personal inquiry, but I have a sense that this film is also about our collective journey towards wholeness because I am simply a microcosm of the macrocosm…and so are you.

Gallmann Memorial Foundation

We believe that to create impactful and far reaching change and to adapt to living sustainably with our planet we must address humanity’s disconnect from nature and the underlying imbalances and inequalities that have caused the problems we face.

Fetzer Institute

We envision a world where everyone understands we are all part of one human family, and feels a sacred sense of connection to ourselves, each other, and our planet.

In the world we seek, everyone is committed to courageous compassion. By boldly loving, we can be a powerful force for good in the face of fear, anger, division, and despair.

The Fetzer Institute is a growing community of people who see we’re part of something more. We believe the connection between the inner life of spirit and outer life of service and action holds the key to lasting change.

We explore the mysteries of ourselves and our universe through spiritual and scientific inquiry. We work for personal and societal transformation—encouraging the spiritual growth of all people and supporting inclusive communities and institutions around the world.

We aim to inspire and serve a global movement grounded in connection that transforms the world into a more loving home for all.

Tiefenökologie Netzwerk

Tiefenökologie ist so alt wie die Menschheit. Wann immer Menschen sich auf ihre natürliche Mitwelt in ganzheitlicher Weise beziehen, wird tiefenökologisch gelebt. Der norwegische Philosoph und Umweltaktivist Arne Naess hat Anfang der 70er Jahre den Begriff „deep ecology“ geprägt. Er benutzte diesen Begriff, um damit über die oberflächlichen Antworten auf die sozialen und ökologischen Probleme unserer Zeit hinauszugehen, diese zu vertiefen, zu erweitern. Tiefenökologie sieht die Erde als ein lebendes System, in dem alles miteinander verbunden ist. In Übungen und Ritualen, lernen wir uns wieder zu verbinden – mit uns selbst, unseren Mitmenschen, allen anderen Wesen und unserer Erde. Die Probleme, die wir mit uns tragen und der Schmerz, den wir in uns spüren sind nur zum Teil individuell, ein anderer, oftmals weitaus größere Teil, ist kollektiv.

Den Herausforderungen dieser Zeit, wie Klimaveränderung, Artensterben, weltweite Ungerechtigkeit, Kriege, Hunger etc. fühlen sich zunehmend viele Menschen nicht gewachsen und reagieren mit Ohnmacht oder sich überfordernden Aktivismus. Tiefenökologie bietet einen Raum, diese Gefühle nicht zu verdrängen, sondern sie zu benennen, zu spüren und die Erfahrung zu machen, dass Du daran nicht zerbrichst, sondern Kraft gewinnst. Das Wichtigste an dieser Arbeit ist, dass unser Wissen erfahrbar wird, Herz und Verstand in Verbindung sind und wir so zum Handeln kommen, aus uns selbst heraus, mit einem neuen Bewusstsein, dem Bewusstsein für das Ganze! Das lässt uns die Verantwortung übernehmen, für uns selbst und für das, was in der Welt geschieht. Tiefenökologie kann von der Ohnmacht zum Handeln führen. Durch Übungen und ebenso durch kognitive Inhalte der Zusammenhänge wird dieser Prozess erfahrbar.

Das Netzwerk setzt sich aus Menschen zusammen, die diese Arbeit für sich entdeckt und verinnerlicht haben.

Balanced Rock

Yoga and Backpacking Trips in Yosemite. Yosemite journeys for mind, body and spirit. Our retreats and backpack trips harness the transformational power of nature to inspire deep connection with your own inner wisdom.

Refugia Retreats

Refugia acts as a catalyst for societal and personal change through retreats, workshops, spiritual direction, and community facilitation.

Spiral Ecology

Welcome to the website of SpiralEcology, a cultural transformation collaborative. We invite you to explore ‘deep ecology’, walking, and other workshops, where we invite you to connect more deeply with self, world, and Earth.

Reclaiming Our Lives, Reclaiming Our Earth – A WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN WORKING TOWARDS CONSCIOUSNESS

In these deeply polarized times, we feel the wounds on the body politic, the body of the earth, and our own bodies, all at once.  It is ever more important that we come together as women, allow all these wounds to breathe, and, finding their beauty as well as their pain, let them germinate into something entirely new, born to us and to our communities.

Every year we work with a myth or fairy tale, because tapping into archetypal wisdom deepens our understanding of ourselves and our world.  This year we will be examining the Norwegian tale Prince Lindworm, the tale of a queen who gives birth to boy twins, one human and one a serpent.  She conveniently puts the birth of the serpent twin out of her mind, and when he comes of age he challenges her entire kingdom to examine its “forgetfulness.”  The results are dramatic, and transformative.

Please join us at Menla Retreat Center (http://menla.us), Phoenicia, New York, April 3-8, 2018 where, through body work, dreamwork, meditation and the expressive arts, we will investigate what remains hidden in our unconscious and bring it to light, in the warm embrace of our women’s circle.  Please register at www.reclaimingourlives.com.  Scholarships are available for first-time attendees.

April 3-8, 2018

Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy

The book guides the reader through a transformational process informed by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality and holistic science. This process equips us with tools to face the mess we’re in and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, towards a life-sustaining society.

White Awake

White Awake combats white supremacy by focusing on educational resources and spiritual practices designed to facilitate white people’s engagement in the creation of a just and sustainable society.

Our goal is the end of white supremacy. To this end White Awake supports people who’ve been socialized as “white” with the kind of intellectual and spiritual development necessary to:

  1. reject the toxic social conditioning that comes with membership in a dominant group and connect with life affirming cultural expressions
  2. see through the use of racism as a manipulative device that materially benefits a small number of powerful elites
  3. sustain our engagement in cross-racial coalitions to resist current abuses of power and create a truly equitable, life sustaining society.

White Awake emphasizes mindful awareness, spiritual practice, respect for individual experience and wisdom, and the reality that we are all learning. The country of origin of the work is the United States, and the materials in this site deal primarily with the historcal and current conditions of racism and colonization this country.

On Being

The On Being Project is an independent non-profit public life and media initiative. We pursue deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.

We make audio, digital, live event and other offerings towards the generative possibilities of a tender, tumultuous global moment. We look behind and beyond the news cycle, attending to the human change that makes social transformation possible across generational time.

On Being has its origins in a public radio show called Speaking of Faith, which was created by Krista Tippett and launched nationally at American Public Media. A journalist and former diplomat who had studied theology, Krista saw a black hole in media where intelligent conversation about religion, meaning, and moral imagination might be.

In 2010, On Being was born. In 2013, Krista and a founding production team of three spun out of APM. In 2017, Krista and a growing team of comrade-leaders opened the new chapter of mission-driven innovation that is The On Being Project. We’re based in a studio/work/public event space on Loring Park in Minneapolis, with community, colleagues, and partners around the world.

On Being with Krista Tippett, now heard on over 400 public radio stations and a successful podcast, is produced by On Being Studios, together with the On Being Blog, initiatives like the Poetry Radio Project and Public Theology Reimagined, and an expanding portfolio of new podcasts including Becoming Wise and This Movie Changed Me.

The Civil Conversations Project (CCP), which began in 2011 and has become a front edge of our evolution, is an emergent approach to conversation and relationship across the differences of our age. It is an offering towards renewing common life through grounding virtues and spiritual technologies like generous listening, adventurous civility, and hospitable questions. Civil Conversations are increasingly happening in live public events on the road while On Being’s Better Conversations Guide is finding its way into far-flung settings.

CCP was also at the heart of the inaugural On Being Gathering at the 1440 Multiversity in California in 2018.

Our newest adventure, the On Being Impact Lab, is the home of our Fellows Program, the future Spiritual Innovation Laboratory, extensions of the Civil Conversations Project into communities, classrooms and neighborhoods — and more to come.

We believe that collaborative discovery will be a key to living into the generative possibilities of this moment — not just in the halls of the academy or scientific laboratories, but in the everyday living laboratories of our communities, our friendships, and our minds.

Go Wild Institute

Go Wild Institute weaves science, myth  and spirit to awaken our Nature and find wonder and balance within the great web of life. We rekindle an innate sense of belonging to the natural world. We specialize in fun experiential programs that delve into Earth Wisdom, Ethnobotany and Deep Ecology for people of all ages and walks of life.

Parliament of the World’s Religions

We live in a world of difference. Yet, we are interdependent. Nowhere is learning to live with difference more important than religion.

Too often, religion is misused as an instrument for division and injustice, betraying the very ideals and teachings that lie at the heart of each of the world’s great traditions. At the same time, religious and spiritual traditions shape the lives of billions in wise and wonderful ways. They gather people in communities of shared beliefs and practices. When these diverse communities work in harmony for the common good, there is hope that the world can be transformed.

Over the years, the Council has initiated dialogues and nurtured relationships among people of difference. In doing so the Parliament has provided a framework for expressing many visions of a just, peaceful and sustainable future. In the process, religious and spiritual communities have discovered a shared commitment to ethical principles.

This shared commitment has opened the way for a new era of cooperative action among the world’s religious and spiritual communities as well as civil and political societies. The well-being of the Earth and all life depends on this collaboration.

Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality

Honoring all of creation as Original Blessing, Creation Spirituality integrates the wisdom of Eastern and Western spirituality and global indigenous cultures with the emerging scientific understanding of the universe and the passion of creativity. It is both a tradition and a movement, celebrated by mystics and agents of social change from every age and culture.

Ecological Citizen

Rather than dominating and parasitizing the biosphere, with non-human life harmed and ever-increasingly hemmed in by humans’ industrial development, an ecological civilization would thrive within a preserved and restored expanse of unfragmented wild nature.

Profound changes are called for. Indeed an entirely new historical course is needed. Changes to be explored in depth include the following:

● achieving large-scale protection, restoration and rewilding of air, land and water;

● rejecting the anthropocentric construction of nature as resources;

● designing and implementing steady-state economies;

● reassessing the connections between cultures and bioregions;

● superseding the paradigm of consumerism;

● stabilizing and then lowering our global population;

● increasing the sustainability of urban living;

● rethinking food production.

We also consider necessary changes in ways of thinking and consciousness. In particular we welcome new natural and cultural narratives and cosmological stories that awaken us to Earth’s sacredness, celebrate its abundant and diverse life, and rekindle humanity as a plain citizen of the ecosphere.

Mother Pelican – A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Integral human development includes all dimensions in the life of each person, including the physical, intellectual, pyschological, ethical, and spiritual dimensions. In particular, the spiritual development of each and every human person is crucial for sustainable development. It is recognized that spiritual growth is impossible for people living in misery. However, the extreme poverty of many is mostly a consequence of the spiritual underdevelopment of people living in abundance. Therefore, the mission of Mother Pelican encompasses the full range of social and ecological justice issues, but is specifically focused on how they relate to spirituality and the practices of various religious traditions. Gender inequalities that emerge from religious patriarchy are explored as major obstacles to integral human development, solidarity, and sustainability.

Harmony with Nature

In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day. In so doing, Member States acknowledged that the Earth and its ecosystems are our common home, and expressed their conviction that it is necessary to promote Harmony with Nature in order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations. The same year, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Harmony with Nature.

Ökologie und Humanität im Anthropozän

ÖKOLOGIE UND HUMANITÄT IM MENSCHENZEITALTER
Der Mensch und seine Aktivitäten werden zunehmend zu einem bestimmenden Faktor in der geo-biologischen Entwicklung der Erde. In existenziellen Aspekten übersteigen die menschliche Eingriffstiefe und deren Folgen erkennbar die natürliche, von der Evolution bedingte Dynamik. In der Fachwelt wird deshalb derzeit der von Paul Crutzen eingebrachte Vorschlag diskutiert, ob das Erdzeitalter des Holozän durch das Zeitalter des Anthropozän abzulösen ist. In der Öffentlichkeit findet dieser Vorschlag zunehmend Aufmerksamkeit.
Zugleich bleiben die Menschen unauflöslich Teil der äußeren Natur und in die Naturzusammenhänge eingebunden. Sie unterliegen unaufhebbar den Naturgesetzen. Sind die modernen Ansprüche von Freiheit und Humanität dauerhaft mit den Gesetzmäßigkeiten der Evolution vereinbar? Ist der Mensch überhaupt fähig, das Erdsystem verantwortlich zu erhalten und zu steuern?
Damit ergibt sich die Notwendigkeit, das Verhältnis von Humanität und Ökologie neu zu bestimmen: Was bedeutet das Anthropozän für die Zukunft humanistischer Werte und Gesellschaftsformen?
Vielfältige Fragen zum gesellschaftlichen Naturverhältnis stellen sich, die die Entgegensetzung von Humanität und Natur hinter sich lassen: Was ist eine Ökologie des Menschen? Was bedeutet Menschlichkeit, das uns Menschen Gemäße, bezogen auf die Ko-Evolution von Pflanze, Tier und Mensch? Wieviel spontan sich entwickelnde und wirkende Natur braucht, wünscht oder duldet der Mensch? Wie abhängig ist er vom Boden?
Welche Herausforderungen bringt das Anthropozän für die jetzt beginnende Große Transformation zu einer postfossilen nachhaltigen Entwicklung mit sich? Welche Arten von Techniken können dabei eine Rolle spielen? Wie weit müssen wir ihnen vertrauen oder sie fürchten?
Alle an diesen Fragen Interessierten sind herzlich nach Tutzing eingeladen; Fachleute der unterschiedlichen Disziplinen ebenso wie Multiplikatorinnen, Engagierte und Neugierige. Kommen Sie zum Austausch und zum Feiern in die Akademie!
Menschenzeitalter, gestalten wir es in human-ökologischer Perspektive.
http://www.ev-akademie-tutzing.de/veranstaltung/oekologie-und-humanitaet-im-anthropozaen/

FORUM “DAS WIR-POTENZIAL. INNOVATION DURCH EMPATHIE”

ICH oder WIR? Unsere Fähigkeit zur Empathie spielt auf dem Weg zu einem anderen, humaneren Kapitalismus eine Schlüsselrolle. Der Homo oeconomicus, eingespannt in die Pole von Selbstsucht und Mitleid, kann an sich arbeiten und sein Mitgefühl gezielt trainieren – zum Wohle der Gemeinschaft und zum Wohle der Gesamtwirtschaft. HEED, das von der Karl Schlecht Stiftung geförderte Institute for Human Engineering & Empathic Design der Hochschule Pforzheim, nimmt diese Thematik auf: In dem öffentlichen Forum „Das Wir-Potenzial. Innovation durch Empathie“ am 12. und 13. April 2018 beleuchten führende Vertreter aus Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Kultur das Thema Empathie facettenreich.

Mit:
Matthias Bolz, Psychologe und Labor Manager für soziale Neurowissenschaft am Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften in Leipzig

Robert Eikmeyer, Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter für Kunst- und Designtheorie an der Hochschule Pforzheim

Uwe Jean Heuser, Leiter des Wirtschaftsressorts der ZEIT und Autor von “Humanics”

Wolfgang Henseler, Professor für intermediales Design an der Hochschule Pforzheim und Managing Creative Director von SENSORY-MINDS

Robert Besta, Schauspieler, verkörpert in Serien wie Tatort und Polizeiruf 110 häufig das Böse

Eva Köppen, Beraterin für ko-kreative und mensch-zentrierte Innovationsprozesse und Autorin von “Empathy by Design”

Fritz Breithaupt, Professor an der Indiana University Bloomington und Autor von “Kulturen der Empathie” und “Die dunklen Seiten der Empathie”

Das Forum findet in der Aula der Fakultät für Gestaltung, Holzgartenstraße 36, 75175 Pforzheim statt. Für externe Gäste fällt eine Tagungsgebühr in Höhe von 250,- € an. Studierende und Angehörige von Hochschulen sind frei. Um Anmeldung bis 2. April 2018 wird gebeten. Details zum Programm und zur Anmeldung unter HEED.

 

https://www.hs-pforzheim.de/forschung/institute/heed/aktuelles/detailansicht/news/forum_das_wir_potenzial_innovation_durch_empathie/

Erdfest. Eine Initiative

Die Zeit ist reif, ein neues Fest im Jahreslauf zu schaffen. So viele Jahre und Jahrhunderte haben wir von der Erde nur genommen, mit viel Gier und wenig Dank. Nun ist es an uns, etwas zurückzugeben: unser Bekenntnis, dazu zu gehören, unsere Dankbarkeit, Erde zu sein.

Das Erdfest versteht sich als eine Feier der Lebendigkeit, die in Gegenseitigkeit geschieht. Es will zur Partnerschaft mit der mehr als menschlichen Welt inspirieren.

Als Termin schlägt diese Initiative drei Tage im Frühsommer vor. Die Natur steht in voller Blüte, die Tage sind lang und hell, alle treibt es nach draußen. Überall können dann »Erdfeste« stattfinden: Menschen kommen aufmerkend, die Sinne öffnend zusammen, in Freude an der Natur. Eine solche Haltung wirkt und strahlt aus. In Gemeinschaft können so auch die Probleme unserer Zeit angesprochen und Ideen für eine naturverbundenere Gesellschaft entwickelt werden.

Wisdom Together

We deeply believe that consciousness and ethical leadership are fundamental for global transformation. Conscious leaders have high levels of awareness, and act with compassion to share their knowledge, network and experience with others.They lead from an inner source of wisdom and authentic power, and can be found in any position in our societies.

Center for Earth Jurisprudence

We are a team of lawyers located at the Barry University School of Law School in Orlando, Florida. Our goal is to advance laws and policies designed to protect the natural systems, species, and entities that sustain life on Earth.

Earth jurisprudence is an emerging field of law that seeks to develop a philosophy and practice of law that gives greater consideration to nature, by recognizing the interconnectedness of Earth’s natural systems, the inherent rights and value of nature, and the dependence of humanity and all living beings on a healthy Earth.

The Center for Earth Jurisprudence advocates for the adoption of earth jurisprudence principles in our legal system.

Institute for mindful agriculture

Seeding the co-evolution of Earth and her inhabitants

The Institute for Mindful Agriculture (IMA) will help re-shape agricultural theory and practice to create a world where individuals are once again strongly connected to the source of their sustenance and where food is grown in active dialogue with nature and distributed in a socially just manner.

To meet its responsibilities in the future, this new agriculture will require us to consciously develop mindful life practices. Only then will it be able to support the co-evolution of Planet Earth and her inhabitants.

Keepers of the Water

By integrating art, science and community, we aim to make the natural process of water treatment visible and integrated into daily life and culture.

Global water quality is dependent on each community having a sustainable water source that they know about and are responsible for. Cities all over the planet can be filled with vibrant water and art-filled community centers, parks, schoolyards, businesses and backyards that help people become intimately connected to their water sources. These projects will lead the way for fully sustainable water infrastructures that are visible and integrated into our everyday lives.

We solve problems better with a diversity of minds. Through water, we are interconnected and related to all other living things. Like water, we are one giant family, always seeking to join one another.

Spiritual Ecology

Spiritual Ecology is a spiritual response to our present ecological crisis.

It is a developing field that joins ecology and environmentalism with the awareness of the sacred within creation. It calls for responses to environmental issues that include spiritual awareness and/or practice. The principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual as well as physical responsibilities toward the planet. Thus, ecological renewal and sustainability necessarily depends upon spiritual awareness and an attitude of responsibility.

 

Spiritual Ecology is an initiative of Kalliopeia Foundation.

Association for Tribal Heritage

The teachings of our ancestors give us a way of life that allows us to be personally fulfilled and helpful to our families and communities.  

The Association for Tribal Heritage is dedicated to supporting the Native American traditions in a global society.  We believe Native American communities can bridge the two worlds and live a traditional way of life, while expanding the horizons of this modern world.

Biodynamic Association

Rethinking Agriculture

The Biodynamic Association awakens and enlivens co-creative relationships between humans and the earth, transforming the practice and culture of agriculture to renew the vitality of the earth, the integrity of our food, and the health and wholeness of our communities.

Ulex Project

  • high-quality trainings building social movement capacity for social justice and ecological integrity
  • a residential training centre serving the needs of social movements for the long haul
  • collaboration and innovation enabling the responsive development of social movement training in Europe
  • a hub strengthening connections for pan-European solidarity and social movement resilience

 

Global Oneness Project

We Believe in the
Power of Stories

Welcome to the Global Oneness Project. We believe that stories play a powerful role in education. Founded in 2006, as an initiative of Kalliopeia Foundation, we are committed to the exploration of cultural, environmental, and social issues. We house a rich library of free multimedia stories comprised of our award-winning films, photo essays, and articles, accompanied by companion curriculum for teachers.

Sophia Institute

Transforming Our Lives, Transforming Our World

The Sophia Institute is a center of learning that provides innovative programs that foster the rise of the Feminine, cultivating wisdom and mindfulness, for a more just, sustainable, and flourishing world. Sophia offers retreats, lectures, classes, and special events, featuring nationally and internationally renowned leaders and teachers.

Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association

The Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (DDMBA) is committed to serving humanity by working to relieve the various forms of human suffering — physical, emotional and spiritual. It’s programs range from international dialogues on peace building in regions of conflict to classes on methods of cultivating peace within. One of DDMBA’s primary functions is to support scholarly research in the field of Buddhism, particularly the Chan tradition, instructing and encouraging Buddhist practitioners through its centers in the United States.

DDMBA’s international activities include the organization of seminars and conferences that enhance understanding and respect between different cultures and religions. It also initiates programs for environmental protection, leadership training for young adults, and it provides charitable aid to those in need.

Alaya – Breathing Clean Air

Clean Air from the inside out.

Recently a group of IASS researchers has been exchanging ideas on the question of how inner transformation processes can contribute to sustainability – and, conversely, on the question of how societal transformations can enrich not just the ‘outside world’ but also people’s ‘inner lives’. The research project “A Mindset for the Anthropocene” is investigating these connections, establishing a platform for debate, and promoting transformative mindsets in sustainability contexts. The Alaya project is a practical approach to cultivate this idea.

 

Abrahamisches Forum

Wir brauchen ein verändertes Verständnis von Natur und Umwelt. Es erfordert, nicht nur an die eigenen Kosten und Nutzen zu denken, sondern Natur als ein unersetzbares Gut zu sehen, welches auch für unsere Nachwelt zu bewahren ist. Die ökologische Krise ist somit auch eine ethische Herausforderung!

Für etwa 80% der Weltbevölkerung spielt Religion eine Rolle in ihrem Leben. Die Integrität der Natur zu achten und zu bewahren ist eine wesentliche Botschaft aller Religionen. In der gemeinsamen Erkenntnis der Religionsgemeinschaften hinsichtlich der Bedeutung des Lebens und der Natur liegt somit ein Schlüssel zu einem nachhaltigeren Umgang mit der Natur.

Interreligiöses Zusammenwirken im Bereich Naturschutz dient darüber hinaus dem besseren Kennenlernen untereinander und dem Frieden miteinander und der Natur.

Work that Reconnects Network

This group work arose in North America in the late 1970s, during a time of escalating concerns about nuclear weaponry and the hazards of nuclear power. Chellis Glendinning, Joanna Macy and Fran Peavey observed that when people share with others their feelings of fear, anguish or despair, their power to act for change is released. Thus began “despair and empowerment” work (phrase coined by Chellis). Joe Havens and Sarah Pirtle added the concept of “the turning” – the natural release of energy and insight that arises out of the mutual acknowledgement of shared feelings.

Rapidly the efforts of these people and many others (including Barbara Hazard, Tova Green and Kevin McVeigh) synergized to develop a model that used counseling methods, spiritual principles, ritual and myth, laughter and tears, reverence and irreverence to help individuals break out of the numbness of despair and denial. Joanna Macy’s 1979 article “How to Deal with Despair” and her 1983 book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, were vital to the spread of the work. Workshops, ranging in length from an evening to a week, in churches, classrooms and police armories, drew many thousands of people from within and beyond movements for peace, justice, and a safe environment.

8 Shields

Creating Nature-Connected Communities

8 Shields is a global movement worldwide that utilizes a finely tuned, tried and true mentoring model that has proven to create healthy and vibrant natural leaders, and nature-based intergenerational mentoring communities around the world. Thank you for your support in helping to hand down a legacy of health, well-being, and harmony with the natural world and each other to future generations. Re-awaken those 8 attributes in people and in turn help heal the widespread disconnection and loss of culture worldwide.

 

Akademie für Suffizienz

Die Akademie bietet Raum und Gelegenheit zum Lernen und Erfahren. BesucherInnen sind eingeladen, Wissen und Können aufzunehmen, anzuwenden und weiterzugeben. Ebenso gibt es hier Raum und Zeit für Denkprozesse, für die Reflektion eingeübter Gewohnheiten und für das Hinterfragen verfestigter Vorstellungen.

Hunecke, Marcel

Prof. Dr. Marcel Hunecke ist Umweltpsychologe. Interessengebiet unter anderem die Erforschung kontemplativer Praxis für Nachhaltigkeit.

Netzwerk Ethik Heute

Ethik ist Herzenssache

Wir leben in Zeiten globaler Herausforderungen. Das hat auch Auswirkungen auf den Einzelnen. Doch wie lässt sich ein sozialer und ökologischer Wandel erreichen? Das Netzwerk Ethik heute verbindet die persönliche und gesellschaftliche Ebene: die Arbeit an sich selbst mit solidarischem Handeln.

Global Consciousness Change: Indicators of an Emerging Paradigm

Is the global communications revolution fostering a new global consciousness? What is the extent of humanity’s global ecological awareness and concern? Is there a shift underway toward “postmodern” social values? Is a new kind of experiential or first-hand spirituality emerging? Is there a shift underway toward more sustainable ways of living?

http://duaneelgin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/global_consciousness.pdf

Measuring Mindset Change in the Systemic Transformation of Education

As the whole society is experiencing a notable shift fr om the industrial age to the information age, an urgent need for a mindset change in education has been frequently discussed during the past decades. This paper will approach the mindset change through three interconnected sections: the first section revi ews the conceptualization of mindset and then gives our definition of mindset concentrating on understanding its unique significance to the educational system. The second section presents, compares, and contrasts the key markers of the informationage mindset and the industrialage mindset. The third section displays an instrument designed and developed by the authors that can be used to measure the status of individual and group mindset.

Moral Markets?

Moral Markets is a source of information and inspiration for business professionals, policy makers, students and researchers. It is a portal to quality blogs / news / events / online resources that help them critically reflect on free markets, ethics and well-being (and on the role of business, virtues, institutions and economics education). The site draws on research in economics, philosophy and theology, but also accepts quality contributions from non-researchers. In addition to publishing original content, the site points visitors to interesting content from around the web.

Text from https://www.moralmarkets.org/about-this-site/

Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT

The Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT is dedicated to inquiry, dialogue, and education on the ethical and humane dimensions of life. As a collaborative and nonpartisan think tank, The Center focuses on the development of interdisciplinary research and programs in varied fields of knowledge, from science and technology to education and international relations

Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

The Forum on Religion and Ecology is the largest international multireligious project of its kind. With its conferences, publications, and website it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, ethics, and practices in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns. The Forum recognizes that religions need to be in dialogue with other disciplines (e.g., science, economics, education, public policy) in seeking comprehensive solutions to both global and local environmental problems.

The objective of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University is to create a new academic field of study that has implications for environmental policy and environmental humanities.

From presence to consciousness through virtual reality

Immersive virtual environments can break the deep everyday connection between where our senses tell us that we are and where we actually are located and whom we are with. ‘Presence research’ studi es the phenomenon of acting and feeling that we are in the world created by computer displays. We argue that presence is a phenomenon worthy of study by neuroscientists and may help towards the study of consci ousness, since it may be regarded as consciousness within a restricted domain.

Globally scanning for ” Megatrends of the Mind”: Potential futures of futures thinking

This paper focuses on emergent signs of evolutionary change in human thinking that run parallel with many of the exponential changes manifesting in the external world. Weak signals are identified from the early 20th century indicating the emergence of new knowledge patterns. These signals have strengthened in the last 40 years. The paper first identifies new ways of thinking within several disciplines such as science, philosophy, religion and education. New knowledge patterns are then identified in discourses that traverse disciplinary boundaries through transdisciplinary approaches such as futures studies and planetary/global studies. The paper then discusses evolution of consciousness, identifying research that theorises new ways of thinking as being related to individual psychological development and/or socio-cultural evolution. Finally, evolutionary concepts are discussed that attempt to meta-cohere the new knowledge patterns via the terms postformal, integral and planetary. Notably, academic research on ” futures of thinking,” ” evolution of consciousness” and/or ” global mindset change” has been, until now, largely ignored by mainstream academic discourse on evolution, consciousness and futures studies

All Creation

“All Creation” is a living archive of faith and spiritual practice views on biodiversity and today’s environmental challenges.

The Center for Spirituality in Nature

The Center for Spirituality in Nature offers relaxed and engaging experiences in nature, which provide the time and space for those who want spiritual connection to be a more regular part of their lives.  We also offer a variety of resources and practices that help individuals and communities regularly explore, and respond compassionately to, our deep theological, spiritual and ecological connections with the earth, all its creatures and the Divine.

Kairos Earth

Transforming People, Renewing Earth

Kairos Earth seeks to renew a widespread understanding of the natural world as a bearer of the sacred and to restore this awareness as a foundation of both religious practice and practical action to conserve the Earth.

The understanding of Nature and the sacred as inseparable is common to all the world’s great religious traditions, but from most current practice of religion and of environmental conservation in America, one might never know it. Christianity here has largely turned its back upon Nature as a source of abundant joy and wonder filled with spiritual guidance, insight, and inspiration. At the same time, the environmental movement has largely forgotten how to speak of Nature as holy, putting its faith instead in languages of economics, technology, and politics – vernaculars in which fear and anger often replace joy, relative value drives out absolute goodness, despair replaces hope, and which inspire fear, distrust, and discontent – inward movements that lead to devastation rather than renewal.

Walking the talk: Faith, spirituality and the next generation

‘Walking the talk’ is a collection of interviews and stories from young adults on how the younger generation are engaging with faith, spirituality and social action amid the challenges of our times.

Spirituality in a time of global crisis
Young people are growing up under the influences of globalisation, consumerism, social media and new technology. They face a future beset with multiple challenges to our planetary stability, such as global ecocide, the rise of religious extremism and the refugee crisis.  The millennial generation are reported to be the least religious that our world has ever known. And yet some surveys show they are simply rejecting organised religion in favour of self-organised spirituality that draws on many different sources.

This edited collection of stories asks: How are young people engaging with faith, religion and spirituality at this time of crisis and transition?

Generation Y are doing faith differently!
For a start, young people have a more global interconnected outlook. They also have more flexible religious identities. They draw on the wisdom of the different religious practices that are available around them and they relate to each other’s traditions more openly.  Many have a deep concern for the Earth, economic justice and a values-based way of life. They are co-creating their own non-hierarchical spaces – either within traditional religious institutions or completely outside them. They build community together and share what nourishes their souls. Most importantly, they cannot separate faith from the need to respond to what they see around them. Spirituality belongs to the inner life but is also the driving force for social action, for building a just and sustainable future.

Facing challenges 
Young people face many, many challenges – often including a lack of understanding from their elders.  Today’s faith leaders also face a major challenge in meeting the needs of this generation and staying in relationship.  There is a great need for the talents and unique perspective of the younger generation to be better supported and better understood.

This book will explore these themes through stories, lively interviews and case-studies of new emerging youth-led communities.  The book also asks what all this tells us about the evolution of faith in the future and humanity’s changing relationship with the sacred.

Spiritual Ecology: New principles for addressing the ecological crisis

The calling for us to reconcile our relationship with the Earth, our common home which is in deep crisis, could not be more urgent. Moving beyond mainstream approaches, spiritual values can provide the foundation from which to respond and rebuild, and create real and lasting change. Join us for this special two day workshop!

Feb 24th 2018 ~ Feb 25th 2018

St. Ethelburga’s Centre

St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace

St Ethelburga’s is a ‘maker of peacemakers’.

We inspire and equip individuals and communities to contribute, in their own particular contexts, to activating a global culture of peace.

They have a project called Spiritual Ecology:

“The ecological crisis also reflects something deeper and more intimate: a spiritual crisis — one of perspective, meaning, solidarity, and practice.  And therein, perhaps, lies not only our indictment, but our hope.” – Andrew Zolli

In a time of ecological unravelling and conflict, spiritual values have the potential to provide the foundation from which to respond, rebuild and reconcile our relationship with the earth, our common home.

Spiritual Ecology is an emerging field that joins ecology and environmentalism with a deeper awareness of the spirit, sacredness or divinity within all creation. It calls for responses to the environmental crisis that go beyond technological, political or economic solutions, but that create a deeper shift in our underlying beliefs, attitude and relationship with the earth. The five core values include: interconnectedness, reverence for nature, compassion, service and stewardship.

The Mindfulness Initiative

WEBSITE: The Mindfulness Initiative is a policy institute that grew out of a programme of mindfulness teaching in the UK Parliament. We now work with politicians around the world who practice mindfulness and help them to make capacities of heart and mind serious considerations of public policy.

The Mindfulness Initiative helped the Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group (MAAPG) carry out an inquiry into how mindfulness could be incorporated into UK services and institutions.

Bringing scientists, practitioners, commissioners of services and policymakers together in a series of Parliamentary events, the Mindful Nation inquiry held eight hearings on topics including the workplace, mental health, education, criminal justice and pain management. Working papers from these discussions served as the foundation for the Mindful Nation UK report, which summarises evidence-based recommendations.

Kalliopeia Foundation

Reconnecting Ecology, Culture, and Spirituality

WEBSITE: Kalliopeia Foundation is responding to a call – a global challenge – to take spiritual as well as physical responsibility for our common home. Our projects and those we support engage with contemporary issues at their root, with the understanding that ecological, cultural, and spiritual renewal are interdependent.

Nachhaltigkeit durch Achtsamkeit?

Nachhaltigkeit durch Achtsamkeit?, Vienna, Dienstag, 20. Juni 2017

WU Matters. WU Talks. Nachhaltigkeit durch Achtsamkeit? Über Mindfulness, Megatrends und Managementmoden
Infos & Anmeldung:

„Mindfulness“ ist in aller Munde. Weisen die vielen Diskussionen und Events zum Thema Achtsamkeit auf einen Megatrend hin? Oder haben wir es mit einer Modeerscheinung zu tun? Und warum ist das Thema für die Nachhaltigkeit relevant? Bei der 14. WU-NachhaltigkeitsKontroverse beleuchten hochkarätige Expertinnen und Experten diese und andere Fragen aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Es geht um die Rolle von Achtsamkeit in Management, Personalführung und Nachhaltigkeit und gesellschaftstheoretische Perspektiven auf das Thema. Eine Übung und Interventionen werden einen direkten Einblick davon vermitteln, was Achtsamkeit praktisch bedeuten kann.

Diese NachhaltigkeitsKontroverse ist eine Kooperation des Kompetenzzentrums für Nachhaltigkeit mit der Executive Academy.

Vortragende:
– Karin Bauer, Der Standard
. Dr. Ingolfur Blühdorn, Institut für Gesellschaftswandel und Nachhaltigkeit, WU
– – Thomas Klien, Achtsamkeitstrainer
– . Michael Müller-Camen, PhD, Institut für Personalmanagement, WU
– Helga Pattart-Drexler, M.A., WU Executive Academy

Icewisdom РAngaangaq der Schamane aus Gr̦nland

WEBSITE: “Angaangaq ist ein Ältester der Eskimo-Kalaallit aus Westgrönland, der von seinem Volk in den höchsten Rang des Schamanen berufen wurde. Er ist seit vielen Jahren als traditioneller Heiler tätig. Sein Einsatz für Umwelt und indigene Themen führte ihn in über 60 Länder der Welt.”

Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society

WEBSITE: “As long as the current structures of society and economy depend on “growth,” however, some people fear that a slowdown of economic growth could lead to social instability. Thus, at present almost all governments base their national policies on “economic growth” and “GDP growth.”

We are now at a point where humanity cannot avoid facing the“dilemma of economic growth.” If we do not continue to pursue economic growth in our current economic and social systems, we will have instability of employment and livelihoods. On the other hand if we consider the real limits to the Earth’s energy and other resources, ability to absorb carbon, and so on, we know that we cannot continue forever with economic growth. In recent years, researchers, politicians, and others are taking up these topics in a big way.”

Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature

WEBSITE: The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (the “Alliance”) is a global network of organizations and individuals committed to the universal adoption and implementation of legal systems that recognize, respect and enforce “Rights of Nature”.  Rather than treating nature as property under the law, the time has come to recognize that natural communities have the right to exist, maintain and regenerate their vital cycles. Join us today!

Our members are a diverse network of scientists, attorneys, economists, indigenous leaders, authors, spiritual leaders, business leaders, politicians, actors, homemakers, students, activists: people from all walks of life in over 100 countries on 6 continents of North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia who are looking to transform our human relationship with our planet.

Bruhn, Thomas

As the initiator and coordinator of AMA, I feel a deep commitment to the project‘s original intention and ambition. I care particularly about community building and see my conceptual work as a support for community empowerment. I love the diversity of perspectives that we aspire to integrate and the challenges that this aspiration means for my own development. I believe in the intrinsic goodness of all humans and tend to see the unity and connectedness behind apparent cultural or disciplinary differences.

My Background and Expertise:

  • PhD in Physics (self-assembly in nano-structures)
  • Facilitation & Moderation (Art of Hosting, Design Thinking…)
  • Complex systems dynamics (self-organization, emergence)
  • Transdisciplinarity & co-creation
  • Anthropocene, earth-system science
  • Climate change, geoengineering

My responsibilities:

  • Facilitating the team; creating structures, containers and visuals
  • Coordinating the website, database, and board of curators
  • Vision and strategy development
  • Holding space for the formation of trusting relationships & networks
  • Presenting AMA to the public
  • Administrative and strategic coordination within the IASS

James Gustave Speth

“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss,
ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of
good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top
environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal
with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we
scientists don’t know how to do that.”

–James Gustave Speth, scientist and environmental activist, Chairman of
the Council on Environmental Quality, Administrator of the United
Nations Development Programme

 

IASS

WIKIPEDIA: Located in Potsdam, Germany, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) aims to identify and promote development pathways for a global transformation towards a sustainable society. The IASS employs a transdisciplinary approach that encourages dialogue to understand sustainability issues and generate potential solutions in cooperation with partners from the sciences, politics, the economy, and civil society. A strong network of national and international partners supports the work of the Institute. Its central research topics include the energy transition, emerging technologies, climate change, air quality, systemic risks, governance and participation, and cultures of transformation in the Anthropocene.