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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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 spiritual, scientific, and professional journeys.

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/)

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.

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.

Chimère Diaw, Mariteuw

Chimère Diaw is the Director General of the African Model Forest Network (AMFN) and a member of the International Networking Committee of the IMFN (International Model Forest Network). He is one of the Coordinating Lead Authors of the ongoing Africa Regional Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for IPBES, the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. A member of the Board of Directors of Ecoagriculture Partners, and of the LDC Independent Expert Group (IEG) on the UN Post-2015 agenda, he also is the convener in Cameroon of the Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG), a network coordinated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and active in 11 countries.

Chimère holds a PhD in Economic anthropology from Laval University, an MA in Rural Sociology from Michigan State University and a Master in Philosophy and Sociology from the University of Dakar. He has been a researcher and programs manager for 35 years, 20 of which as international scientist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the AMFN. Chimère has led or contributed to several international programs on Adaptive Collaborative Management, Governance, Verification, Environmental Services and Rural Livelihoods, Alternative to Slash and Burn, Environmental Decentralizations and Criteria and Indicators of sustainable forest management. His research interests and publications include African history, migrations, and modeling of the share system in fisheries, tenure regimes and property rights, climate change mitigation and REDD, governance of biodiversity and multi-stakeholder landscapes, Model Forests, participatory action research and interactive social methodologies. Chimère has lived and worked in Senegal, the United States, Canada, Indonesia and Cameroon.

The International Model Forest Network (IMFN) is a voluntary global community of practice whose members and supporters work toward the sustainable management of forest‐based landscapes and natural resources through the Model Forest approach.

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.

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.

tt30 – The young think tank of the Club of Rome in Germany

Der Think Tank ist ein interdisziplinäres Netzwerk junger Leute um die 30, die sich mit Zukunftsfragen auseinandersetzen. Als unabhängige Gruppe tragen wir zu gesellschaftlichen Debatten bei und formulieren Empfehlungen für eine langfristige Politik. Wir arbeiten, forschen und studieren in allen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen. Mit kritischen Impulsen wollen wir Menschen ansprechen und für eine weltweite und langfristige Perspektive begeistern.

taken from thinktank30.de

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)

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)

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.”

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.

 

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.

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.

Dunetz, David

The Heschel Center for Sustainability develops and implements the vision of sustainability: a just and cohesive society, a robust and democratic economy, and a healthy and productive environment to all of its residents. The center bridges theoretical knowledge and practical methods, and creatively spreads the message of sustainability, assisting change makers from every sector of society to promote significant change in Israel.

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.

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”

Hosang, Maik

MAIK HOSANG researches interdisciplinary relationships between people,
Nature and culture. He has a
Professorship for cultural philosophy, social and cultural change at the Zittau / Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. He
is co-creator of the interactive philosophy-experience world »Sophia im
Spiegel «and author of several books.

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.

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.

Fackenthal , Jeremy

The Institute for Ecological Civilization works internationally to support systemic approaches to long-term sustainability by developing collaborations among government, business, and religious leaders and among scholars, activists, and policy makers. We build effective partnerships across social sectors through consultations, think-tank gatherings, and policy engagement.

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.

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/)

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.)

Auroville Film Festival

“The aim of the Auroville Film Festival is to connect with people and cultures within and beyond Auroville and to further the aspiration of human unity by showcasing films that develop the theme of human unity. We feature films that are created in and around Auroville, as well as international films that explore the theme of human unity.

The Auroville Film Festival wants to turn film-viewing in Auroville, a relatively passive activity, into a creative expression using digital media and, in the process, to foster a deeper understanding and exploration of the aspirations of Auroville. Through the film festival, the community is engaged in an interactive expression through digital films.”

(source: http://filmfestival.auroville.org/about-the-festival/)

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)

Climate Compassion

Climate Compassion is a way of responding to the socio-ecological challenges of our times withcompassionate action. We aim to be a node of mutual flourishing, that shifts culture toward a life-sustaining society. Climate compassion extends beyond environmental climate to a social climate of equity and justice through cultivating inclusion, love, respect, and dignity for all. 

Through community events, workshops and trainings, Climate Compassion inspires widening circles of compassionate action, rippling from self-compassion to taking action for the benefit of our human family and the web of life, for current and future generations. 

We offer:

​Community events, such as salons featuring thought leaders that provide an opportunity to break bread and develop meaningful connections among participants

  • Resilience Incubators that help to develop the resilience practices to sustain us through the challenges of the transition to a life-sustaining society

  • Workshops and Trainings on a variety of topics, from Bystander Intervention to transformative practice and leadership

  • Consulting for organizations engaged in life-enhancing work

Taken from https://www.climatecompassion.org/about

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/

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

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

Wellbeing Project

Wellbeing inspires welldoing: the profound connection between how our relationship with ourselves deeply influences the way we are in the world.

We are hearing changemakers around the world express the pressing need for support with their wellbeing. Our work highlights how wellbeing needs to be fundamentally prioritised both for each individual changemaker and because of how it shapes the way social change happens.

The Wellbeing Project is a global initiative focused on shifting the culture of the social change field to one oriented towards inner wellbeing and catalysing an infrastructure of support for everyone in the field. The Project is co-created with leading social change institutions and is a community of many of the key global and regional social change leaders and organisations.

We see an incredible opportunity to cultivate a social change culture that is more human-centred and at the same time unlock more of the extraordinary collaboration and innovation we need to address our great social and environmental challenges.

We are inspired by a sense of caring and compassion for all the people who work to build a better world, as well as to support the many causes and movements for which we all work.

The Wellbeing Project is cultivating a shift in the culture of the field toward one that is healthier and supportive of inner wellbeing for all those working to effect social change. The project is structured in four pillars which all play a vital role and contribute to the larger mission of supporting and growing the wellbeing movement.

The Wellbeing Project is co-created with Ashoka, the Esalen Institute, the Fetzer Institute, Impact Hub, the Skoll Foundation and the Synergos Institute.

Text taken from www.wellbeing-project.org/

Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown

We may be living through times of unprecedented change, but in uncertainty lies the power to influence the future. Now is not the time to despair, but to act […]

Spirituality and Practice

This multifaith and interspiritual website, founded by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, is devoted to resources for spiritual journeys. The site’s name reflects a basic understanding: spirituality and practice are the two places where all the world’s religions and spiritual paths come together. While respecting the differences among traditions, we celebrate what they share in common.

Launched in 2006, Spirituality & Practice consolidates nearly 50 years of the work of co-directors Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat and their various publications and projects, including Cultural Information Service, Living Room Learning, Values & Visions, and the Spiritual Literacy Project. A small but devoted staff has joined the Brussats to add new types of content and voices to the website.

CIStems, Inc., the nonprofit organization behind Spirituality & Practice, was originally organized in 1972 with the purpose of increasing positive uses of the arts/media by religious and community groups. Publications included reviews of books, films, and TV programs, providing insights on their deeper meanings and ways to use them for lifelong learning by teachers, preachers, and community leaders. Special projects included Viewer’s Guides to TV programs and Values & Visions Discussion Guides to movies and books.

Center for Building a Culture of Empathy

The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy is a leader of the global empathy movement. Our mission is to build a movement for creating a global worldwide culture of empathy and care. We do this through a variety of means.  First is by community organizing and by collecting, curating and organizing all the material we find on the internet on the topic.  A current  focus is on; designing a free online empathy training course, building an academic empathy training literature wiki, and holding public activist Empathy Tent Pop-ups..

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.

Sustainability Institute

The Sustainability Institute (SI) was established in Lynedoch Ecovillage in 1999 to provide a space for people to explore an approach to creating a more equitable society.

At the core of the SI’s work has been finding ways of living that sustain rather than destroy the eco-system within which all society is embedded. Our focus on children led to the founding of the Creche, now called the Lynedoch Childrens House, and AfterCare programmes. Our partnership with the School of Public Leadership at the University of Stellenbosch built up our Masters and PhD programmes in Sustainable Development.

Today, the SI is an international living and learning centre providing learning experiences in ecology, community and spirit.

Our learning programmes start in the Lynedoch Childrens House, are extending through our partnership with SPARK Schools in Lynedoch, are practically oriented in our Learning for Sustainability FET College and promote both research and practice through our University of Stellenbosch degrees. Our research and practice maintains a strong focus on sustainable African futures, through our student and faculty research and our growing research consulting programme.

We are looking to build our understanding and learning in core areas we recognise as critical in supporting the transition to equitable, just and thriving futures.

Our focus on flourishing food systems, social innovation, optimal resource flows and transformative learning from birth, supported by meaningful partnerships, will continue through embedded and relevant research, teaching and practice.

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.

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.

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.

Bhumi Project

The Bhumi Project is an international Hindu response to the environmental challenges facing our planet. It is facilitated by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in partnership with the GreenFaith.

The Bhumi Project stands for respect, compassion and service for our environment.

Our aims are:

  • To educate, inspire, inform, and connect Hindus interested in service to Mother Earth.
  • To develop long term sustainable plans for environmental care.
  • To build a base of global partners and friends who encourage best environmental practice.

Manitou Institute & Conservancy

the Manitou Institute & Conservancy’s greater mission is to: preserve and protect biodiversity in ecologically sensitive areas, conserve greenspace, protect watersheds, preserve and protect prehistoric and historic sites “sacred sites”, and land which has special recreational, scenic, agricultural, wildlife habitat, spiritual and/or environmental value, promote ecologically sound development and land use, by methods including but not limited to Covenants & Restrictions, Conservation Easements, an active Environmental & Architectural Team and Guidelines, work with local, county, state and federal agencies and other nonprofit organizations to protect and preserve the unique and important natural resources in this locale; to provide education and training opportunities to youth and adults to: promote Earth stewardship, community service, sustainable lifestyles, and appropriate technologies, and assist in preservation and promotion of indigenous culture and arts, ancient medicinal practices and the world’s religious and spiritual traditions; to study, research, preserve, protect, grow out, distribute, and provide education and networking about endangered, non-hybrid seed genes vital to the future food supply, and natural, medicinal plant species, which optimize human health and wellbeing; to network and maintain outreach systems, linking this organization with related projects, organizations, agencies and individuals; and to implement sustainable community housing models.

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.

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

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.

Michael Meade Mosaic Voices

Mosaic is a network of artists, activists, community builders, healers, and spiritual teachers working in innovative ways to develop cross-cultural alliances, mentoring relationships, and forms of community healing.

Amid the rattling of cultural institutions and radical changes in nature, it may be time to turn again to valuable traditional methods of cultural healing and individual mentoring. Shaping new forms from separate, estranged, or even broken pieces is a dynamic remedy for the personal isolation and spiritual dislocation that increasingly characterize modern life. The creative act of finding and fitting together the divergent yet necessary elements of a diverse culture can produce “moments of wholeness” in times of great uncertainty.

 

Global Center for Indigneous Leadership and Lifeways

The Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways (GCILL) is an informal umbrella created to support short-term and long-term projects that educate and inform people about indigenous ways of knowing and wisdom for modern times—spirituality that raises human consciousness and harmonious relationship with Mother Earth.

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.

GreenSpirit

Engaged Spirituality for a living Earth

GreenSpirit is a network of people who celebrate the human spirit in the context of our place in the natural world and Earth’s own evolutionary journey. Our radical vision brings together the rigour of science, the creativity of artistic expression, the passion of social action and the wisdom of spiritual traditions of all ages. Attracting those of many faith traditions, we are a body of people who believe that human life has both an ecological and a spiritual dimension. Together we:

* celebrate all existence as deeply connected and sacred

* understand humanity as integral to the planetary landscape rather than its distinguishing feature

* find inspiration in the traditions of Earth-based peoples and Celtic spirituality

* are exploring the unfolding story of the Universe and promote common ground between people in the context of this vision

* seek to redress the balance of masculine and feminine and befriend darkness as well as light

* create ceremonies and celebrations which connect us more consciously with the cycle and seasons of the Earth

* seek a more just, sustainable and peaceful way of life in harmony with the Earth

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.

Samdhana Institute

Samdhana, in Sanskrit, means a peaceful coming together, a giving back.

The Samdhana Institute’s vision is for a region where natural, cultural and spiritual diversity are valued and environmental conflicts are resolved peacefully, with justice and equity for all parties.

Achieving this requires that communities who directly manage their local natural resources, local and indigenous peoples have clear rights, have ready recourse to justice, have strong and skilled leadership, as well as stable financial resources and access to appropriate technical support.

Samdhana is a community of fellows who after learning with farmers and indigenous peoples, are committed to inter-generational and universal values of nurturing people, nature and culture. It was formed in 2003 by a small group of rights, environment and development practitioners who share a commitment to ‘giving back’ what they have learned to the next generation with their knowledge, experiences, and extensive local and global networks.

The Samdhana Institute offers an institutional home and living community for those who wish to devote more of their time and energy to the work they are most passionate about.

Tarayana Foundation

The Foundation works in remote, rural villages to bring about holistic community growth and development serving the needy communities. The Foundation serves to bridge the gaps between larger national initiatives and local grassroots requirements. It focuses on social mobilization, capacity building and empowerment processes wherein communities make the main decisions for change they want effected in their villages.

The difficult terrain and the scattered nature of our communities make it very challenging for many communities to access social services and markets. The incremental cost of reaching the benefits of development is particularly challenging for remote and isolated communities. Tarayana Foundation with its focus on grassroots development lends itself well in serving the small and remote communities, one community at a time. Tarayana strives to improve rural livelihoods by promoting participation in mainstream development initiatives and enhancing income generating activities. Social mobilization and empowerment of local communities to take charge of developmental initiatives in their own localities have also gained importance over the years.

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.

Faith in Place

In order to inspire as many people of faith as possible to take action with significant environmental impacts, Faith in Place’s programs are designed to be adaptable and engaging. We respect theological and social diversity and strive to make our programs relevant to faithful people of any religion, age, race, and socio-economic class.

In living out our principles, we often host conversations on race and the environment, and many of our programs have been created out of ideas that emerged in these discussions. Faith in Place works for all people of all faiths throughout Illinois, helping each faith community apply their own unique culture, history, context, and theology with practical steps for them to better care for the Earth.

Urban Adamah

Urban Adamah is an educational farm and community center in Berkeley, California, that integrates the practices of Jewish tradition, sustainable agriculture, mindfulness and social action to build loving, just and sustainable communities.

Alliance for Sustainability and Prosperity

The world faces crises ranging from economic instability and growing inequality; energy, water and food shortages; global warming and loss of ecological integrity. These are all symptoms of a system that is unsustainable.

A global movement has formed to present the world with a new way of organizing ourselves, doing business, and rising to meet the crises. In July 2011, the United Nations issued a Resolution titled “Happiness: Towards a holistic approach to development” (65/309). Introduced by the Kingdom of Bhutan, co-sponsored by 68 countries and adopted by consensus, this resolution called on the nations of the world to shift from a development path of increasing GNP to one that ensures a path to wellbeing and happiness for all life.

Capital Institute

Together with our collaborative network, we are searching for a new narrative that will illuminate how our economy and financial system can operate to promote a more just, regenerative, and thus sustainable way of living on this earth.

We believe our finance-driven economic system is in urgent need of a new story, with a new roadmap. This new story must be aligned with the laws (not theories) of natural systems and our current scientific understanding of how the world works, which is remarkably aligned with the compassion and mindfulness embodied in all wisdom traditions.

Capital Institute is working to tell this new story and to construct this new roadmap. We are diagnosing the financial system from within. Together we are redefining wealth and reimagining finance in service of the emergence of an ecologically and socially regenerative economy that promotes equitable development and shared well-being while respecting vital ecosystem function.

Center for Whole Communities

Our work began on a hillside in Vermont in 2003, stewarded by the vision and hard work of founders Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow. The manifestation of the retreat center and Whole Thinking program was made possible with the help of many people, specifically CWC’s founding board: Gil Livingston, John Elder, Danyelle O’Hara, Torri Estrada, Diana Wright and Scott Chaskey.

Based at Knoll Farm for over a decade, we hosted hundreds of people in our Whole Thinking retreats and workshops. Over time, we saw a need to evolve our mission and scope to serve people in diverse communities where they live, and to move beyond our bucolic space. We set out to explore doing our work in other parts of the country and began a conscious leadership transition that would allow the work to evolve with integrity to serve a more diverse constituency. Our 2006 statement on Land, Race, Power, and Privilege documents our aspirations to be a diverse, multicultural organization that served people across sectors, differences, and geographies.

In 2010 we developed our Breakthrough Vision which set in motion a transition of leadership and methodology to further diversify our organization and to better serve change-makers in working in urban, suburban and rural communities across the country.

Fueled by our new vision, Center for Whole Communities rapidly expanded our work from the hillside in Vermont to leading retreats and workshops in Washington D.C., New Mexico, Ontario, Colorado, Maine, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California, Michigan, British Columbia and New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maryland, and New York City.  We have successfully evolved our work to engage more collaboratively with organizations and communities in the places where they live and work.

In the winter of 2015 we moved to our current office in Burlington, Vermont in the ecotone of the Burlington city-scape and the waters of Lake Champlain.

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.

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

 

EcoDharma

The Eco-Dharma Centre is situated in a beautiful and wild part of the Catalan Pyrenees. We offer courses, events and retreats which support the realisation of our human potential and the development of an ecological consciousness honouring our mutual belonging within the web of life – drawing on the Buddhist Dharma and the emerging ecological paradigms of our time.

Our courses and retreats take place in a context of sustainable low-impact living, closely woven within the web of elemental nature. These meditation retreats, study seminars and training camps are intended to help people to empower themselves to make changes in themselves and the world consistent with a life-affirming vision.

We seek to develop practices which honour the inseparability of the transformation of the self and the world; to support the shift from a destructive industrial growth society to a life-affirming future; to contribute to the creation of a movement of renewal and resistance; to evolve spiritual practice where courageous compassion and a deepening realisation of our radical interconnectedness helps us to live in solidarity with life.

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.

Global Peace Initiative of Women

The basis of GPIW’s work is the dynamic expression of unity, emerging from the heart of wisdom of the world’s spiritual traditions, and our own hearts, into a community. We believe this narrative can help animate social and economic structures and systems that better reflect humanity’s natural evolution toward greater wholeness. An essential part of this shift is the coming into a balanced and sacred relationship with the earth and all living beings. Feminine wisdom and the power of love can serve as the fulcrum for this inner and outer transformation.

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.

 

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.

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.

Institut für Achtsamkeit und Nachhaltigkeit

Unse­re Phi­lo­so­phie basiert auf der Über­zeu­gung, dass wir uns selbst auf einer kon­ti­nu­ier­li­chen Ent­de­ckungs­rei­se befin­den. Wir kön­nen nur ver­mit­teln, was wir selbst ver­kör­pern.

Stanford Compassionate University Project

We are working to make Stanford a compassionate place. This includes having students, faculty, and staff sign on and reaffirm the Charter for Compassion, and to collaboratively create a Five Year Compassionate Action Plan signed by President Hennessy, VPUE Harry J. Elam, Jr., VPGE Patricia J. Gumport, and the ASSU Undergraduate Senate. 

Mindfulness for Social Change

We are a global community exploring the potential for secular mindfulness training and practice to contribute to more sustainable, caring and socially just societies. We believe the human capacity for mindful awareness is vital for effective responses to social, economic and environmental challenges; and that mindfulness practice, courses and communities need to be responsive to the social and political context of individual stress, wellbeing and change.

All Creation

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

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.

The Buckminster Fuller Institute

Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award

WEBSITE: Each year, The Buckminster Fuller Institute invites scientists, entrepreneurs, planners, designers, architects, activists, artists, and students from all over the world to submit their innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing problems. A $100,000 prize is awarded to support the development and implementation of one outstanding strategy.

Compton Foundation

WEBSITE – Grant Guideline: We ignite change. We support transformative leadership and courageous storytelling, inspiring action toward a peaceful, just, sustainable future.

The status quo is not shifting rapidly enough toward a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Our mission highlights a sense of urgency and a willingness to take risks in order to transform the way we live. Bringing forth a positive future requires innovative ways of understanding and naming the problems we face, as well as new methods for collaborating to solve them. Implicit in our mission is support for progressive and democratic social change.

KfW Stiftung

WEBSITE: Die KfW Stiftung ist eine operativ tätige Stiftung. Sie setzt sich mit den großen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen auseinander – Globalisierung, Umwelt- und Klimaschutz und demografischer Wandel.

Wir fördern Initiativen, die bestehende Muster aufbrechen, entwickeln Konzepte für alternatives Handeln und bieten Plattformen für grenzüberschreitenden Austausch. So schaffen wir Raum für anderes Denken, gestalten Vielfalt in Ökonomie, Ökologie, Gesellschaft und Kultur und übernehmen Verantwortung.

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.

Stiftung Weltethos für interkulturelle und interreligiöse Forschung, Bildung und Begegnung

WEBSITE: “Damit ein gutes und konstruktives Zusammenleben möglich ist, benötigen alle menschlichen Gemeinschaften eine Basis an Grundwerten, die sie teilen. Das gilt für die Familie, die Schule oder das Wirtschaftsunternehmen genauso wie für die Gesellschaft im Allgemeinen. Heute, in Zeiten des Internets, einer global agierenden Politik und Wirtschaft und zunehmend multikultureller Gesellschaften, braucht es einen Grundkonsens über Werte und Normen, der unabhängig von Kultur, Religion oder Nationalität gilt.

Die Idee eines Weltethos geht zurück auf den katholischen Theologen Hans Küng. Bei seinen empirischen Forschungen rund um den Globus stellte er fest, dass allen Weltreligionen und philosophisch-humanistischen Ansätzen bereits grundlegende Werte- und Moralvorstellungen gemeinsam sind. Die Goldene Regel beispielsweise, nach der man sich seinen Mitmenschen gegenüber so verhalten soll, wie man selbst behandelt werden möchte, findet sich in allen Traditionen wieder. Ebenso die Forderung, dass alle Menschen menschlich behandelt werden müssen und Werte wie Gewaltlosigkeit, Gerechtigkeit, Wahrhaftigkeit sowie Partnerschaft von Mann und Frau. Für unsere globale Gesellschaft muss ein solcher gemeinsamer Wertekanon also nicht erst entwickelt werden, denn er existiert bereits: Wir nennen ihn „Weltethos“. Jedoch muss dieser Wertekanon immer wieder neu bewusst gemacht, gelebt und weitergegeben werden.”

Netzwerk Achtsame Wirtschaft

WEBSITE: “Das Netzwerk Achtsame Wirtschaft e.V. (NAW) vermittelt und entwickelt das Potenzial buddhistischer Lehren für die verschiedensten Bereiche unserer Wirtschaft. Ausgangspunkt ist hierbei das Verständnis und die Schulung des eigenen Geistes. Zu diesem Zweck werden Seminare und Retreats durchgeführt, Publikationen verfasst und Initiativen ergriffen.

Im Netzwerk treffen sich Menschen, die nach sinnvollen Alternativen zum heutigen Wirtschaftssystem suchen, sich für Themen wie Achtsamkeit in der Arbeit, beim Konsum und im Umgang mit Geld interessieren und in ökonomische Zusammenhänge wirken.”

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