About Us — [Sustainable Futures Institute]

We are Sustainable Futures Institute.

A 501(c)3 research and action institute.

Our Organization

Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI) is dedicated to creating the conditions that nurture ecological health within our communities. We are helping to build resilience and appropriate adaptation to climate change. Our long-term vision is to assist in reweaving a paradigm of interconnectedness— of humans as nature— while untangling the prevailing paradigm of separation and domination.

SFI’s approach revolves around collaborative, open, and honest inquiry into the health of our socio-ecological structures. We understand that natural ecology and human activity — in all its expressions; personal, social, spiritual, political, and economic — are necessarily interdependent. Our work is centered around the interplay between our Inner and Outer architecture.

People are made up of many invisible systems. Inner Architecture is the practice of consciously building one’s inner world by designing the interconnected belief, cultural, and social systems. We measure, change, and operate these invisible internal systems through the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Places are also made up of many complex systems which respond to and inform the people who make, modify, and maintain them. Outer architecture is the process of world building. It's how humans express themselves and manifest an impact on the Earth, and collectively, the built environment and all the many invisible systems which run it are the sandbox for human development.

We believe that together, we as humanity — our cultural elders, our scientists, our field experts, our leaders and decision-makers, our citizens — hold the keys to the collective wisdom that facilitates the development of sustainable and regenerative economies, communities and environments. Our practice is to ask the [right] questions, gather the [right] people, and create the [right] conditions needed to surface this wisdom.

Our Context

Our work is a response to the meta-crisis. The meta-crisis refers to the complex and interconnected challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It encompasses a wide range of global issues, including climate change, political polarization, economic inequality, technological disruptions, and environmental degradation. What makes it a "meta" crisis is the recognition that these problems are not isolated but deeply interrelated, and addressing one often requires tackling others.

This crisis underscores the urgent need for holistic and systemic approaches to problem-solving. It affords humanity an opportunity for a shift in mindset, from short-term thinking to long-term sustainability, and from individual interests to collective well-being. The meta-crisis challenges our existing systems, including governance, economics, and social structures, pushing our edges to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. Addressing the meta-crisis requires global cooperation, innovation, and a shared commitment to building a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

As we are all implicated and inextricably woven into the fabric of this meta-crisis; neoliberalism, late-stage capitalism, patriarchy and structural racism, we need approaches that support us to identify, untangle, and actively unlearn the deep logics we have internalized. We also need methods that support us to open up to the plurality of ways of seeing and knowing to cultivate imaginal realms; to conceive and create sustainable futures; and to take practical steps in achieving these realities. For this reason the Institute serves as a space of research, inquiry, and action. Humbly, we do not wish to provide just answers or claim to know “the way”. However, we aim to embody a practice of living in the [right] questions and facilitating spaces where novel or obvious solutions may emerge.

Our Values

Reciprocity

An exchange that maintains balance and harmony between two or more beings. It is the recognition that we are here to be of service to each other.

Responsibility

A pledge in return for receiving something - like the abundance we receive from our planet, Earth. It is the recognition that we answer to greater forces than ourselves.

Reverence

An act of honoring those greater forces, perhaps in revering our planet, a river, a plant, each other. It is the recognition that we are participants in a sacred experience.

Compassion

An act of tenderness towards the suffering of others. It is the recognition of our interconnectedness, feeling that we share in each others affliction and plight.

Curiosity

A diligent inquiry to know someone or something. It is the recognition that deep care leads us to ask the right questions for which we may be entrusted the answers.

Courage

“Without courage we cannot practice any other value with consistency. We can’t be reciprocal, responsible, reverential, curious, or compassionate.” -Maya Angelou (adapted)

Our People