[view as .pdf]
[view as .txt
 

8 December 2011

Dear Friends,

NCS' Future We Want was chosen by the UN to headline its global gathering on sustainability.

Those of us working to bring solutions to the most vexing challenges facing humankind and the planet are often (rightly) criticized for only focusing on what's wrong. For the past three years, Natural Capitalism Solutions team member, Bill Becker, has nurtured The Future We Want, an initiative to envision what sustainable communities could be like in 2030. It visualizes appealing communities, streetscapes, and homes that meet the challenges of global climate change, rapid urbanization, resource constraints, and other pressing issues--while giving us a higher quality of life.

 


Want to Change the World?

This holiday season
(27-31 December), come study with Hunter Lovins, to learn the skills and tools she uses to help companies, communities, and countries implement more sustainable practices.

Click to read more.

 

Now The Future We Want has been elevated to international acclaim by the Secretary General of the United Nations, when he announced it as the unifying theme for Rio+20, the June 2012 UN Global Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. The UN will promote the theme heavily between now and then, directing people around the world to the project web site. There, visitors will enter a global conversation, submitting their ideas on solutions for energy, buildings, mobility, social justice, water conservation, climate mitigation and adaptation, and other aspects of sustainability.

Early next year, The Future We Want team--NCS staff working with world-class visual artists and sustainable development experts--will translate the ideas into videos and computer animations depicting sustainability in a variety of different cultures and economic conditions around the world. The visualizations will be unveiled in an exhibit at Rio.

The project was conceived three years ago at a conference organized by NCS Senior Associate Bill Becker and Michael Northrop of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is led by Bill Becker and Jonathan Arnold, of Arnold Imaging in Kansas City, MO. The UN's involvement lifts The Future We Want to an unprecedented global visioning exercise using social media, the internet, crowd sourcing and--in places not connected to the internet--good old-fashioned essays and drawings.

This is an extraordinary honor that has resulted from Bill's three years of hard work. And it will entail six months of intense work raising money and coordinating NGO, corporate, and governmental partners. But it's the chance to dream big about what kind of a future we want, what kind of a world we will leave to our children.

C'mon dream with us.

To join the conversation, go to www.futurewewant.org.

The UN's companion web site is www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture.

To see the video of the kickoff event for The Future We Want, including remarks by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, click here.

Thank you for your continued support.

Cheers,
Toby Russell
C.E.O.


Want to change the world?

It's a noble undertaking, and the world sure needs you to take on the many challenges facing us.

But how do you start?

Join us at the Change Agent Academy.

This holiday season, come study in Colorado with Hunter Lovins, one of World's master change agents. Learn the skills she uses to help companies, communities and countries implement more sustainable practices.

Hone your change agent skills and get access to all of Natural Capitalism's tools

This four-day certification program is for people passionate about implementing sustainability to change the world. Hunter will lead the classes. You will also have access to Natural Capitalism�s implementation staff. In addition to extensive class instruction, students will receive the full NCS toolbox of slide decks, manuals, and eLearning software.

The program is for entrepreneurs, community leaders, consultants, business students and anyone committed to creating a better world. Each class will be small, to ensure personalized learning.

An optional fifth day offers students time to enjoy the Colorado mountains with NCS staff, hang out with Hunter at her ranch, or dive more deeply into the NCS resources at HQ.

Contact [email protected] to apply.