Mission
One Earth Initiative
rethinking the good life
Mission
We are a research and advocacy group focused on transforming production and consumption patterns locally, nationally and internationally to move towards long-term sustainability.
To do that, we reveal our global interdependence and make connections visible. We identify important leverage points for social change and take action. We promote positive visions of the future to make sustainable livelihoods attractive, and inspire the world to think and act as one Earth.
Our goal is to engage each other – our planet’s stakeholders – in a continuous dialogue to foster living more equitably with Earth’s ecological means.
Vision
We envision a democratic world where basic needs for all are met, where everything we touch is sustainable and part of the Earth’s cycle, where product labeling is not necessary, where waste is a resource, where everybody consumes their fair earthshare, and where we live in balance with nature. We live in a web of connections to people and places around the world that sustain our lifestyles and societies.
Moving towards a sustainable future means transforming destructive links into positive ones, from our own backyard to the other side of the planet. We are motivated by the urgency and alarming scale of the global ecological crisis that increases our vulnerability with its negative economic and social consequences. We are inspired by endless human imagination as we join in the growing sustainability revolution to redesign and radically transform our societies. The One Earth Initiative exists to highlight the links between who we are, what we buy, where we live, what we make, what we trade, and how we live together. With a range of partners, we bring tools, ideas and real applied solutions to the table, stimulating the movement from commitment to action on sustainable consumption and production.
Objectives
Coming to terms with our global interconnections is a crucial and exciting next step in moving towards sustainability, and we are here to help fill this gap. We engage in the conscious creation of a new sustainable cultural myth – a story for thriving beyond the 21st Century. We aim to stimulate action on consumption and production patterns.
Our objectives are to:
- Package information in inspiring and insightful ways to inform decision-making and social change;
- Develop and contribute to current knowledge and understanding of sustainability and how to move towards it;
- Create tools, products and matrices to track interconnections between the urban system and the natural world;
- Inspire others through creating positive visions of sustainable livelihoods and societies;
- Identify and take action on powerful leverage points for change by sharing ideas with partners and by proposing new approaches to shifting consumption and production patterns;
- Link with the efforts of international to local actors on sustainable production and consumption issues;
- Advance Canada as a leader in sustainable development; and
- Influence political decision-making and policy development by bridging science and policy.