The Natural Capital Institute serves the people who are transforming the world. We are a team of researchers, teachers, students, activists, scholars, writers, social entrepreneurs, artists, and volunteers committed to the restoration of the earth and the healing of human culture. We do two things: we describe pathways of change in books and research reports, and we create tools for connecting the individuals, information, and organizations that create change.
To that end, NCI is creating WISER: the World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility. It is a commercial-free, community-editable series of platforms where people, civil society, the private sector, and government can collaboratively define, address, and solve social and environmental problems. The millions of organizations and individuals who actively work towards ecological sustainability, economic justice, human rights, and political accountability address issues that are systemically interconnected and intertwined. Their effectiveness to prevent harm and institute positive change is undermined by the lack of a collective awareness, duplicative efforts, and incomplete connectivity.
We believe that we are moving from a world that is created by the privileged, to a world created by community. This change in the loci of power calls for a new system of awareness, support, communication, and collaboration. That is WISER’s purpose.
Are you interested in supporting this work? We are grateful for all contributions, large or small. See our contact page for more information.
One of the best descriptions of the global zeitgeist, the spirit that we think defines the transition the world is undergoing was best expressed by author and scholar Richard Tarnas: “It is perhaps not too much to say that, in the first decade of the new millennium, humanity has entered into a condition that is in some sense more globally united and interconnected, more sensitized to the experiences and suffering of others, in certain respects more spiritually awakened, more conscious of alternative future possibilities and ideals, more capable of collective healing and compassion, and, aided by technological advances in communication media, more able to think, feel, and respond together in a spiritually evolved manner to the world’s swiftly changing realities than has ever before been possible.”
