Donella Meadows Archives

Rob Hopkins–My Town in Transition

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. Through speaking, teaching, and writing, he has introduced the idea of making the places we live more resilient, robust, and imaginative in increasingly uncertain times through intentional effort at the community level. The Transition Town movement, which Rob originally started in Totnes, England, has now spread to hundreds of towns across thirty-four countries. [...]

Michelle Long, Strategies for a New Economy Conference

June 9, 2012 BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, is a network of over 22,000 socially responsible businesses across the U.S. and Canada. BALLE aims to promote community wellbeing and sustainable livelihoods by supporting local businesses as one of the most promising agents of social innovation. In the video below, BALLE’s Executive Director Michelle Long discusses the importance of investing [...]

What Can One Person Do?

by Elizabeth R. Sawin – June 13, 2007 – Climate change, fisheries crashes, toxic pollution, endangered species. Sometimes it’s enough to make you throw up your hands in despair. “I’m just one person, what difference can I make? What could I do?” Well, actually one person – one ordinary person – can do quite a lot if she sets her mind to it. [...]

Community and Sustainability – A Powerful Combination

by Elizabeth Sawin – May 1, 2003 – Some years ago, I was part of a group that set out to create a community where we could experiment with sustainable living. One of our first steps was to write down a list of guiding principles. At the top of our list were Community and Sustainability. (The others, if you are curious, were [...]

Moving In

by Elizabeth Sawin – August 1, 2002 – At 9:30 at night the phone rings. It is my neighbor Lorie. “Would you mind stepping out onto your porch for a minute?” I think I know what this is about. Up the hill on Tom and Lorie’s porch there are candles burning on tables covered with the scattered remains of dinner. Children are [...]

About DMI

Since its founding in 1996 by environmental leader Donella Meadows, our Institute has been at the forefront of sustainability thinking and training. Our initiatives have addressed economic, environmental, and social challenges from a range of angles and at many levels. In everything we do, the disciplines of systems thinking and organizational learning inform and shape our work. It is this focus on whole-system analysis, combined with careful listening, truth telling, and visioning, that make the Donella Meadows Institute unique among sustainability organizations.  Read More

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