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TAOS, NEW MEXICO | March 10, 2010 | 7:01 PM

 

"All these collaborative efforts are in their infancy. As more people realize that the core challenges of the Big Three global systems (energy and transportation, food and water, and material waste and toxicity) cannot be solved in isolation, these collaborations will spread and become more sophisticated, as people and groups combine systems thinking and skills in collaborating across boundaries. We are just starting to appreciate the level of collaborative systems thinking skills that will be needed, but there is no doubt this is where real leverage for the future lies."

Peter Senge, from The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

History
Since the The Blackstone Ranch Institute was established in May 2006 in Taos, New Mexico, it has sponsored more than 30 gatherings of professionals in business, government, education, science and technology, and the non-profit community.

From those gatherings have come important new initiatives in urban environmental sustainability, the early growth of global carbon offset markets, the development of sustainable corporate and business practices, environmental education for businesses and medical schools, and the development of renewable energies and green jobs.

The institute was designed to be results oriented. It has successfully used the early stage cross-sector dialogs that must take place before meaningful social innovation as a way to leverage its financial and logistical support to leading organizations to create major social profit. 
 

Mission
• To address the planetary challenges of our time
• To influence pioneers of environmental change
• To accelerate the adoption of best environmental practices
 

Support Criteria
Blackstone Ranch Institute (BRI) provides carefully targeted amounts of seed money to strategic dialogs that are necessary to catalyze important social innovation across a range of environmental fronts. 

We sponsor efforts that already have future funding identified, or have a coherent and plausible plan for sustaining the effort as it develops.

Proposals must be oriented toward actions that will result from the gathering and make a significant contribution to social progress. We are not interested in proposals for gatherings that are simply devoted to an exchange of information or networking.

We operate with minimal bureaucracy, want precise proposals of no more than five pages that outline a plan of action and offer an explanation of how it relates to our organizational mission. If the proposal is accepted, we will provide funding promptly.

We realize there is a social need for targeted funding that is available in relatively short periods of time with which committed parties can take advantage of opportunities when the moment is most appropriate.

We do not support ongoing programs, staff salaries or infrastructural developments.
 

What We Are Looking For
Because we provide support at the inception stage in the development of a new organization, campaign or network, we are looking for endeavors that will have high impact and broad scale.

Our primary areas of focus are leading edge environmental initiatives in business, government, science and technology, education and the non-profit community.

We will only support local geographical initiatives that by virtue of design or the quality of participating individuals will have regional, national or international impact that is relevant to current environmental challenges.

We encourage participation across social sectors (business, government, academic, scientific, community) because our understanding of the major environmental challenges is that they cannot be addressed without broad social participation.