Friends of the Institute
Blackstone Ranch Institute has built working relationships with a variety of the leading organizations in North America that are pioneering important environmental change. We regard the organizations to which we have given financial and logistical support as friends of the institute, and are working to find ways that our partner organizations can benefit from the experience, talent and resources of one another.
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Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
Tucson, ArizonaThe mission of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine is to lead the transformation of healthcare by creating, educating & actively supporting a community of professionals who embody the philosophy & practice of Integrative Medicine. The Center defines integrative medicine (IM) as healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. The Center was founded by Dr. Andrew Weil.
Since its inception, the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine has focused its efforts on three domains: education, clinical care, and research - with the primary emphasis on education. It offers a broad range of educational opportunities for healthcare professionals with an interest in learning and practicing the principles of integrative medicine and emphasizes the therapeutic relationship, making use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.
Dr. Weil’s overall philosophy is that the health of the planet needs to be taken as seriously as individual health.
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Aspen Institute
Aspen Institute
Aspen, ColoradoThe Aspen Institute mission is to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.
The Aspen Institute does this through seminars for deepening knowledge and broadening perspectives, young leader fellowships around the globa, policy programs and public conferences and events.
The Institute is based in Washington, DC, Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore and has an international network of partners.
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Biomimicry Institute
Biomimicry Institute
Missoula, MontanaThe Biomimicry Institute's mission is to nurture and grow a global community of people who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life's genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet.Biomimicry (bios meaning life; mimesis meaning to imitate) is the practice of developing sustainable technologies inspired by ideas from Nature. The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.
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Bioneers
Bioneers
Santa Fe, New MexicoFounded in 1990, Bioneers promotes practical environmental solutions and innovative social strategies for restoring Earth's imperiled ecosystems and healing our human communities.
Dreaming New Mexico is a Bioneers initiative that offers workshops, lectures and networking opportunities that can inform and advance policy change for an ecologically sound and socially just economy. In collaboration with local organizations, Dreaming New Mexico will address the state's alternative energy future, water concerns, racial and environmental issues, food security, urban growth, transportation and more.
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Blue Legacy
Blue Legacy
InternationalBlue Legacy is an initiative started in 2008 by Alexandra Cousteau. The mission of Blue Legacy is to tell the story of our water planet to the world, to inspire people to take action on critical water issues in meaningful ways and to help shape society's dialogue to include water as one of the defining issues of our century and the primary vehicle through which climate change will be felt. -
Cascadia Region Green Building Council
Cascadia Region Green Building Council
Northwestern USA and British ColumbiaCascadia's mission is to promote the design, construction and operation of buildings in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live, work and learn.
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council is one of three original chapters of the U.S. Green Building Council and, as a chapter of the Canada Green Building Council as well, is the only international chapter in North America.
It strives to become the first and last word on green building by forging alliances with organizations that have a stake in the future of this region.
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Clinton Foundation
Clinton Foundation
New York, New YorkThe Clinton Global Initiative is a project of the Clinton Foundation that brings together a community of global leaders, university students, and private citizens to identify and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges, including poverty alleviation, climate change, global health, and education.
The Clinton Climate Initiative is making a difference in the fight against climate change in practical, measurable and significant ways, by working with 40 of the world's largest cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. CCI is assisting partner cities to make energy-savings improvements to buildings, transit systems, lighting and waste management.
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Community Environmental Council of Santa Barbara
Community Environmental Council of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CaliforniaThe CEC is a well-established environmental nonprofit focused exclusively on energy efficiency and renewables, alternative transportation, and climate change. We work from grassroots to policy levels to help community members reduce their carbon footprint and to end our region's dependency on fossil fuels to become "Fossil Free by 2033."
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Diablo Trust
Diablo Trust
Flagstaff, ArizonaThe Diablo Trust was formed in 1993 by the Metzger Family, owners of the Flying M Ranch, and the Prosser Family, owners of the Bar T Bar Ranch, to create a collaborative process for developing ideas to assist ranches in the protection of open spaces and healthy habitats. The trust comprises the two ranch properties and adjoining federal lands that occupy an area approximately as large as metropolitan Phoenix. The trust operates in partnership with the federal government to "demonstrate innovative approaches to restore and maintain the natural processes that create and protect a healthy, unfragmented landscape to support a diverse flourishing community of human, plant and animal life in the Diablo Trust land area."
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Forest Ethics
Forest Ethics
Seattle, San Francisco and British ColumbiaFounded in 1994, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile.
"Our mission is to protect Endangered Forests. The ForestEthics Approach is based upon the conviction that corporate power can be used to destroy forests--or protect them.
- We expose corporations that destroy Endangered Forests.
- We help corporations that want to act responsibly.
- We use corporate power to permanently protect forests."
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Global Philanthropy Partnership
Global Philanthropy Partnership
ChicagoGlobal Philanthropy Partnership was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization. While not a grantmaking organization, GPP serves as a strategic resource to promote international giving and raise awareness of global development issues.
Global philanthropy, or global social investing, is an emerging field with numerous players and a variety of approaches. Global Philanthropy Partnership strives to support a better understanding of this field through conducting original research, developing a network of organizations that promote philanthropy, and connecting philanthropists and potential philanthropists so they can share interests and best practices. Current areas of interest also include climate change in the Midwest and the establishment of a biodiversity museum in Panama.
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Green Cities California
Green Cities California
CaliforniaThe cities of Berkeley, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and the County of Marin created Green Cities California in 2007 so that they could work collaboratively to accelerate local, regional, national and international efforts to achieve sustainability.
Member cities have focused their efforts on:
- Reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Extended Producer Responsibility
- Sustainable Land Use, Building and Development
- Waste Reduction
- Water Conservation
- Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Reduction in Vehicle Miles Traveled and Single Occupancy Vehicles
- Equitable Distribution of Environmental Benefits and Burdens
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Holistic Management International
Holistic Management International
Albuquerque, New MexicoOur primary objective is to help farmers and ranchers, as well as public land managers and development organizations, to achieve the following goals:
- Enhance the efficiency, natural health, productivity and profitability of their land
- Increase annual profits, effectively and significantly
- Provide a framework for family, owners, managers, foremen, communal agriculturalists and other ranch/farm stakeholders to work together toward a common future
- Enable conservation or public land managers to consistently improve the health of the land while minimizing the cost to the public or constituencies
- Enable development agencies working with marginalized farmers or pastoral people to break the cycle of food and water insecurity.
We are committed to furthering Holistic Management education worldwide, to supporting trained Holistic Management professionals, and to forming strategic partnerships that address a wide range of environmental, social and economic objectives.
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Hollyhock
Hollyhock
Cortes Island, British ColumbiaHollyhock is Canada's premier experiential learning center. It brings together a wide variety of students and teachers dedicated to personal growth, creativity and social change. Each year it offers dozens of programs designed to inspire participants to develop self-awareness and their creative potential, and to live life with meaning and a dedication to purposes larger than themselves.
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Institute for Sustainable Communities
Institute for Sustainable Communities
Montpelier, VTThe Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) mission is to help communities around the world address environmental, economic and social challenges to build a better future that can be shared by all.
ISC brings together practices from the public and private sectors, and uses creative, flexible training and mentoring to help communities produce breakthrough results. To date the organization has managed 70 projects in 19 countries, leaving a legacy of strong community leaders, organizations and networks with the capacity to keep building on its work. It specializes in connecting civic participation with environmental problem solving.
The organization was founded in 1991 by former Vermont governor Madeleine M. Kunin.
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LEAN Energy
LEAN Energy
Mill Valley, CALEAN Energy US is a national organization dedicated to the accelerated expansion of community choice aggregation (CCA) across the United States. CCA is an energy procurement program that allows local governments to combine, or aggregate, the electric load of its residents and businesses in order to purchase energy on their behalf. CCA is fueled by a belief in consumer choice, an open energy market, lower energy bills, and rapid expansion of local clean energy supply.
LEAN Energy was launched in the spring of 2011 with the help of the Galvin Electricity Initiative for the purpose of providing a not-for-profit hub organization for CCA practicioners, companies, policymakers and advocates interested in expanding the CCA model into new communities and states.
This is the first network of its kind in the United States. LEAN Energy was inspired by the pioneering work of Charles McGlashan and the Marin Energy Authority, the first municipal utility in California that is based upon the enabling legislation of CCA.
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Living Future Institute
Living Future Institute
Seattle, WAThe Living Future Institute is a recently created hub for a group of sustainability networks that include the Living Building Challenge, Cascadia Green Building Council, Natural Step Network USA and Ecotone Publishing. They are the owners of the Living Building Challenge, which is the most advanced and comprehensive set of green building outcome standards in the world. The institute is currently working to integrate these four entitites into a global network that can further the adoption of its green building ideas and standards.
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National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
Washington, DCNational Geographic's Mission Programs support critical expeditions and scientific fieldwork, encourage geography education for students, promote natural and cultural conservation, and inspire audiences through new media, vibrant exhibitions, and live events.
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Ocean Recovery Alliance
Ocean Recovery Alliance
Hong KongOcean Recovery Alliance brings together new ways of thinking, technologies and collaboration in order to improve the quality of the ocean environment. One of their priorities is to help create business opportunities related to ocean conservation in local communities.
The alliance has been formed as an umbrella organization which operates and organizes a variety of sub-projects, some of which have their own operating teams, budgets and objectives. The Global Alert System for ocean trash is one such project.
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Orion Society
Orion Society
Great Barrington, MassachusettsIt is Orion's fundamental conviction that humans are morally responsible for the world in which we live, and that the individual comes to sense this responsibility as he or she develops a personal bond with nature.
Orion Society currently furthers its mission through three fundamental programs:
- The ideas and inspiration of Orion Magazine
- Community activism through Orion Grassroots Network
- Environmental teaching through Orion Education.
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Planting Justice
Planting Justice
Oakland, CAPlanting Justice is a community based non-profit organization in Oakland, California that is democratizing acess to affordable, nutritious food by empowering disenfranchised populations with the skills, resources and inspiration to maximize food production, economic opportunities and environmental sustainability in neighborhoods. Young farmers dedicated to the propagation of local food production have worked with schools, youth programs, prison inmates and neighborhoods. They are part of a larger community of young social entrepreneurs who have successfully inspired the spread of community gardens in the Bay Area of California.
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Portland Sustainability Institute
Portland Sustainability Institute
Portland, ORPortland Sustainability Institute is an independent and innovative nonprofit that specializes in green city initiatives. The organization brings together leaders from the public, nonprofit, private business and neighborhood sectors to incubate partnerships, drive innovation and solve tough problems on a metropolitan scale. Through scalable and replicable projects, they transform research into action, promote smart policy, and drive targeted investment in new technolgies and practices. One of their prime objectives is to develop initiatives that hold the potential for application in cities everywhere.
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Presidio Graduate School
Presidio Graduate School
San Francisco, CaliforniaPresidio School of Management believes business holds the power to address the world's most critical environmental, economic and social problems. As one of the first business schools to focus on sustainability, Presidio is now a leader in a mainstream movement embraced by some of the world's top companies. Sustainable management is integral to every course in their groundbreaking MBA and Executive Certificate programs. The School places students in leading companies and non-profits to work on real-world solutions.
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Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
New York and InternationalThe Rockefeller Foundation brokers partnerships, helping people and institutions with diverse perspectives unite in meaningful, collaborative alliances. We nurture innovation, ideas that change the way we approach problems and resolutions.
We develop and support fresh policy ideas, new products and services, and better research data to help inform and influence public discourse. In everything the Rockefeller Foundation does, we maintain a singular focus on impact, enabling individuals, institutions, and communities to build better lives and futures.
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Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute
Boulder and Snowmass, ColoradoRocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit organization. We foster the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. Our staff shows businesses, communities, individuals, and governments how to create more wealth and employment, protect and enhance natural and human capital, increase profit and competitive advantage, and enjoy many other benefits, largely by doing what they do far more efficiently. Our work is independent, nonadversarial, and transideological, with a strong emphasis on market-based solutions.
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San Francisco Office of the Environment
San Francisco Office of the Environment
San Francisco, CaliforniaSF Environment's mission is to improve, enhance, and preserve the environment, and to promote San Francisco's long-term wellbeing by developing innovative, practical and wide-ranging environmental programs in recycling, toxics reduction, environmental justice, energy efficiency, commute alternatives, and urban forest.
As a city agency, we foster groundbreaking legislation, and educate the public by providing comprehensive and accessible information on a variety of practices, which serve as models for other cities and countries. SF Environment makes it easy for everyone in San Francisco to take care of their environment, and ultimately, the planet.
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Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment
Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment
Seattle, WashingtonSeattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment collaborates with city agencies, business groups, nonprofit organizations, and other partners to protect and enhance Seattle?s distinctive environmental quality and livability. -
Slow Money Alliance
Slow Money Alliance
Berkeley, CaliforniaThe Slow Money Alliance links farmers, food entrepreneurs, donors, NGOs and investors in cities and states around the country. At its inaugural gathering in September 2009 in Santa Fe, Slow Money hosted 450 attendees from 34 states and six countries and garnered media coverage in the Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, TIME.com and BusinessWeek.com. Participants invested over $250,000 in four small food enterprises that presented their initiatives. By their second gathering in June 2010 the number of attendees had expanded to 600, and over $1 million was invested in local food projects.
The Alliance is working with a variety of partners to design several investment vehicles that will allow individuals and larger investors to invest in the development of local food enterprises and local and regional markets for small farms.
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World Resources Institute
World Resources Institute
Washington, DCWorld Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. Their mission is to move society to live in ways that protect the environment and its capacity to provide for the needs of current and future generations.