Worldchanging
Encyclopedia
Worldchanging is an American non-profit online magazine and blog
about sustainability
and social innovation
. At 19/09/2011, it was taken over by Architecture for Humanity
.
The site has earned positive reviews (and won several awards and honors) and was rated the second largest sustainability site on the web by Nielsen Online
in 2008.
Worldchanging is also the title of a book by the same editors, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
, a survey of best-practice solutions in sustainability and social innovation. The compendium was updated in 2011 with Steffen as the author, Bill McKibben
's Introduction, Van Jones
Forward, and Sagmeister Inc. designer in Worldchanging, Revised and Updated Edition: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.
and Jamais Cascio
, with a core of initial contributors, many of whom were part of the Viridian Design Movement, and had intellectual ties to the Whole Earth Catalog
. In 2005, Worldchanging moved its offices to Seattle, Washington
. In early 2006, Cascio split off to form the more explicitly futurist site Open the Future and Worldchanging became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
corporation with an explicitly "solutions-based journalism" mission.
Worldchanging is now headquartered in Seattle and led editorially by Alex Steffen, the executive editor, with managing editor Amanda Reed, contributing editors include Jeremy Faludi and Sarah Rich, among others. It relies extensively on an international network of writers and correspondents, see list below.
Worldchanging is overseen by a board of directors, lead by Worldchanging's chairman, the environmental
photographer Edward Burtynsky
. Worldchanging is supported by a mixture of grants, book sales, speaker fees and reader donations.
On November 29, 2010, Worldchanging announced it would shut down. In 2011, Worldchanging, Revised Edition: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
(ISBN 978-0810997462) was published with Alex Steffen as the author.
was quoted in the Guardian explaining the value of this approach by saying "Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience."
In its manifesto, Worldchanging declares its mission this way:
Worldchanging publishes a mix of essays and interviews; shorter original reviews, letters from the field (conference reports, lab visits, notes from correspondents' travels) and think-pieces; and blog posts "highlighting the best coverage of new ideas and innovations from around the Web." From time to time, the site posts radio-style podcasts and online videos as well.
Worldchanging's content is divided in to seven sections: stuff
, shelter
, cities, community
, business
, politics
, and planet
. This taxonomy is designed to parse solutions based on their proximity to the reader, so that on one extreme Stuff is mostly about innovations in product design, food, clothing, and other objects used directly by individual people, while on the other extreme Planet encompasses global environmental and social issues, scientific advances and new thinking about the future of humanity.
Worldchanging also maintains a network of local blogs in several U.S. cities and Canada. The organization offers a newsletter as well, designed to serve more occasional readers, as well as perhaps more usual social networking tools, like a Facebook group.
. Bright green environmentalism aims for a sustainably prosperous society that relies on new technology and improved design to live within the planet's ecological limits while increasing the potential for economic growth, human social development and individual quality of life.
Like many other bright green environmentalists, the Worldchanging community expresses the belief that radical changes are needed in the economic and political operation of society in order to make it sustainable, but that better designs, new technologies and more widely distributed social innovations are the means to make those changes—and that we can neither shop nor protest our way to sustainability. They tend to focus extensively on the idea that through a combination of well-built compact communities, clean energy, green building, new technologies and sustainable living practices, quality of life can actually be improved even while ecological footprints shrink. "One-planet living" is a frequently heard buzz-phrase. As Ross Robertson writes, "[B]right green environmentalism is less about the problems and limitations we need to overcome than the “tools, models, and ideas” that already exist for overcoming them. It forgoes the bleakness of protest and dissent for the energizing confidence of constructive solutions.".
The term "bright green" has been used with increased frequency in the media
. For more on the differences between light green, dark green and bright green movements, see the bright green environmentalism
entry.
columnist Bruce Sterling
called Worldchanging "the most important website on the planet," and architect Richard Meier
named it as his favorite site and praised it as "a wealth of information on sustainability".
It has won or been nominated for the following awards and prizes:
According to BlogPulse
, Worldchanging was the 135th most cited blog
in the world in July 2008 In 2008, Nielsen
rated it the second leading sustainability site in the world, after TreeHugger.com
, while Time Magazine named it one of the world's top 15 environmental websites.
In interviews, Worldchanging staff have described their readers as young, highly-educated and concentrated in green business, the design professions, NGOs, media organizations and academia. More than a third of these readers live outside North America, particularly in the U.K., the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. The site has a particularly strong following in Canada, and maintains a blog devoted especially to Canadian ideas and innovations.
Worldchanging is the subject of a CNN documentary and editors have appeared on the Today Show, LinkTV and several CBC
television programs. Radio includes the CBC's the Current, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR's Living on Earth, Open Source and Morning Edition programs, as well as on Earth & Sky, Marketplace and many local NPR affiliate and talk radio programs.
with a foreword by Al Gore
, design by Stefan Sagmeister
and an introduction by Bruce Sterling
. It has received praise and was a winner of the Green Prize for sustainable literature, and is now seeing translation into French (under the title Change Le Monde), German and several other languages. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the publisher of the hardcover edition, listed it among their 50 best selling titles in July 2008.
The book was mentioned by BusinessWeek
as one of the "Best Innovation and Design Books for 2006" and received positive comments:
The staff plans to eventually release the book as a free Creative Commons
-licensed online resource. On October 2008, they announced their plans to launch a new book, as well as putting out a second edition of their first book.
and contributing editors Sarah Rich and Jeremy Faludi. From time to time, it takes on mission-related consulting work.
Steffen does most of the organization's public appearances, and has spoken at TED
, Poptech
and Design Indaba He is represented by the Lavin Agency.
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
about sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
and social innovation
Social innovation
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society....
. At 19/09/2011, it was taken over by Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need...
.
The site has earned positive reviews (and won several awards and honors) and was rated the second largest sustainability site on the web by Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Company, provides measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior. Previously a majority investor in both companies, Nielsen purchased NetRatings and BuzzMetrics in the...
in 2008.
Worldchanging is also the title of a book by the same editors, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Worldchanging (book)
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century is a book about environmental concerns and practical actual responses. It is a compendium of the solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future...
, a survey of best-practice solutions in sustainability and social innovation. The compendium was updated in 2011 with Steffen as the author, Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben
William Ernest "Bill" McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College...
's Introduction, Van Jones
Van Jones
Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones is an American environmental advocate, civil rights activist, and attorney. Jones is a co-founder of three non-profit organizations. In 1996, he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California non-governmental organization working for alternatives to violence...
Forward, and Sagmeister Inc. designer in Worldchanging, Revised and Updated Edition: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.
History and Organization
Worldchanging was launched in October, 2003 in San Francisco by Alex SteffenAlex Steffen
Alex Steffen is an American writer, editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010...
and Jamais Cascio
Jamais Cascio
Jamais Cascio is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and ethical futurist specializing in design strategies and possible outcomes for future scenarios...
, with a core of initial contributors, many of whom were part of the Viridian Design Movement, and had intellectual ties to the Whole Earth Catalog
Whole Earth Catalog
The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
. In 2005, Worldchanging moved its offices to Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. In early 2006, Cascio split off to form the more explicitly futurist site Open the Future and Worldchanging became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
corporation with an explicitly "solutions-based journalism" mission.
Worldchanging is now headquartered in Seattle and led editorially by Alex Steffen, the executive editor, with managing editor Amanda Reed, contributing editors include Jeremy Faludi and Sarah Rich, among others. It relies extensively on an international network of writers and correspondents, see list below.
Worldchanging is overseen by a board of directors, lead by Worldchanging's chairman, the environmental
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
photographer Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky OC is a Canadian photographer and artist who has achieved international recognition for his large-format photographs of industrial landscapes. His work is housed in more than fifteen major museums including the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Bibliothèque...
. Worldchanging is supported by a mixture of grants, book sales, speaker fees and reader donations.
On November 29, 2010, Worldchanging announced it would shut down. In 2011, Worldchanging, Revised Edition: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Worldchanging (book)
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century is a book about environmental concerns and practical actual responses. It is a compendium of the solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future...
(ISBN 978-0810997462) was published with Alex Steffen as the author.
Content
Worldchanging practices "solutions-based journalism," that is, the explicit goal of its work is to highlight possible solutions to what the editorial team sees as the planet's most pressing problems, rather than to spread news of those problems or critiques of their causes. Executive editor Alex SteffenAlex Steffen
Alex Steffen is an American writer, editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010...
was quoted in the Guardian explaining the value of this approach by saying "Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience."
In its manifesto, Worldchanging declares its mission this way:
"Worldchanging is a solutions-based online magazine that works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.
Informed by that premise, we do our best to bring you the most important and innovative new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future. We don't do negative reviews – why waste your time with what doesn't work? We don't offer critiques or exposes, except to the extent that such information may be necessary for the general reader to apprehend the usefulness of a particular tool or resource. We don't generally offer links to resources which are about problems and not solutions, unless the resource is so insightful that its very existence is a step towards a solution. We pay special attention to tools, ideas and models that may have been overlooked in the mass media. We make a point of showing ways in which seemingly unconnected resources link together to form a toolkit for changing the world.
Worldchanging publishes a mix of essays and interviews; shorter original reviews, letters from the field (conference reports, lab visits, notes from correspondents' travels) and think-pieces; and blog posts "highlighting the best coverage of new ideas and innovations from around the Web." From time to time, the site posts radio-style podcasts and online videos as well.
Worldchanging's content is divided in to seven sections: stuff
Object (philosophy)
An object in philosophy is a technical term often used in contrast to the term subject. Consciousness is a state of cognition that includes the subject, which can never be doubted as only it can be the one who doubts, and some object or objects that may or may not have real existence without...
, shelter
Structure
Structure is a fundamental, tangible or intangible notion referring to the recognition, observation, nature, and permanence of patterns and relationships of entities. This notion may itself be an object, such as a built structure, or an attribute, such as the structure of society...
, cities, community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
, business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, and planet
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. This taxonomy is designed to parse solutions based on their proximity to the reader, so that on one extreme Stuff is mostly about innovations in product design, food, clothing, and other objects used directly by individual people, while on the other extreme Planet encompasses global environmental and social issues, scientific advances and new thinking about the future of humanity.
Worldchanging also maintains a network of local blogs in several U.S. cities and Canada. The organization offers a newsletter as well, designed to serve more occasional readers, as well as perhaps more usual social networking tools, like a Facebook group.
Bright Green Approach
Critical to Worldchanging's editorial stance is the concept of bright green environmentalismBright green environmentalism
Bright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.-Origin and evolution of bright green thinking:...
. Bright green environmentalism aims for a sustainably prosperous society that relies on new technology and improved design to live within the planet's ecological limits while increasing the potential for economic growth, human social development and individual quality of life.
Like many other bright green environmentalists, the Worldchanging community expresses the belief that radical changes are needed in the economic and political operation of society in order to make it sustainable, but that better designs, new technologies and more widely distributed social innovations are the means to make those changes—and that we can neither shop nor protest our way to sustainability. They tend to focus extensively on the idea that through a combination of well-built compact communities, clean energy, green building, new technologies and sustainable living practices, quality of life can actually be improved even while ecological footprints shrink. "One-planet living" is a frequently heard buzz-phrase. As Ross Robertson writes, "[B]right green environmentalism is less about the problems and limitations we need to overcome than the “tools, models, and ideas” that already exist for overcoming them. It forgoes the bleakness of protest and dissent for the energizing confidence of constructive solutions.".
The term "bright green" has been used with increased frequency in the media
Media (communication)
In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...
. For more on the differences between light green, dark green and bright green movements, see the bright green environmentalism
Bright green environmentalism
Bright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.-Origin and evolution of bright green thinking:...
entry.
Critical Reception, Audience and Impact
WiredWired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
columnist Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
called Worldchanging "the most important website on the planet," and architect Richard Meier
Richard Meier
Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...
named it as his favorite site and praised it as "a wealth of information on sustainability".
It has won or been nominated for the following awards and prizes:
- 2005, won the UtneUtne ReaderUtne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
Independent Press Award. - 2006, finalist for a WebbyWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
for Best Blog. - 2007, finalist for a WebbyWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
for Best Magazine, as well as for BloggieThe Weblog Awards (Bloggies)The Weblog Awards, nicknamed the Bloggies, are annual non-profit blog awards that have been presented since 2001. They are the longest running and one of the largest blog awards, with winners determined through internet voting by the public...
awards for Best Group Weblog and Best Writing for a Weblog; won the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature for its book; won Organic Design Award. Prix Ars Electronica nominee. - 2008, named a WebbyWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
Official Honoree.
According to BlogPulse
BlogPulse
BlogPulse is a search engine and analytic system for blogs. It uses automated processes to monitor the daily activity on blogs and generates trend information. It was initially created by IntelliSeek, and was later acquired by the Nielsen Company, and currently owned by NM Incite, A Nielsen /...
, Worldchanging was the 135th most cited blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
in the world in July 2008 In 2008, Nielsen
Nielsen
Nielsen , is a Danish patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Niels, Niels being the Danish version of the Greek male given name Νικόλαος, Nikolaos . It is the second most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 5% of the population. It is also used in Norway, although the form Nelsen and...
rated it the second leading sustainability site in the world, after TreeHugger.com
TreeHugger
TreeHugger is a prominent sustainability website. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings,and was included in Time Magazine's 2009 blog index as one of the top twenty-five blogs....
, while Time Magazine named it one of the world's top 15 environmental websites.
In interviews, Worldchanging staff have described their readers as young, highly-educated and concentrated in green business, the design professions, NGOs, media organizations and academia. More than a third of these readers live outside North America, particularly in the U.K., the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. The site has a particularly strong following in Canada, and maintains a blog devoted especially to Canadian ideas and innovations.
Media
Worldchanging and its ideas have been covered in stories in the New York Times and New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, Time magazine, Der Spiegel, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Wired, US News and World Report, USA Today, the L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times, Le Monde, the Independent, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Fast Company, SEED, ID, Dwell, ReadyMade, the Associated Press, the New York Review of Books, the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail, the New Statesman, the Nation, New Scientist, Sierra magazine, Outside, Audubon, and the Sun.Worldchanging is the subject of a CNN documentary and editors have appeared on the Today Show, LinkTV and several CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
television programs. Radio includes the CBC's the Current, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR's Living on Earth, Open Source and Morning Edition programs, as well as on Earth & Sky, Marketplace and many local NPR affiliate and talk radio programs.
Worldchanging (book)
In November 2006, Worldchanging published a survey of global innovation, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st CenturyWorldchanging (book)
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century is a book about environmental concerns and practical actual responses. It is a compendium of the solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future...
with a foreword by Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, design by Stefan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. He has his own design firm—Sagmeister Inc.—in New York City. He has designed album covers for Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith and Pat Metheny.-Biography:Sagmeister studied graphic design at the...
and an introduction by Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
. It has received praise and was a winner of the Green Prize for sustainable literature, and is now seeing translation into French (under the title Change Le Monde), German and several other languages. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the publisher of the hardcover edition, listed it among their 50 best selling titles in July 2008.
The book was mentioned by BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
as one of the "Best Innovation and Design Books for 2006" and received positive comments:
The staff plans to eventually release the book as a free Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
-licensed online resource. On October 2008, they announced their plans to launch a new book, as well as putting out a second edition of their first book.
Contributors and Correspondents
Worldchanging is run by a core team of 8, and relies extensively on an international network of writers and correspondents:- Uleshka Asher
- Alan Atkisson
- Erica C. Barnett
- Nicole-Anne Boyer
- Stewart BrandStewart BrandStewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
- David BrinDavid BrinGlen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
- Blaine Brownell
- Jamais CascioJamais CascioJamais Cascio is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and ethical futurist specializing in design strategies and possible outcomes for future scenarios...
- Dawn Danby
- Regine Debatty
- Eric de Place
- Alan DurningAlan DurningAlan Thein Durning is the founder and executive director of the Sightline Institute, , a non-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.....
- Jeremy Faludi
- Gil FriendGil FriendGil Friend is a business consultant, author, system ecologist, and strategist in sustainable business, clean technology, and communications...
- Daniel Flahiff
- Emily GertzEmily GertzEmily Gertz is an American journalist and editor based in New York City, specializing in online news and environmental topics. She is a correspondent for OnEarth Magazine and co-manager of the magazine's on-line community...
- Joy Green
- Jonathan GreenblattJonathan GreenblattJonathan Greenblatt is a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Ethos Water. Jonathan joined his friend Peter Thum to start Ethos Water. Ethos water's mission is to help children get clean water. Ethos was based on a simple premise: water for water...
- Rohit Gupta
- James E. Hansen
- Zaid Hassan
- Paul HawkenPaul HawkenPaul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author.-Life:Paul Hawken had a Swedish grandmother and a Scottish grandfather with a farm. His father worked at UC Berkeley...
- Denis HayesDenis HayesDenis Hayes is an environmental activist and proponent of solar power. He rose to prominence in 1970 as the coordinator for the first Earth Day.Hayes founded the Earth Day Network and expanded it to more than 180 nations...
- Mara Hvistendahl
- Warren Karlenzig
- Rob Katz
- Brandon Keim
- Sanjay Khanna
- Micki Krimmel
- Sarah Kuck
- Katie Kurts
- Michael LaFond
- Jennifer Leonard
- Jon LebkowskyJon LebkowskyJon Lebkowsky is an web consultant/developer, author and activist who was cofounder of FringeWare, Inc. . FringeWare, an early attempt at ecommerce and online community, published a popular "magalog" called FringeWare Review, and a literary zine edited by Lebkowsky called Unshaved Truths...
- Hana Loftus
- Amory LovinsAmory LovinsAmory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
- Mindy Lubber
- Joel MakowerJoel MakowerJoel Makower is an entrepreneur, writer, and strategist on sustainable business, clean technology, and green marketing. For more than twenty years, he has been a respected voice on these topics, through books, websites, blogs, articles, and speeches...
- Geoff Manaugh
- Hassan Masum
- Ed Mazria
- Patrick Mazza
- Bill McDonough
- Bill McKibbenBill McKibbenWilliam Ernest "Bill" McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College...
- Dina Mehta
- Mike Millikin
- Chad Monfreda
- Craig Neilson
- Taran Rampersad
- Sarah Rich
- Patrick Rollens
- Ted Rose
- Karl SchroederKarl SchroederKarl Schroeder is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak...
- Cameron SinclairCameron SinclairCameron Sinclair is the co-founder and 'chief eternal optimist' for Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization which seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to communities in need.- Education and personal life :Educated at Kingswood...
- Bruce SterlingBruce SterlingMichael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
- Justus Stewart
- Charles StrossCharles StrossCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
- Mark Tovey
- John ThackaraJohn ThackaraJohn Thackara is founder and Director of The Doors of Perception . This event production company organises festivals in Europe and India in which grassroots innovators work with designers to imagine sustainable futures - and take practical steps to realize them...
- Matthew Waxman
- Terry Tempest WilliamsTerry Tempest WilliamsTerry Tempest Williams , is an American author, conservationist and activist.Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised...
- Clark Williams-Derry
- David Zaks
- Andrew Zolli
- Ethan ZuckermanEthan ZuckermanEthan Zuckerman is the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, officially starting in September 2011.Zuckerman was one of the first staff members of Tripod.com, one of the first successful "dot com" enterprises, and later founder of Geekcorps and Global Voices Online...
- Seth Zuckerman
Public Speaking
In addition to its editorial work, Worldchanging frequently presents its ideas in speeches and other public appearances, especially by editor Alex SteffenAlex Steffen
Alex Steffen is an American writer, editor, public speaker and futurist most noted for his bright green ideas.Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging from its start in 2003 until its closure in 2010...
and contributing editors Sarah Rich and Jeremy Faludi. From time to time, it takes on mission-related consulting work.
Steffen does most of the organization's public appearances, and has spoken at TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
, Poptech
Poptech
PopTech is a nonprofit open innovation laboratory and network of thought leaders who are dedicated to finding, incubating and accelerating ideas, people and projects that change the world...
and Design Indaba He is represented by the Lavin Agency.
External links
- Worldchanging.com
- video of Alex Steffen's talk at the TED conference
- Dicum, Gregory (2006). Green Blogs: The Green revolution moves online. San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
- Steffen, Alex Nikolai (2006). The Next Green Revolution: How technology is leading environmentalism out of the anti-business, anti-consumer wilderness. Wired MagazineWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
- profile on Worldchanging in the New York Times Magazine
- A Brighter Shade of Green: Rebooting Environmentalism for the 21st Century — WIE magazine
- "Go Bright Green" -- article in the Guardian
- Interview in Grist.org