Post Carbon Institute
Our Mission
Founded in 2003, Post Carbon Institute’s mission is to lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world by providing individuals and communities with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises of the 21st century.Post Carbon Institute is doing the most important work imaginable, and doing it well. —Bill McKibben, Author, Founder of 350.org, & PCI Fellow Emeritus
Our Vision
We envision a world of resilient communities and re-localized economies that thrive within ecological bounds.
The Issues We Address
We believe that the world is experiencing the confluence of crises in four interrelated systems — energy, ecology, economy, and equity. We call these the “E4 crises,” and they can be summarized as follows:
- The age of extreme energy. Declines in the amount of affordable energy available to society mean far higher environmental, economic, and social costs.
- Overshoot abounds. Across the board—food, population, water, biodiversity, climate change, etc.—we are hitting biophysical limits.
- The end of growth. As a result of the limits within and outside the economic system, we are experiencing the end of economic growth as we’ve known it.
- Increasing inequality. Rising domestic and global inequality could lead to tremendous socio-political unrest (and ultimately economic and environmental disaster), as a growing population struggles to share diminishing economic and natural resources.
Our Strategy
Post Carbon Institute provides individuals and communities with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises of the 21st century. We help build resilience to withstand these crises, and support social and cultural change to make society more ready to take decisive and appropriate action. Specifically, we:
- Grow collective understanding of our energy reality, and the need for both conservation and appropriate, community-centric renewable energy.
- Promote community resilience as the best way to build thriving, relocalized neighborhoods, towns, and cities capable of withstanding coming disruptions.
- Support a growing movement of innovators and early adopters who can develop best practices and provide leadership both now and during future crises.
