Join us in Building New Bridges to the Future.
Building New Bridges to the Future
We use the metaphor of building new bridges that allow us to travel from the present to the future. The figure depicts many of the stepping stones, accelerators, and pillars that we had identified to make these bridges sturdy and passable.
The bridge has a three lane highway to get us across the chasm from the unsustainable, wasteful grey economy on the left, to the sustainable green economy on the right side. To get us started through the toll booth and onto the bridge, we need to have hope. Once on the bridge, we need innovation. As we accelerate, we must behave collaboratively. And most important, we have to be adaptable to discern and continually respond to the feedback signals for resiliency.

Finding hope and purpose in the midst of global disruptions
The “normal” routines and rhythms of daily life have been upended by the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its consequent economic downturn. Streets are quiet and schools are virtual. Some of us are working from home while those designated as essential workers (heroes) are going into work to ensure that we have healthcare and food, and allow communities to function. Millions of people, tragically, are out of work. All in all, people are experiencing the stress of having their lives thrown out of balance. Loneliness from prolonged isolation and anxiety that they can’t see an end to the crises, makes it easy to fall into being afraid of the future with so many unknowns. Most adults had come to believe that they knew how the world works or at least that they should know. Because of that, we “normally” operate as though the future is predictable. But the truth is that the future is always unknown. We are always active contributors to the future’s design.
Now is the time for us, to invent our new normal, and to do this individually and collectively so that we become thriving and resilient individually and societally, as well as locally, regionally, and globally.
The “normal” routines and rhythms of daily life have been upended by the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its consequent economic downturn. Streets are quiet and schools are virtual. Some of us are working from home while those designated as essential workers (heroes) are going into work to ensure that we have healthcare and food, and allow communities to function. Millions of people, tragically, are out of work. All in all, people are experiencing the stress of having their lives thrown out of balance. Loneliness from prolonged isolation and anxiety that they can’t see an end to the crises, makes it easy to fall into being afraid of the future with so many unknowns. Most adults had come to believe that they knew how the world works or at least that they should know. Because of that, we “normally” operate as though the future is predictable. But the truth is that the future is always unknown. We are always active contributors to the future’s design.
Now is the time for us, to invent our new normal, and to do this individually and collectively so that we become thriving and resilient individually and societally, as well as locally, regionally, and globally.
Our journey to a new future starts with a commitment to work together to accelerate the journey from awareness to understanding and, most importantly, to action. As we strive to live our values and be our best selves, we decided to provide easy access to selected events, webinars, articles, and practical examples of what communities, businesses, and experts in various fields are proposing as steps that will move us to a new and better future.
Building Bridges Framework
The shared knowledge portal layout mirrors our journey across the bridge. We present information at three distinct levels - personal, local and global.
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PERSONAL LEVEL: How can "YOU" and "I" as an individual, feel, think (mindset) and act (behavior) to contribute to the new future? |
As happens with the turn of a kaleidoscope, our accumulated skills and experiences reorder and recombine to make new original patterns time after time; we’re always a work-in-progress. It is the rich breadth and depth of our humanness, simultaneously simple and complex in its unfolding. |
![]() LOCAL LEVEL:
How can "WE" align "OUR" experiences, learnings and efforts to be in the new future? |
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has - Margaret Mead |
![]() GLOBAL LEVEL:
How can "Everyone" align visions, goals, initiatives to be in the new future for "ALL" ? |
The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological - social - psychological - economic system. We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch - Donella Meadows |
Icons to Map Materials within Each Level

ADAPTATION - materials on how practices, policies, methods and systems are dynamically applied to better fit continually changing circumstances.