The Emerging Future Is Here
Bring Multisolving Moments to your Community
āIn challenging times, we have found that opportunities to come together with others spark moments where hope meets momentum. In 2025, Multisolving Moments were born from a common theme that people, at times, felt lonely in the work they were doing. Considering the amount of disruption weāre seeing globally, we wanted to create spaces where people can build community and share their work, challenges, and wins. Now, weād like to share that same practice with you to host your own Multisolving Moments.
Towards a Regenerative Future
āAs I write this from my rural Vermont apartment overlooking a rainy landscape, Iām overcome with relief thatās only partially comforting. Weāve been in extreme drought conditions, affecting farms and communities across the region. Itās times like these that remind us of how vulnerable we are. How much we rely on rain, energy grids, and Wi-Fi signals, even as aquifers dry up and pollinators disappear. Itās hard to hold a positive outlook or even feel any space for optimism these days. But with this rain comes a small semblance of hope.
From the Ashes of Crisis: My Journey To Multisolving and the Birth of the Regenerative Life Garden
āIn 2011, at 20 years old, I believed I was the poorest person in the world. Not just financially, but because I had almost nothing. No food. No land. No father. No voice. No vision. And worst of allā¦ no hope. I felt like I was swimming in an ocean of problems. Hunger haunted me every day, and trauma from the past sat heavy on my chest. Even when I tried to lift myself up, a dozen invisible chainsāextreme poverty, loss, malnutrition, trauma, hopelessness, conflicts. But inside that pain, a seed was planted.
Multisolving in the UK ā reflections from āMultisolvingā book clubās journey so far
āMeet Liz Gadd, Freelance Consultant and a UK-based Multisolver. Liz specializes in working at the intersection of social and environmental issues and has worked with charities and philanthropic organizations to do the same for over 25 years. Liz hosted a Multisolving book club and shared some of her insights from the experience thus far.
Six Reasons for Communitarian Living
āPublished at Resilience.org by Island Press
This spring my husband and I are moving three tenths of a mile and two-hundred years back in time.
Book Tour Stop with Impact Trust
āThis highly interactive session is designed to share practical tools and approaches that you can apply in your own work. We will aim to explore and share, collectively, how multisolving approaches are used in different regions and contexts to deal with the interconnected and intersecting challenges of our time. Attendees can expect:
- case study discussions
- small group work
- opportunities to connect with others working to bridge divides for greater impact
Ā
5 āNo-Regretsā Actions for Tumultuous Times
āNov. 2024 Letter from the Director
For those who stake their identity on the role of omniscient conqueror, the uncertainty exposed by systems thinking is hard to take. If you canāt understand, predict, and control, what is there to do?
Elizabeth Sawin speaks on Multisolving in New Podcast
āMultisolving Institute Founder and Director Elizabeth Sawin spoke with Najia Shaukat Lupson, host of the Entangled World podcast. Entangled World explores our interrelated, existential social, economic, ecological, and technological challenges, their underlying drivers, and how a more beautiful world might emerge.Ā
FLOWER App ā Now Available
āFLOWER is now available in a new online app format to foster cross-sector collaborations that protect the climate. By allowing groups to visualize up to 8 co-benefits and the equity implications of each, FLOWER promotes multi-dimensional thinking. It helps investors, policymakers, educators, and civil society groups ensure that climate action benefits equity, jobs, health, and well-being. FLOWER was released for public use during the 2024 Climate Week NYC events.
FLOWER Spotlight ā Eduardo Fracassi
āWebinar ā FLOWER Immersive
āWebinar ā The Multisolving Way
āWebinar ā FLOWER: Visualizing Solutions for Equity, Climate, and Health
āHealey-Driscoll Administration Launches Climate Science Advisory Panel; Dr. Sawin named as panelist
āMassachusetts Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll launched a Climate Science Advisory Panel through the new Massachusetts Office of Climate Science (OCS). Multisolving Institute Director and Founder Dr. Elizabeth Sawin has been named to serve as a panelist.
āThe creation of the Climate Science Advisory Panel will be a tremendous resource as we integrate climate action into every agency in state government,āĀ said Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer.Ā āWe must commit to following the latest scientific findings and expand our whole-of-government approach to tackle future extreme climate events. The guidance provided by theseĀ experts will ensure that we have the latest dataĀ to promote public awareness of climate changeĀ andĀ to make the best decisions for our communities.ā
Read the full press release here.
The post Healey-Driscoll Administration Launches Climate Science Advisory Panel; Dr. Sawin named as panelist appeared first on Multisolving Institute.
Multisolving: Making Systems Whole, Healthy, and Sustainable
āMultisolving for Resilience: RITA Summit Recap
āOn August, 7th Multisolving Institute Director Beth Sawin joined a panel on Community, Reciprocity, and Sustainability at theĀ Loka Initiativeās Resilience in the AnthropoceneĀ [RITA] Summit. She spoke about four principles that can build resilience to environmental shocks in communities. We share her remarks below:
I have four principles for building community resilience Iād like to offer today. Iāll get to those four quickly, but firstā two pieces of background so they make more sense. I live in Vermont, and we have been getting slammed with climate change impacts. Some have made the national news, but the disasters are ongoing.
Picture a small mountainous state, with settlements in river valleys, especially for less affluent Vermonters. Then picture a very rainy June, waterlogged soils. Then picture in one weekend in early July, six to nine inches of rain in just a few days ā thatās when four to five inches is normal for the whole month. Thatās the flooding that made national news. Weāve had storm after storm since then, including one that dropped another six inches on part of the state. It rained all night last night.
In my thoughts, youāll hear this reality in Vermont but please know Iām offering the specifics to illustrate general principles that I believe apply everywhere. So please listen, beyond the specifics, for what these examples might mean for your place.
Multisolving: How Do You Know It When You See It?
āMultisolvers work at all scales and across many sectors. Yet they have four practices in common.
Disaster Recovery Efforts Can Serve More than One Goal
āThis opinion piece from Dr. Sawin stems from the devastating July 2023 floods that took place in Vermont.
āA multisolving recovery would ensure that every dollar and every hour of investment serves more than one goal,ā Sawin said. Ā āIt would design for the future thatās coming, not the past we once knew. It would expand the idea of recovery to include nature and community, as well as bridges and roads.ā
Elizabeth Sawin speaks on multisolving in two new podcasts
āIn two new podcasts, Multisolving InstituteĀ Founder and DirectorĀ Elizabeth Sawin talks multisolving and system thinking. Read below to learn more.
Climate Leadership and Multisolving: A Conversation With Katharine Wilkinson of The All We Can Save Project
āJoin Multisolving Institute Founder and Director Beth Sawin on Thurs., July 28 at 12pm ET for a conversation with Katharine Wilkinson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the The All We Can Save Project. Grounded in Dr. Wilkinsonās expertise in and vision of a leaderful and feminist climate movement, the conversation will explore the ways in which the climate crisis is also a leadership crisis. What type of leadership is needed today? How can we each find our unique contribution?
Racial Equity and Multisolving: A Conversation With Nathaniel Smith of Partnership for Southern Equity
āJoin Multisolving Institute Founder and Director Beth Sawin on Wed., May 4th at 12pm ET for a conversation with Nathaniel Smith, who serves as Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE). PSE advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in metropolitan Atlanta and the American South. Nathaniel is also a member of the Multisolving Institute Advisory Board.
In the webinar we will explore Nathanielās definition of racial equity, why racial equity must be a central focus of multisolving, and learn more about PSEās approach to advancing racial equity in health, energy, economic opportunity, and land use. This webinar is the first in Multisolving Instituteās series of conversations about multisolving with leaders in the US and internationally.
Read below to learn more about Nathaniel Smith and the work of PSE.