Founded on the belief that effective responses will not likely emerge from the same methods and mechanisms that perpetuate today's sustainability challenge, The Lab is being organized to foster bold experimentation with untested ideas, approaches and technologies that transcend prevailing conventions.
The Lab's work will focus on four interrelated areas of activity, essential for catalyzing deep change: Development Projects, Technology Innovations, Green Economics, and Education. Read More »
To guide its activities, The Lab has developed its own unique, action-oriented conceptual framework. Inspired by the work of innovative thinkers including Buckminster Fuller, Stafford Beer and Rusell Ackoff, The Lab's signature approach combines:
Providing an essential roadmap for developing model sustainability practices.
Providing a blueprint for addressing complexity and managing significant change processes.
Providing a comprehensive methodology for guiding project planning and facilitating development initiatives.
Learn more about Our Approach
Applying this framework, The Lab engages in research, development, and education activities focused around key sustainability-related issues. Our growing portfolio of projects is designed to demonstrate pioneering, model approaches to sustainability challenges, applicable on a local, regional, and planetary scale.
Project Wadi Attir is a groundbreaking initiative with a Bedouin community in the Negev desert, demonstrating an approach to sustainable desert agriculture that leverages Bedouin traditional values, science and cutting edge technologies.
"This project offers a golden opportunity for people in the Bedouin community to organize in an independent, democratic fashion, with emphasis on common goals, shared effort and commitment to community values."Aatef Abu Ajaj, member of the Project Team
The Global Sustainability Fellows Program is a graduate-level educational initiative designed to inspire, inform and mobilize future generations of leaders who are committed to integrating an in-depth exposure to sustainability issues into studies in their chosen disciplines.
"As a person brought up in a poor, rural area, I desire to be a leader in transforming the lives and livelihoods of the very poor, marginalized, and hard-to-reach people."Boru Halkano, Global Sustainability Fellow
The Sustainability Prize, established in collaboration with EARTH University in Costa Rica, is awarded annually to the Graduation Project that best incorporates The Lab's Five Core Principles of Sustainability. The student with the winning project is awarded a $10,000 prize for implementation of the project.
"The Sustainability Prize at EARTH University defined my professional profile, allowing me to focus on working toward environmental conservation, waste management and environmental education in a corporate responsibility context."Tania Perez, Sustainability Prizewinner, 2010
Explore all of Our Projects
Don’t miss the recordings of Exploring the Sustainability Challenge, the inaugural conversation series of The Sustainability Laboratory. Session 1: Setting the Context: Sustainability is a Syste...
The Sustainability Laboratory’s inaugural conversation series, Exploring the Sustainability Challenge, features thought leaders working on some of the most urgent issues facing the planet. Get t...
An update from Project Wadi Attir, with notable news from the last year.
