[Imc-oxford] For immediate release: Paul Hawken's Natural Capital Institute announce a Wiser Earth

[burg at naturalcapital.org]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

PAUL HAWKEN AND THE NATURAL CAPITAL INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE A WISER EARTH 

The wiki-enabled database, WiserEarth, sets out to catalog and network the 
largest and fastest growing movement in the world. 

October 1, 2007 (Sausalito, California) – After a two-year effort by a 
global team of researchers, students, volunteers, and open source software 
experts, Paul Hawken and the Natural Capital Institute (NCI) announce the 
launch of WiserEarth.org (http://www.WiserEarth.org). Both a networking 
forum as well as an international community directory, WiserEarth is 
designed to help the hundreds of thousands of organizations and individuals 
working on environment, social justice and indigenous issues connect, 
collaborate, share resources and build alliances. 

According to NCI’s Project Director, Peggy Duvette, “WiserEarth’s purpose is 
to leverage the knowledge and resources of the world’s 
sustainability-related NGOs, social entrepreneurs, institutes, coalitions, 
foundations, and citizen-based groups in new ways, helping them connect and 
collaborate with one another.” 

NCI’s Executive Director, Paul Hawken recognized the need for WiserEarth 
when researching his latest book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement 
in the World Came into Being, and Why No One Saw It Coming (Viking/Penguin, 
2007). Hawken recalls, “I knew that if we could understand the connections 
and visualize the breadth of global efforts on behalf of social and 
environmental justice, we would recognize the largest movement the world has 
ever seen. WiserEarth is where this movement can begin to see itself.” 

WiserEarth already includes an extensive international directory of more 
than 106,000 organizations based in 243 countries, sovereign islands, and 
territories. It contains the world’s first detailed taxonomy of the areas of 
focus within sustainability, and provides a free platform to post resources, 
events, personal profiles, and job openings. Information on the site can be 
freely used, modified, and repurposed and the structured “wiki” format 
allows sophisticated data searches. “The success of WiserEarth does not 
depend on garnering a complete database of all the environmental and social 
justice organizations worldwide,” says Hawken, “but on our ability to create 
a network that takes on a life of its own — one that is wholly owned and 
grown by the global community.” 

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ABOUT THE NATURAL CAPITAL INSTITUTE
The Natural Capital Institute serves the people who are transforming the 
world. We are a team of researchers, teachers, students, activists, 
scholars, writers, social entrepreneurs, artists, and volunteers committed 
to the restoration of the earth and the healing of human culture. We do two 
things: we describe pathways of change in books and research reports, and we 
create tools for connecting the individuals, information, and organizations 
that create change. For more information, visit www.naturalcapital.org. 

For details about Paul Hawken’s latest book, Blessed Unrest, visit 
www.blessedunrest.com or www.paulhawken.com 

MEDIA CONTACT: Melinda Kramer, kramer at naturalcapital.org 415/331-6241 

Melinda Kramer 

Communications and Outreach Coordinator 

Natural Capital Institute 

www.naturalcapital.org
Office:             +1 415 331 6241
Cell:             +1 415 948 3732 

Email: kramer at naturalcapital.org