Today marks the launch of the new Multisolving Institute. The Institute’s purpose is to use research, communications, and training to help scale and spread approaches that increase health, equity, and well-being, while also protecting the climate. The new institute will expand and build upon work initiated at Climate Interactive.
Dr. Elizabeth Sawin, Climate Interactive’s co-founder, coined the word multisolving in 2015 to describe projects that use one investment of time, money, or effort to address multiple problems at once. Projects like walk-to-school programs, urban orchards, and home energy upgrades bring people together to work across sectors and silos to improve health, equity, wellbeing, and biodiversity, while also protecting the climate. That’s multisolving.
Research into these types of projects launched the multisolving program, which has been an important part of Climate Interactive’s work for the past six years. From that program emerged: an influential TEDx talk; dozens of articles and interviews; and a rising demand for training, research, and communications about multisolving. To meet that demand, the Climate Interactive multisolving team is launching the Multisolving Institute, a new, free-standing organization.
About the Multisolving Institute
The Institute will be directed by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin, with Stephanie McCauley as the Institute’s Chief Operating Officer and Research Director and Cassandra Breeze Ceballos as Engagement Coordinator.
The Institute’s purpose is to spread and scale multisolving by helping people overcome the obstacles limiting its success. The Institute will focus on three kinds of work:
Research and analysis: documenting the best practices for multisolving, illuminating bright spots, and quantifying the expected return on multisolving investments.
Communications: developing strategic communications to share what is possible with a multisolving approach and giving multisolvers around the world a platform to tell their stories.
Training: helping people learn the skills required for multisolving, especially centering equity and justice, working across jurisdictional silos, aligning budgets and constituencies, and building shared values.
Connect with the Institute
To learn more about multisolving and to learn more about the Institute’s plans register for our Webinar on March 12 pm EDT. You can also sign up for our email newsletter.
Climate Interactive, with Andrew Jones as Director going forward, will remain focused on creating and sharing tools, such as En-ROADS, that drive effective and equitable climate action. Big goals for 2022 include further expanding the network of climate ambassadors running events with our simulators and continuing to update and develop En-ROADS to ground understanding in equitable climate action. Jones said, “We’re thrilled that our Co-Founder, Dr. Beth Sawin, will continue to shape Climate Interactive’s strategy in her continuing role as Senior Advisor.”
Two Organizations, A Common Set of Goals
Though the work and teams that were once interwoven will be taking new, more separate forms moving forward, Climate Interactive and the Multisolving Institute will continue to be partners and strong supporters of each other’s work. Most important of all, both organizations will continue to do whatever we can to advance equity and sustainability around the world.
If you have any questions about this announcement or other aspects of our work please contact us via support.climateinteractive.org.
All the best,
The Climate Interactive and Multisolving Institute teams
