About Our Future Planet
Global charity
Our Future Planet (OFP) is the only online community that allows you to share ideas, design your future and create global change in the real world. The charity’s website seeks to inform, inspire, connect and enable people to create positive change.
OFP evolved out of a desire to rethink the direction the world is heading in and aims to inspire people to create a better world in which to live.
OFP’s unique work
- Focus on solutions and a positive vision for the future
- Integrated focus on the whole planet and not just one nation or geographic area
- Incorporates all issues and educates on how they relate to each other
- Extension of global ideas and projects beyond the online community
"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 cultural anthropologist
What you can do as a member of the OFP community
1. Become informed about the key issues and how they are holistically connected
2. Change your behaviour based on what you have learnt by creating a personal action plan within your member profile
3. Find people, organisations and groups from all over the world who are involved and have an interest in the six areas relating to sustainability and their sub groups
4. Connect, share ideas and network with people who share your interests through the citizen search tool which allows you to search by interest, location, skills and activity.
5. Create and develop proposals/ideas for change
6. Create Projects using the projects tool within your profile. Generate visibility and call for support or volunteers for your projects and ideas
"What Our Future Planet is doing is creating the emergence of a new story of a world that truly can work for everyone. Without such explorations, there is very little chance of our survival into the next century.” - Dr Jean Houston, philosopher, author and researcher
We have drawn a line in time. Our present planet is on one side, and our future planet is on the other. Our Future Planet enables you to rethink a future that does not follow on blindly from the ways of the past.
This world is our only home. As the world population soars to nearly 7 billion, people everywhere have the choice to cooperate and rethink the direction the world is heading in. To a safe world with peace, abundance and prosperity in a sustainable environment with clean water, fresh air, biodiversity and beauty. A true home for people, animals and plants filled with creativity, cooperation, transparency, health, wisdom and happiness.
No other web-based community focuses on integrated systemic change at the grass roots level. There is no platform on which to build innovative visions of a better future or to harness creative ideas that can bring about positive behavioural change. There is no one facility that allows the people, and not just the leaders, to rethink the way we live, and to implement change.
On which side of the line do you want to be standing?
OFP has a passionate team, strong Advisory Board, dedicated Trustees and a powerful website. Has there ever been a time of so much promise, so much of a chance to make a difference?
By understanding global issues and connecting with others with shared interests it is possible to facilitate change at a local and international level.
Our vision is to harness global co-operation to create a sustainable, beautiful, just and happy future. You can be part of this creative community designing and changing their future. The more people sign up, the more ideas are shared; the larger and stronger our community grows, and the closer we come to achieving our vision. Sign up today and start creating a better future!
Advisory Board: James Arnold-Baker, Dr Julian Caldecott, Satish Kumar, Frank Morgan, Professor Anil Markandya, Mark Gerzon, Philip Appleman, Alan Baxter, Nick Hart-Williams, Peter Bunyard, Miguel Mendonça
Trustees: Karl Jaeger, Samantha Harvey, Dr Jean Houston, James Gillis Lengel
Partners/Contributors: Hazel Henderson, Jakob von Uexküll, Mitch Resnick, Paul Rainger, Vicki Buck, Ethical Markets, CREE, I-SEE, MIT Media Lab, Resurgence Magazine, Scratch, The Right Livelihood Award, World Future Council, International School of America
In-House Team: Nicola Gunstone: CEO, Vito Huang: Web Developer, Giles Crosse: Journalist and Press Liaison, Spencer Davies: Freelance Designer, Alan Shaw: Freelance Web Developer, Monika Becker Volunteer Marketing, Joshua Newton Volunteer Content Developer
Advisory Board
James Arnold-Baker, Advisor, Chairman of Advisory Board
James is a founding director of Doctors.net.uk, the UK’s leading medical internet portal, which has over 90% of all UK practising doctors as members, and Chairman of publishing start-up Hothouse Fiction. Prior to that James was Chief Executive of Oxford University Press. His career in the media has included successful periods as Chief Executive of BBC Enterprises, as a member of the BBC Board of Management, and nine years at Fisher-Price Toys, where his final position was Vice-President (Europe) He has an MA from Magdalen College, Oxford and a masters degree in Business Studies at the London Business School.
"I support Our Future Planet because it uniquely seeks answers to the full spectrum of issues affecting our overcrowded planet. Our Future Planet is about citizen input and participation in developing positive solutions that can make real changes to our environment."
Julian is an ecologist, author, speaker and consultant who has spent more than 20 years promoting biodiversity conservation and environmental sustainability around the world. Julian has published books on ecology, biodiversity conservation, good governance, great apes, environmental treaties, and the global water crisis, and is now working on population issues and the commemoration of species lost during the current mass extinction. Julian began by studying gibbons, monkeys, bearded pigs and woolly rhinos in South-east Asian rainforests. He has since spent more than 20 years as a consultant on nature conservation, environmental and livelihood security, and climate change adaptation across the global tropics. Julian's overall aim is to make the workings of the biosphere clear to all, so that we can understand how and why to start living on the Earth as if we intended to stay. Julian lives in Bath and is an enthusiastic supporter of Our Future Planet as a potential way to transcend our global problems.
"The restoration of the biosphere requires that hundreds of millions of citizens be mobilised and learn to cooperate over new scales of space, time and ecology. Our Future Planet offers a practical and inclusive way for this adaptation to occur. I therefore have no option but to support Our Future Planet, and it is my duty to do so."
Satish is editor of Resurgence Magazine, author, ecologist and pacifist, founder and Director of Programme at Schumacher College, and founder of the Small School. Satish teaches, lectures and runs workshops internationally on reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. He is the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures in Britain, and has written several books. Satish presented a 50-minute documentary Earth Pilgrim on the BBC as part of the Natural World series. Satish has been a contributor to the BBC's Thought for the Day strand on the Today programme, and also appeared on Desert Island Discs. When he was only nine years old, Satish renounced the world and joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. At eighteen, he left the monastic order and became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi’s vision of renewed India and a peaceful world into reality. Fired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money.
Professor Frank Morgan, Advisor
Frank, is Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University. Under his leadership the institution has achieved full university status and a substantial increase in regional and national reputation. In league tables Bath Spa is invariably placed among the best of the 65 modern universities in the UK. In recent years Bath Spa has accelerated its commitment to sustainability and environmentalism. Bath Spa was the first university to achieve Silver status under the EcoCampus scheme. By profession Frank is a public finance accountant and has a career-long commitment to public service organisations. Away from work Frank Morgan’s interests include seventeenth century French drama, England’s industrial architecture and watching Rugby League.
“I was flattered to be invited to join the Advisory Board and delighted to accept the invitation because I believe there is a real need to offer channels for people to consider and express their views on the really major issues facing humanity. Perhaps more than at any other time in our history the threats (and maybe even opportunities) facing our children and grandchildren are wider even than historic issues such as depressions and wars. The very future of our societies and our planet are matters that every individual must find of interest and importance”.
Mark is a leadership trainer and mediator, author, Founder and President of the Mediators Foundation, and co-founder and co-director of the Global Leadership Network. Mark works with key organizations in both the private and public sector to develop a more integral, global approach to leadership. As reflected in his most recent book, Leading Through Conflict, he specializes in helping diverse or conflicting groups transform differences and conflicts into opportunities and common ground. He has extensive experience consulting with public sector organizations such as the US House of Representatives and the United Nations Development Program. His mission remains constant: to foster the emergence of leaders who know how to build bridges across differences, rather than walls that reinforce them.
Professor Anil Markandya, Advisor
Anil is an environmental economist, author and Professor of Economics at Bath University. He was recently on secondment as Lead Economist at the World Bank, and was leading participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the members of which were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 with Al Gore. Dividing his time between academic and advisory work, he has published widely in areas of climate change, environmental valuation, environmental policy, green accounting, macroeconomics and trade. He has held academic positions at the universities of Princeton, Berkeley and Harvard in the US and University College London. He holds a Chair of Economics at the University of Bath and is Scientific Director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change (bc3), Bilbao. Anil holds an MSc in Econometrics from the London School of Economics and a PhD on the Economics of the Environment.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Philip has published eight volumes of poetry, three novels and half a dozen nonfiction books. His poetry and fiction have won many awards and have appeared in scores of publications. He has given readings of his poetry at the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Museum, the Huntington Library, and many universities.
"At a time when words-words-words are everywhere, but wisdom seems rare, perhaps Our Future Planet can contribute thoughtful approaches to the tough challenges we are facing every day, and help to give our planet hope for a better future."
An engineer by origin with a wide range of interests, Alan founded Alan Baxter and Associates, an engineering firm covering urban design, masterplanning, sustainability, conservation and civil and structural engineering. Alan is the Consulting Engineer to St Paul´s Cathedral and he and his firm are responsible for the adaptation of a vast range of historic buildings including Hampton Court and the Palace of Westminster. He and his colleagues have written Conservation Plans for many nationally important buildings including Salisbury Cathedral, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tyntesfield House. He serves on the London Advisory Committee of English Heritage and on their joint national Urban Panel with CABE. He is a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund´s Expert Panel and has been an assessor on several high-profile design competitions. He is a Patron of the Urban Design Group and Art and Architecture and is a Trustee of the British Architectural Library Trust. He is also a Commissioner of the Independent Transport Commission.
Nick is co-founder/director of Be The Change, and has had a lifetime in media, with particular interest in sustainability and change. He was founder of the Other Cinema; a documentary Commissioning Editor at Channel Four; a documentary film-maker (Greenbucks, Prophets & Loss); and an internet and multi-media entrepreneur. Be The Change was formed as a step towards bringing the best people and ideas together through conferences, workshops and other events. Their annual London conference is dedicated to exploring and encouraging evolutionary change - environmental, educational, social and spiritual. Nick was born in Wales, raised in Vancouver and LA, and now lives near Bath, UK.
Peter is a freelance author and environmentalist, and was the founding science editor of the The Ecologist magazine. A fellow of the Linnean Society, he is currently conducting field work in the Colombian Amazon on the role of rainforests in global warming. He has worked as consultant editor for the United Nations Environment Programme review on Industry and the Environment, and was secretary and editor of the Committee for the Study of Nuclear Economics. Peter went five times around the world as a faculty member of International School of America. He lives in Cornwall, and has two grandchildren.
Miguel Mendonça is the World Future Council’s Research Manager. His background is in forestry, horticulture, geography, history, journalism, social science and environmental ethics. He is a researcher, writer and advocate, focusing on social and political aspects of renewable energy policy. He writes papers, articles, commentaries and reviews, and is author of three books on energy and sustainability.
Trustees
Karl Jaeger, Samantha Harvey, Dr Jean Houston, James Gillis Lengel
Karl Jaeger, Chairman of Trustees and Co-Founder
Karl is an educator, writer and artist. He is Executive Director of the International School of America (recently renamed International Honors Program), established in 1958, which offers opportunities for students to participate in multi-country study programs. Karl has personally led and taught in five travel programs for the students around the globe. Karl has also created several community design projects including the Cambridge Charter School system, a student-centred secondary school which received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Education. Karl is an active member of the arts and his kinetic sculptures are presented in many major museums in the world. Karl is currently designing an Habitable Sculpture in Maine, USA. Karl is also an avid collector of postcards and has over 80, 000 postcards on different themes collected from around the world. Karl holds a Bachelors Degree in Education and a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University.
Time Magazine Article
Samantha Harvey, Trustee and Co-Founder
Born in Kent, England Samantha has a postgraduate degree in philosophy and an M.A. from the Bath Spa Creative Writing course. In addition to writing, she has taught in Japan and has lived in Ireland and New Zealand. Samantha lives in Bath, England. Her debut novel The Wilderness was published in 2009. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, won the Betty Trask Prize, and is on the longlist for the Guardian First Book Award and the Man Booker Prize.
Jean, scholar, philosopher, author and researcher in human capacities, is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time, and one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker, she holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide. She is a prolific writer and author of 26 books. She has lectured in more than 100 countries and worked intensively in 40 cultures. She has received many awards for her work. Jean founded the Foundation for Mind Research, the International Institute for Social Artistry and the Mystery School She is an advisor to UNICEF and currently working with the United Nations Development Programme training leaders in developing countries throughout the world in the new field of social artistry. Jean has served for two years in an advisory capacity to President and Mrs Clinton as well as helping Mrs Clinton write, It Takes A Village To Raise A Child. She has also worked with President and Mrs. Carter and counseled leaders in similar positions in many countries and cultures. Jean has taught at several universities including Columbia University. Jean holds a B.A., a Ph.D. in psychology, and a Ph.D. in religion. She has also been the recipient of honorary doctorates.
"What Our Future Planet is doing is creating the emergence of a new story of a world that truly can work for everyone. Our Future Planet is involved in intensive world design, and without such a design we will have nothing to aspire to, nor will we have the procedures and strategies to get us there. The needs of the planet are right now. The need for making the difference on this planet in terms of the design of the systemic structures. As we design, we design for the continuity of the earth. With such designs, we will probably not survive, as a species, not to speak of the continuing devastation we bring to the earth. Our Future Planet is truly an exploration into the world that can work. Without such explorations, there is very little chance of our survival into the next century."
James is an author and Assistant professor of Communication at Boston University since 1994 where he specialises in multimedia communications. He has held many educational Directorships. James graduated from Yale University in 1971 majoring in American Studies.
Partners/Contributors
These inspiring individuals and organisations have made invaluable contributions to Our Future Planet
International School of America
The Team
Nicola has a BA in Sociology and ten years senior management experience within companies ranging from global corporations, to start ups. She has managed groups of products, and held consultancy positions within digital & traditional media including, publishing, e-learning, exhibitions and conferences. She has travelled extensively and lived and worked in Malaysia, Australia and Europe.
Vito Huang: Web Developer
Giles Crosse: Journalist and Press Liaison
Spencer Davies: Freelance Designer
Alan Shaw: Freelance Web Developer
Kate Sykes Volunteer Marketing Executive
Joshua Newton Volunteer Content Developer
Tim Wynn Jones Volunteer Content Developer
Any questions about Our Future Planet? Most of them are answered in our FAQ or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
