Rock Creek Institute
Partnering nature, science, and culture to reimagine what it means to be human.
MISSION: To drive the development of innovations that advance wellbeing for all people and the planet.
VISION: To create the conditions for becoming wise ancestors, by confronting our unique time in history—with all of its challenges and opportunities—and responding to the polycrisis with life-affirming solutions that work for everyone.
"We have the power to marry our hope with our action. We have the power to pay forward the love, sweat, and sacrifice of our mothers and fathers and all those who came before us…. Let us work like our lives depend on it!"
Michelle Obama,
2024 Democratic National Convention
"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. Maybe many of us won’t
be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen carefully, I can hear her
breathing."
Arundhati Roy
War Talk
"Plans are useless, planning is indispensable".
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"We are at a point in the course of social evolution when the demands of survival converge with the highest aspirations of humankind. It is up to us to see that we navigate this transition successfully, emerging, and even flourishing, in a new
reality, one in which the core value is the well-being of all."
Jonathan Salk,
Planetary Health: A New Reality
"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is
long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the
highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in
heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s
final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.
... Life is long if you know how to use it."
Seneca (4 BC-AD 65)
On the Shortness of Life
"Life on our planet is in trouble. It is hard to go anywhere without being confronted
by the wounding of our world, the tearing of the very fabric of life.... Our planet is sending us signals of distress that are so continual now they seem almost normal… These are warning signals that we live in a world that can end, at least as a home for conscious life. This is not to say that it will end, but it can end. That very possibility changes everything for us."
Joanna Macy
World as Lover, World as Self
"The three aspects of [the head of the community] are to see that working for
the benefit of others benefits oneself; to understand that through making every
effort for the prosperity of the community one revitalizes one’s own character;
and to know that endeavoring to succeed and to surpass the patriarchs of past
generations means to learn from their lives and to value their examples."
Instructions for the Zen Cook
Origin Story
Rock Creek Institute is pioneering a new way to conceptualize, organize, and deploy capital—financial, human, social, produced, and natural—to address the deep-rooted gap between humanity’s highest aspirations and how we act in our work, service, and daily life. Discover how we got here.
Humanity at a Crossroads
Humanity is at an inflection point. For the first time in human history the impacts of our success might become the cause of our decline. We have a small window to create the foundation for a sustainable and desirable world, which is fair and equitable for all of humanity, other species, and future generations.
Wellbeing Innovation at RCI
New operating instructions are needed to break the logjam dividing humanity’s highest aspirations from how innovation and investment typically happen today. Our Platform for Change is designed to make the Dominant Grand Narrative obsolete by ushering in a new era of life-affirming, Wise Ancestors.
Model & Value Proposition
At RCI, we strike a balance between naive optimism and analysis paralysis. The Platform for Change is powered by our Innovation Acceleration Process, Opportunity Statements, our Model of the Innovation Process, Rock Creek Design Studio, and our Design Principles for Wellbeing Acceleration.