Systemic Change to Achieve Environmental Impact: Examples of Ashoka Fellows

How did Willie Smits regrow a forest to protect orangutans in Borneo? How does Rob Hopkins help us transition to a world without oil? These two Ashoka Fellows are changing systems, not simply innovating on the edges.

The environmental field has experienced a major transition in the past 20 years. Conservation finance, community resource management and the creation of “low impact” businesses are just a few of the unique approaches taking shape. Governments, corporations, and citizen groups around the world are using technological innovation and community resources to gain a foothold on environmental sustainability. Initiatives developed by Ashoka Fellows are succeeding in preserving natural resources, creating options for more sustainable urban design, and in holding land developers accountable to environmental regulation.

Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, we have elected over 2,700 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 70 countries.

This presentation will explore the systems that Fellows are changing and how we know if the systemic change is achieved.