Powering Through

Ground Truth is the first  annual survey to give the growing field of practitioners working on economic system change a voice on the big issues and dilemmas shaping our work. Its aim is to surface key barriers to transition – and to identify what is working well.

It doesn’t help to vilify old economic systems. The fossil fuel economy, intensive agriculture, single-use materials, short-term finance – these all grew up to meet society’s needs. They helped feed billions, drove up living standards, and gave many people better, easier lives than their parents. But they have run past their limits, and now they must give way to safer, cleaner, stronger alternatives.

We are at a specific phase in that transition. The early breakthroughs have happened in many systems. The new is no longer hypothetical – it is here, distributed unevenly and in places, it is winning. But we haven’t yet reached the tipping point, where the new can substitute the old.  We’re in  the hardest stretch: competing systems running in parallel, with progress that is messy,  political, and hard-won.

The contradictions and mixed feelings many of us experience in this phase are not a sign that something has gone wrong. They are a sign that something significant is underway.

Ground Truth – our new annual survey – asked hundreds of practitioners what they see from the inside. What emerges are some hard truths, but also clarity and energy: the stories and strategies that  work. Our task is to use this insight as we power through the transition.