Weaving our lives and the world anew

Here’s some good news: "threads" of a new culture are showing up out of 2020's "Great Unraveling"! The breakdowns of last year are revealing many “threads” of a new emerging culture of connection, cooperation, collaboration, caring, and generosity!

Below are some examples of these new “threads” in only a few areas, and these are just the tip of the iceberg. These kinds of examples are showing up increasingly in every area of our lives.

The Cultural Butterfly Project is a catalyst, inspiration, and support for this emerging culture of the greater good and well-being of all. If this culture resonates with you, please contact me.

Economy and Finance:

Post-Growth Institute:

• Shifting to an economy that’s better, not bigger.

WellBeing Economy Alliance (WEAll):

• “10 principles to build back better and create wellbeing economies”

• Rebuilding to a US Wellbeing Economy

• #VisionsOfAWellbeingEconomy blog series

• Measuring a Wellbeing Economy: How to move Beyond GDP

Public Banking Institute:

• “The Public Banking Act steps onto the federal stage”

• “Five Ways Your State Can Leave Wall Street”

• “When pandemics changed history” with Prof. Richard Wolff

RSF Social Finance:

• RSF’s Integrated Capital Institute: Financial activists leveraging capital as a tool for positive change

• Truly Shifting Philanthropy’s Power Dynamics Requires New Structures for Giving

• RSF Named Finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas

TED Talks:

• “What is stakeholder capitalism, and can it change business for good?”

• “How repaying loans with social service transforms communities”

Environment/Ecology:

• Stanford Designer is Making Bricks Out of Fast-Growing Mushrooms That Are Stronger than Concrete

• Scientists Create Transparent Wood Nearly as Clear as Glass to Make Stronger, Better Insulating Windows

• Breakthrough 3D Solar Panel Design Increases Light Absorption By 125% – A Potential Game-Changer

• Bamboo Tower Produces Up To 25 Gallons of Water In A Day Without Electricity

• Mini Wind Turbine Can Generate Energy Made From the Breeze You Make When Walking

• These Wind Turbines Attached to Highway Street Lights Are Powered By Traffic

• Kites of Renewable Energy Generate Wind Power by Flying Through the Air

• Student finds bacteria that eats pollution and breathes electricity

• Natural Organisms in Soil Can Power Lights With This Bio Battery, Which May Be World’s Most Disruptive Technology

• Scientists Create 'Super Enzyme' That Eats Plastic Bottles Six Times Faster than Previous Enzymes

• H&M In-Store Recycling Machine Turns Old Clothes into New Threads—A World First

• Englishman Grows 500 Types of Edible Foods With Only a Few Hours' Work a Month

• Off the Wall: Vertical Growing is Coming to a Market Near You

• TED Talk: Big data, small farms and a tale of two tomatoes: the path to a healthier, zero-waste food system

• How Costa Rica Slowed, Stopped, Then Reversed Deforestation in Their Rainforests

• Tiny Forests Are Springing Up All Around Europe, Inspired By Japan, to Help Restore Biodiversity

• TED Talk: An Engineer’s Vision For Tiny Forests, Everywhere

• TED Talk: The global movement to restore nature's biodiversity

• Couple Turns Barren Estate Into Eden, Rewilding to Attract Species of Astonishing Diversity

• In a world’s first, India’s dozen major ports now run fully on renewable energy

• California highway made from recycled plastic!

• Zero-Emission Trucks Set To Make New Zealand A World Leader In Hydrogen Energy

• Downtown Sydney is now powered by 100% renewable energy thanks to historic deal

• Invention For Renewable Energy Inspired by the Physics of Northern Lights

New Ways of Living:

• Asia's largest organic rooftop farm - located in busy Bangkok. This green roof and farm offer a Swiss army knife of solutions — flood control, solar energy, fresh produce, green space for city dwellers, jobs, learning opportunities, and more.

• TED Talk: "Leather and meat without killing animals"

• World's Biggest Rooftop Greenhouse in Montreal is as Big as 3 Football Fields – Now Can Feed 2% of the City

• Largest urban rooftop farm in the world, now supplying produce in Paris

• Scientists and Refugees Grow Crops in Desert Using Old Mattresses Bound for the Landfill

• Designer Works to Erect First Modern Village to Generate its Own Electricity-and Food-in 100% Sustainable Loop

• Solar is Now the Cheapest Electricity in History and Just Met 100% of Demand in South Australia For First Time

• These Giant Oil Companies Are Providing EV Chargers Next to Their Gas Pumps

• Volkswagen-Backed Startup is Building a Revolutionary Battery for Electric Cars

• TED Talk: Using Nature To Grow Batteries

• New Transparent Spray-on Coating For Windows Can Block Heat And Conduct Electricity For Cheap Smart Solution

• Revolutionary Recycling Stream for Plastic AND Waste Solves Two Problems at Once

• Stylish Tiny Homes Are Now Being 3D-Printed In 24 Hours And Shipped to Your Site

• 3D-Printer Completes the Largest 3D-Printed Home in Europe in Just 3 Weeks

• TED Talk: How to build cities of the future using ancient wisdom

• Beautiful Mural in Warsaw Eats Up Smog, Purifying The Air Equal to 720 Trees

• TED Talk: How To Grow Fresh Air

• How an Indian Architect is Sucking Carbon Emissions Out of the Air and Turning it into Stylish Tiles

• Creating Transformative Physical Spaces for Learning and Human Flourishing

• The City of Berlin Now Runs a Department Store That Sells All Recycled Goods

• Ikea to Buy Back Used Furniture Worldwide in Recycling Push For Black Friday

• TED Talk: Grow Your Own Clothes

• TED Talk: Why "biofabrication" is the next industrial revolution

• Dutch Man Invents Coffin That Turns Bodies Into Mushrooms: “We are nutrients, not waste”

New Ways of Being in Community and Governing Ourselves

• Co-living communities, including cohousing and relatively new agrihoods.

• TED Talk: A "Future Generations" Commissioner in Wales.

• Sociocracy: a new way to organize ourselves and make decisions that aligns with, implements, and fulfills democracy’s values of freedom, equality, and self-determination.

• TED Talk: How participatory budgeting unlocks collective radical imagination.

• The Institute for Ecological Civilization promotes civilizational change for the long-term wellbeing of people and the planet.