Our Purpose
Mainstreaming sustainable ways of living
OneEarth Living is a nonprofit think-and-do tank advancing sustainable everyday living around the world. We do this through bold partnerships and warm-hearted collaboration.
We envision a world where everyone is able to live thriving, healthy lives within the ecological limits of our one Earth. The potential is vast to transform lifestyles globally to address climate and sustainability challenges while bringing about a fairer world.
Why we focus on sustainable living
The need to transform everyday life is urgent. It's also a genuine opportunity: healthy, happy, meaningful living for all, within the planet's ecological means.
Household activities account for up to 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 75% of natural resource consumption, and 50% of all waste. Overconsumption is degrading the living systems we all depend on. The world's high consumers need to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050 to meet global climate targets, while billions of people still need to consume more to meet basic needs.
The IPCC finds that lifestyle and behavior change can deliver a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2050, given the right policies, infrastructure, and technologies. Achieving that requires both systemic solutions and individual behavior change—rapid, deep, and lasting.
What is sustainable living?
We define sustainable living as equitable consumption and lifestyles that contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and society within ecological limits. This reflects both international climate goals (e.g., 1.5°C pathways) and “one-planet living”—ensuring human wellbeing without degrading the ecosystems on which we all depend.
Sustainable living involves behaviour, infrastructure, services and governance working together so that low-impact choices become the natural, convenient default—while supporting nature regeneration and a good life for all.
OneEarth Living works as a catalyst for sustainable living.
We pursue fresh, bold solutions with people, communities, and institutions to shift behavior at the scale and at the pace one-planet living demands.
Systems perspective
We take a big-picture view, recognizing the vast web of connection between people and places that sustains our lifestyles and societies.
Equity and wellbeing
We engage a diversity of people and perspectives, fostering environments where all are valued, respected, and included.
Listening and learning
We center different perspectives, embrace risk and failure, and adapt as we go.
Supporting old and new
We amplify existing frameworks and create new narratives and programs where we see opportunity.
Warm-hearted collaboration
We bring creativity and a nurturing presence to the hard work of advancing one-Earth living.
Our Team
The OneEarth Living team has long-standing and varied experience in sustainability issues, from local to global levels and across research, policy and practice.
Our capacity to produce quality work and engage in action-oriented partnership builds on our individual careers and that of the organizations we work with. Our network is wide and our expertise is global, including some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners on sustainable consumption, behaviour change, and institutional and societal transformation.
Core Values
Courageous
We’re not afraid to face the magnitude of the one-Earth living challenge, and do so with a fierce optimism.
Inspiring
As patterns and insights emerge for collective opportunities and solutions, we clarify and amplify them with creativity and hope.
Credible
Our work builds on rigorous research, deep practice and reliable science focused on living within the Earth’s life support systems.
Our Impact
OneEarth Living (then One Earth) was launched in 2006 at the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, Canada and established as a nonprofit society in 2007. The five founders are two sisters – Dagmar and Vanessa Timmer – joining forces with Tobi Reyes, Emmanuel Prinet and Bill Rees (inventor of the ‘ecological footprint’ concept).
2017 - present
Now in our second decade, we focus our work on targeted initiatives to mainstream sustainable living, prioritising efforts that achieve the scale and impact necessary to catalyse lifestyle change in equitable and nature-positive ways. We base our work in science, take fresh creative approaches, test and experiment on the ground, and work with high-impact partners to create the sustainable living futures the world needs. Our focus for the years ahead is Big Life Changes, unlocking life transitions as powerful opportunities to shift everyday choices toward sustainable living, making it easy, affordable, and attractive.
Our reach and achievements include:
- Providing global leadership on sustainable consumption and production and on lifestyles and education, including through the United Nations and other international networks.
- Engaging 175+ sustainable living organizations and collaborations in our trusted network across a diversity of sectors – public, private, education and civil society.
- Supporting institutions ranging from senior homes to government agencies to large corporations like IKEA in their efforts to mainstream sustainable living practices.
- Producing reports, visuals, case studies, toolkits and other resources, many of which are translated and used globally.
- Implementing UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production.
- Building the capacity of young leaders to advance their visions for a sustainable future.
We’ve created successful, scalable programs and tools to advance one-planet living, including incubating two nonprofits in Vancouver, Canada – The Binners Project and the Share Reuse Repair Initiative - that are now independent, vibrant and impactful. We’ve also engaged more than 100 cities globally on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, reaching half a billion urban citizens.
2006 - 2016
In our first decade, we contributed to the creation and development of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production. We also hosted We Canada, a nationwide, youth-led campaign that served as a voice for Canadians for sustainable development. During this period, we convened governments, civil society, business and researchers in strategic networks to adopt a systems approach and identify high-impact solutions to advance sustainable consumption and production. Our work on cities began, and we gathered creatives to imagine sustainable futures.