A message from our CEO
Unleashing transformative change on our economic system
I’m often asked – How do you expect to change an entire global economic system with just a handful of staff, working in a handful of rural, remote and Indigenous communities in Canada? Sometimes when I discuss our mission, the disbelief is put more bluntly – you and what army?
I’ll concede that systems change is incredibly difficult. After all, our current economy has behind it the weight and momentum of several centuries of growth across an entire planet. But the evidence that this system is coming apart at the seams is all around us. And, it is around these edges that openings are presenting themselves to plant the seeds for wholesale systems change.
For almost 25 years Ecotrust Canada has worked at the edges with the people and places that have been exploited and degraded for profit by an economy that extracts and commodifies everything in its path.
Despite the damage done, we are fortunate that there is a resilience in these communities, in large part because of the deep connection between people and place. It is here that people are ready to build innovative, on-the-ground examples of an economy that provides for what should be the essentials of life – sustainable and affordable food, energy, and shelter; meaningful livelihoods; vibrant cultures; and a rich and resilient natural environment – what we call an economy that provides for life.
Join us in creating real, tangible, economic alternatives for these communities. Together we will demonstrate how these successes at the edges can, in turn, unleash transformative change across a whole economic system. And when asked in the future, about how so few can change so much, I’ll be able to point to all of our partners and supporters, and make clear that we are not so few after all. We are in fact the many, and together we are determined to prove the possible.
Chuck Rumsey, CEO and President of Ecotrust Canada
