In 2014 – our third year, the vision we imagined for NewKnowledge is starting to fill in:

NewKnowledge’s research helped UL, the global safety testing agency that was formerly known as Underwriters Laboratory, in the creation of their strategy for promoting innovation in environmental education. We’re the evaluators for the EPA’s environmental education capacity building projects that are led by Cornell University. Both partnerships support the work of the North American Association for Environmental Education and are helping those committed to creating the culture that will protect the ecological systems on which we all depend.

At the same time, our team is conducting research that promises to change what we know about how public social experiences impact science literacy. This massive undertaking in Indianapolis outlined in this report would be quite an endeavor on its own, literally reshaping of how watershed education is conducted in a city. And that’s just one of our undertakings.

This report also presents some radical new ways of imagining documentary nature films as a story of joy and social responsibility rather than tragedy. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation may be winding down their library investments, but they sought out NewKnowledge to help the American Library Association and the Public Library Association to support their work grappling with social change and how libraries measure success. After reviewing this annual report, I did a little digging and discovered that NewKnowledge internal publications and peer- reviewed journal papers authored by our staff have more than 30,000 citations, yet we’ve only been at this work for 3 years. An incredible result alone, but this number is bolstered by conference presentations and partnerships at the highest level. We’re clearly starting to have the impact our founders imagined.

The time was surely right for us to create this new kind of non-profit think tank. We saw the need for an organization that applies transdisciplinary critical thinking from across the social and biological sciences to help organizations that seek to support social good. We didn’t create this as an advocacy organization, but rather, as the intellectual muscle that can support those who seek to do good in all four of our focus areas.

In reading this report, it’s clear that the remarkable staff at NewKnowledge is bringing our Board of Trustees vision to life. We set out to create a new kind of non-profit that sits outside of academia, not hampered by disciplinary infighting and formal classroom commitments. We imagined a learning community that pools their intellectual capacity to serve government and social support organizations at the national scale. We imagined an crucible for young minds from all cultures and walks of life who would hone their craft and become the change we need. Today, we’re seeing that vision play out before our eyes.

The challenges we face as a globally connected society are great, but the promise of a new international society that believes in justice, social equity, and a thriving biosphere is possible. When I found myself marching alongside serious scientists and concerned citizens at the enormously successful March for Climate Change, I wasn’t surprised to encounter NewKnowledge staff. The march liberated scientific facts being victims of politics and lobbying. And it reaffirmed my belief that our society needed an organization that can imagine a better world. I was proud to know that our team is recrafting the map we need to effect positive global change.

Three years ago, we set that challenge to the NewKnowledge team: describe ways to better engage people in the problems; get better data; and offer the most insightful critiques to your partners because the truth will help liberate the creative problem solvers in our culture. This report shows that they are living that vision.

This is only a glimpse of what was accomplished in 2014 and the groundwork on which we build.

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Marilyn Hoyt, Board Chair