A Vision for Collective Action with Justin Winters of One Earth

One Earth's Co-founder and Executive Director, Justin Winters, was interviewed by Matthew Monahan on The Regeneration Will Be Funded Postcast. In this episode, Justin speaks about her journey to launching One Earth with the goal of driving collective action to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as One Earth's solutions-oriented approach and ambitious vision for protecting our planet.

A Career in Service to the Earth

Justin's journey to founding One Earth began 15 years ago when she worked on Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary, The 11th Hour. The film showed Justin the power of solutions-focused storytelling and inspired her lifelong dedication to environmental activism.

She went on to lead the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for over a decade, building its communications, grantmaking, and impact investing to drive change on climate and conservation and deploying over $100 million to 200 projects worldwide. This experience showed Justin the need for ambitious, holistic frameworks and tools to catalyze the collective action needed to address our planetary crises. This led to her co-founding One Earth in 2019.

A Global Framework for Climate and Nature

To provide this needed clarity and strategy, One Earth led the development of a groundbreaking climate model showing it's possible to limit global warming to 1.5°C with solutions that we have available today, organized by a comprehensive three-pillar framework for climate action:

1. A just transition to 100% renewable energy
2. Protect and restore 50% of Earth’s lands and oceans
3. Transition our food and fiber systems to regenerative agriculture

In partnership with the top biodiversity experts, One Earth mapped a Global Safety Net of the places most critical to protect in order to halt biodiversity loss and stabilize or global climate system. 

The Power of Connection

A core theme in One Earth's approach is reconnecting people to Nature, to themselves, and to each other through a shared sense of place.

Justin explains Onre Earth's novel bioregional framework, a map of the world as if drawn by Nature, that encourages people to reimagine how we're going to protect, restore, and redesign our human systems. She envisions a future that respects and honors this beautiful fabric of biological and cultural diversity around the world. The bioregional framework can be explored on One Earth's interactive Navigator.

Reasons for Hope

While the climate challenges we face are immense, Justin sees many reasons to be hopeful. There is a growing momentum of people working toward transformative change; she believes people are hungry for a more just and sustainable world.

Most of all, she draws hope from the incredible—though often unseen—leaders who are driving change on the ground worldwide. By connecting and uplifting this grassroots network of changemakers, One Earth aims to empower everyone, everywhere, with the knowledge, inspiration, and opportunity to heal the Earth and reclaim our future.

Everyone can be part of the solution.