History
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful
committed citizens can change the world...
indeed it’s the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Sparked by the spirit of a child, Seven Generations Ahead has emerged into a leading proponent of ecologically prosperous community development. Seven Generations Ahead’s birthing seed was a compelling thought Gary Cuneen had about his 4-year old son, and a question he imagined his son asking in later years about his choices for confronting the environmental problems facing humankind. That initial inspiration transformed into the development of Seven Generations Ahead in 2001, an organization advocating for local solutions to global environmental problems. Seven Generations Ahead has emerged as a catalyst, educator, and collaborator in the effort to re-align institutional and community decision-making through the long-term, cross-generational lenses of living in kinship with nature. From its inception, Seven Generations Ahead continues to be created by those connected to it, with an eye focused on a bold vision, an understanding of local and global contexts, and a strategy of working with collaborators whose emerging sensibilities, compatible visions, and complimentary skills move this collective work forward.
Vision
"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation...
even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine." - Great Law of the Iroquois
Seven Generations Ahead works for the emergence of communities where ecology, commerce, and social equity prosper in concert with each other…where all children can breathe the air, play in the soil, drink the water, and eat the food and be nourished by these daily events without threat to their health nor their natural home…where decision-makers deliberate with images of future generations at the forefront of their hearts and minds, and do so with "skin as thick as the bark of a pine".
Seven Generations Ahead sees a future filled with communities
- powered by the sun and clean, renewable energy,
- fed by local farmers producing healthy food raised in concert with the natural world,
- served by products created with dignity and fair compensation, produced with safe materials, and that reintegrate into cradle to cradle production cycles,
- nurtured by consumption rooted in respect for people and the environment, and
- sustained by development that satisfies community wants and needs, provides jobs for those least resourced, and prospers earth’s natural systems.
