About Us

Our mission, goals, & values

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Above: Deer heart is a popular edible plant and beautiful groundcover found across Southeast Alaska. Photo credit: Bethany S. Goodrich

One mission, six goals, and five values 

Ecotrust was imagined as a natural system. For over 30 years, we have embodied this vision through overlapping cycles of growth, adaptation, decomposition, and regeneration. 

Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity, and environmental well-being. Our goal is to foster a natural model of development that creates more resilient communities, economies, and ecosystems here and around the world.

Ecotrust’s mission statement

Goals

In partnership, we work toward these interconnected goals:

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Anti-racist organization

Ecotrust is an anti-racist organization.

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Climate resilience

In partnership, we advance regional climate resilience, while centering the needs of and learning from frontline communities.

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Intergenerational wealth-building

We leverage organizational wealth, privilege, and power to dismantle systemic oppression and build broadly shared, intergenerational wealth for our region’s communities.

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Stewardship of lands and waters

We advance changes to lands and waters stewardship that are ecologically and culturally restorative, and racially and economically just.

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A culture of belonging

Our organizational structure builds and maintains a culture of belonging, power-sharing, collaboration, transparency, and accountability.

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Resilient business model

Ecotrust has a resilient business model and a compelling brand that align with our values, center racial equity, enable organizational stability, and propel impact and innovation.

Values

Our core values are the foundation for our decisions, strategies, culture, and operations.

We believe that radical, practical change is both possible and necessary.

We act on this belief by questioning the status quo and relentlessly pushing fresh thinking that drives social, economic, and environmental change. We pursue systemic versus singular impacts, and we seek to inspire others to be a part of the change that we all want to create in the world.

We believe that place matters, and that change starts here at home.

Understanding the unique characteristics of the places we live, work, and play is critical to progress. While we pursue place-based solutions specific to our region, we believe that our work here will inspire change in other regions and beyond.

We enable others to create the change they want in their communities.

We value our role as capacity builders, and we work to support informed decision-making with knowledge, technology, convening power, and creative capital. We share our point of view, but we do not create an agenda or show up with one-size-fits all solutions for others.

We believe that change is most durable when it is driven by humble, respectful collaboration.

We know that our work rests on the relationships we build and the communities we work within. How we show up in partnerships matters: We listen, we are open to others’ needs, and we seek to play a role that is both effective and appropriate. Collaboration begins here with our team. We respect the time, talents, and contributions each of us brings, knowing that open and honest feedback is essential to our success.

We believe that equity must be central to our work. We honor other ways of being and thinking, we recognize that we are on land that is not our own, and we respect the fundamental sovereignty of American Indian Tribes, First Nations, and Alaskan Natives. We work to shift power, resources, and privilege to disenfranchised communities, which is fundamental to the change we seek. We are committed to examining the roles of race and class in defining opportunities, and we place a priority on dismantling systems of oppression. We are committed to building cultural awareness and facility through discussion, education, and accountability to the diverse communities in which we work. Read more about equity at Ecotrust 

We know that business can be a powerful force—one that has too often retained power for the few at the expense of the many.

Rather than adopting a for-profit or nonprofit mindset, we see building responsible, for-purpose businesses as core to our work. We help build both supply of and demand for goods and services with social and environmental value through research, consulting, and investment.

Created by Ecotrust staff in November 2017

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