Countries and communities around the world are increasingly facing existential threats from climate change. The United States has sustained 403 climate events since 1980 that have each exceeded $1 billion in damage—in total more than $2.9 trillion—according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 27 events in 2024 resulted in $182.7 billion in losses and were exceeded by the record 28 disasters the previous year. Worldwide, a 2024 Nature Medicine study projected that over four million lives have been lost due to the effects of climate change since 2000, and the World Economic Forum projects 14.5 million additional deaths and over $12.5 trillion in economic losses by 2050. The climate emergency is a wicked problem—a complex challenge that requires exceedingly innovative, collaborative, and widely scalable solutions. Addressing this crisis requires new ways of organizing that represent bold innovations in structure, leadership, and governance, such as adaptive metanetworks.

Bob Perkowitz understood this need for an adaptive metanetwork when he began formulating the idea of a new nonprofit climate organization in 2005. He had been a successful entrepreneur building and selling companies in the direct-to-consumer apparel and home-furnishings markets. He also served on the boards of two of the nation’s largest environmental organizations—the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club—which gave him a grounded understanding of climate change and the environmental movement. The combination of his business acumen, nonprofit experience, and growing environmental concern inspired him to explore ways to address climate advocacy with a rational, nonpartisan, and positive approach that could engage everyday Americans who might otherwise be turned off by traditional environmental activism.

Perkowitz founded ecoAmerica to build institutional leadership, public support, and political resolve for climate action in the United States with the clear intention of “engaging and supporting existing networks rather than creating new networks.” He recognized that impact would be driven by scale, and he wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

“What we’re doing is not just a better way of organizing large-scale change,” says Perkowitz, who remains president of the organization. “I think it’s the only way of doing it right—getting the leverage, the scale, and the credibility needed to drive change.”

Read the full article about EcoAmerica's adaptive metanetwork by S. Aqeel Tirmizi and Timothy G. Staub at Stanford Social Innovation Review.