Sunset over snow-capped mountains with a forest of tall trees in the foreground.

About

Harness Complexity Achieve Sustainability

Who We Are

We are a group of community-oriented complexity and interdisciplinary scientists, educators, and subject experts committed to addressing climate, ecological, and social crises through transformative change that produces sustainable, equitable, inclusive, and healthy societies.

What We Do

We support organizations and individuals aiming to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and a multitude of social issues (e.g., food insecurity, sustainable development) through research and analysis that decipher the complexity of human systems and educational products and services that develop complexity thinking.

All our products and services are deeply rooted in complexity science and methodically tailored to specific systems (e.g., food, energy) and users (adults, businesses, communities, kids, governments, and nonprofits).

Collage of six images: a group of diverse people in a meeting room, children enjoying nature, data analysis graphs and charts, futuristic technology interfaces with data and graphs, a press and guide books arranged in a circle, and a digital earth with leaves symbolizing environmental awareness.

Why We Do

The more humanity attempts to address climate, ecological, and social crises and transform societies into sustainable ones, the more apparent it becomes that sustainable solutions (as simple as they may sometimes turn out) can only be found by first deciphering and then harnessing the relevant complexity in the corresponding systems.

Efforts that ignore complexity when attempting to address a crisis or transform a society may temporarily avoid some consequences but inevitably fall short or even make things worse. While this is apparent, complexity thinking — the perspectives, frameworks, and tools necessary for deciphering and harnessing complexity — is still not part of primary, secondary, and even most tertiary education curricula. It is also only starting to find its way into research that guides policy.

We want to change this, at all levels!

Garry Sotnik

Dr. Garry Sotnik

Founder

Dr. Garry Sotnik is a complexity and sustainability researcher, practitioner, and educator who has worked closely with communities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other scientists in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East on efforts to bring social systems closer to sustainability. Seeing the benefits of complexity thinking in his work, Dr. Sotnik founded the Complexity Group and joined forces with like-minded scientists, educators, and subject experts to develop social capacity to decipher and harness complexity.