As part of the Societal Transformation Lab, a global framework created by MIT Sloan School of Management Senior Lecturer Otto Scharmer and colleagues to facilitate profound social, environmental, and organizational change, BitterrootValley.org has partnered with the the Sapphire Hub of the Presencing Institute on an initiative aimed at creating a circular economy in the Bitterroot Valley.

With the goal of building resilience through self-reliance, we believe development of a circular economy in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana begins with food and energy security. And while food and energy security in the Bitterroot is certainly achievable, the shift from global dependence to local reliance does not come without its challenges, the predominance of which are cultural in nature.

In order to overcome these cultural barriers and set the stage for the development of a circular economy in the Bitterroot Valley, as well as to employ the group genius contained within the community to imagine, identify, engineer, prototype, test, and iterate solutions, BitterrootValley.org has partnered with Cultivating Connections, an area non-profit aimed at bringing people together through food, and the Sapphire Hub of the Presencing Institute to convene a series of public events based on the u.lab framework. Our intention for these events is to engage the citizens of Ravalli County directly in the journey of leading transformation and foster within them a sense of ownership in both the process and the system.

Organized around the theme of Building a Stronger Bitterroot, this initiative is a natural and practical extension of the BitterrootValley.org platform, making use of Liberating Structures and the innovative Theory U process for analyzing complex systems and charting paths toward the realization of those system’s highest possible potential.

Download a full report of the Building a Stronger Bitterroot sessions here