About the Project

For many years in the United States, scientists, advocates, and policymakers have largely reacted to immediate health and ecosystem threats without a clear vision or corresponding set of future goals. As a result, the debate about links between health and environment have focused on which materials and substances cause which problems, rather than a discussion about what kind of world we live in and how we want to get there. This failure to articulate a vision has contributed to perceptions that the environmental and health movements are thoughtlessly oppositional, and impediments to technological and economic development. 

The overall purpose of Toward Tomorrow is to provide inspiration and tools that enable a wide range of organizations to envision a sustainable future and take effective steps towards it.  The initiative seeks to develop an agenda for action on health and the environment by bringing together leaders and scholars from diverse fields—both people late in their careers and those who will shape and implement programs and policies over the next forty years. We aim to identify goals that will guide the next generation as they address the complex linkages between human and ecosystem health: linkages critical for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of global health threats.  Toward Tomorrow is predicated on the belief that scientists, government officials, and community, health, environment and business leaders can find common cause in recognizing human consumption and production as sources of both problems and solutions.

Download the Foundational Document for the Toward Tomorrow Project.

Listen to Part 1 of the Toward Tomorrow Audio Collage. (Please be patient, file may take several minutes to load)