Bioneers is inspiring and realizing a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations.
Bioneers is an innovative nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Founded in 1990 in Santa Fe, New Mexico by social entrepreneurs Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, we act as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
A celebration of the genius of nature and human ingenuity, Bioneers connects people with solutions and each other. Our acclaimed annual national conference and local Bioneers Network events are complemented by extensive media production including a vibrant online media presence, award-winning radio and podcast series, book series, and role in third-party media projects such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie The 11th Hour and Michael Pollan’s best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Our dynamic programs and initiatives focus on game-changing initiatives related to Restorative Food Systems, Biomimicry, Rights of Nature, Indigeneity, Women’s Leadership and Youth Leadership.
In 2017, Ausubel and Simons were honored for the work of Bioneers by Japan’s Goi Peace Award, whose past recipients include Bill Gates, scientist James Lovelock of the Gaia Hypothesis, Nigerian pro-democracy activist Hafsat Abiola-Costello and Deepak Chopra.
What We Do
As human beings, we’re hard-wired for story and metaphor. Changing the story changes the world.
The Bioneers Conference is a leading-edge forum where you can see tomorrow today: a future environment of hope.
Our Native-led Indigeneity Program promotes the leadership, cultural survival, human rights, land rights, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and cultural wisdom of First Peoples.
We work to strengthen the leadership of women, while advancing gender equity, the partnership of men, and reclaiming the value of feminine capacities and qualities in society and ourselves.
We promote learning, leadership development, and alliance building to strengthen capacity and connection among diverse youth. Bioneers provides 400+ youth scholarships annually.
We work to transform the dominant, exploitive food system to one that is ecologically based, humane, socially just and equitable.
The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature is an award-winning, international radio and podcast series.
We engage with specific high-leverage, game-changing projects that can really move the needle and help bring key practices to scale in strategic collaborations with esteemed partners.