Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Friend of Post Carbon Institute: In the past 24 months, Post Carbon Institute has been realizing the promise of our early years. As we approach our 10th anniversary, we have developed a tightly integrated set of strategies (as detailed on the following page) for enacting our mission. Operating within this framework, and responding nimbly to rapidly changing conditions, PCI produces a rich variety of accessible, eective products that are having a powerful impact. To point to just a few highlights (more are detailed in this report) from 2010-2011:

Published our agship book, e Post Carbon Reader, which won the Independent Publishers Book Award, went into a fourth printing in 2011, yielded 20,000 free chapter downloads, and is being used in classrooms at more than 30 academic institutions across the US. Produced a viral video, 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds, which won a 2010 DoGooder YouTube Nonpro t Video of the Year award and blew past 1,000,000 views in 2011. Hosted EnergyBulletin.net (soon to be resilience.org), where 3.5 annual visitors (1.4 million unique ) learned about living a lower-energy, higher-satisfaction life in community. Reached hundreds of thousands more people through 150+ speaking events, 20+ webinars, and 200+ media hits, and regularly touched our 20,000+ e-news subscribers, 10,000+ Facebook fans, and 5,000+ Twitter followers. Although I am reluctant to boast, I cant help but highlight that our team generates more innovative products, with more creativity and deeper impact, than any think tank of comparable sizeand even than many larger groups. Have a look at inside, and I think youll agree: Post Carbon Institute returns a remarkable Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI). Sincerely, Asher Miller Executive Director

Mission & Strategy

If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon futurebut it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we can have a world that supports robust communities of healthy, creative people and ecosystems with millions of other species. Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow-in-Residence Its been a turbulent two years.

In the news: a Gulf oil spill, an Arab Spring, a European currency crisis, a Japanese tsunami and nuclear meltdown, and global protests and uprisings. On the rise: oil prices, fracking, debt, CO2, sea levels, and extreme weather. On the wane: citizen con dence, new discoveries of conventional fossil fuels, fresh water, biodiversity, and viable options. On the global stage: realization that these are no ordinary crises, but the unwinding of an over-leveraged, under-resourced, globalized economy. On the local level: relocalization emerging as the most eective response to these massive changes. On the PCI agenda: making clear the resource, environmental, economic, and social constraints driving these trends, and the urgency of responding eectively. In 2010-2011, the question for Post Carbon Institute was not, What to do? but rather, What to do rst? So many challenges, all of them interrelated, and so many areas needing urgent attention!

As a think tank focused primarily on North America and the Englishspeaking world, we support community resilience as a primary response. PCI integrates and connects high-level thinking with on-theground action, bringing together the best ideas and models for transitioning to the post-carbon future as quickly, equitably, and sustainably as possible. In 2010-2011, building on the wise counsel of our Fellows, Board, Advisers, Allies, and Supporters, PCI re ned our three primary strategies:

Setting the Agenda: Research, analysis, and writing that provides a systems-view reframing of our resource, environment, economy, and social challenges. Changing the Conversation: Taking the core ideas and information from Setting the Agenda and communicating them through public speaking, media interviews, social media, webinars, websites, animations, videos, etc.

Building Resilience: Providing concrete, tangible resources for individuals and communities to take action. e following report details these strategies, our activities and outcomes over the last two years, and our plans going forward.

Setting the Agenda

At Post Carbon Institute, we see a society plunging headlong toward the hard reality of depleting resources, climate change, and an economy bumping up against ecological and debt limits. Most think tanks nibble around the edges of these issues, but PCI is re-setting the agenda with a more realistic and healthy view, based on a systemic perspective. From online articles to reports to books, PCI champions a worldview and action agenda based on the research and thinking of our Fellows, Board, Advisers, and Sta. We translate the breadth of information produced within our community (and beyond) into interesting valuable and accessible engaging content for thought leaders, lay readers, politicians, and communities. Examples from 2010-2011 include:

e Post Carbon Reader, our agship publication, was released in October 2010, and is already in a fourth printing, with more than 10,000 print and 500 eBook copies sold, and more than 20,000 free chapter downloads. It also won the 2011 Independent Publishers Book Gold Medal. e Post Carbon Reader details how the end of cheap fossil fuels and the end of conventional economic growth are driving the interconnected environmental, social, and economic sustainability crises de ning the 21st century.

e End of Growth, Richard Heinbergs 10th and most provocative book yet, was released in June 2011. Richard immediately hit the road and the airwaves, just as world events were making it painfully clear that massive bailouts and regulatory tweaks would, in fact, bring back business as usual. More than 14,000 copies of e End of Growth were sold in 2011. PCI distributed 100 copies at the #Occupy Wall Street protest, where it became one of ve books on the #Occupy reading list.

Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, a publication series including a print Reader, an eBook, an image-rich iBook app, and a large-format coee table book, will be released in Fall 2012. Collaboratively written, edited, and published with Foundation for Deep Ecology, and incorporating a major outreach campaign, this project aims to change how thought leaders particularly within the environmental advocacy community understand our energy crisis. Stay tuned for more details!

Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century? by PCI Fellow David Hughes, challenged conventional wisdom that natural gas is a bridge fuel to a clean energy future. is groundbreaking study has been downloaded and/or read online 14,000 times, and has reverberated from e New York Times, Hungton Post, Nature, to the World Resources Institute and Canadas National Energy Board.

Changing the Conversation

e mainstream public conversation on the economic crisis largely has focused (with increasing desperation) on getting back to normal: robust economic growth, pro igate energy use, unbridled consumerism, and so on. Not only is this impossible, but the constant repetition of the same ideas sets up a dynamic where all (save the most ardent environmentalists and alternative economists) compete in an unwinnable debate, attempting to prove that we can have a greener future without altering fundamentally the workings of the modern world. Post Carbon Institute speaks plainly about the challengesas well as the opportunities to create a healthier future. Were changing the conversation by highlighting the systemic impact of resource constraints and the end of economic growth. rough our publications, public presentations, online social media, creative outreach and communications strategies, and direct engagement with thought leaders and advocacy groups, PCI helps shift the public dialogue by creating common-sense understandings of the practical limits of the environment and the economy.We're replacing the hollow debate about how we can grow faster with a meaningful exchange of ideas about how we can transition more eectively to living in a world with limits. Key 2010-2011 highlights:

Who Killed Economic Growth?, the companion video to e End of Growth, reached 100,000 viewers by the end of 2011. You Are Here: e Oil Journey, a customizable, animated 30minute presentation (similar to An Inconvenient Truth) that PCI developed in response to years of requests, empowers PCI supporters to spark conversation and action in their communities, engaging new people in conversation and action.

PCI arranged for close to 100 on-the-ground and web events a year, reaching more than 100,000 people annually, as well as in uential organizations like the Environmental Grantmakers Association and Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, and generating more than $40,000 in earned income each year.

Senior Fellow Richard Heinbergs alternative commencement at Worcester Polytechnic Institute created a considerable stir, with his frank talk in stark contrast to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillersons ocial commencement address.

On an almost daily basis, PCI reaches more than 10,000 Facebook fans, more than 20,000 subscribers to our e-newsletter, and 5,000 Twitter followers. Postcarbon.org hosted 500,000 unique visitors in 2011 (up 26% from 2010). We set up more than 50 media appearances annually, with PCI being cited in Nature, e Financial Times, e New York Times, Hungton Post, and others.

PCIs viral video 300 Year of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds shares the history of our fossil fuel predicament, and the path towards transforming our culture and economy. Named as DoGooders YouTube Nonpro t Video of the Year, it had reached more than 1,000,000 viewers by the end of 2011.

Building Resilience & Supporting Transition

At Post Carbon Institute, we believe the future resides in resilient communities. Some 2010-2011 highlights include:

Resilient, because the complex economic, environmental, social, and resource challenges we face require not solutions to make problems go away, but responses that recognize our vulnerabilities, build our capacities, and enable us to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable future.

Hosted EnergyBulletin.net (soon to be Resilience.org), reaching 1.4 million unique visitors annually, with commentary and analysis of energy-related impacts on food, population, culture. As posting climbed to more than 2,400 annually, visitor loyalty (visiting over 50 times) rose to 32% in 2011.

Communities, because we believe that the most eective ways to work for the future we want are grounded in local relationships: among families and neighbors, respecting the ecological resources that sustain us, and through the institutions with which we govern ourselves. Post Carbon Institute brings the best local resilience-building ideas and models to thousands of communities tackling complex sustainability challenges. PCI helps them develop their capacity to respond to the changing conditions by connecting individuals and communities to one another, and to the most promising, replicable models for building resilience.

Launched the Community Resilience Guides with Chelsea Green Publications, consisting of four books on planning for a relocalized future, producing food locally, producing energy locally, and nancing these and similar ventures. e ideas and resources from this series will be expanded on resilience.org.

Supported Transition US, the national hub for more than 100 grassroots eorts to relocalize economies and create on-the-ground models of more resilient, sustainable communities. Initiated the Resilient Philanthropy project to engage funders and advocates on strategies for maximizing social bene t, regardless of economic disruptions.

Financial Overview 2010

INCOME

EXPENSES
Setting the Agenda

$65,068

$37,652

$2,557 Foundations

$2,771 $229,228 Individuals $112,606 $449,757

Changing the Conversation Building Resilience Supporting Transition Post Carbon Inc. Management & General

$865,000

Earned Income $304,546 Interest & Other $10,904

Audited nancial reports and IRS Form 990s are available online.

Financial Overview 2011

INCOME

EXPENSES
Setting the Agenda

$86,206 $133,508

$1,342 Foundations Individuals $838 $205,774 $108,008 $326,333 Interest & Other $18,743 $286,191

Changing the Conversation Building Resilience Supporting Transition Post Carbon Inc. Management & General

$809,250

Earned Income

Audited nancial reports and IRS Form 990s are available online.

Highlights
Two scrollable timelines oer a more complete look at PCIs impact and media reach.
JUL 2010 AUG 2010 SEP 2010 SEP 2010 OCT 2010 Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg addresses the Aspen Environmental Forum The Post Carbon Reader, PCIs flagship book, debuts Yes! Magazine devotes and entire issue to resilient communities with guidance from Post Carbon Institute Richard Heinberg addresses the influential Environmental Grantmakers Association. PCI Fellow Sandra Postel's chapter from The Post Carbon Reader featured in National Geographic article announcing the book PCI Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg keynotes Bioneers Alaska. 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds debuts Time reports on PCI Fellows Richard Heinberg and David Fridley's acclaimed article on peak coal in Nature Journal The Nation features Post Carbon Fellow Richard on Peak Oil and the Changing Climate 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds wins a DoGooder/YouTube Nonprofit Video of the Year award Richard Heinberg joins PCI Fellow Tom Whipple, PCI Executive Director, Asher Miller, and Michael Klare, for a PCI Webchat on "Oil, Economic Growth, and Democracy in the Middle East" PCI Senior Fellow Richard Heinbergs alternative commencement at Worcester Polytechnic Institute creates a considerable stir The Post Carbon Reader wins the Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards JUN 2011 JUN 2011 JUN 2011 The End of Growth, Richard Heinbergs 12th and most provocative book yet, debuts The Post Carbon Reader wins an Independent Publishers Book Award Richard Heinberg speaks on the end of growth and the implications for conservation efforts with the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century? a report written by PCI Fellow David Hughes, details the true energy and economic potential of natural gas Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century? influences The New York Times, Huffington Post, Nature, World Resource Institute and Canadas National Energy Board Who Killed Economic Growth?, PCIs companion video to The End of Growth, debuts PCI Fellow Bill Ryerson, Robert Walker, and Julia Whitty examine populations complex, pervasive relationship to the most pressing issues of our time in a PCI Webchat The Post Carbon Reader goes into a fourth printing, surpasses 10,000 chapter downloads, and more than 20 college courses You Are Here: The Oil Journey, a video version of new PCI presentation, narrated by acclaimed actor Peter Coyote, debuts 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds surpasses 1,000,000 views PCI reaches 10,000+ Facebook fans, 20,000+ e-newsletter subscribers, and 5,000+ Twitter followers Postcarbon.org hosts 500,000 unique visitors in 2011 (up 26% from 2010)

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Fellows
Erika Allen Urban Farming & Social Justice Zenobia Barlow Ecological Literacy Michael Bomford Organic Farming Hilary Brown Buildings & Design Majora Carter Social Justice & Communities Richard Douthwaite (in memoriam) Economics & Money Joshua Farley Ecological Economics Gloria Flora Public Lands David Fridley Renewable Energy & Biofuels Richard Heinberg Senior Fellow in Residence Rob Hopkins Community Organizing David Hughes Fossil Fuels Wes Jackson Sustainable Agriculture John Kaufmann Government & Oil Warren Karlenzig Urban Sustainability Chris Martenson Finance & Preparedness Bill McKibben Climate & Ecology Stephanie Mills Biodiversity / Bioregionalism David Orr Climate & Education Cindy Parker Health & Climate Anthony Perl Transportation Sandra Postel Water William Rees Ecology & Resilience William Ryerson Population Brian Schwartz Health & Oil Bill Sheehan Products & Waste Michael Shuman Local Economies Tom Whipple Peak Oil Peter Whybrow Culture & Behavior For more on PCI Fellows.

Board
Debbie Cook, Chair Richard Heinberg Phillip Jensen Nate Hagens Allison Quaid Jason Bradford For more on PCI Board.

Team
Asher Miller, Executive Director Barbara George, Finance Director Bart Anderson, Energy Bulletin co-editor Crystal Santorineos, Special Projects & Oce Manager Daniel Lerch, Publications Director Desiree Cesarini, Events Manager Ken White, Development Director Kristin Sponsler, Energy Bulletin co-editor Simone Osborn, Web Manager & Energy Bulletin co-editor Tod Brilliant, Strategy & Communications Director For more on PCI Team.

Advisers
Colin J. Campbell James Howard Kunstler Mia Birk Richard Gilbert For more on PCI Advisers.

What We Stand For

Energy Literacy. Energy is arguably the most decisive factor in both ecosystems and human economies. With energy literacy, citizens and policy makers have a basis for sound decisions. Householders can measure how much energy they use and strategize to obtain the most useful services from the smallest input. Cities, states, and nations can invest wisely in infrastructure both to produce and use energy with greatest eciency and with minimal environmental damage. With energy literacy, we know the rules of the game. Conservation. Conservation helps us appreciate the energy on which we depend. It fosters respect for resources, and for the energy and labor that are embodied in manufactured products. It reduces environmental damage and helps us focus on the dimensions of life beyond sheer consumption. Resilience. No person or community is ever truly an island, and no person or community can be resilient in isolation. ats part of the attraction of resilience: with greater ability to maintain basic functions and integrity in turbulent times comes a shared sense of con dence in our ability to adapt and endure together. Relocalization. With greater localization comes greater opportunity to participate in decision-making, a wider variety of productive local jobs, a more human-scaled society, greater ability to in uence our immediate environment, and art, music, stories, and literature that re ect the uniqueness of our place. Localism binds together individuals, families, and communities, fostering a sense of responsibility to care for one another, and for the land. planet, with wild spaces, biodiversity, and abundant resources, we should reduce fertility now. Plus, family planning has direct bene ts: household income is freed up to improve quality of life, improved health for mothers and children, fewer unplanned pregnancies and births, more educational and employment opportunities, and enhanced opportunities to improve the well-being of families. Beauty. Its presence inspires us, and lets us know when were on a regenerative and sustainable path. Animals, plants, rivers, oceans, and mountains alike can make us feel pleasure, awe, and wonder. e sight of a great tree or the song of a gold nch can send poets and mystics into ecstasy, while the deep order inherent in nature inspires mathematicians and physicists. Returning to sustainable way of life can awaken aesthetic pleasure and nourish our spirits. Biodiversity. More than fty million species of microbes, fungi, plants, and animals share planet Earth with us. We depend for our very existence on this web of life. Senior Fellow-in-Residence Richard Heinberg wrote a much more substantive and nuanced explanation of these seven core tenets of our work, which will be included in our forthcoming book ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth.

eres much more at www.postcarbon.org.

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