Knowledge at the heart

2050
3 min readMar 14, 2022

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By Marie Ekeland for 2050

Since the earliest days of 2050, knowledge has always been at the heart of what we are building. Because we know that we need to dig deep and in a holistic manner if we want to grasp the true nature of the 21st century challenges. Because we have long realized how all these challenges are interlinked. Because we are convinced that solutions will emerge from researching and experimenting on the basis of (i) a profound understanding of the problems we are facing and (ii) a clear picture of where we want to go. And not, as we have been doing for years, on the reproduction of old patterns. Today is the day where this conviction and action materialize powerfully in our organization with the arrival of Guillaume Bregeras as our Chief Knowledge Officer. And I could not be more thrilled.

Piece by piece, building our knowledge puzzle

The knowledge stack we are building and sharing, as open resources, is articulated on 3 main topics:

  • Open Scientific Knowledge: you can act upon what you understand. There is a clear lack today of unified, comprehensible and transdisciplinary scientific content around the environnemental & social challenges we are facing. Working together with researchers & experts from the Paris Dauphine University and The Shift Project, we have started establishing this piece of knowledge by participating to the first accessible 360° climate course, addressing the subject through the lenses of what physics, biology, history, economics and even philosophy tell us. This course is under Creative Commons licence, and its current version is accessible here in its English version, and here in its French version.
  • Deep Dives: you invest better, with the capacity to accelerate market shifts, when mastering ecosystem dynamics, value chain nodes and disruption opportunities. Relying on our first circle of experts, venture and commons partners, we have started our deep dives series with the agri-food sector, and are now focused on the carbon sector. Daily Health and Trusted Digital Infrastucture (Web3) should follow. You can find the result of our first in the agri-food ecosystem here, also under Creative Commons licence.
  • Alignment Best Practices: it is not only about solving our key challenges, it is about solving them in time without creating new ones. In other words, we need to ensure that companies align their business interests with those of society and the planet. It is simple to say but very hard to do. Indeed, there is no existing playbook for that and the current model favors misalignment. This is why we launched an open & collaborative platform with the ambition to craft an Alignment Playbook.

This is only the beginning, as Guillaume’s arrival will allow us to structure and power up a brand new ambition on our knowledge strategy and execution. More, his guidance will help us target the primary topics in the right way and relevant order, and ensure that all our knowledge stack is built together with transition role models all over the world, that it reflects the diversity of their actions, expertises, research, cultures and experiences but draws actionable aligned best practices, and that it is accessible to the many and drives cultural change. And of course, that it is open and shared broadly.

So thank you Guillaume, merci! Thank you for bringing onboard your curious eye, your subtle perspective, your sharp pen, your accuracy of analysis, your soundness and sensibility in all life matters and your immense and positive force, courage and energy. 2050 is shaping up!

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2050

Crafting a fertile future. Starting with finance.