Celebrating a decade of positive change
As Metabolic turns 10 this year, we marvel at how our team and our impact is growing – a decade of advising businesses, governments, and nonprofits around the world on how to thrive in a circular economy.

This milestone gives us the chance to reflect on how our journey in sustainability unfolded. We’d like you in on the celebration, by reflecting on your own journey toward making a positive impact.
You inspire the change
Everyone has a different motivation to make a shift in their lives and careers. We want to collect as many stories as possible to be able to identify the key elements that trigger mindset shifts. This digital experiment is part of our ambition to transition our society’s mindset and values. You can help us by sharing your story.

So we want to know: What is your personal anecdote? What made you take that leap from thinking about changing the world, to actually doing it? Think back: was it an event, a person, or a moment that sparked your dedication to sustainability?
Share your 'aha' moment
Contributing your 'aha' moment makes it part of a global, online collection that is public and accessible.These individual stories can teach us what motivates people to embark on such journeys. And this knowledge, in turn, helps us build the movement toward a sustainable future.

Below, you can see what drove a mindset shift within our own team of consultants, researchers, and developers, along with the 'aha' moments of people worldwide. We hope you add your story, too.
Show more 'aha' moments
What inspires a journey toward sustainability?
When Eva founded Metabolic she wanted an organization that could tackle some of society’s most urgent sustainability challenges. She aimed to apply her expertise in industrial ecology – the study of systemic relationships between society, economy, and the natural environment – to pioneering systems change within cities, companies, and sectors with a truly Metabolic lens.
My 'aha' moment was when I saw how dangerous growth patterns applied not only to cells in a petri dish, but also to all living human systems. The very nature of such patterns is that they end with a rapid collapse. Since that realization, I am forever committed to stopping that collapse on a planetary level, by addressing the broader system within the narrow window that we currently have.
Eva Gladek
CEO
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Read Eva’s full story
Eva knew her path was destined to change. The budding molecular biologist went on to become a dedicated industrial ecologist, studying systemic relationships between society, economy, and the natural environment. This shift is what led Eva and her co-founders to pioneer systems change within cities, companies, and sectors with a truly Metabolic lens.
Metabolic's (r)evolution
It’s amazing what an 'aha' moment can accomplish.

Our 10th anniversary is a celebration of Metabolic’s evolution into what is now a multifaceted agency. We are a consultancy, a research institute, we build ventures, produce software, and have a foundation. We work to build a regenerative food system through Fresh, provide near-instant product impact assessment scores on consumer products with Dayrize, and revolutionize the way we produce, share, and store energy with Spectral. These form the ecosystem through which we conduct scientific research, inform future-facing strategies, and create scalable solutions to critical social and environmental problems.
Read our story
Metabolic’s future
As we enter our second decade, Metabolic continues to re-imagine and redesign systems and institutions for a new vision of a sustainable future. A world where human societies and ecosystems flourish, and where our economic activities do not transgress any of the planetary boundaries of the Earth’s natural systems.

Doing that requires a new economic model. Based on our years of research and project work, we have defined six transitions that need to take place within human systems and institutions, areas where we believe our work can make the greatest impact going forward:

The food system needs to dramatically reduce its physical footprint, decarbonize, and adopt circular management of key inputs.

Urban areas and their hinterlands should foster strong communities and the development of local, resilient, and circular value chains.

People’s values should integrate the interconnectedness with, and dependency on, natural systems (rather than the consumerism that currently dominates modern human lives).

Material efficiency, decarbonization, and circular principles need to be embedded in the full value chain of all goods and services.

Our global system should favor more longer-term perspectives that do not sacrifice the well-being of humans or ecosystems for the sake of financial gain.

Decision-making must draw on the best available knowledge, and governance structures become more distributed (and not disproportionately benefit those with wealth or power).

The food system needs to dramatically reduce its physical footprint, decarbonize, and adopt circular management of key inputs.
Urban areas and their hinterlands should foster strong communities and the development of local, resilient, and circular value chains.
People’s values should integrate the interconnectedness with, and dependency on, natural systems (rather than the consumerism that currently dominates modern human lives).
Material efficiency, decarbonization, and circular principles need to be embedded in the full value chain of all goods and services.
Our global system should favor more longer-term perspectives that do not sacrifice the well-being of humans or ecosystems for the sake of financial gain.
Decision-making must draw on the best available knowledge, and governance structures become more distributed (and not disproportionately benefit those with wealth or power).
We are excited and energized to continue our work within the six transition areas, along with our clients and partners, our strongest allies in charting the path toward a thriving economy – within planetary boundaries.
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