Same Performers, Better Music: Rethinking Systems on Earth Day (and beyond)

Imagine a symphony where every musician – violinist, percussionist, cellist – is world-class, but no one is playing the same piece.

Individually excellent. 

Collectively? Noise. 

Now imagine the same musicians, but this time they follow a shared score. They listen to one another. They coordinate. They adjust in real time. 

The music is still complex. Nothing about their talent has changed. Only the system they were operating in.

That’s what a systems approach does. 

It doesn’t necessarily reduce complexity. 

It structures it. 

This is the premise—and the opportunity—highlighted in the Impact for Breakfast series: Making Complexity Investable: The Plastics Transition as a Systemic Case, which wrapped up last week.

Our greatest global challenges aren’t failing for lack of effort or innovation. They’re failing because we’re largely still playing our own tune – operating in fragmented and uniform approaches that are difficult to leverage at scale.

This Earth Day, let’s face the music. Look at structuring the complexity of investing in global solutions. We can use the plastics transition (from the recent IFB Series) as an example. Make it less cacophonous and more actionable with these three takeaways:

1. System outcomes require system-level solutions with multiple actors (building the orchestra and playing to our strengths) 

2. Flip the investment model: solutions first, not intervention or approach (the final, beautiful, combined piece of music and not each instrument alone) 

3. The value is in collaboration (the connection, the coordination, the relationships, the trust, the flow) 

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1. System outcomes require system-level solutions with multiple actors (building the orchestra and playing to our strengths)

The plastics transition illustrates this clearly: 

• Downstream impacts like microplastics are harming human and environmental health 

• Upstream inputs determine long-term outcomes 

• Isolated innovations, while promising, cannot scale system-wide transformation alone  

These aren’t disconnected problems. They are systems issues. 

And systems require orchestrated action across the entire value chain, backed by aligned capital, policy, and partnerships. When we can do this, complexity stops being a barrier and becomes something we can embrace to design and build around.

2. Flip the investment model: solutions first, not intervention or approach (the final, beautiful, combined piece of music and not each instrument alone)

A fundamental shift is emerging:

Shift away from applying “impact” to traditional investments. Start with the impact solution—and build the capital stack around it.

That means creating a portfolio approach that:

• Starts with the Outcome, strategy, and execution pathways

• Aligns across entire value chains

• Engages stakeholders that represent actors, barriers, and dependencies in the system

• Accepts that not every component is profitable—but the system can deliver value

• Blends public, private, and philanthropic capital

• Refines and hones based on Outcome performance

This is systemic investing in practice.

3. There is value in collaboration (the connection, the coordination, the relationships, the trust, the flow) 

Real impact is rarely created in isolation. It happens through coordination and bridging what has traditionally been disconnected: 

• Public ↔ Private  

• Science ↔ Finance  

• Local ↔ Global  

• Natural Capital ↔ Financial Capital 

These spaces in between are where coordination turns into capital flows, and where fragmented efforts become scalable systems. For example, securing off-take agreements for seaweed-derived bioplastics or leveraging AI for screening, synthesis and analysis can allow us to play in various sectors and disciplines across the value chain. 

With better data, AI for optimization, and cross-sector collaboration, these spaces are enablers and sources of leverage for systemic change.   

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Global challenges are an everyone problem.  

So, what can we do? 

Every leader, every institution, every actor is somewhere along the same path of integrating impact that can create value and support systemic change.  

Awareness → Activation → Strategy → Execution → Deployment → Refinement → Scale 

Or, in the language of our symphony: 

Awareness (music exists) → Activation (I want to learn) → Strategy (I’ll find a teacher) → Execution (I’ll learn and practice) → Deployment (I’ll play with others) → Refinement (we’ll improve together) → Scale (we perform for the world) 

Many remain at—or even before—awareness. But systemic change can only flourish when we move through the full pathway; aligning stakeholders, deploying capital, and executing at scale. 

The constraint isn’t capital—it’s coordination, structure, and capable execution. 

This Earth Day, let’s move beyond awareness. Let’s: 

• Think in systems, not silos (orchestras, not just instruments)  

• Start with solutions, not products (coordinated pieces, not isolated notes) 

• Find value in the spaces in between across the value chain (connection and flow) 

• Act, move along the path from awareness to scale (perform) 

• And most importantly—treat Nature as Infrastructure (the stage that makes everything possible (as highlighted in our latest newsletter) 

Because when we do, we don’t reduce complexity— we structure it, so we can turn it into something investable and transformative. And that’s music to our ears!

Unlike the symphony, which is a realm for professional musicians, nature needs everyone. What part can you play?