Implementation is critical to making ambitious ideas work. In the United States, the Indigenous Resilience Center (IRes) is showing how community leadership can get things built. With Waverley’s support, they launched the first tribal regranting program at a major public university, moving flexible grants directly to grassroots organizations. The projects they funded ranged from off-grid water systems and dryland farming to youth climate education and soil health restoration.
This funding model also helped groups like Black Mesa United, which is revitalizing traditional Diné dryland farming, and IndigePlanted, which is restoring soil health through seed rematriation. Together, these efforts are strengthening climate resilience grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems.
Beyond the U.S., similar patterns held true. In 30 high-emissions countries, ReNew2030 is partnering with 1,000+ local organizations to scale solar and wind tenfold. And in India, the SELCO Foundation has deployed off-grid solar to power homes, clinics, and schools in rural areas.
What linked these wins?
Deep relationships, sustained funding pathways, and flexible capital for implementation. When those elements were in place, good ideas became durable programs.
Some climate solutions didn’t falter because of design, but because the systems around them weren’t ready to turn those solutions into durable outcomes. In Latin America, national policy shifts halted progress midstream, revealing how fragile delivery becomes when implementation depends on centralized authority. Even when technology was viable, gaps in trained personnel, financing, and governance left systems vulnerable once they were deployed. And in the U.S., food access programs stalled when well-intentioned design didn’t match the ground reality of school staffing, kitchen capacity, or procurement workarounds.
These weren’t failures of imagination. They were gaps in execution, and reminders that delivery takes infrastructure, trust, and fit. Implementation isn’t just about action. It’s about readiness to carry that action forward.
