Many of the systems we rely on were built for a different time. They have served a purpose, but the world is changing. New technologies, changing needs and the resources already held within communities are creating opportunities that those systems were not designed to fully recognise.
Communities now have the opportunity to do more than participate in decisions made elsewhere. By bringing their resources together, they can create greater value collectively — for themselves and for the wider systems they are part of. The challenge is to make that participation practical and enduring, so communities can contribute useful value while retaining a fairer share of what they help create.
Platform One exists to help make that possible. It is about building a better way alongside existing systems, beginning with energy through WE Share Community Power on Waiheke Island.
Platform One Foundation
Platform One Foundation is an independent charitable foundation established to provide long-term stewardship for Platform One’s purpose. We are here to help carry that purpose forward as people, projects and partnerships change, preserving the principles, knowledge and learning that allow this community-first approach to develop over time.
Where legal or fiduciary responsibilities are required, these sit with the Foundation’s trustees or other authorised people in defined roles. The people and organisations involved in practical projects remain responsible for their own choices and activities.
Where Platform One Came From
Platform One has grown out of more than two decades of inquiry, practical community work and experimentation around how people can organise, cooperate and care for things that matter over the long term.
That work explored governance, values, participation, independence, stewardship and ways of protecting community benefit.
The thinking has continued to evolve through experience. Today, Platform One is increasingly focused on a practical question: how can communities bring their resources together to create greater value — for themselves and for the wider systems they are part of — while retaining their independence and a fairer share of what they help create?
Energy is the first area in which that question is now being tested in practice.
What Platform One Exists to Do
Platform One exists to help communities become stronger, more resilient and more able to participate in the systems that affect their lives.
A central part of that is the value communities can create collectively. By bringing local resources together and coordinating participation, communities can create greater value than individual projects may achieve on their own. That value can benefit the people taking part, the community and the wider systems they are part of. The aim is a reciprocal relationship in which communities can contribute useful value to the wider system while retaining a fairer share of what they help create.
That means helping create the conditions for communities to:
- start with what matters locally and build on existing community strengths
- identify opportunities where local resources and capability can create value
- bring people, projects and resources together to create greater value collectively
- participate meaningfully in systems that affect them
- work constructively with established organisations while remaining independent
- contribute value to the wider systems they are part of, while retaining more of that value locally
- build knowledge and capability over time
- protect community purpose and long-term benefit
- receive fair recognition and a fair share of the value they help create
- care for the environment and future generations
- learn from practical experience and carry that learning forward
- develop approaches that can adapt as circumstances change
The aim is an enduring community capability that helps people and organisations work together on fair terms, while remaining responsible for their own choices and activities.
How Platform One Works
The approach starts with what matters locally and the resources communities already have. The practical framework helps make opportunities visible and supports people and organisations to bring their contributions together, coordinate participation and explore where they can create greater value — for themselves, their communities and the wider systems they are part of.
Practical work happens through independent initiatives and Project Circles, where people come together around specific needs or opportunities. They can explore what is possible, develop projects, and test how their combined resources might create value for the wider system while retaining a fairer share locally.
The Foundation provides long-term stewardship and continuity, helping carry forward the purpose, principles, knowledge and learning as people, projects and partnerships change. The people and organisations involved remain responsible for their own decisions and activities.
The structure supports the work. It does not direct it.
What Makes Platform One Different
Platform One is being built from the community side upwards, with the aim of anchoring value in the community. Its practical framework is designed to help communities develop an enduring capability of their own, rather than organising their participation around the priorities of an outside institution.
That independent starting point matters. It allows communities to identify their own opportunities, bring local resources together and work with government, industry and other organisations on fair terms. By coordinating those contributions, they can create greater value collectively — not only for themselves, but for the wider systems they are part of.
The opportunity is a relationship that benefits both sides. Communities can contribute useful value to existing systems while retaining a fairer share of what they help create. The aim is to build lasting community capability and keep more of that value anchored locally, rather than allowing the community’s role to depend on any one project, partner or programme.
The Foundation provides long-term stewardship, helping carry forward the purpose, principles and learning as people, projects and partnerships change. The approach is practical and evidence-led, beginning with WE Share Community Power on Waiheke Island, where we are testing what this different relationship can look like in the electricity system.
Platform One and WE Share
WE Share Community Power is the first practical expression of Platform One’s wider approach, beginning with energy on Waiheke Island.
Through WE Share, we are developing a practical community participation and coordination framework. It helps households, businesses and community organisations bring their energy resources together and explore how they can create greater value collectively — for themselves, their community and the wider electricity system.
The Foundation provides long-term stewardship around that work, helping carry forward the community-first purpose, principles and learning as people, projects and partnerships change. The aim is to keep community value anchored locally while supporting a relationship with the wider electricity system that benefits both sides.
Through real projects and partnerships, we are testing what works, what value can be created, how that value can be recognised and shared fairly, and what an enduring independent community role in the energy system could look like.