The Cape Eleuthera Institute was born out of the growing need to expand both research and sustainable systems initiatives operating under the auspices of The Island School, an educational semester program founded by Chris and Pam Maxey in 1999. Capitalizing on the momentum generated by The Island School and the desire to address pertinent environmental issues facing The Bahamas and the Caribbean, core research and sustainable systems design initiatives were moved to the Cape Eleuthera Institute. This increases our capacity to undertake larger projects, create space for courses and workshops in tropical sciences and sustainable design, and facilitate more formal collaboration with other like-minded institutions and governments.