What's in a name?

The International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture's founders shared a commitment to bringing about sustainability worldwide. They chose agriculture as a focus because there was little awareness or support for "sustainable agriculture." At the same time, the Alliance has emphasized that sustainable agriculture can never be achieved unless there is broad collaboration amongst a wide range of agricultural and non-agricultural business, government, nonprofit and consumer groups. Consequently, the Alliance has always focused on building a broad array of partnerships with private and public organizations, from being a co-founder of the CERES Coalition and CERES Principles for corporate environmental responsibility to work culminating in the widespread adoption of the United Nation's Earth Summit Agenda 21 and the Campaign for Alternatives to Petrochemicals with Communities for a Better Environment and the Aveda Corporation.

After 13 years, it was felt that the Alliance has succeeded in the first steps of its mission to bring about the worldwide realization of sustainable agriculture--food and agriculture systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and humane. The Alliance has published its widely read newsletter Manna, produced and distributed a range of cutting edge books and reports, and supported the growth of hundreds of sustainable agriculture organizations worldwide that are doing outstanding work. Together, the Alliance and others have helped bring about the acceptance of sustainable agriculture by more than 160 countries. At the same time, the Alliance's policy work has helped encourage academic institutions and government agencies at the local, national and international levels to begin sustainable agriculture programs.

With this shift in support of sustainable agriculture, the Alliance's Board felt it was time to assess its future. The Board hired a consultant, Hunter Saklad, who was a University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute graduate student. An intensive year-long process was undertaken, including a detailed analysis of the options, numerous board, staff and volunteer meetings, meetings with other groups and a retreat.

The Board accepted the consultant's recommendation to proceed with the option of re-examining the mission and creating an organization utilizing the Alliance's infrastructure, with IASA to continue as a project. This decision was influenced by the commitment of IASA's volunteers and interns, ongoing demand for information from its Resource Center, the need for groups to encourage the incorporation of sustainability thinking in businesses and communities, and potential funding to address a broader array of sustainability issues.

The mission was changed to:

 "Supporting ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and humane projects on a personal, organizational and planetary level."

What's in a name? A lot. The Board examined a range of possibilities and kept testing them over the year. It sought a name that was shorter, easier to say, and descriptive of what the new organization would be doing. There was a feeling that sustainability should be part of the name because it has been part of the Alliance's mission. At the same time, the Board had to balance the fact that the term sustainable has finally become the primary goal of a range of public and private institutions, with the challenge that the expected co-option of the term has taken place by institutions that in some cases are committed to only continuing the status quo under the sustainable banner. The Alliance has known such co-option would take place and therefore has long pushed for a clear, widely-held definition of sustainability. Consequently, it joined with many other sustainable agriculture groups in developing the Asilomar Declaration. The Alliance has felt that if the term is properly defined, it would become evident that many initiatives were not about sustainability.

Rather than giving up a good term to those who would seek to water it down, the Board felt it should go further than "sustainable" and utilize the clearer (and bulkier) term "sustainability" as a strategic effort to emphasize the true goal of a state in which health, wellness and basic needs would be met into perpetuity. Such a term incorporates "restoration" because ecosystems must be restored if true sustainability is to be accomplished. The Board recognized the daunting challenge of reclaiming the real, comprehensive meaning and feels an extensive campaign must be waged. At the same time, many people still don't know about sustainability, so it was felt that a user-friendly descriptor or sub-title might be useful, as well as a possible slogan or mission statement that could be placed on letterhead, business cards, etc.

Under it's new name, The Alliance for Sustainability and its partners still work hard in trying to help businesses and organizations become more environmentally sustainable.

Questions, comments, or information can be phoned in, faxed, emailed, or snail mailed to:

Alliance for Sustainability
1521 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414 USA
Phone: 612-331-1099
Fax: 612-379-1527;

email: iasa@mtn.org. Thanks!

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