Formed in 2003, the Alliance unites individuals, organizations, small businesses, and farmers concerned about sustaining and enhancing the quality of life in the greater Lehigh Valley. We are dedicated to community sustainability, including holistic approaches to the environment, social justice, health, participatory democracy, and local economies. We share information about organizations, programs, and events; carry out community dialogues on a wide variety of topics; and cover a broad range of issues on our website.

Vision

We envision a sustainable, regenerative society, based upon enduring wisdom and careful steward-ship. We envision a future characterized by a self-healing environment, honorable and ethical behavior, self-determination, and secure freedoms for a diverse people.

We recognize that we are woven within an intricately balanced web of life, and human activity is rapidly degrading Earth's ability to sustain the complexity and beauty of that web. As members of the Alliance, we feel compelled to organize intensely and to act appropriately to secure maximum vitality for nature and ourselves. We envision a future characterized by honorable and ethical behavior, self-determination, secure freedoms for a diverse people, and a self-healing environment. We join together to foster a sustainable, regenerative society, based upon enduring wisdom and careful stewardship. We therefore embrace a vision of generosity, safety, and local control.

The personal and societal changes required to reach our goals will be profound and challenging. We affirm that these difficult changes will be lifesaving, deeply satisfying, and fulfilling. The process of achieving this vision is holistic, organic, and gradual. Working in alliance, we can intervene in peaceful ways to remove obstacles to that process, preserving fragile pathways toward recovery.

We recognize the subtlety and complexity of biological, physical, and chemical processes across the Earth. While human disruptions in these cycles imply problems of global reach, choices made locally, such as those in food production, transportation, or energy use, can have im-mense positive results.

We pledge to give equal attention to processes and goals as we strive to holistically influence the development of our communities. We therefore choose to initiate and support education, working examples, and community outreach programs. We seek to combine multiple and inter-dependent interests and to collaborate with diverse people on issues of mutual concern.

With abiding respect for nature and humanity, with enduring deep commitment to conceive, research, and implement much better solutions, we vow to foster the required sensitivity and ingenuity for successful stewardship of the living Earth. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to implement a society guided by wisdom and proudly conveyed to future generations.

Mission

The Alliance is dedicated to working for community sustainability. This will involve wholistic approaches to the environment, social justice, health, participatory democracy, and local economies. We are committed to active, collaborative approaches to achieving long-term positive outcomes.

Who We Are

Uniting People and Organizations
We are individuals, organizations, small businesses, and farmers concerned about the welfare of the Greater Lehigh Valley. We have come together as the Alliance for Sustainable Communities – Lehigh Valley, to work on sustaining and enhancing the quality of life in this area.

We have developed a broadly inclusive set of interrelated principles in which diverse people and organizations can find their place. We believe that by uniting people and organizations the Alliance enhances the single-issue efforts of individual organizations to gain the effectiveness needed to establish community priorities in the face of powerful opposition.

Approaches

* The Alliance shares and publicizes information from individuals and organizations that want the exposure, if it is in accord with Alliance values and purposes — hence our Directory, Earth Days Calendar, and online Calendar.
* The Alliance carries out Community Dialogues (public meetings) on a wide variety of topics and discusses a broad range of issues on this website.
* The Alliance endorses, if consensus is reached, projects initiated by others and works on behalf of these projects. [List of actions and projects endorsed by the Alliance]
* Alliance activities are often carried out by independent working groups.
On each of these levels, actions may include education, community outreach, partnership-building, and advocacy.