2019-05-07 P&E Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Sustainability Institute - Concepts and Options Report

International institutes

1. The Donella Meadows Project
http://donellameadows.org/




Institute model - Web based enterprise. A project of the Academy for Systems Change, Norwich,
Vermont, USA.
Active organisation – The Academy for Systems Change was founded in 1996. The Donella
Meadows project was founded after her death in 2001.
Background – The Project was established to honour Dr. Donella H. Meadows, a Pew Scholar in
Conservation and Environment and a MacArthur Fellow, who was one of the most influential
environmental thinkers of the twentieth century. In 1996, Dana founded the Sustainability Institute
(now called Academy for Systems Change) with the mission of fostering transitions to sustainable
systems at all levels of society, from local to global.
Mission - To preserve Donella (Dana) H. Meadows’s legacy as an inspiring leader, scholar, writer,
and teacher; to manage the intellectual property rights related to Dana’s published work; to provide
and maintain a comprehensive and easily accessible archive of her work online, including articles,
columns, and letters; to develop new resources and programs that apply her ideas to current issues
and make them available to an ever-larger network of students, practitioners, and leaders in social
change. The Academy provides resources for education – papers, videos, articles, studies.
Governance structure – The Academy is overseen by a Board including directors, treasurer, chair,
vice chair, advisors, president and board members
Funding – Government funding; private funding through the Academy for Systems Change.
Selection criteria – The Academy was chosen as a good example of a web based, virtual institute
that provides resources for education, including papers, videos, articles, columns and studies.




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