Background
The roots of Village Earth reach back to 1961, when Dr. Maurice Albertson, cofounder of Village Earth and Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU), worked with Sargeant Shriver to establish the Peace Corps. Dr. Albertson continued to be a major influence in the field of international development, serving as a consultant to the World Bank, USAID, UNESCO, and other agencies. In 1993, Dr. Albertson began a successful collaboration with Dr. Edwin and Miriam Shinn, who brought to the table more than 30 years working at the community-level in places as diverse as inner-city Chicago, tribal communities in India, the Outback of Australia, and the Horn of Africa. The three organized an International Conference on Sustainable Village Development at CSU that same year. More than 300 participants from 30 nations came together to create the Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development (CSVBD) and gave it the mandate to implement and train others in the strategies discussed during the conference. CSVBD was officially incorporated as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization in 1993 and later renamed Village Earth: Consortium for Sustainable Village-based Development, and its CSU training arm the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) was also established. Since its inception Village Earth and IISD have trained and consulted with hundreds of individuals and organizations all over the world.
Values
* We believe that communities must be empowered to access and manage the resources they need to be self-sufficient and sustainable.
* We trust and value the ability of local communities to shape and create their own vision for the future, as well as the path to move toward
it.
* We believe that transparency and participatory decision-making is central to the goal of social justice and sustainability.
* We believe that working toward ecological sustainability must be a priority for all societies to ensure peace and prosperity for all peoples.
* We appreciate and respect the diversity and differences among our constituents and our collaborators.