The Anne Behan Community Sustainability Award

‘Sustainability is a concept more than a strict code. It refers to responsible and ethical methods of practice in economic, social and environmental management. In many ways sustainability refers to new methods of old practices. It is often misinterpreted as relating solely to the environment, but in practice, it is an integrated approach to all aspects of life - economic, social, environmental and cultural.’

Anne Behan, November 2002

The Anne Behan Community Sustainability Award is presented every second year by Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, to the community in Ireland which, in the opinion of a panel of judges, has done most during the previous few years to build its economic self-reliance, to strengthen itself socially and culturally and to protect and enhance its natural environment.

Objective:

To celebrate communities and groups which are tackling local problems and meeting local cultural, social, economic and spiritual needs in ways which strengthen the bonds of the community, build its economic self-reliance and protect and enhance its natural environment.

Eligible Groups:

Local community or voluntary groups that can demonstrate a contribution to the economic, social, cultural and environmental sustainability of their areas.

Criteria for Appraisal:

• Evidence that the project meets local needs using local resources in a sustainable way.
• Evidence of broad-based local support and involvement
• Evidence of innovative thinking

Groups that have worked in conjunction with other groups in the community and/or neighbouring communities will be favoured. The judges will be looking particularly for communities that have strengthened more than one aspect of local life by taking the integrated approach which Anne Behan favoured.

There will be two phases in the Award procedure.

Phase One
Three communities will be short-listed on the basis of the application forms submitted.

Phase Two
The panel of judges will visit the three short-listed communities in order to decide the winner.

The Winning Community
The Anne Behan Community Sustainability Award winners will receive for the two years a bog oak bowl, hand turned by Ken Maye, Anne Behan's husband, and mounted by him on a modern oak base to represent the old and the new in harmony. Feasta will provide professional support for a 24-month period to the award-winning community. The nature of this support will be determined by the needs of the winning community and the skills of the Feasta membership. The winning community will also receive the Community Sustainability Pack developed by Feasta.

The two runner-up communities will each receive a Feasta publications pack.

The Selection Process

Application forms are available in PDF format (see below). They should be completed and submitted, in envelopes marked 'The Anne Behan Community Sustainability Award', to:

Feasta
10a Lower Camden St,
Dublin 2.

The judges will make arrangements with the short-listed communities to visit them. The name of the winning community will be announced at a Feasta event.

Application form for the award (PDF format)

Brochure about the award (PDF format, 2.2 MB)

About Anne Behan

Article by Anne Behan outlining her approach to community sustainability

Community-related articles in this website:

Articles are ordered with the most recent ones first.

From the second Feasta Review, November 2004:

Book review: Dig where you stand: a message of hope

Nadia Johanisova reviews Soil and Soul by Alastair McIntosh

Book review: The mistaken turning on humankind's path

Jonathan Dawson reviews The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abrams, and The Other Side of Eden by Hugh Brody

From Short Circuit:

Chapter Two: Creating Enough Elbow Room

In the world economy, only a very limited range of activities is commercially feasible in most communities because of the intensity of competition from outside. We must therefore build independent, parallel economies if we are to fill more of our needs for ourselves.

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