The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)

A Joint Venture with the Social Venture Network: A Draft Proposal (Warwick, Wicks & Hammel 2002)

The movement for social responsibility in business has made itself felt in myriad ways in less than two decades. Now, a unique confluence of circumstances offers a promising opportunity to extend the movement's reach and increase its impact many-fold. Large numbers of new small and medium-sized businesses that share the movement's values have emerged throughout the country in recent years.

The decision by Business for Social Responsibility to divest itself of its local networks has cast adrift a number of vibrant local business organizations committed to building a national movement. And, almost spontaneously, members of Social Venture Network, and their allies, have organized a new national alliance of local business organizations committed to working with both existing and newly formed local networks.

Calling itself the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), this network is dedicated to building a socially, environmentally and financially sustainable economy - a living economy - by creating, supporting and connecting local sustainable business networks.

Year by year, a vision of a sustainable economy is becoming more widely accepted by the public:

• An environmentally sustainable economy that supports natural systems, protects and restores natural capital, and values biodiversity, so that the basic material needs of current and future generations are met;
• A socially sustainable economy that supports community life, is inclusive of all citizens, protects and nourishes human capital, values cultural diversity, ensures long-term quality of life, and offers equal opportunity for current and future generations to develop their potential to the fullest; and
• A financially sustainable economy that is economically just, provides living-wage jobs, broad and equitable ownership, and long-term profitability to meet the economic needs of current and future generations.

This vision is giving birth to a new movement for social responsibility-a movement based on creating and connecting community-based businesses. The new movement is not about maximizing profits, but about maximizing relationships. Rather than striving for unending growth, national branding, and centralized control, the new business models fostered by the new movement are scaled to build authentic and meaningful relationships that add to the quality of life in our local communities and natural environment.

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