“We want to go directly to the board members and executives of the 1 percent who are behind these corporations. We want to bring a unified set of demands that they stop pillaging our environment, that they create good jobs, that they get their corporate money out of our democracy.”
—Tracy Van Slyke, Co-Director of New Bottom Line

A lot is going on

For info about what’s happening, from people in the streets to people at public hearings to people writing letters, making phone calls, talking with their neighbors, go to our Calls to Action page.

Energy via the dinosaur economy: Allentown Incinerator Project

At the 5/16/12 Allentown City Council meeting, “council members Jeanette Eichenwald and Ray O’Connell were unable to convince their colleagues to join them in thwarting a controversial trash-to-electricity plant being proposed on Klines Island. The project is opposed by environmentalists, including the city’s own Environmental Advisory Council.” (See rest of WFMZ’s coverage of this important matter at the “also” end of their article on “City council moves toward ensuring Allentown gets swimming pools in the future”!)

Background re: this ill-conceived DTE waste-to-energy enterprise: After an initial defeat for the so-called ‘waste to energy’ facility in Allentown, the Council voted on March 7 to go ahead with this facility, which will not only create more pollution in the city but will actually waste energy by burning material that could be composted or even recycled with energy savings greater than will be generated. Get the facts—and get involved! More info…→

Transition efforts:
Want to turn concern about economic collapse, global climate instability, peak oil, repressive government policies, and militarism, into concerted efforts to build a community base working democratically on true sustainability and resilience? Join Transitions Lehigh Valley in bringing the Transition Movement to the Lehigh Valley.

  • We’re becoming a Local Transition Hub to serve as a coordinating center for Transition Initiatives throughout the Lehigh Valley – and have become an official Transitions Initiative, Transitions Lehigh Valley!
  • We’re encouraging folks to start local Transition Initiatives in their own communities – contact Gene Hunter or Nick Blankenberg if you’d like to be part of Transition Historic Bethlehem.
  • The Transitions Working Group meets Fridays 8–10am @ Morning Star Center
  • Come to the 2nd Friday meetings at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley, 7-9:30pm – next one is on Feb 10, 2012
  • At the final session of the weekly Rethinking, Reskilling, and Personal Resources /Passions sessions that were held Mondays at the Bethlehem Public Library, those present decided to form a working group on the economy. Contact Adrienne for info.


Internships with the Alliance are about hands-on work to create change—

“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the alliance.  It has enabled me to work on projects I’m passionate about.  I also enjoyed networking and meeting people from the Alliance and other environmentally-minded Lehigh Valley students.”
—Jennifer Bell ’11, Environmental Geosciences, Lafayette Organic Gardening

Some internships are quite structured and have a defined outcome, some focus on new projects where the intern helps to develop goals and processes, and some work with multiple projects. Alliance internships are normally done for full academic credit, although there are also non-credit summer opportunities from time to time.

For more information, contact the internship coordinator.

The Alliance is dedicated to a sustainable, democratic, and regenerative society. We tend to be project-oriented with a rather loose organizational structure. Read the more detailed statements of our mission, vision, and goals.

We work on a number of different levels:

  • Publicizing sustainability doings of other organizations and individuals
  • Hosting community dialogues (public meetings) on a wide variety of topics, such as food, land use, media, and transportation.
  • Initiating projects, either on our own or as a part of coalitions
  • Endorsing projects initiated by other organizations and working on behalf of these projects.

See the other folders for more info about us—just click on the folder tabs above.

Also see  About Us  in the Main Menu.

This newly-redesigned website is designed to make it more useful—take a few minutes to browse the site!

In addition to reorganizing the content, we’ve added a number of features for your convenience:

  • Site-wide searches—just enter one or more keywords in the search box on any page [more… →]
  • Custom searches of the directory & events calendar so you can narrow the search to the organizations and events that interest you [more… →]
  • Blogs so you can keep up with things and broaden your horizons—including voices of others in the Lehigh Valley [more… →]
  • RSS feeds tailored to your interests [coming soon]

Take a few minutes to explore the site and let us know what you think!

—the Alliance Website Team