The Alliance for Sustainability is a collaborative of community colleges supported by grants from the Ford Foundation. This learning and innovation network brings together the colleges around sustainable development. Member colleges work together to develop new and better ways to education, train, promote, and support sustainable development, a term that encompasses renewable energy, conservation, sustainable agriculture and forestry, producing for regional markets, ecotourism, and green construction.
The new network builds partnerships with community–based organizations, industry associations, government agencies, and extension services to educate the labor force, communities, and youth about the importance of generating wealth in ways that produce triple bottom line outcomes – economic, social, and environmental. The initial membership emphasized community colleges in central Appalachia but includes institutions from both Europe and the U.S. with similar sustainable development goals.
The Alliance is one of the partners within the Wealth Creation in Rural Communities project also supported by the Ford Foundation. Wealth Creation and its partners aim to build stronger economies with wealth that "sticks' within local communities.