FEASTA: the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability

FEASTA is a think-tank with a mission to identify the characteristics (economic, cultural and environmental) of a truly sustainable society, articulate how the necessary transition can be effected, and promote the implementation of the measures required for this purpose.

It takes a systems-oriented approach, believing that we can cope with complexity through self-organisation and popular participation.

Some of the ideas that FEASTA has been promoting since it was established in 1998 are becoming increasingly mainsteam. In particular, the need to get beyond GDP as a measure of progress and the proposal that the atmosphere should be managed as a commons are increasingly recognised.

The name ‘Feasta’, meaning ‘henceforth’ in Irish, is closely associated with an 18th-century poem that expresses profound grief over the deforestation, biodiversity loss and mistreatment of the vulnerable that marked the colonialist period. The poem ends with a strongly-expressed desire for restoration and preservation, including the regeneration of community bonds.