MISSION. The Center for Economic Security was founded in Michigan in 2005 to foster a transition to a true sustainable economy, one built around an acceptance of nature’s order and an intention to operate within its laws.

Such an economy requires a basic ecological literacy -- an understanding of the complex natural systems upon which all human economic activity depends -- and ecological intelligence -- a capacity to create economic institutions that derive their competitive advantage from their ability to work in harmony with nature.

This is what Charles Darwin meant when he wrote “survival of the fittest” -- the species that fit most effectively into nature’s order would survive the best. Our future economic security depends almost totally on our ability to achieve this ecological fit.

The Center seeks to help Michigan and the states of the Great Lakes Basin increase the ecological literacy of economic and public policy decisionmakers and introduce ecological intelligence into business and public decisionmaking.

PEOPLE.
Christopher Bedford (President) has worked for over fifteen years to bring ecological intelligence to the work of business, labor, public health and environmental groups. He created the award winning film, “The Next Industrial Revolution” in 2001 that has become a core document in the worldwide green revolution in business. He has organized campaigns to build ecological sustainability in five states. His work has won over three dozen awards for excellence. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

George W. Bird, PhD (Board) is Professor of Nematology and Associate Chairperson of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. He is a former national Director of SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, USDA/CSREES). Dr. Bird serves on the Board of the Rodale Institute and is a leader in sustainable agriculture thinking and programs in the United States.

John Weber, PhD (Board) is Associate Professor of Geology, GVSU. Professor Weber received his PhD in the Geosciences from Northwestern University in 1995. One component of his research, currently supported by the American Chemical Society's Petroleum Research Fund, involves using GPS satellites and additional geologic techniques to estimate the seismic hazard on some of Earth's major tectonic faults. He has received awards for both his excellence in teaching and scholarship, including the GVSU Glen A. Neimeyer Outstanding Faculty Award (2003), and the Dupont (Conoco) Young Professor's Award (1999).