The Sustainable Economies Law Center is a legal advocacy organization that promotes left-of-center ideology and pursues legal challenges seeking to enact left-of-center and far-left policies in areas including agriculture, environmentalism, housing, and economic issues. The group promotes “wealth redistribution” and is a supporter of the Green New Deal. Partners and funders of the organization include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and Patagonia. ^{1 2}

Background and Activity

The Sustainable Economies Law Center was formed in 2009 and promotes left-of-center economic, environmental, and social issues. The group’s efforts focus on “cooperatives, community currencies, community enterprises, local investing, cohousing, urban agriculture.” ³

The group’s efforts center on promoting cooperatives, including immigrant cooperatives, and supporting wealth-redistribution efforts and systems. The group heavily emphasizes its decentralized internal governance structure, which it dubs a “worker self-directed nonprofit” that aims to operate the organization on a quasi-cooperative model, publishing its internal policies and procedures for use by other nonprofit organizations and promoting policies such as “decentralized governance,” equal pay rates, and a 30-hour work week. ⁴

The group also supports the return of lands to Native Americans, stating that “Colonization has violently severed Indigenous land relationships, and capitalism has turned land into a commodity to be exploited and made most people landless as a way to exploit their labor.” It further states that “We envision a widespread return of land to Indigenous stewardship, offering all people a liberatory vision for more nurturing and just ways of living with land and each other.” ⁵

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

The Sustainable Economies Law Center was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for the Green New Deal and new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector. The open letter denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ⁶

Funding

Funders of the Sustainable Economies Law Center include the Appleby Foundation, Ashoka, the Clif Bar Family Foundation, the eBay Foundation, Elias Foundation, Equal Justice Works, Friedman Family Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Patagonia, Skoll Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund. ⁷

1. “About.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.theselc.org/about
2. “Our Supporters.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024.  https://www.theselc.org/our-supporters
3. “What We Do.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.theselc.org/what-we-do
4. “Mission.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.theselc.org/mission
5. “Land Return.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.theselc.org/land_return
6. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 19, 2024 https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
7. “Our Supporters.” Sustainable Economies Law Center. Accessed July 22, 2024.  https://www.theselc.org/our-supporters