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History & Facts about the Balaton Group

• Founded in 1982 by Donella Meadows (†2001) and Dennis Meadows, co-authors of the 1972 report The Limits to Growth.
• Created as an international "network of networks" for leading researchers on resource use, environmental conservation, systems modeling, and sustainability.
• Cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration, centered on a common set of sustainability values and principles, has been at the heart of the Group's work, and it has successfully connected members from cultural backgrounds as diverse as Latvia, Costa Rica, China, the United States, Russia, India, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Netherlands and many other countries.
• Annual meetings are limited to 50 participants, but about 130 members are currently active. They share information, support each other's initiatives, and promote sustainability leadership development. Through their activities, these members in turn affect the strategies and programs of hundreds of other sustainability-related initiatives and programs, with the aim of making them more systemic, innovative, and effective.
• The Balaton Group has strongly supported the development of emerging sustainability leaders around the world, through informal mentoring, financial assistance, and strategic support to enter formal education and training programs in universities and other institutions.
• Since its first meeting, nearly 400 participants from over 40 countries have participated in the Group. About one-third of the participants have been women. Lake Balaton was chosen as the site of the first meeting, because Hungary permitted easy assembly of scientists and practitioners from East and West, North and South. Hungary has remained the site of the annual meeting.