Sustainability - without doubt our era’s most important goal - is a complex term whose meaning continues to evolve. Yet its underlying premise remains simple: to produce and consume without depleting natural resources, reducing biodiversity, or compromising the soil, air, and water on which all life on earth depends.

Today, a new economy is being forged to uphold the meaning of the word itself:  oikonomos, one who manages a household - as a steward and guardian of resources.  Success will be measured by our ability to thrive without depleting.  It is the only viable path.
 
By creating New York’s first office dedicated to sustainability, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has placed our city at the forefront of exploring, defining, and implementing systems and policies that will lead to this new economy. The Mayor’s vision recognizes the historic role of cities as engines of creativity and change.
 
We believe the City of New York will emerge as a worldwide center of the sustainable food movement by creating a working definition of this term as it applies to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. This aim will be furthered by reviving and reinventing an urban institution with deep roots in our own city: the Public Market.