Our Story
Our identity is persistently born out of what we do and who we are when we do it.
We were originally founded as Institute for a Sustainable Future in 1999 by activist Jamie Harvie, who now leads the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI). Jamie grew up in the forests north of Montreal and found solace in nature.
Jamie received a degree in civil engineering from McGill University and went to work in a wastewater treatment plant that, at the time, was progressive in the removal of dioxins and PVC. As he became aware of mercury entering the Great Lakes watershed, he led the successful coordination and passage of mercury product legislation that phased mercury out of healthcare nationally. He also supported the passage of the United Nations Minamata Convention, the global commitment to phase out mercury.
He also served on the steering committee for the Green Guide for Health Care, which offered the healthcare sector its first quantifiable sustainable design, construction and operations metrics. The guide has now been adopted as the LEED Certification for Healthcare rating system. In the food system, he founded and directed the Healthy Food in Health Care campaign, which raised the alarm and initiated the transformation of healthcare food policy and practice nationally. In large part to this work, the definition of healthy food now includes the health of workers, community and the planet.
Jamie was then invited to be part of Creating Health Collaborative, an international group of health and healthcare leaders working to understand and create health beyond the lens of health care. Together they have published the Creating Health Collaborative Principles for Creating Health.
Upon this legacy, SFI was rebuilt in 2023 with the substrate of our Steward Group's collective experience and expertise across disciplines of systems thinking, holistic health, regenerative principles, traditional wisdom and cultural practices, economics, and community development. Learn more about our past as Institute for a Sustainable Future below.
Publications
Summary: “The health and well-being of individuals is inseparable from nature and inseparable from the health of a community.” Created with The Next System Project, this paper offers a holistic vision and compelling path forward by encouraging us to see the interconnectedness across systems and to think past a siloed mindset. "To fully reflect the needs and values of the community, health care requires a restructuring and “democratization” of health care and health.
Publication: The Next System Project, a Democracy Collaborative Project
Summary: Only by finding a new narrative that embraces the whole, rather than the parts, can we build the health-creating systems we need.
Publication: Stanford Social Innovation Review
Summary: This report includes the first regional directory of producers currently supplying the largest institutions and restaurants in our region.
Publication: ISF Reporting
Mapping Duluth Grill Local Sustainable Food Purchasing: A 2011 Baseline Assessment
Summary: Written by Kelly Erb, this case study details criteria and assessment process used to determine the percentage purchasing by the Duluth Grill, a sustainable food restaurant based in Duluth, MN that signed the Superior Compact, a 20% local food purchasing goal by 2020.
Publication: ISF Reporting
The Case for Commons Healthcare
Summary: Clearly, we need a new model. The primary purpose of this paper is to offer a new lens on seemingly disparate issues, to accelerate the development of a community-driven, multi-benefit framework—“Commons Healthcare”—to solve the problems in our health, food, and climate systems, and to demonstrate that such an approach to public health is imperative.
Publication: EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing
Common Drivers Common Solutions: Chronic Disease, Climate Change, Nutrition and Agriculture
Summary: Written by Jamie Harvie, Ted Schettler, Leslie Mikkelsen, and Cornelia Flora, this white paper explores the common drivers of climate change and chronic disease and offers solutions for the health care sector.
Publication: ISF Reporting, prepared by a Food Systems and Public Health Conference Work Team funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Summary: The purpose of this study was to examine (through a collection of in-depth qualitative information) the processes associated with the selection, purchasing, and pricing of healthy and sustainably produced food within a hospital system and to gain further insight into how the hospital culture facilitates and/or hinders these processes. Research was conducted at a major medical system in Duluth, Minnesota.
Publication: Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition (Dauner K. N., Lacaille, L.J., Schultz J.F., Harvie J., et al.)
A New Healthcare Prevention Agenda: Sustainable Food Procurement and Agricultural Policy
Summary: Health care leaders are now beginning to play a decisive role in advancing a food system that is healthy for patients, communities, and the planet. Moreover, these leaders recognize that ultimately, such a system is imperative for human, community, and global health. The question remains whether we will act with appropriate urgency.
Publication: Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition (Harvie J, Mikkelsen L, Shak L.)
Summary: Brian Raymond, MPH interviews Jamie about his work including the Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care Initiative and the concept of “sustainable” food,
Publication: The Permanente Journal
Summary: This report provides context to help readers understand the complex, interconnected factors underpinning the obesity crisis and aim to provide us an opportunity to restore control over situations that have pervasively influenced the health of humans and our environment.
Publication: The Center for Health Design, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Highlighted book contributions:
Integrative Medicine, 2nd ed. by David Rakel, MD, Elsevier Press
Sudak, N.; Harvie J. (2007) Reducing Toxic Exposures
Harvie, J. (2007) Creating a Green Clinic: Reducing Toxic Exposures
Summary: Dr. David Rakel’s Integrative Medicine is a highly regarded, evidence-based textbook that covers therapies such as botanicals, supplements, mind-body, lifestyle choices, nutrition, exercise, spirituality, and more. Now in its fourth edition, the textbook uses a clinical, disease-oriented approach, offering practical guidance for reducing costs and improving patient care.