About Avalon
Part of a Worldwide Movement for the Greater Good
Avalon Alliance is a group of for-profit BC Benefit corporations founded with a deep vision, many public-oriented activities and practical solutions for achieving whole systems health and sustainability. We have a public benefit statement and provision in our legal articles in accordance with new British Columbia Benefit Company legislation. For many years, we have been part of a growing movement mobilizing private-public capital and business creativity towards building a better world. We are headquartered in Kelowna, BC Canada, developing local and international projects, comprehensive services and educational programs, at many different levels of scale and application.
We are a non-sectarian, non-partisan organization with respect for the different religions, cultures and socio-economic environments in which we operate. Please note that we are not affiliated with the Avalon Alliance Church of Saskatchewan. Our holistic philosophy and innovative methods have been applied to all aspects of what we do, ranging from our circular economy focus, energy-generating building designs and eco-infrastructure systems, to our ethical market enterprises, pioneering natural therapies and lively educational events.
Avalon Alliance Inc. is the original parent company, with Avalon Alliance Management Corp. (AAMC) and other subsidiary companies being guided by our Central Management and Advisory Council. Laurel Zaseybida, a sustainable community planner and environmental professional, is the founding President and CEO. AAMC oversees nine branded, colour-coded community sectors reflected in our Avalon Mandala. We have an even higher level of global integration, exemplified by our proposed Avalon World Centre and ARC for Humanity network.
The nine community sectors are made operational by working guilds, affiliated companies and public agencies being oriented into Avalon’s leading edge theory and collaborative best practices. Through this unique structure we are building an interdisciplinary workforce of leading edge professional trades, teaching faculty and public-private partners that will be extended to regional chapters in other parts of the world. All Avalon chapters may engage various types of community membership participation, network collaboration, project development initiatives and impact investing support.
See a diagram showing an Overview of Avalon Corporate Structure and Investment Opportunities.
Our name “Avalon” arises from the legend of the beautiful Apple Isle of Avalon dating back to the days of King Arthur and the chivalrous quest for the Holy Grail. According to the tales, Avalon is the mystical place where Heaven meets Earth. From a cross-cultural perspective, this may be equivalent to Shambhala, the New Jerusalem, the Promised Land or the Enlightened Society. The abundance of Avalon and the magical Grail cup remain today as enduring symbols of a restored, harmonious future for the planet.
Here amid the Okanagan valley’s shimmering waters, sudden mists and orchard groves, the Avalon Alliance aspires towards a new renaissance of global culture and environmental renewal. Facing many collective challenges, we seek to engage caring people from around the world, so that our efforts may help bring about a Golden Age of peace, happiness and co-creative stewardship .
A Colourful, Circular Working Model
The Avalon Mandala is not just a pretty logo. We have created an exciting model of organizational structure and community engagement that develops opportunities within a structural framework of linked circle domains. Our interdisciplinary feedback process naturally promotes whole systems thinking, stimulates creativity, and builds trust and understanding.
This unique model values collaborative decision-making and supports the inherent dignity of everyone involved. We have incorporated some principles of historical successes like the King Arthur’s round table, medieval trade guilds, Iroquois confederacy and Sociocracy governed enterprises. More contemporary inspirations include new approaches to corporate governance, circular economy processes and civic planning forums.
The interconnected colours in Avalon’s Mandala are a meaningful representation of both inner world energetics and outer community sectors, as well as serving as a guide to our corporate organizational structure. For example, the primary circles of colour are reflected in our various sub-brands and guilds, while the central circle with integrated colours represents our Management and Advisory Council. The six-pointed star signifies our global mission to reach all the continents. The magenta petals represents the flowering of consciousness and compassion among our entire membership.
Deeper Understanding of the Avalon Mandala
Avalon’s “inside-out” approaches integrate the inner realms of personal wellness and spiritual wisdom with outer world quantum physics, unified field theory, new biology and other scientific breakthroughs.
To transform community and restore the environment, we have based our sustainability framework, design approaches and eco-technology applications on the fundamental structures of the universe, holographic patterns of subtle energy and the way nature works. We then consider the greater human potential, which has its own sacred science and energy anatomy for inner well-being. Every kingdom of life and all energy in the universe is interconnected and intelligent, and Avalon approaches seek to be in relationship with that. We don’t just rely on current socio-economic theories on what is possible for an evolving human civilization.
The Avalon Mandala variations are derived from sacred geometry called “the seed of life” within the “flower of life”. We use this pattern and other geometries and symbols to help guide our organizational structure and processes. There are eight main colours of the visible electromagnetic spectrum represented in our basic Avalon logo, with practical and scalable correspondences. Our advanced Avalon Mandala and program modules reference at least twelve colour frequencies.
In 2023 Avalon’s founder Laurel Zaseybida intends to publish The Book of Avalon: Building the New Earth to further explain this novel Colour-Energy Matrix, among our other models of personal transformation and community sustainability. We believe our holistic paradigm offers much hope and effective points of action in this time of global crisis. There will also be a series of animated books for people of all ages, created by Laurel and the late Bonnie Wilkes, that provide a magical and entertaining adventure into the multidimensional universe.
Avalon Founder's Biography
Laurel Zaseybida is the founding President and CEO of Avalon and provides visionary leadership in guiding the overall evolution of the organization. She directs and oversees the services, programs, research and project initiatives of the Avalon group of companies. Laurel has a wealth of knowledge and experience as a sustainable community planner, environmental professional, green project developer and eco-technology inventor for more than 25 years.
Laurel grew up in Prince George and Kelowna, BC, with family involvement in the building construction and educational fields, and roots in Alberta agriculture. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, specializing in sustainability at the urban-rural fringe. Her Honours Bachelor’s degree in Environment and Resource Studies was also from the University of Waterloo. Additional specialized study included global ecology and international development at University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz, and World College West in California and Nepal. Laurel has received many scholarships and awards over the years.
The early days of her career included working in a landscaping greenhouse nursery, then with BC Ministry of Environment in fisheries, and BC Parks in nature interpretation. When living and studying in California, she developed a soil conservation plan for college campus lands, and worked in watershed restoration efforts for Marin County Irrigation District. Laurel’s passion for sustainable development, nature conservation and tourism management also helped establish one of the world’s largest multiple use protected areas – the Annapurna Conservation Area Project in the Himalaya region of Nepal. This involved research and field work with Indigenous communities, the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund.
She was then employed as a consultant with Resource Integration Systems Ltd., developing comprehensive ethical commerce criteria, screening hundreds of products in Toronto’s ECOS marketplace. She also evaluated waste recycling and facility greening progress in Ontario’s industrial and commercial sectors, with clients ranging from Boeing and Quaker Oats to First Canadian Place. She worked with other academics on developing riparian buffer zones for the City of Waterloo, as well as jointly publishing a Redbook for endangered species. She was also involved in the co-founding and operations of an import business for global handicrafts, with several retail locations in SW Ontario.
After moving back to Kelowna to take up a community planning position with consulting firm Urban Systems, her professional engagements in BC ranged from completing several municipal Official Community Plans (OCPs), to leading edge policies for resource stewardship and design guidelines for downtown revitalization and hillside development. Her environmental planning work was instrumental in the development of Kelowna’s Mission Creek Greenway, Scenic Canyon Regional Park and City Partnership in Parks program, as well as some of the habitat conservation zones and wetland/ foreshore policies in the Okanagan and Kootenay regions.
After founding the Avalon Alliance company and creating its unique sustainability framework and structure, Laurel co-developed Kelowna’s first cooperative community for 54 families with Cactus Rose Housing Society and BC government funding. She also completed green residential, seniors wellness complex, agri-tourism, resource management, community marketplace and resort development plans as a consultant for numerous private clients and non-profit groups. In the same time period, based on an extraordinary vision, Laurel and a few colleagues prepared a comprehensive master plan, drawings and business case for the Avalon Global Ecovillage, World Centre Campus and Sustainability District, and continue to build community and international capacities for this exciting long-term venture.
Laurel combined the novel environmental assessment, planning and design approaches from her Master’s degree thesis with green building and eco-technology systems. While advancing the Avalon Global Ecovillage initiative, she formed a consortium of local, US, German and Austrian green building and product supply companies that was first in the Okanagan region to promote Passive House standards. She saw the need for project systems integration, and subsequently created the Avalon SHIFT™ process to guide and certify development projects, district revitalization efforts, and many other model applications. Some SHIFT project partnerships are already underway and making good progress; a number of other regional and international project engagements are pending financing.
In collaboration with the late Bonnie Wilkes, who acted as Vice-President of Avalon for many years, she formulated Avalon Bio-Mineral Technologies for sustainable agriculture, health restoration and environmental renewal, which are patent-pending in US and Canada. Additionally, Laurel and Bonnie developed the ASVC impact investing structure, a wide range of sustainable development service solutions, and core programming for health and wellness, new science, global education and green workplace transitions. Laurel and her growing Management and Advisory team are currently consolidating all this innovative work into an interactive digital platform for whole health and sustainability. The World of Avalon platform and Bio-Mineral Technologies are now being positioned for an ASVC investment raise, and we also anticipate substantial university and government agency support.
Laurel’s global vision has been inspired by years of holistic studies and international travel, developing cross-cultural and interfaith understanding in regions ranging from Asia to Eastern Europe to the Middle East. She has helped many immigrant families with settlement and business in Canada, and created a special PNP entrepreneur strategy for participation in Avalon projects. She served on the Board of Directors for several BC environmental associations and the Kelowna Women’s Resource Centre. She has also studied meditation and trained in many healing modalities, feng shui, and other creative pursuits.
Avalon Central Management & Advisory Council
At the heart of Avalon Alliance’s organizational structure, is our Central Management and Advisory Council. We engage a collaborative team of interdisciplinary experts and accomplished business and community leaders, who care deeply about humanity and the planet.
Like a modern-day Arthurian round table, they work with founder Laurel Zaseybida as dedicated “vision-keepers” of the Avalon Alliance. They help guide all the Avalon companies, manage general operations of the project partnerships and services, oversee our professional trade guilds and affiliations, and community membership programs and activities.
Central Management and Advisory team members have senior experience, high level integrity and extraordinary professional track records.
At this time Avalon’s Central Management and Advisory Council is in the process of expanding. We will be featuring the existing and new team members of Avalon Council on the website shortly. For Avalon project clients, partners and funding agencies, we have a comprehensive document featuring the profiles of all core team members, available upon request.
