Sustainable Development

Resources dealing with population growth, urban sprawl and smart growth, sustainable agriculture, development, alternative trade, reclamation projects and greenways. See also Organic Food and Organic Gardening.

Pittsburgh Region

• CommuteInfo.org
  CommuteInfo is a program of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission that provides a FREE regional ridesharing match service for motorists interested in alternatives to driving alone to their workplace.
• The Green Building Alliance
  Works to foster "green" building in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
• Sustainable Pittsburgh
  Sustainable Pittsburgh, a non-partisan, civic forum, advocates the integration of economic growth, environmental health, and social equity as the foundation for high quality of life and long-term prosperity of southwestern Pennsylvania.
• Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County
  The Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County is a community-based private non-profit located at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg whose mission is to work with the county's cities, townships and boroughs to address the challenges associated with economic growth and revitalization.
• Sustainable Development in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Region
  From the Center for Neighborhood Technology Metropolitan Initiative. A Briefing Paper from August 4, 1997, prepared by Melisa Crawford, Michele Kanche Fetting, Andrew S. McElwaine, The Heinz Endowments, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

  Return to the top

Pennsylvania

• 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania
  An alliance of organizations and individuals committed to promoting land use policies and actions that will enable Pennsylvania to strengthen its diverse urban, suburban, and rural communities and reduce sprawl. Currently it encompasses over 160 organizations representing over 300,000 Pennsylvanians.
• Association for the New Urbanism in Pennsylvania
  A group that promotes "New Urbanism" as opposed to suburban sprawl in Pennsylvania.
• Canaan Valley Institute
  CVI is a not-for-profit, non-advocacy organization committed to enhancing the ability of the residents of the Mid-Atlantic Highlands (including portions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and all of West Virginia) to create sustainable communities.
• Land Use in Pennsylvania: Growing Smarter
  The Pennsylvania "Growing Smarter" initiative is a result of the combined efforts of the Governor's Center for Local Government Services along with other state agencies, thousands of local officials and other interested citizens, working together to encourage sound land management practices. It offers the Electronic Land Use Library, an electronic clearinghouse of county and municipal comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, and other land use regulations from across the Commonwealth.
• Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
  a non-profit member based organization actively promoting sustainable agriculture in Pennsylvania and the northeast.
• Pennsylvania State University: Sustaining Pennsylvania Agriculture
  A sustainable agriculture information center for Pennsylvania.
• Robyn Van En Center Center for CSA Resources
  This is a resource center for Community Supported Agriculture, in which community members buy a share of a farm and in return get weekly produce. It is located at Wilson College in the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

  Return to the top

United States

• American Farmland Trust
  AFT works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.
• ARCOSANTI
  An experimental city in the high desert of Arizona. When complete, Arcosanti will house 7000 people, demonstrating ways to improve urban conditions and lessen our destructive impact on the earth. Its compact super-structures and large-scale solar greenhouses will occupy only 25 acres of a 4060 acre land preserve, keeping the natural countryside in close proximity to urban dwellers.
• Best Practices for Human Settlement
  This searchable database contains proven solutions to common urban problems facing the world's cities today, compiled by the Together Foundation and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) from information submitted by communities from around the world.
• Columbia University Earth Institute
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
    • Environmental Sustainability Index
      The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) is a measure of overall progress towards environmental sustainability, developed for 142 countries, based upon a set of 20 core "indicators."
• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
  "CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production." This website from the National Agricultural Library includes an information center and a database of CSA farms.
• Environmental Design & Construction
  A magazine for architects, interior designers, building contractors, spec writers, engineers, etc that covers all aspects of environmentally sound building design & construction including recycled building products, energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, indoor air quality, systems of waste disposal and re-use, and more. It includes a buyers guide listing companies throughout the US.
• Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University
  
  • Feeding the Factory Farm: Implicit Subsidies to the Broiler Chicken Industry
    In a new paper from the Global Development and Environment Institute, Elanor Starmer, Aimee Witteman, and Timothy A. Wise focus on one group of winners of American farm policy that keeps the price of corn and soybeans below what it costs to produce them (through subsidies): industrial, corporate-owned livestock production facilities.
• Green Report Card
  Created by the nonprofit Sustainable Endowments Institute, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Green Report Card ranks 300 colleges in terms of their sustainability. Unfortunately in 2008 CMU got a B grade, Pitt a C and Duquesne a D+. Other local schools were not rated.
• How to Go Organic
  This website from the Organic Trade Association explains how producers and processors can become organic providers.
• National Center for Appropriate Technology
  Through more than 20 years of service, NCAT's work has grown from addressing the immediate energy needs of low-income people to promoting a wide array of sustainable technologies and technology transfer, including nationally-recognized work in energy and resource efficiency and sustainable agriculture.
• Sierra Club: Stopping Sprawl
  The environmental group's campaign to stop sprawl - scattered development that increases traffic, saps local resources and destroys open space.
• Smart Growth America
  Smart Growth America is a nationwide coalition of more than 100 partner organizations that promotes a better way to grow: one that protects farmland and open space, revitalizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable, and provides more transportation choices. Provides access to research and publications.
• Sprawl City
  This website emerges from the work of environmental authors Leon Kolankiewicz and Roy Beck to help the public make more ready use of federal data on sprawl and rural land loss.
• SprawlWatch Clearinghouse
  The Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse is a nonprofit organization that identifies, collects, compiles, and disseminates information on the best land use practices for managing growth to citizens, grassroots organizations, environmentalists, public officials, planners, architects, the media and business leaders.
• Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN)
  SAN is the communications and outreach arm of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. SARE is a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded initiative that sponsors competitive grants for sustainable agriculture research and education in a regional process nationwide
  • Northeast Region USDA SARE
    covering the 12 states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
• Sustainable Business
  A website that keeps up with the Green Economy. Check here for the latest news articles about environmental issues that impact companies.
• Sustainable Sites Initiative
  The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the United States Botanic Garden and others to develop guidelines and standards for landscape sustainability. Well-designed landscapes promote biodiversity with a mix of native species and ecologically appropriate non-native species.
• Urban Land Institute
  A national research and policy organization that focuses on wise use of urban space and explores such topics as brownfields, affordable housing, urban parks, and revitalization of cities.
• US Green Building Council
  The U.S. Green Building Council is the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. They developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) Green Building Rating System, a national consensus-based, market-driven building rating system designed to accelerate the development and implementation of green building practices.
• Terrain.org: A Journal of the Build & Natural Environments
  A quarterly online journal searching for the integration of the built and natural environments through high quality literary, journalistic, and artistic works. It includes a column on "Unsprawl" highlighting a community.
• WorldChanging.com
  A blog-type website reporting on sustainability news, with emphasis on positive developments.
• Worldwatch Institute
  Each January, the Worldwatch Institute publishes a 200+ page "State of the World" report on progress toward a sustainable society. Older volumes are available for free download in .pdf format.

  Return to the top

International

• Best Practices for Human Settlement
  This searchable database contains proven solutions to common urban problems facing the world's cities today, compiled by the Together Foundation and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) from information submitted by communities from around the world.
• Environment and Trade: A handbook
  a joint effort of the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Programme, the handbook explains how trade can affect the environment, for better and for worse, and how environmental concern can work through the trading system to foster or frustrate development in both rich and poor countries.

• Population Action International
  An organization, headquartered in Washington DC, that performs population policy research. Website includes reports on progress towards world population stabilization.
• United Nations Development Programme
  "Through a unique network of 134 country offices, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps people in 174 countries and territories to help themselves, focusing on poverty elimination, environmental regeneration, job creation and the advancement of women."
  • Human Development Reports
    Consumption has increased in the 20th Century but it has left out many people and it has been hard on the environment, especially in the poorer countries.
• United Nations Population Fund: State of World Population
  This annual report looks at the world's growing population, its effect on the environment, and the outlook for the future.
• World Bank Topics in Development
  Education, Health, Nutrition, Population issues throughout the world. Includes articles and links to other organizations.
• World Resources Institute
  "an independent center for policy research and technical assistance on global environmental and development issues."
• ZERI: Zero Emissions Research Institute
  Works to create a new paradign of sustainable industry by targeting zero gaseous, liquid and solid emissions and using them as resources.