Choose your area of interest from the choices below:

Formed in 1996, 1000 Friends of Maryland is a coalition of business and development companies, architectural and historical preservation organizations, community and environmental groups. Their mission is twofold: to preserve what is best about Maryland and to encourage sensible growth.

American Farmland Trust is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1980 to protect our nation's farmland. AFT works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.

The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy is redefining the challenges facing metropolitan America and promoting innovative solutions to help communities grow more inclusive, competitive, and sustainable.

Cyburbia, the Internet's oldest portal site for urban planners and others interested in cities and the built environment, contains a selective directory of Internet resources relevant to planning and urbanism. Cyburbia also includes information about mailing lists and newsgroups, and it hosts a very active bulletin board and image hosting gallery.

ELI uses sustainability as an organizing principle to develop new strategies for the protection of land, water, and biological resources. ELI's Sustainability and Resource Protection Programs improve our nation's laws, policies, and institutions. Integrating environmental laws, tax laws, development laws, and other tools. ELI works with state, local, and federal agencies, citizen groups, non-profit organizations, and corporate partners to develop effective solutions to problems of land and resource use.

The Joint Center for Sustainable Communities represents an important collaboration between the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) on behalf of our nation's communities. Its primary mission is to provide a forum for cities and counties to work together to develop long-term policies and programs that will lead to job growth, environmental stewardship and social equity -- the three pillars of sustainable communities. The Joint Center is helping local elected officials build sustainable communities by promoting community leadership initiatives, providing technical assistance and training, and conducting community policy and.

The Maryland Priority Places Strategy has refocused state agencies on the goal of restoring and protecting quality of life in established communities by addressing the related issues of State investment, economic growth, community revitalization, and resource conservation.

Reclaiming Rural America's Brownfields, A National Report on Rural Brownfields Redevelopment is the final product of a cooperative agreement between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation. The NADO Research Foundation engaged in a national study of brownfields in rural America, focusing on obstacles to their cleanup and redevelopment as well as possible adverse impacts they may pose to the health of rural residents.

For the past 25 years, the National Center for Appropriate Technology has been serving economically disadvantaged people by providing information and access to appropriate technologies that can help improve their lives. During the organization's rich and varied history, NCAT projects have ranged from low-tech to high-tech, addressing complex issues of housing, economics, and environmental quality. NCAT has contributed to fostering healthy communities and a better quality of life for everyone.

Program's focus is on land use legislation has been on growth management and the relationship of land use to related environmental and economic development policies. NCSL has files on comprehensive growth management laws in several states, nonregulatory measures related to easements and land trusts, and financing options to service growth and protect open space.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (Center) provides support to Governors in responding to the challenges of land use, environmental and energy leadership through technical assistance, policy research, and forums to share best practices.

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet our Nation's economic, social, and environmental needs.

Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life sustaining. They do this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutions that create true wealth.

Scenic America is the only national non-profit dedicated solely to protecting our nation's natural beauty and distinctive community character. We believe that our country can grow and prosper without losing its beauty.

Smart Growth America is a coalition of nearly 100 advocacy organizations that have a stake in how metropolitan expansion affects our environment, quality of life and economic sustainability. The diverse coalition partners include national, state and local groups working on behalf of the environment, historic preservation, social equity, land conservation, neighborhood redevelopment, farmland protection, and other issues.

In 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency joined with several non-profit and government organizations to form the Smart Growth Network (SGN). The Network was formed in response to increasing community concerns about the need for new ways to grow that boost the economy, protect the environment, and enhance community vitality. The Network's partners include environmental groups, historic preservation organizations, professional organizations, developers, real estate interests; local and state government entities.

The Urban Land Institute provides a wide variety of tools and resources for communities pursuing a Smart Growth strategy. The smartgrowth.net web site lets you easily navigate this vast array of resources from a searchable archive of articles abstracts from daily newspapers to free publications, such as Smart Growth Myth and Fact (R).

Founded in 1972, the Trust for Public Land is the only national nonprofit working exclusively to protect land for human enjoyment and well-being. TPL helps conserve land for recreation and spiritual nourishment and to improve the health and quality of life of American communities.

Ask anyone who lives in D.C. or New York or Phoenix: urban growth is booming and it's having profound effects on people's lives. Now research data confirms it. Using sophisticated remote sensing systems, scientists have evidence of significant changes to regional geography. At this year's annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., researchers present findings about their study of wide scale urbanization. While some of their work demonstrates common sense causes and effects from growth, others provide startling evidence for heavy urban growth apparently causing major changes to local weather and climate

As the preeminent, multidisciplinary real estate forum, ULI facilitates the open exchange of ideas, information and experience among local, national and international industry leaders and policy makers dedicated to creating better places.

The Economic Research Service (ERS) is the main source of economic information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Located in Washington, DC, with approximately 450 employees, ERS research informs and enhances public and private decisionmaking on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural development.

On this website, you'll be able to: read about other communities that have discovered the benefits of sustainable development; locate technical and financial resources that can help your community plan and carry out sustainable development projects; and access model codes and ordinances other communities have used to implement sustainable development.

The mission of the Clean Cities Program is to advance the nation's economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local decisions to adopt practices that contribute to the reduction of petroleum consumption. Clean Cities carries out this mission through a network of more than 80 volunteer coalitions, which develop public/private partnerships to promote alternative fuels and vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid vehicles, and other initiatives.

The AIA's Center for Livable Communities brings together the many activities the Institute has undertaken related to urban design and quality of life. Through careful planning and design, architects contribute to making safe, attractive, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable communities.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology has a unique mission: To invent and implement new tools and methods that create livable urban communities for everyone.

New Urbanism is an urban design movement that burst onto the scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. New Urbanists aim to reform all aspects of real estate development. Their work affects regional and local plans. They are involved in new development, urban retrofits, and suburban infill.

LISC helps resident-led, community-based development organizations transform distressed communities and neighborhoods into healthy ones-- good places to live, do business, work and raise families. By providing capital, technical expertise, training and information, LISC supports the development of local leadership and the creation of affordable housing, commercial, industrial and community facilities, businesses and jobs. We help neighbors build communities.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded non-profit organization that provides leadership, education and advocacy to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our communities.

Partners for Livable Communities is a national, nonprofit organization working to restore and renew our communities.

Linking citizens to resources and to one another to create healthy, vital, sustainable communities.

A regional nonprofit organization that builds and fosters partnerships for the restoration of the Bay and its rivers. They believe that cooperation between informed and active citizens is the best foundation for the Bays future.

A free service offered by the Chesapeake Bay Program to local governments in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. By signing up for this service, they can find out the latest information on Bay Program activities that impact them and give feedback.

A non-profit 501(c)3 corporation that provides local governments, activists, and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation's most precious natural resources: our streams, lakes and rivers.

Founded in 1967, Chesapeake Bay Foundation if the largest conservation organization dedicated to saving the Bay watershed.

The Chesapeake Bay Program is a partnership that is dedicated to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. It was founded in 1983 and includes Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania, ad the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and the U.S. EPA.

A multi-jurisdictional partnership that's working successfully to restore and protect the Bay and its resources.

The Low Impact Development Center was established to develop and provide information to individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the environment and our water resources through proper site design techniques that replicate pre-existing hydrologic site conditions.

Founded in 1936, National Wildlife Federation is the nation's largest and oldest protector of wildlife. With more than four million members and supporters, NWF is committed to educating and empowering people from all walks of life to protect wildlife and habitat for future generations.

Regenerative Design, which is still creating itself, introduces into Ecological Design the Science or Art of Place and the science of living systems. The challenge for designers now is to design ecologically sustainable buildings, landscapes and communities as integrated wholes that reconnect us to a living and beautiful world and awaken an appreciation of what is life-giving.

The VADCR website provides information on soil and water conservation and natural resource programs.

The VA DEQ website provides information on programs related to water quality, pollution prevention, and environmental education.

The VA DOF website provides information on tree care, water quality, best management practices, and tree harvesting.

Greenwire is the leading source for comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy. Every day, Greenwire's hard-hitting, original reporting plugs subscribers into the issues facing the White House, Congress, the courts, federal agencies and the states.

 

   Printer-friendly version