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EPA helps communities grow in ways that expand economic opportunity, protect public health and the environment, and create and enhance the places that people love. Through research, tools, partnerships, case studies, grants, and technical assistance, EPA is helping America's communities turn their visions of the future into reality.

Experts from around the world-in academic, business, and public sectors alike-have shown that strategically investing in communities is a critical element to long-term economic development and quality of life in the 21st century. The future of communities in Michigan and elsewhere depends on their abilities to attract and retain knowledge-based workers, entrepreneurs and growing industries. Central to attracting these important commodities is the concept of PLACE. To be successful communities must effectively develop and leverage their key human, natural, cultural and structural assets and nurture them through enacting effective public policy. That's one (long) answer.  Another one is, with a tip of the cap to Fred Kent at the Project for Public Spaces, "turning a place from one that you can't wait to get through into one that you never want to leave."  I like this one better.

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE, is North America's fastest growing network of socially responsible businesses, comprised of over 80 community networks in 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces representing over 22,000 independent business members across the U.S. and Canada.

The problem of poverty More than 46 million Americans live below the official poverty line-which is now approximately $22,314 for a family of four-and 16.4 million children are poor in this country. Inequality of wealth has reached record highs-it is greater than at any time since 1929. Growing portions of the nation's wealth are concentrated in the possession of a small fraction of households, while more than one third of the U.S. population is trying to get by on incomes less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line-or about $44,000 for a family of four. Well before the current economic crisis, 6 million low-income households were paying more than half their income on rent and utilities, or lived in severely substandard housing. And the most recent data for 2010 revealed that 48.8 million people, including 16.2 million children, lived in a household struggling against hunger.

The American Sustainable Business Council family of organizations includes American Sustainable Business Council, which runs public information campaigns that educate and inform the public and policy makers about specific opportunities to create a more vibrant, just and sustainable economy, and American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund, organized under IRS code 501(c)(4), which focuses on legislative and regulatory advocacy. The Council spans a growing network of over 60 business associations across the United States, representing over 200,000 businesses and 300,000 business executives, owners, investors, and others.

This beta version of the site is only the start. Over time, its functionality will be steadily enhanced. The cluster organization database will be enriched with additional information about those organizations who want to share their profiles and activities. Geographical mapping capabilities will be dramatically enhanced. A broad range of comparative data about regional business environments will be added. And the site will provide a growing library of resources and tools to enable practitioners to make the most out of the data available.

The failure of many of the systems that underpin modern life is increasingly difficult to avoid, so it's not surprising that interest in 'systems innovation' is growing fast. At the Point People, we've seen pioneers emerging in this field from different sectors, leading very different kinds of organisations and speaking very different professional languages. We had a hunch that these frontrunners could tell a compelling story about what systemic innovation looks and feels like in practice. So we put them in front of a camera and asked them a handful of questions.

ABOUT IDEO WHAT WE DO IDEO (pronounced "eye-dee-oh") is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow. We identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires. We envision new companies and brands, and we design the products, services, spaces, and interactive experiences that bring them to life. We help organizations build creative culture and the internal systems required to sustain innovation and launch new ventures.

Welcome to the Change Management Toolbook! This site has been around since 1997, and we remain focused on the founding vision of offering really useful and free change management content to our web visitors. This is the fourth (and we believe the best!) major revision of the website - it's a lot simpler and much prettier, and we think you will find that it is easier and quicker to get to the information you want. The changes are not limited to the "look and feel" - we've added some really good additional content, and we look forward to ongoing high-quality contributions by our growing global network of contributors.  We hope your visit will be rewarding and hope to have you as a frequent visitor!

OUR STORY For 30 years, BFI has supported a growing international network of Fuller-inspired innovators through the maintenance of a comprehensive Information Clearinghouse on R.B Fuller, including a detailed inventory of the practices and principles informing Fuller's approach to design.

As part of this work, we draw inspiration from growing movements to claim and control 'the commons'. This refers to resources that are life's necessities. They include: Natural resources: land, water, air, and sources of energy Cultural resources: knowledge Economic resources: funds for investment in the public interest Social resources: relationships and activities through which we help each other participate and flourish

A growing number of global leaders-driving both the theory and practice of innovation districts-have established The Global Institute on Innovation Districts.

Economic historians long reckoned that enclosure, though unjust and brutal, spurred progress and laid the groundwork for industrialisation. Large tracts could be farmed more productively, freeing labourers to work in urban factories while also providing food to support them. "The break-up of the peasantry was the price England paid…to feed her growing population," wrote Peter Mathias, an economic historian, in 1983. The Industrial Revolution seemed to bury the concept of the commons for good.

The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. GEN is a growing network of regenerative communities and initiatives that bridge cultures, countries, and continents.

The SustyContextGroup is a network of thought leaders and practitioners advancing the notion of Sustainability Context, a performance accounting principle that assesses "the performance of the organization in the context of the limits and demands placed on environmental or social resources at the sectoral, local, regional, or global level" (to quote the Global Reporting Initiative, GRI, which coined the concept in 2002). Corporate Sustainability Architect Bill Baue and Center for Sustainable Organizations Executive Director (and The MultiCapital Scorecard Co-Author) Mark McElroy co-founded the Group in early 2012 to nurture the growing global community of practice of passionate individuals and organizations who see the vital necessity of incorporating this concept in corporate sustainability measurement, management and reporting.

Ecosystem Restoration Camps Foundation is a Dutch non-profit foundation with hundreds of members from over 30 countries around the world, and we continue to grow. In 2017 we established Camp Altiplano, the first Ecosystem Restoration Camp in Spain, and now have a camp on every continent. Our aim is to open 100 camps by 2030.

The CivilServant project supports online communities to run their own experiments on the effects of moderation practices. With the CivilServant software, communities on the internet can run your own experiments and grow collective knowledge on what works to maintain flourishing and fair conversations online.

The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) catalyzes communities for a regenerative world. GEN is a growing network of regenerative communities and initiatives that bridge cultures, countries, and continents. GEN builds bridges between policy-makers, governments, NGOs, academics, entrepreneurs, activists, community networks and ecologically-minded individuals across the globe in order to develop strategies for a global transition to resilient communities and cultures.

In 2008, Tina Roth Eisenberg (Swissmiss) started CreativeMornings out of a desire for an ongoing, accessible event for New York's creative community. The concept was simple: breakfast and a short talk one Friday morning a month. Every event would be free of charge and open to anyone. Today, attendees gather in cities around the world to enjoy fresh coffee, friendly people, and an international array of breakfast foods. Volunteer hosts and their team members organize local chapters that not only celebrate a city's creative talent, but also promote an open space to connect with like-minded individuals. The growing archive of past breakfast talks is humbling. From design legends to hometown heroes, speakers are selected by each chapter based on a global theme.

Transition is a movement that has been growing since 2005. It is about communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by starting local. By coming together, they are able to crowd-source solutions. They seek to nurture a caring culture, one focused on supporting each other, both as groups or as wider communities.