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This report provides an introduction to sustainable community activities and ways in which supporters of pollution prevention can take advantage of such efforts. A "sustainable community" effort consists of a long-term integrated and systems approach to developing and achieving a healthy community by addressing economic, environmental and social issues. Fostering a strong sense of community and building partnerships among key stakeholders are also important elements of such efforts. This report discusses how hundreds of communities across the United States are taking "sustainable community" approaches to deal with their most pressing problems. Such approaches have been applied to issues as varied as urban sprawl, inner-city and brownfield redevelopment, new economic development, a strong local economy, environmental justice, ecosystem management, agriculture, biodiversity, green buildings, energy conservation, watershed management, and pollution prevention. This report explains such activities by examining the process of developing a sustainable community initiative, describing sources of support, and presenting detailed community examples. Then, it explores the relationship between sustainable community activities and pollution prevention. The author includes an extensive annotated bibliography giving points of contact with phone numbers, web page addresses, and published documents about sustainable community activities throughout the United States.

Today's societal pressures, such as the economic crisis, global climate change, access to adequate water supplies, safe food, national security, and continuing degradation of the environment require new and innovative strategies in order to achieve improvement in communities. And solving local problems requires consideration, understanding, and working within the bigger picture to lessen potential unintended consequences from actions. We employ tested, cutting-edge, and emerging tools to facilitate community planning and action strategies that allow stakeholders to take charge of their own destiny and become effective change agents in their community work to achieve sustainability. And when conflicts occur we can effectively resolve disagreements to the advantage of all involved. Let us help you think about, design, and act on comprehensive strategies to seek community sustainability.

The mission of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities is to create strong, sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation, and helping to build a clean energy economy. In order to better connect housing to jobs, the office will work to coordinate federal housing and transportation investments with local land use decisions in order to reduce transportation costs for families, improve housing affordability, save energy, and increase access to housing and employment opportunities. By ensuring that housing is located near job centers and affordable, accessible transportation, we will nurture healthier, more inclusive communities which provide opportunities for people of all ages, incomes, races, and ethnicities to live, work, and learn together.

Some off-the-grid communities are little more than subdivisions beyond the reach of any power company, where homeowners fend for themselves. Some off-the-grid communities take the intentional community approach, a gathering of like-minded residents living in a cooperative manner (and if you think that sounds like a commune, well, you’d be right).

Emerald Earth This intentional community on 189 acres Mendocino County near Boonville, Calif., was founded in 1989. The dozen or so people living here share a common house with a main kitchen, eating and meeting areas and shower. There is also a bathhouse/greenhouse with a sauna, showers and garden greenhouse. There are four small cabins heated by passive solar and wood stoves. Solar panels and a gas generator provide electricity. Use of composting outhouses means there is no need for a septic system.

The background To begin it is worth reminding ourselves of the impact of climate change, urbanization, economic growth and globalization. Climate change. As we know, the earth's climate is constantly changing – but in recent years there has been a significant change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that global temperature will rise by the end of the century by between 1.4C and 5.8C. Most of the warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is, according to the IPCC (2007), attributable to human activities. The result of this will be a further rise in sea levels (and an increased risk of flooding), problems around fresh-water supplies in many parts of the world, a decrease in agricultural productivity in many areas, and significant health risks. The Stern Review (2006) concluded that climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response. It will impact disproportionately on poorer countries – but even in richer countries, if nothing is done there will be profound economic consequences. Overall, it could mean the equivalent of around a 20% reduction in consumption per head.

Wastesavers began life in 1986 as an environmental, interest group promoting the importance of reuse and recycling. In the mid 90’s it became more proactive and began picking up old newspapers from peoples doorsteps for recycling, and hand sorting these at the local paper mill. In 1995 Wastesavers collected and recycled 22 tonnes of paper. Today Wastesavers recycles more than 15,000 tonnes of material a year and can’t imagine hand sorting the 5000 tonnes of paper it collects! That’s more than 85,000 trees per year! Progress has certainly been made in Newport with residents now receiving a weekly kerbside recycling collection of not just paper, but cans, plastics, glass, textiles, mobile phones and toner cartridges as well food waste and small electrical items.

ware of intensifying world challenges and the basic need of people to feed themselves, we have been working for 40 years to develop an elegant, small-scale agricultural system — GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Sustainable Mini-Farming — that when practiced correctly, nurtures healthy soil fertility, produces high yields, conserves resources and can be used successfully by almost everyone. Our goal is to help this system be known and used locally...on a worldwide basis.

ohn Jeavons spoke at Google in Mountain View on April 12, 2012 about his four decades pioneering biointensive farming and what we can do for food security in the future.