Community

• Climate Change

• Community Living

• Community Land Trusts

• Community Models

• Gardens

• Land Conservation

• Land Use

• Oil Dependancy

• Social Networking

• Suburban Living

• Sustainability

• Urban Biodiversity

• Urban Living

Show All

Climate Change and Communities:
www.transitiontowns.org	Transition Movement is a grassroots process for building community resilience in the face of such challenges as climate change, peak oil, and economic crisis. As a complement to existing sustainability efforts, it empowers organizing efforts, engaging people in transition to ways of life that are more abundant, fulfilling, equitable, sustainable, and socially connected.  Since emerging in Ireland in 2005, the Transition movement  has spread globally, with hundreds of Transition initiatives now underway.  This site provides a focal point for all of the towns, villages, cities and localities around the world as they implement their own Transition Initiative.
Community Living:
www.ic.org	Intentional Communities is an inclusive term for ecovillages, cohousing, residential land trusts, communes, student co-ops, urban housing cooperatives, alternative communities, and other projects where people strive together with a common vision. This web site serves the growing communities' movement, providing resources for finding a community home and creating more community in your life.
www.cohousing.org	Cohousing communities are old-fashioned neighborhoods created with a little ingenuity. They bring together the value of private homes with the benefits of more sustainable living. That means common facilities and good connections with neighbors.
www.wannastartacommune.com	Wanna start a commune? Using a few simple tools you can start sharing with your neighbors, friends or co-workers today. You'll save time and money, connect more deeply with those around you, and do right by the planet.
"Community Land Trust is a form of common land ownership with a charter based on the principles of sustainable and ecologically-sound stewardship and use. The land in a CLT is held in trust by a democratically-governed non-profit corporation. Through an inheritable and renewable long-term lease, the trust removes land from the speculative market and facilitates multiple uses such as affordable housing, village improvement, commercial space, agriculture, recreation, and open space preservation. Individual leaseholders own the buildings and other improvements on the land created by their labor and investment, but do not own the land itself. Resale agreements on the buildings ensure that the land value of a site is not included in future sales, but rather held in perpetuity on behalf of the regional community." E. F. Schumacher Society. www.schumachersociety.org
Community Land Trusts:
www.cltnetwork.org	National Community Land Trust Network  provides access to training, technical resources, and contacts to help you strengthen and grow your community land trust. Started in 2007.
www.schumachersociety.org	E. F. Schumacher Society is a think and do tank. Through its publications, conferences, seminars, website, speaker series, library, and model economic programs, the Society works to engage citizen activists in building sustainable local economies that link people, land, and community. It is an innovator in the application of the community land trust model.
www.schoolofliving.org	School of Living, non profit, is an educational organization dedicated to learning and teaching the philosophy, practices and principles of living that are self-empowering for individuals within the general aim of establishing decentralized, ecologically-sound, self-governed and humane communities. Focuses on community land trusts, decentralism, cooperative living, land issues, monetary reform, tax reform, alternative education, permaculture, environmental and other current issues. Pennsylvania.
www.iceclt.org	Institute for Community Economics (ICE) is a national community development organization promoting economic justice through community land trusts and community investment. As the originator of the CLT model, ICE has supported the growth of CLTs across the United States and Canada. ICE is also a certified Community Development Financial Institution with a loan fund which provides financing to CLTs and other non-profit groups. Springfield, MA.
www.equitytrust.org	Equity Trust works with groups across the country struggling to find equitable solutions to economic problems. We provide loans and ideas, and we help people gain community ownership over resources like land, food, and housing that are vital to the health of the community. Turners Falls, MA.
Community Models: see sustainability below as well...
www.schumachersociety.org	Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE) is a model community-based nonprofit that offers a simple way for citizens to create a sustainable local economy by supporting businesses that provide products or services needed in the region. Includes all the forms and agreements needed to start a SHARE program in your region.
www.sustainableplastics.org	Institute for Local Self-Reliance works to enable communities to increase economic effectiveness, reduce wastes, decrease environmental impacts and provide for local ownership of the infrastructure and resources essential for community well-being.
Competitions:
greeneffect.nationalgeographic.com	Win $20,000 to Put Your Green Idea Into Action. SunChips and National Geographic have joined forces to create the Green Effect, an initiative to inspire people to take small steps for big change. $20,000 each to five people or groups that have compelling ideas for green change in their communities.
Gardens:
www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu	Garden Mosaics- Connects youth and elders, to investigate the mosaic of plants, people, and cultures in gardens, to learn about science, and to act together to enhance their community.
Land Conservation:
www.tpl.org	Trust for Public Land is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places. Since 1972, TPL has worked with willing landowners, community groups, and national, state, and local agencies to complete more than 3,500 land conservation projects in 47 states, protecting more than 2 million acres.
www.sandcounty.net	Sand County Foundation. "The roots of Sand County Foundation are private action inspired by the Leopold Land Ethic, using responsible voluntary means to improve habitat. Today, the role of Sand County Foundation has expanded from caretaker of the Leopold Memorial Reserve to advising the managers of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in several countries. The Foundation works with private landholders to improve the quality of their lands through science, ethics, and incentives."
Land Use:
www.landuse.org	Smarter Land Use. Solving Persistent Problems with Effective Collaboration. See their Collaborative Land Use Planning Guidebook.
Oil Dependancy:
transitionculture.org	Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan, a community-based strategy for weaning a community from oil.
www.postcarboncities.net	Post Carbon Cities program helps local governments understand the challenges posed by energy and climate uncertainty, and provides resources for elected officials, planners, managers and others to develop plans and responses appropriate to their communities.
Social Networking:
www.greennexxus.com	GreenNexxus is an environment social networking website that provides people, organizations, and businesses with the ability to share, publish, and contribute green knowledge with the purpose of reducing our collective environmental impact.
Suburban Living:
culdesaccommune.org	Cul-de-sac Commune Project. Do you live on a cul-de-sac? Or a dead-end road? Or an apartment building (or condo) with an interior courtyard? Why not come together with your neighbors and share resources?
Sustainability:
www.conservation.org	Conservation International works to benefit humanity by conserving the Earth’s biodiversity – the species and ecosystems that are our natural heritage- and the foundation for healthy human societies that thrive on sustainable economic development.
www.rri.org	Resource Renewal Institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively. An incubator of transformational ideas designed to challenge and change the piecemeal way our resources are currently managed and protected.
www.sierraclub.org	Sierra Club Safeguarding Communities Initiative will help communities reduce and prepare for the current and coming effects of climate change.
sustainer.org	Sustainability Institute. Focuses on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behavior in complex systems to help restructure systems and shift mindsets that will help move human society toward sustainability.
www.treeswaterpeople.org	Trees, Water & People is a nonprofit organization which develops and manages continuing reforestation, watershed protection, renewable energy, appropriate technology, and environmental education programs in Latin America and the American West.
futurewise.org	Futurewise (formerly 1000 Friends of Washington) mission is to promote healthy communities and cities while protecting farmland and forests for this and future generations.
www.wiserearth.org	Wiser Earth a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, governments, and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more. Content is created and edited by people like you.
sustainabilityscience.org	Forum on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development is an attempt to outline the burgeoning field. Rather than looking broadly at sustainability, the Forum focuses on the way in which science and innovation can be conducted and applied to meet human needs while preserving the life support systems of the planet. It highlights people and programs that are studying nature-society interactions and applying the resulting knowledge to create a sustainability transition around the world. American Association for the Advancement of Science; Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development.
www.lead.org	LEAD is an international not for profit organisation with a fast growing network of 2000 leaders in more than 90 countries, implementing innovative sustainable development projects and programmes.
www.ciesin.columbia.edu	Center for International Earth Science Information Network, an independent non-governmental organization providing information that helps scientists, decision-makers, and the public better understand the changing relationships between human beings and the environment. CIESIN's focus is on applying state-of-the-art information technology to pressing interdisciplinary data, information, and research problems related to human interactions in the environment.
Urban Biodiversity:  see Forests-urban as well...
www.iclei.org	Curitiba’s BioCity Programme combines public and private initiatives in an effort to contribute to the global target to reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010. The BioCity Program aims to halt the rapid rate at which cities develop, which can affect natural areas, destroy ecosystems, fragment natural spaces and often drives species to extinction. PDF.
www.treetrust.org	Tree Trust's mission is to improve the community environment by investing in people.. Each day we work with young people and adults, volunteers and trainees, and together with Tree Trust staff, we transform the green landscapes of our communities.
Urban Living:
www.environment.harvard.edu	Working Group for Sustainable Cities at Harvard University is a cross-disciplinary offering that brings together the faculties of Harvard (professors and students) and industry leaders. The group will develop new ways of understanding and approaching economic, social, and environmental sustainability as it relates to urban regeneration.