Come to this site often and read about the progress being made to make American communities more sustainable. It costs nothing, but it is not free to produce. To continue our work to educate the public and policymakers on critical issues for the future, we depend on your support. Join or donate $75 or more and receive a FREE gift. Donations are tax deductible. The planet you save may be your own.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC) is a national nonprofit group dedicated to helping make our communities more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. It is a membership-driven organization and depends on membership dues for financial survival -- and to achieve its mission. PSC receives no government funding and is not affiliated with the federal interagency partnership of the same name, although it shares similar goals. Consider becoming a member of PSC today. You will be providing crucial support for our work and will receive valuable benefits, including Sustainable Communities magazine.
The mission of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities is to advance the sustainability of communities, including the reduction of GHG emissions, by promoting land use policies and development practices that encourage locationally and environmentally efficient development, reduce sprawl, offer housing and economic opportunities for persons of all incomes, and support revitalization of neglected urban areas.
Energy-efficient buildings are important, but they are not enough to make a community sustainable. PSC is dedicated to changing land use policies and practices that encourage sprawl and dependence on private vehicles. PSC focuses on the sustainability of entire communities, looking beyond individual structures. We define sustainability as encompassing social and economic development issues, in addition to resource usage, efficient use of existing infrastructure, and environmental impact. PSC encourages the adoption of policies that promote high-density, infill, and locationally efficient development that integrates housing affordable to all, places of education, and employment opportunities and encourages the use of public transit.
From Washington, D.C. to Sacramento, California, government policy is changing to encourage locationally and environmentally efficient land use and the integration of housing and transit. Private developers are catching on to the wisdom and marketability of sustainable models for their developments. City planners are figuring out how to change old, outmoded practices. And activities and advocates are fighting with new urgency to revitalize older urban centers and promote public transit and biking in our faceless, shapeless “sprawlburbs.”
PSC was founded by Andre F. Shashaty, who also serves as president. He is an award-winning writer and editor, and a nationally known expert on urban affairs and real estate development. He founded Affordable Housing Finance and Apartment Finance Today magazines and their related conferences.
PSC is governed by a board of directors and advised by a council of advisors. Click here to become a member or to make a tax-deductible donation.
We have a long way to go to shift practices in land use and planning so that they support Rouse's vision. Now is the time for change.
