SUSTAINABLE CITIES INSTITUTE
Southface is proud to be the coordinating nonprofit organization for the Sustainable Cities Institute (SCI), an initiative of The Home Depot Foundation that includes a content-rich website and a program for cities.
Relevant, Vetted Information for Local Governments
SCI provides relevant, vetted information for local government officials interested in moving more quickly toward sustainability.
Apart from the technical challenges, sustainability efforts today face many institutional challenges. City departments often fail to collaborate and seem to operate in isolation from each other. Hence, even though sustainability planning requires long-term, integrated systems, many issues and challenges are still being addressed by cities on a piecemeal basis.
In addition, sustainability plans often are not systematically carried out because staff implementation roles are not defined, staff is not adequately trained or funding to implement sustainability plans is not identified.
SCI’s clear, easy-to-understand and time-tested information will help cities overcome many of these challenges by providing the knowledge they need to develop planning and communications systems, and to build the necessary political buy-in to ensure that adequate resources are devoted to sustainability efforts. SCI will also provide a solid grounding in the technical issues that surround sustainability planning.
SCI's Two Distinct Elements
- An SCI website
- An SCI City Program
The SCI website (www.SustainableCitiesInstitute.org) is a dynamic, user-friendly, content-rich site made up of vetted best practices and tools, policies, and case studies to help cities align their policies and practices with sustainability principles.
From the SCI home page, you will be able to navigate through technical silos on topics including Economic Development, Water, Materials Management, Land Use and Transportation; as well as learn about sustainability in virtual classrooms, communication labs, a planning center, and in a library that provides many model documents.
The website also includes forums, webinars, a calendar, city profiles, an interactive “Sustainable City” map, and more.
The City Program Launch
The SCI City Program is set for launch in early 2010, beginning with two pilot cities. The program will recruit sustainability-related experts who will serve as a resource to a limited number of cities to help them develop and implement sustainable community development plans around specific projects and partnerships.
