Environment

Peter Stein, 2010 recipient of Partners’ Bridge Builders Award, sat down recently with Hanover’s local newspaper to talk about his work at the Lyme Timber Company.The article explores Stein’s use of public-private partnerships in conservation efforts and his take on how preserving nature can be good for investors' bottom line.

You can read more of the article at the Valley News.

Also, check out our Bridge Builder award for Peter Stein.

 

Partners’ board member William “Bill” Reilly, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has recently concluded work with the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, which he co-chaired along with former Senator Bob Graham. Preliminary reports issued by the Commission this month criticized BP and its subcontractors for insufficiently prioritizing safety in their management cultures and in their operations. The Commission’s final report is scheduled to be released on January 11.

To remain economically competitive, our cities need to go “green.” Partners’ report “The Dollars and Sense of Green Businesss,” features 22 organizations across the country that are boosting the economic health of their cities by fostering green business initiatives. Six months after the release of Partners’ report, these organizations are still hard at work. Read on for key updates, and get inspired to make your community more prosperous through sustainability. Read the individual city profiles here.

Two Los Angeles designers want you to bomb the forgotten spaces of your city. The duo repurposes gumball machines into street-side “seed bomb” dispensers, now popping up in cities across the country. The “bombs” are a mixture of clay, compost and seeds that users throw anonymously into parking medians or sidewalk cracks, temporarily infusing a bit of green into an otherwise gray urban site. Read more about the “GreenAid” seed bomb project here.

Bridge Builders Award

For his devotion to and success in framing sustainable growth as a business imperative throughout his tenure at DuPont

Bridge Builders Award

For the Initiative’s innovative approach to creating sustainable cities through the cross-disciplinary engagement of scholars, community leaders, and project partners.

Bridge Builders Award

For his commitment to ensuring livable communities for generations to come through the conservation and sustainable use of forestland

Investors in America Award

For his influential work in developing new approaches to urban redevelopment, suburban growth and regional planning.

Columnist Neal Pierce reports on the success of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the new federal collaboration of DOT, EPA, and HUD that has awarded a series of grants to communities "for roads and housing and environmental protection."

“When you start with everything, you start with nothing,” Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Policy at the US Department of Transportation (DOT), stated of the importance to narrow the focus of a livability agenda in order to be effective.

At Partners’ recent forum on September 22, “Building Livable Communities: Creating a Common Agenda”, many discussed livability’s ubiquitous nature on both macro and micro levels. The panelists spoke of the need for access and affordability to the many factors that serve as part of a system to create livable communities: transportation, housing, and education, to name a few. But when does a boundless agenda for livability, incorporating all relatable factors that serve to shape a livable community, become unproductive? In brief,  what is the ‘tipping point’ for livability?

The American Society of Landscape Architect’s weekly blog, “The Dirt: Connecting the Built and Natural Environments,” posts detailed highlights from “Building Livable Communities: Creating a Common Agenda,” Partner’s recent Forum in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum.  Recapping the panel of Federal officials including HUD, DOT, and their overlapping agendas to create an “infrastructure for livability” through “interdependencies,” the blog also includes highlights from the speakers representing local government, non for profit agencies, and corporate entities. The Dirt showcases some of the newest ideas and agendas surrounding the national livability framework presented at the forum. Read about it here

February 3-5, 2011 - Charlotte, NC

Today, more than ever, we are faced with environmental and economic challenges that will define our generation, shape our future, and test our resilience as cities, regions, states and a nation. Join leaders from across the U.S. as we tackle these challenges head-on and demonstrate smart growth solutions that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create a green economy, assure a healthy population, and expand transportation and housing options for all Americans.

“Aging in Place ” and “Green Living” might seem like an unlikely pairing. However, advocates from both camps have found many commonalities between the two.  Aging today is not solely an issue of health and finances; the issue of aging has developed into so much more than that because of drastic increases in life expectancy over the past century.  Unfortunately, poorly designed elder communities unfairly isolate individuals because of their age or capacity.  As a result, these auto-dependent communities create barriers for older individuals, but also create barriers to healthy living and civic engagement for all individuals.