Resources
There are a number of organizations that have been working on these issues for years. Links are organized by roots:
Earth
Agrarian Urbanism
Agrarian Urbanism is an initiative hosted by DPZ, and is a system of urban agriculture that works at a range of scales across the Transect, from window gardens to (where space is available) family farms and farming cooperatives. Agrarian Urbanism allows a community to build its own local economy around food production, processing, and sales.
Why? Agrarian Urbanism doesn’t just produce food in the neighborhood, but also creates a food culture among the people. While this may not be the first result in an urban triage situation, it should be a longterm goal.
Black Warrior Solid Waste Disposal Authority
The mission of the Black Warrior Solid Waste Disposal Authority is to safely dispose of solid waste in a technology progressive facility which meets or exceeds all federal and state regulations at competitive pricing, and which is ecologically friendly to the surrounding environment and wildlife.
Why? There are opportunities for waste stream segregation for composting.
Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies
The Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies is a part of the University of Alabama’s College of Arts & Sciences. The purpose of the Center is to provide program support in interdisciplinary teaching and research in the geosciences and related fields and a structure and focus for cooperative and applied sedimentary, stratigraphic, petroleum geosciences, and surface- and groundwater research.
Why? There are opportunities for research collaboration, information, and technology, and to look at pre- and post-development impacts on sedimentary basins.
Point of Contact: Dr. Berry H. (Nick) Tew, Jr., CSBS Director, Professor, State Geologist of Alabama and Director of the Geological Survey of Alabama–Petroleum Geology, Stratigraphy, Sedimentary Basin Analysis, Water Resources Investigations
Detroit Dirt
Detroit Dirt is a compost company working to turn forgotten parcels of land in Detroit into urban farms that not only feed, but revitalize the community. Their mission is to become an engine for the urban farming movement by regenerating waste into the resources that will reshape Detroit.
Why? This should be a model for composting companies in cities everywhere. Just as recycling has become a viable business model in many places for inorganic materials, composting should be considered a business opportunity for recycling organic wastes.
Rodale Institute
The Rodale Institute’s motto has been Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People since 1947. For more than sixty years, they have been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing their findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest option for people and the planet.
Why? For those raising their own food, organic produce is simply healthier than food laced with pesticides and herbicides. For those raising food for sale, organic food commands a premium price which can be the difference in the success of an urban farm.
Soil Science Society of America
The Soil Science Society of America is an international scientific society that fosters the transfer of knowledge and practices to sustain global soils. Based in Madison, WI, and founded in 1936, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ members and 1,000+ certified professionals dedicated to advancing the field of soil science.
Why? The Society provides information about soils in relation to crop production, environmental quality, ecosystem sustainability, bioremediation, waste management, recycling, and wise land use.
Wind & Fire
EDEN Team
EDEN (Ernest Diversified Energy Network) Team is an environmental/energy consulting service located in Laurel, Maryland. Their mission is to provide policies, programs, procedures and education in the area of Environmental Management & Sustainability.
Why? EDEN Team specializes in sustainability, facilities and materials management systems, and in increase operation efficiency of each.
Point of Contact: Ernest Jennels
International Sustainability Unit
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales established the International Sustainability Unit in 2010 to address critical issues of the environment and its development. Prince Charles has been passionately advocating for sustainability in the built environment for three decades, and he brings some issues into the equation that others had not previously considered.
Why? The Unit’s work on the resilience of food systems is quite applicable to the creation of neighborhood-scale agriculture.
Water
Alabama Water Institute
The Alabama Water Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute that engages in basic and applied research on fresh water resources. The institute collaborates across multiple departments at the University of Alabama, and with the National Water Center, a NOAA facility located on campus.
Why? The National Academy of Engineering identified access to clean water as one of the major challenges facing people of the world this century. The fundamental problem is not that the world does not have enough fresh water, but that clean, well-managed water is not located, nor can it be easily moved, to those who need it.
Center for Freshwater Studies
The Center for Freshwater Studies was established to combine interests of UA faculty with expertise in different areas of freshwater studies and to provide a focus and organized structure for interdisciplinary research and education. Faculty participants serve on editorial boards of major professional journals, on advisory boards and review panels for federal agencies and as officers of nationally internationally prominent freshwater societies.
Why? The center allows graduate and undergraduate students to be involved. There are opportunities to look at pre- and post-development impacts on freshwater bodies.
Point of Contact: Alex Huryn
Crabtree Group
The Crabtree Group is a civil engineering firm best known for working with DPZ and other New Urbanists to implement stormwater management solutions for traditional neighborhoods. They worked out the block-scale drinking water, stormwater, and electricity systems on the joint DPZ/Prince’s Foundation work in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Why? Sustainable stormwater management is essential to the revitalization of a neighborhood to be more compact, mixed-use, and walkable.
Point of Contact: Paul Crabtree, Principal
Light Imprint
The Light Imprint initiative is hosted by DPZ, and is an alternate system of stormwater management. The Light Imprint Handbook contains a treasure trove of devices that can cost millions less per neighborhood to implement, most of which can be used on a lot-by-lot scale in existing urbanism.
Why? Light Imprint measures are not only much less expensive than conventional stormwater management practices, but they are beautiful as well, while standard practices produce some of the ugliest infrastructure elements in a neighborhood.
National Water Center
The National Water Center at the University of Alabama provides integrated water prediction and forecasting for the federal government, and provides the nation with enhanced water-related products and services to support water management across the country. The NWC also works to address 21st century water resource challenges.
Why? The NWC provides water information and research that may be helpful to this initiative.
Point of Contact: Ed Clark, Director
Food
American Community Gardening Association
Like its British counterpart, the American Community Gardening Association is devoted to building community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada.
Why? Community gardening improves people’s quality of life by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education. The ACGA website is packed with resources to help set up and run a community garden.
B.U.G. Farms
Backyard Urban Garden Farms or B.U.G. Farms is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since 2010 they have been using organic methods to produce a wide variety of vegetables. Their model is based on cultivating large, unused backyard plots in an urban setting to produce food for the Salt Lake City community. With under two acres they can support about 100 members.
Why? This model of urban farming should be thoroughly studied and practiced everywhere.
Point of Contact: Carly Gillespie
Dee River Ranch
The Dee River Ranch is a family-operated farm dedicated to land conservation and environmentally friendly farming techniques. Following the Hurricane Katrina fuel shortages, the ranch began using crops they were harvesting to make their own biodiesel to fuel their equipment.
Why? They have partnered with the University of Alabama, inviting students to the ranch for learning opportunities. Local schools attend educational exhibits featuring various aspects of farm life. Dee River Ranch also hosts field days each year to update other area farmers on the latest technological advances and farming techniques.
Point of Contact: Annie Dee
Delta F.A.R.M.
Delta F.A.R.M. (Farmers Advocating Resource Management) is an association of growers and landowners that work to implement recognized agricultural practices which will conserve, restore,and enhance the environment of the Northwest Mississippi.
Why? Delta F.A.R.M. is a good resource for learning sustainable farming techniques and water management.
E.A.T. South
The mission of E.A.T. South is to Educate, Act, and Transform by cultivating healthy and sustainable food sources in a downtown Montgomery farm, and cultivate a healthier and more sustainable Montgomery by nurturing the community and teaching how to live better, feel better and eat great to ensure healthy, balanced and sustainable lifestyles.
Why? E.A.T. South promotes the principles of food justice through education and sustainable farming. They empower community-led programs with resources to transform their local food systems.
Point of Contact: Farm Director Caylor Roling
Feeding America
The Feeding America network is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Feeding America is committed to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of 200 member food banks and 60,000 food pantries engaging the country in the fight to end hunger.
Why? Excess food grown in individual or neighborhood gardens may be donated to Feeding America’s food banks to help feed others in the community.
Green City Growers
Green City Growers converts unused commercial, municipal, educational and residential spaces into vibrant urban farms. They create harvestable space both on the ground and on rooftops. Green City Growers will design and install urban farms for clients, and they also operate urban farms themselves, including one on a rooftop at Fenway Park in Boston, where they are headquartered.
Why? Just as lawn services have long been a viable business model, urban farming services should do so as well.
Growing Power
Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds and environments, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable way.
Why? Growing Power has a number of educational arms that may be helpful to this initiative, including workshops, tours, and internships.
Hereford Food Partnership
The UK's Duchy of Cornwall was established in 1337 to fund activities of the Prince of Wales; they set up the Hereford Food Partnership in more recent times to coordinate the increasing use of food and drink from the county’s fertile farms within the county, as food is fresher and more nutritious near where it is raised than anywhere else on earth.
Why? Every county in the US with any notable agricultural base should have an organization like the Partnership. Urban farms may participate as well as those in the surrounding countryside.
Invest an Acre
Invest An Acre was developed in response to a problem that seemed like a paradox – many people living in farming communities that feed the world also struggle with hunger. IAA is a program of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, which provides food to more than 46 million people facing hunger in the United States each year through 200 member food banks and 60,000 food pantries. The Invest An Acre program is designed to engage food producers in the fight against hunger in rural communities across America.
Why? Neighborhood farms as well as rural farmers can donate excess food.
National Allotment Society
The National Allotment Society is the leading UK organisation upholding the interests and rights of the allotment community. They work with government at national and local levels, other organisations and landlords to provide, promote and preserve allotments for all. They offer support, guidance and advice to our members and those with an interest in allotment gardening. The US counterpart is the American Community Gardening Association.
Why? The British history of allotment gardening runs back three centuries, so they have as much experience as anyone. The Society hosts a great collection of resources on how to run an allotment garden.
Permaculture Institute of North America
Permaculture is the conscious design of cultivated ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems using native plants or those that are well adapted to the region. Permaculture integrates people into the landscape in such a way that the land grows in richness, productivity and beauty. The Permaculture Institute of North America supports students and experienced practitioners of permaculture in North America and Hawaii.
Why? Growing food using nature’s rules rather than the brute-force rules of the industrial food chain is easier and often less expensive.
West Alabama Food Bank
The West Alabama Food Bank was incorporated in 1987 as a non-profit organization whose mission is to help alleviate hunger and food insecurity in nine West Alabama counties including Bibb, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Sumter and Tuscaloosa.
Why? The WAFB will collect excess food grown in individual or neighborhood gardens and distribute it to agencies serving the needy.
Point of Contact: Food Bank Main Address
People
Ceres
The mission of Ceres is to mobilize investor and business leadership to build a thriving, sustainable global economy, and to change capital market practices to incorporate long-term environmental and social risks instead of merely relying on short-term returns as a measure of economic health is a key component of our work. Ceres works with more than 130 member organizations that make up the Ceres Coalition to engage with corporations and help achieve the mission.
Why? Ceres has a strong track record of identifying potential investors, companies, and interest groups to expand the adoption of projects like the Living City Toolkit.
Congress for the New Urbanism
The Congress for the New Urbanism is the flagship advocate in the US for building sustainable places and buildings. Much like the Prince’s Foundation, their work begins with the people with the goal of building places people love, and which are compact, mixed-use, and walkable.
Why? The Congress hosts a wealth of initiatives and resources that support neighborhood revitalization and sustainable place-making.
HEROhousing
HEROhousing works as a catalyst for community development to end rural poverty in the Alabama Black Belt. As a non-profit, HERO (Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization) provides economic development, community resources, housing education, and affordable housing construction. When funding is available they also provide youth programming.
Why? HERO is an excellent model for a locally-based (county-wide) organization working to revitalize places that have long been marginalized.
Point of Contact: Pam Dorr
Howard G. Buffett Foundation
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation gives millions of dollars in grants annually to organizations working on agriculture as it relates to food security, conflict mitigation, and worthy international causes, generally, primarily in Africa and Latin America. The Foundation’s food security grantmaking takes a conservation-based approach to farming practices, focusing on resource development for smallholder farmers.
Why? The Foundation is a possible source of funding for this initiative.
Point of Contact: Howard G. Buffett
Keep Tuscaloosa Beautiful
The mission of Keep Tuscaloosa Beautiful is to elevate the spirit and improve the lives of citizens through the care and beautification of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They work to inspire and educate their citizens to improve the town by preventing litter, and by promoting recycling and beautification. They encourage all citizens to be responsible for caring for the scenic beauty and quality of life in Tuscaloosa. These efforts boost civic pride, livability and benefit our local economy.
Why? Healing a place begins by caring about that place. Few measures in this initiative’s toolkit will work unless people begin to care for their neighborhood.
LGC Liveable Communities
The Local Government Commission Leaders for Liveable Communities works to build livable communities and local leadership by connecting leaders, advancing policies through participation at the local and state level, and implementing solutions as a technical assistance provider and advisor to local jurisdictions. The LGC is based on the Ahwahnee Principles, which were formulated in 1991 by national leaders of sustainable place-making, six of whom later joined to found the New Urbanism.
Why? The LGC is a great source of inspiration, information, and techical assistance.
Point of Contact: Kate Meis, Executive Director
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, non-profit society of distinguished scholars. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. The NAS is committed to furthering science in America, and its members are active contributors to the international scientific community.
Why? The NAS is a source of independent, objective advice for this initiative.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
The mission of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives. The NIEHS is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is one of 27 research institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Why? The NIEHS provides grants to fund research into environmental health issues.
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare.
Why? NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future. They are a potential funding source for this initiative.
Project:SmartDwelling
The New Urban Guild founded Project:SmartDwelling in the wake of the Meltdown to redefine the American home in a smaller and smarter way to make the same customer happier in half the size they thought they needed at 60% of the cost, based in part on lessons the Guild learned from their previous Katrina Cottages initiative. Studio Sky now has hundreds of SmartDwellings going up at Mahogany Bay Village in Belize.
Why? SmartDwellings fit much easier into an existing neighborhood fabric by virtue of their substantially smaller footprints.
Point of Contact: Steve Mouzon
Rose Town, Jamaica
Rose Town, in Kingston, Jamaica has a fabulous story that every marginalized community needs to know. In the 1960s, Rose Town was worse than marginalized; it was so torn by civil war that the government bulldozed its heart out to keep the warring parties apart. The recovery began in earnest over a decade ago as a result of a visit by Prince Charles, who passionately took up the cause of the neighborhood. This inspiring video tells some of the stories of what has been happening since. Here’s the story of one of the design charrettes that put the process of change in motion.
Why? Few recovering communities anywhere had a lower starting point than Rose Town.
Small Developer/Builders Initiative
The Small Developer/Builders Initiative is an online community where people interested in small scale, incremental development in urban neighborhoods share questions and resources. The group focuses on development at smaller scales than is usually considered possible, eliminating the need for a master developer to assemble large swaths of a distressed neighborhood for redevelopment.
Why? Techniques developed as part of this initiative allow neighborhoods to be revitalized using the existing urban fabric without the need for major demolition.
Point of Contact: R. John Anderson
Sprawl Retrofit
While many places that use the Living City Toolkit may not be located in sprawl, the initiatives below are creating a wealth of tools that aid in the core missions of the Toolkit because both the Sprawl Retrofit movement and the Living City Toolkit are seeking to heal places that haven’t been doing nearly as well as they could. There are three parallel initiatives that aim to take unsustainable places and transform them into those that can be sustained: Sprawl Repair, Suburban Retrofit, and Sprawl Recovery. Leaders and supporters of these initiatives met together recently at the CNU Sprawl Retrofit Council in Miami, where all three of the parallel initiatives joined under the CNU’s Build a Better Burb banner.
The Sprawl Repair initiative was founded by Galina Tachieva, a partner at DPZ. It is the most robust of the three, having produced the Sprawl Repair Manual and an online community whose participants include a number of urbanist leaders.
Suburban Retrofit
Retrofitting Suburbia is a book co-authored by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson. Galina and Ellen recently co-hosted
The Original Green Sprawl Recovery initiative is just the work of one person for now, and has not yet produced a book, but it may be the most applicable to the Living City Tolkit because it does not have to begin with sprawl. It can begin with any stage of urbanism, including marginalized traditional neighborhoods. Sprawl Recovery is based on three foundations:
The Transect - In order to transform a place, it is essential to have certainty about the mature character of a place, but not necessarily the details. The Transect is a robust system for providing that certainty of character that allows municipalities to approve a sprawl recovery project; the Transect-based SmartCode is the premier model form-based code in the world, and is essential to rebuilding traditional neighborhoods because conventional use-based (and sprawl-inducing) zoning codes make old existing urbanism illegal, and impossible to rebuild properly.
Walk Appeal - The Walk Appeal book is currently in process, and will lay out a sophisticated system of predicting where people will choose to walk. Walk Appeal has some characteristics that are measurable and some that are immeasurable but equally important. The Walk Appeal of a place is a strong predictor of the economic health, environmental health, and public health of the place and its citizens.
The Sky Method - Just as children are not born as mature adults, great cities were never built in their mature condition at the beginning. The Sky Method allows development in many small increments over time. The ability to start small and grow large makes many things possible that would be otherwise impossible post-Meltdown. While it was originally conceived as an ultra-lean method of developing new places, it works equally well with a starting point of either existing sprawl or existing traditional neighborhoods.
Strong Towns
The mission of Strong Towns is to support a model of development that allows America's cities, towns, and neighborhoods to become financially strong and resilient.
Why? Strong Towns is a robust movement dedicated to exposing the Ponzi scheme of sprawl and showing how traditional neighborhoods are the sustainable patterns. StrongTowns has many resources that would support various aspects of this initiative because existing traditional neighborhoods, even in a marginalized condition, perform better per acre than most new development built in the pattern of sprawl.
Point of Contact: Charles Marohn
The Original Green
The Original Green is the sustainability our ancestors knew by heart. It is essential to build sustainable places before it is meaningful to have green buildings within them. Sustainable places must be nourishable, accessible, serviceable, and securable. Sustainable buildings must first be lovable, then durable, adaptable, and frugal. Everything in the Urban Systems Solution should be built on Original Green foundations, because that’s the only proven way to keep things going in a healthy way, long into an uncertain future.
Why? This initiative is built on Original Green principles.
Point of Contact: Steve Mouzon
The Prince's Foundation for Building Community
There is arguably more sustainability good being done at The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community than any other place in Europe, if not the world. The Congress for the New Urbanism in the US is doing a similar magnitude of good, and the scope of good in both organizations is much broader than most widely publicized green initiatives. The Foundation's work puts people at the heart of creating resilient places – through community engagement and working with people who know their area best.
Why? The Foundation’s website contains a wealth of resources, links, and stories useful to this initiative.
The Project for Lean Urbanism
The Project for Lean Urbanism is run through the Center for Applied Transect Studies, and has the support of the Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Congress for the New Urbanism. It was founded by Andrés Duany, co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and Hank Dittmar, former CEO of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community. A number of white papers have been written, and the project is now moving into the second phase where “pink zones” (places where the red tape is lightened) are established in communities across the country to foster pilot projects in a variety of settings.
Why? Lean Urbanism is a candidate for the operating system for this initiative.
Urban3
Infrastructure is a huge investment we’ve been getting totally wrong for decades, according to Urban3. It turns out that in almost every case, traditional urbanism, even in its most dilapidated condition, performs substantially if not shockingly better than big new projects when measured on tax revenue per acre, not per project. Armed with what Urban3’s Joe Minicozzi shows about how we value our cities, a municipality would make very different choices in favor of restoring run-down neighborhoods.
Why?
Point of Contact: