Alliance for sustainable communities (asc)

Annapolis, Maryland

Contact: Anne Pearson, Director; Alliance for Sustainable Communities; 5103 N. Crain Highway; Bowie, MD 20715; Tel.: (410) 741-0125; Fax: (same)

Scope: City/county

Inception Date: 1993

Participants: Residents, city, county and state officials, grassroots organizations, businesses, civic associations

Project Type: Comprehensive community development, public education, local business development

Methods Used: Public education, workshops, demonstration programs, ecologically-based planning, microenterprise development, and media coverage

Lessons Learned: Value of building creative partnerships with government. Importance of learning about innovative approaches that are working. Effectiveness of making the broader perspective specific. 

Background

The Annapolis Alliance for Sustainable Communities was formed to "provide a livable future for the diverse residents, businesses, workforce, and visitors in the Greater Annapolis area, based on its extraordinary environment and historical importance." 

Inspired by the innovative work taking place around the country and her work to develop a local public television series on sustainability, Anne Pearson founded the Alliance and, with the encouragement of colleagues like Richard Crenshaw, co-author of Sustainable Cities, began to build a foundation of support for this project in 1993. She established connections among organizations representing all facets of the community to start projects guided by sustainability principles. Residents of Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, concurred that the time was right. They were seeking leadership toward bold new approaches. 

Since its inception two years ago, this effort has attracted the participation and support of residents, public officials, small business enterprises, educators, housing activists, and many more. The Annapolis Alliance draws on the expertise of a wide range of local citizens to carry out its work and is supported by grants from foundations, public agencies and local civic groups. A significant number of advisors and citizen activists from academia, public agencies, private firms, and nonprofit organizations have volunteered time and expertise. Over the past two years the Alliance has focused on two major activities: citizen summits and a number of specific community projects. 

Bringing the community together

Recognizing the important contribution that citizens can make to chart their own future, the Alliance planned a series of well-attended public meetings beginning in October 1994. The first, Toward a Community Vision, evoked a vision of what the community could become, what obstacles needed to be overcome, and what activities could be pursued; the second, Sacred Places, drew on the collective knowledge of local citizens who expressed their connections to what they valued and wanted to preserve and created a map as a means for steering the City/County Comprehensive Review; the third, Can the Creeks Run Clear?, was dedicated to public education and solutions for improving the quality of local waterways and to develop a set of watershed-based principles for development which led to the development of citizen-based watershed surveys during the Comprehensive Review. The fourth summit, Solutions from the Ground Up, scheduled for the fall of 1995, will focus on bringing citizens, businesses and government together to develop practical approaches to ecologically-sound planning and to explore ways to finance community-based solutions that are economically viable. 

The Annapolis Summits blend vision, inspiration and pragmatism and have attracted a wide range of speakers and of people with diverse interests from six counties and the cities of Baltimore and Washington. They provide an effective forum for citizens to contribute ideas and solutions, building support for innovative approaches, and orchestrating citizen involvement with local planning and development. Inquiries have come from five states and two municipalities are planning summits patterned after those in Annapolis.

Although it is premature to identify substantial change as a result of this process, the overwhelming response from citizens and public officials alike has been very productive. These summits have provided a forum to strengthen intangible connections, such as common "sense of place", and reinforce citizens' knowledge of and commitment to bringing about change, for example, to make local transportation planning more resource efficient and pedestrian friendly. The Summits have brought out the importance of addressing the needs of one of the low-income neighborhoods in Annapolis, Clay Street, by facilitating the efforts of residents who want to mobilize their community. 

Clay Street community projects

Green Gardens project

"It's not where you live, but how you live," commented Bertina Nick, a local community activist and employee of an affordable housing company which donated land on Clay Street, in the heart of Annapolis, for the organic gardening pilot project. Sponsored by the Alliance and the UJIMA Clay Street Planning Action Committee, it is staffed by two full-time gardeners and volunteers of different ages, some of them neighborhood children.

The impetus for this project grew out of one of the goals of the Alliance: facilitating empowerment of local citizens through hands-on, experiential programs. The Green Gardens Project combines training and skills building, planning and organizing, and the experience of collaboration. Ultimately, the project aims to address several dimensions of sustainability: ecology, economics, and social equity. Already their work has helped to regenerate the soil, stimulate ecological diversity, prevent runoff, and inspire neighbors to adopt similar approaches. It is anticipated that some of the produce and flowers will be sold to local restaurants or at farmers markets in the county. Ongoing creation of skills and jobs is being encouraged through gardening and the development of a related landscaping and other businesses stimulated in partnership with a new organization, the Business Ecology Network (BEN).

The Business Ecology Network, a nonprofit organization supporting the use of business ecology, an innovative approach to planning and development, has been working with Clay Street citizens and businesses within Annapolis and surrounding county to support exchanges such as that of food, energy, materials, water, money and information. One such example of ecologically-based development is the use of spent grain from the Fordham Microbrewery (Ramshead Tavern) for livestock feed for goats and cows at the nearby organic West River Farm. In turn, the cow and goat cheese produced at the farm is being sold back to the tavern.

In another collaborative project Clay Street residents are working with Reasoning, Inc., a local nonprofit, to survey community skills using the process outlined in the guide, Building Communities from the Inside Out, authored by John Kretzmann and John McKnight, which is designed to help community members rebuild their communities. They are also exploring the possibility of using an alternative economic system called Time Dollars to bank and exchange volunteer service hours. 

College Creek cleanup

Adjacent to the public housing in the community are the headwaters of College Creek, one of the least-impacted waterways in the area. Working with the Maryland Youth Corps, the Anne Arundel Community College, the Public Works Department, and the Department of Natural Resources, residents are working with the Alliance to develop a wide-ranging citizen education and action program to restore urban ecology, create innovative methods to prevent pollution, and monitor progress in containing effluent. Other projects include a habitat survey and water testing project. 

Resource conservation

The Alliance has also initiated a number of other on-going projects which include:

• • • A long-term community wide plan for a tree canopy that will not only contribute to energy reduction but also serve to re-introduce native species.

• • • The designation of Annapolis as an energy efficiency showcase city.

• • • The successful coordination of a collaborative effort to assure passage of a number of amendments to the county's solid waste plan that focus on waste reduction. 

Comprehensive land use planning and zoning 

A number of counties in Maryland are reviewing their long-term land use plans, among them, Anne Arundel, where Annapolis is located. Recently a series of public hearings were held by the planning department to solicit citizen "visions" of the future, yet no clear mechanism exists to integrate these into the planning process. The Alliance is proposing using the Sacred Places map created by citizens at its second summit as well as watershed surveys to help guide what should be preserved, how land is zoned, and to develop a framework for planners to assess proposed development around the state.

This effort is focused on systemic change — drawing on local knowledge and ties to valued physical sites in the area to guide land use preservation and planning. 

Challenges

Institutionally, the most immediate need is for more funding. Although the Alliance has been successful in securing funds from diverse sources, both public and private, and at leveraging other resources, its budget is lean, and it depends heavily on donated time to plan and oversee its projects.

Another challenge is more fundamental: changing traditional planning processes at the neighborhood, town and county levels into a more integrated, inclusive, long-term framework. Developing new working relationships, facilitating practical solutions, and creating whole systems thinking demands creativity and commitment. Alliance members are modeling new approaches to help residents and professionals alike learn from each other and collaborate in areas of mutual interest for the benefit of the larger community.

Greenworks

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Contact: John O'Connor; Greenworks; 160 Second Street; Cambridge, MA 02142-1502; Tel.: (617) 876-6828; Fax: (617) 876-6903

Scope: Cambridge

Inception Date: 1994

Participants: Start-up businesses, non-profit organizations and Cambridge residents

Project Type: Restoration/cleanup, redevelopment, business incubators

Methods Used: Brownfield redevelopment, business development, organizational support

Lessons Learned: Sharing resources helps new businesses and non-profit organizations survive. 

The Greenworks facility is a set of three adjoining buildings, totaling 30,000 square feet, in the community of East Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston. An adaptive reuse of a former contaminated rubber manufacturing facility, the buildings were rehabilitated to provide low-cost space and support for businesses and non-profit organizations that work on social change issues in the fields of employment and/or the environment.

Reclaiming a Contaminated Building

East Cambridge, like many older communities in New England, was once a neighborhood with light industry and residential streets in close proximity. East Cambridge residents worked in neighborhood factories. Now, much of the industry has moved to suburbs, other parts of the country, and even overseas, leaving a legacy of contaminated buildings. 

The Greenworks buildings were formerly a rubber manufacturing plant and warehouse. When the company moved to the suburbs in 1993, the buildings were contaminated with asbestos, lead paint and a leaking fuel oil tank. Before anyone could re-occupy the space, a great deal of remediation was needed. 

The construction and start-up costs for the facility were financed by a $2 million bank loan. Greenworks' founder, John O'Connor, also raised funds to back the loan from other Cambridge residents. O'Connor recalls: "with so many advances in environmental technology, it seemed that we should be able to turn that development into what people need as much as they need environmental protection—environmental jobs." The Greenworks building has been designed to give a home to those entrepreneurs and non-profits that are working towards that objective.

Incubating Small Businesses and Organizations

The failure rate of both small businesses and nonprofit organizations is high. Yet these businesses and organizations provide much needed services to the community. Greenworks was started to help non-profits and small businesses working for sustainable development improve their chances of survival. Reduced rents, flexible leases and sharing the cost of major office equipment such as copy and fax machines have helped Greenworks tenants keep their fixed costs low.

Energy and Water Conservation

Boston has the highest water and sewer rates in the country as well as high electricity costs. These utility costs can be a significant burden to new businesses and small non-profits. By implementing energy- and water-saving technologies, Greenworks is able to save its tenants substantial amounts of money while minimizing waste and depletion of natural resources. 

Conservation devices currently include low flow toilets and sinks, and a system to catch rainwater on the roof. A solar powered research station being constructed on the roof will be used by one of the incubator businesses to evaluate photovoltaic panels from different manufacturers. Electricity from the research station also will be provided to building tenants to help defray utility costs.

Businesses That are Environmentally Sound

The Greenworks facility houses five small businesses that are creating jobs through the development of environmental technologies. Tank Protectors produces an electro-chemical device that prevents underground storage tanks from leaking. The company, which employs four people, recently went to market and has already sold over 10,000 of these devices, primarily for use in residential fuel oil storage tanks. Tank Protectors may soon be ready to move from the incubator to make room for another start-up company. Lead Solutions is a company that produces in-home lead detection kits with a guide to preventing lead poisoning. Atlantic Biosurvey Laboratories breeds fathead minnows used to conduct effluent testing and performs bioassays. The Solar Jobs Company produces off-grid solar technology lighting systems. Solar Jobs is currently developing a less polluting system for etching photovoltaic solar cells. Armenian Crafts USA distributes crafts made of renewable wood resources throughout the United States; this company employs two people in Cambridge and provides a livelihood for hundreds of woodcarvers in Armenia.

Organizations Working Towards Sustainability

Greenworks also houses a range of nonprofit organizations who share space, equipment and ideas. The Armenia Tree Project raises funds and support for reforestation efforts in Armenia that provide food, fuel, wood, environmental benefits, and opportunities for economic growth. As of October 1995, the Armenia Tree Project has planted over 100,000 5-foot tall fruit and hardwood saplings in Armenia. The project works collaboratively with one of the incubator businesses, Armenian Crafts USA.

The Citizens Environmental Laboratory is a nonprofit testing laboratory that offers water, air and soil testing and sample analysis to community groups and individuals. The Lab also provides technical assistance to environmental businesses, including those in the Greenworks facility, in their product testing and development.

Another Greenworks tenant is the Native Ecology Initiative: an organization that provides legal and other technical assistance to Native nations and peoples regarding ecology, sovereignty and justice. Massachusetts Citizen Action, an affiliate member of a national consumer and environmental advocacy group, focuses its work on pesticide bans and health care reform. Massachusetts Jobs with Justice is a coalition of unions and other workers' rights organizations that seeks to improve conditions in the work environment; the Jobs With Justice New Priorities Committee is pursuing sustainable development opportunities in the local area.

The Good Neighbor Project for Sustainable Development provides technical assistance to community groups that are working to lessen toxic pollution from factories in or near their communities through voluntary "good neighbor" agreements with companies. The Jobs and Environment Campaign is a nonprofit that works to create jobs "that are good for people and the environment." The organization provides technical assistance, leadership training, policy research, and organizational development services to groups and individuals working for sustainable development.

Sustaining Each Other

A commitment to economic, environmental and social justice may take different forms, but it is the common thread among the businesses and organizations located at Greenworks. Weekly, informal "lunches" in the shared conference room promote the interchange of ideas and methods that each organization employs. Bulletin boards further enable the exchange of information.

John Williams, the Technical Director of Atlantic Biosurvey Laboratories, comments: "Tenants here at Greenworks seem to have a camaraderie that helps each individual company and organization succeed. If you are having difficulties, you can talk to someone without paying huge consulting fees. People at Greenworks all want everyone to succeed because the stronger we are, the stronger the social and environmental change movements are. I have never experienced this anywhere else and I like to know that there is a place for companies like mine that try to protect the environment and be socially responsible."

Self-Sustainability

In large part, volunteers have been the core of the Greenworks facility's success. An advisory panel of business experts have donated their time to assisting the entrepreneurs in the building. A technical working group of engineers and scientists also contribute their knowledge to the start up companies. 

The incubator businesses and nonprofit organizations in the Greenworks facility occupy approximately half of the available space. Commercial tenants such as an electrical contractor have been recruited to occupy the remaining areas; they pay market-rate rent and building related fees that will continue to subsidize the non-profits and developing "green" businesses. As the small businesses expand and begin to generate profit, they too will become part of the financing mechanism of Greenworks.

Urban resources initiative

Detroit, Michigan

Contact: Kerry E. Vachta; Urban resources 

Initiative; Department of Forestry; Michigan State University; 126 Natural Resources Building; 

East Lansing, MI 48824; Tel.: (517) 353-5103; Fax: (517) 432-1143

Scope: Local/neighborhoods, urban

Inception Date: 1991

Participants: Citizens, neighborhood "Block Clubs," university program and Extension offices

Project Type: Redevelopment, urban forestry, economic development

Methods Used: Presentations to neighborhood associations, meetings with interested communities, needs assessment of area, community design of project, donated plantings and materials from URI, maintenance of project by community with assistance of available resources through Michigan State University extension offices and local citizenry organizations, one year evaluation of project

Lessons Learned: Projects require active, on-going community participation and dedication to develop community ownership and empowerment over the long-term.

Background

Between 1965 and 1990, Detroit experienced a population decline of 600,000 people. This led to a large number of vacant homes in the city. The problem became so severe that in 1989 the city instituted a widespread demolition program to remove the "dangerous and abandoned" buildings. Consequently, Detroit lost 60,385 housing units leaving 65,000 vacant lots in the city (Detroit Free Press, 1989). The vacant lots, often used as illegal trash and waste dumps, led many Detroit neighborhood groups to identify the vacant lots in their area as among the top problems in their communities. 

But the vacant lots also present an opportunity for Detroit communities. Through the Michigan State Universitys Urban Resources Initiative (URI), Detroit communities have begun to reclaim vacant land and use it for forestry projects that offer economic, social and environmental benefits. 

The Urban Resources Initiative, a program of the Department of Forestry, is a community forestry program that operates using a bottom-up approach to address community needs. The program is funded by the Kellogg Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Forest Service. Its funding will carry through September of 1996, at which time URI will close operations. The impermanence of the organization is borne out of the organizations primary objective that it provide resources for community sustainability by emphasizing community participation, ownership and responsibility of the projects.

Community Involvement

The Urban Resources Initiative and participating communities have designed a wide range of projects based upon the economic and social needs and resources within the community. When a community is interested in starting its own project, it requests technical assistance from URI staff. Once the community decides to embark on a project, it conducts an in-depth needs assessment. The needs assessment identifies all of the goals, concerns, limitations, and resources of the community. Everything from one residents expertise in landscaping to the availability of another residents lawn mower are accounted for. Relying upon the talents and knowledge that already exist within the community is key to creating community ownership and empowerment. The community must decide upon the focus of the project and who it wants to be involved in the project, whether the project will have a focus on youth and/or seniors, and whether the project with have an economic benefit to the community. 

URIs involvement in the project is determined by how much technical assistance the community members feel they need. Assistance usually includes providing a list of possibilities from which the community will make the final decision (e.g.. the types of projects that could achieve the goals of the community or the appropriate tree species for a specific project). At the heart of the project is active community participation and decision making. 

Benefits of Reclamation

Many community groups have a small core of people who do most of the work. While it can be difficult getting younger residents to participate in their activities, teens and young adults often contribute to the tree-planting projects. Since the projects require regular maintenance, they provide participants with a constant reminder of the contribution they are making to the community. Those involved usually remain dedicated over the long-term and eventually become active in other community activities. 

The projects are mostly in very low income neighborhoods and, while the forestry projects may be small, they can provide a source of seed money for future community projects. Some possibilities include planting community orchards, community tree nurseries, and Christmas tree and timber lots. Because the projects are only 3-4 years old, they have not yet reached a point of economic maturity—where trees can be harvested or orchards will bear fruit. Planting trees in urban settings helps reduce air pollution, increases shade and decrease the temperature in the surrounding areas in the summer. They also attract birds and butterflies and other desirable wildlife. The reclamation of vacant lots is working to prevent the illegal dumping of chemicals and construction debris as well as provide safe places for children and community members to congregate. Through the Urban Resources Initiative, vacant lots that were once viewed as dirty or dangerous are now important assets to the communities.

Sampling of Projects

Prairie Street

The first URI/neighborhood project was planted by the Prairie Street Block Club. This project includes nitrogen fixing shrubs that are enriching the soil for future community garden projects, shade trees under which the Block Club has been meeting in warm weather, fruit trees to educate the neighborhood children about how fruit grows, and a natural fence blocking illegal dumping from the alley. 

Appoline Street

Appoline Block Club members have worked together in a community garden for the past several years. Block Club president, Alice Dye, works with the children of the neighborhood, teaching them about plants and ecology while working in the garden. The children have a vegetable stand where they sell their produce to their parents for a nominal fee and utilize the profits for other community projects or common benefits such as a summer picnic. To lessen the use of pesticides and chemical inputs, the Appoline Club surrounded the community garden with nitrogen fixing shrubs and will be working with the Wayne County Cooperative Extensions 4-H urban gardening program to acquire further skills and information on organic gardening. 

Burnett Street

The Burnett street group was most concerned about a large vacant area that covered nearly the entire northeast third of their block. The vacant area was the result of a large fire that destroyed seven homes. After the fire, the lot became overgrown with weeds and grasses and was often the site of drug sales and other illegal activity, according to the block residents. 

To increase the safety of the area as well as provide a "nature path" for potential environmental education programs, the community built a woodchip path lined by 90 trees of species used by the Michigan timber and paper industries. The group may later choose to harvest some of the trees for sale as firewood or timber. 

St. Marys Street 

The St. Marys Street block club originally developed a highly innovative project integrating a community nursery and Christmas tree plantation with an agroforestry garden aimed at enticing adults to the site to supervise the children playing in the remaining open area. Unfortunately, due to difficulties, the Christmas tree lot and agroforestry garden had to be abandoned. After re-evaluation, the community has decided to continue developing the community nursery. The trees from the nursery will be "adopted" by the residents throughout the community for slightly more than the cost of replacement, thereby ensuring the financial sustainability of the project and additional funding for other community projects. The group will plant a hedge along the back of the lot to impede illegal dumping from the alley and turn the remaining area into a community gathering site. The group hopes to build a barbecue pit and acquire benches, to appeal to adult residents, and leave more open area for the children to use as a playground. 

Making it Work—Meeting the Challenges

URI staff realizes that for communities to feel ownership of and responsibility for a project, there needs to be active, on-going participation. URI never enters a community uninvited. All projects are initiated by the residents themselves. One project that did not gain widespread community support eventually fell apart. 

Making sure the projects are compatible with the community's needs and resources has been very important. For instance, an older population may be able to maintain a fruit orchard more easily than a Christmas tree lot. Providing communities with additional technical assistance resources, such as university departments specializing in horticulture, has been key to the continued maintenance of projects. 

Another challenge in the past was wide-spread planting of highly invasive tree species. Educating residents about appropriate tree species has been an important aspect of URIs involvement

Resources for Future Urban Forestry

Despite the challenges, URI has completed 7 projects within four years and foresees 3 more within its last year. At the time of closure, URI will have available a number of manuals for Detroit communities and for organizations in other cities wishing to start similar initiatives. 

The Community Resources Manual includes general information on care and treatment of trees as well as a technical assistance guide with about 75 references for sources that can provide more extensive expertise on the care and maintenance of the plots. The manual also contains descriptions of the trees that have been planted in projects, the different ecological needs of those trees, and the benefits of each species to the community. URI is also developing smaller manuals on specific types of projects such as Christmas tree lots or fruit orchards.

A second publication, Building Communities-Forestry Partnerships is written for organizations that want to start a similar initiative within their own city. It contains project descriptions, extensive sources of funding for projects, community organizing hints and tips on developing similar projects. Also included is a list of tree species and sections that may be reproduced for community group organizing. This manual will soon be published by the Government printing office. 

The green institute

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Contact: George Garnett, Executive Director; Annie Young, Associate Director; The GREEN Institute; 1433 E. Franklin Avenue, Suite 7A; Minneapolis, MN 55404; Tel.: (612) 874-1148; Fax: (612) 870-0327

Scope: Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis

Inception Date: 1992

Participants: Neighborhood residents, community organizers/activists

Project Type: Community economic development, environmental justice/equity, citizen-led initiative

Methods Used: Community education, community planning, eco-industrial park, business incubator, re-use of construction materials

Lessons Learned: It takes a lot of time and patience to make a project like this work. The more people that are involved, the bigger the dream will become.

The GREEN Institute is the name of an organization and the building the organization is creating on a site in the Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis that was previously intended to be a waste transfer plant. The mission of The GREEN Institute is "to create community-based models to protect and nurture the natural and urban environment through education and sustainable economic development." The Institute plans to eventually create 200 - 300 jobs through the following projects:

• • • A Materials Exchange and ReUse Center retail store. The Center is slated to open in October 1995.

• • • An eco-industrial park that includes a business incubator for 15-20 enterprises that pioneer new environmentally sound technologies and products. There are currently 10 prospective tenants for the incubator. 

• • • A think tank that develops ideas for new enterprises. Some potential projects are a community window factory and a garden and lawn center.

• • • An urban environmental education and job training center that will promote understanding of the urban environment and industrial and community ecology.

• • • Office space for non-profit environmental advocacy groups.

• • • Landscaping and garden demonstration areas throughout the complex.

Construction on The GREEN Institute building, which will house the incubator, think tank, education and job training center and office space, is scheduled to begin in 1996. It will be built using salvageable and reused materials and will incorporate features that minimize energy consumption and waste generation. Three people currently work at the Institute and eight work at the ReUse Center.

The GREEN Institute site is one mile from downtown Minneapolis, in the southeast corner of the Phillips neighborhood, Minnesota's poorest and most ethnically diverse neighborhood. This location was the site of a 12-year struggle between the city and the county and neighborhood residents who defeated plans to build a large county garbage transfer station in their community. 

Turning a Negative Into a Positive

The struggle over the transfer station began in 1981. In 1992, the activists fighting the transfer station met with a professor from University of California Riverside. Annie Young, the founder of The GREEN Institute, recalls that "When we said we were tired, she asked what will you all do when you win this struggle; what' s your plan for the land? She went on to say that you have to turn a negative into a positive. That generated the dream and is one of the driving forces of this project. We are taking a negative and turning it into a positive."

Young, a long-time community organizer from the Phillips Neighborhood, later had a dream of a sustainable vision for the site with windmills, trees and wildlife surrounding a building with solar panels. She shared this vision with the rest of the group who liked it and helped turn it into a concept on paper which eventually became The GREEN Institute. During the end of 1992 and all of 1993 Annie Young and others worked to plan The GREEN Institute.

Money for The GREEN Institute has and will come from a variety of sources. The Institute hired a capital fundraising company to help start a capital campaign for the industrial park building. The GREEN Institute received $415,000 in Early Access funds as part of a larger amount allocated to the People of Phillips organization by the City of Minneapolis' Neighborhood Revitalization Program. Some future funding for The GREEN Institute will be received in 1996 from the same program. The Institute has received approximately $280,000 from a federal Enterprise Community (EC) grant. Profit-generating centers, including the ReUse Center are being developed to support the Institute's non-profit work such as the planned education center.

ReUse Center

When the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted not to build the transfer station they did keep funding for one component: a building materials exchange and reuse center. The County Board gave The GREEN Institute $30,000 in 1993 to do a feasibility study for the Center and followed that the next year with a $100,000 grant to set up and open the ReUse Center.

The ReUse Center is stocking doors, windows, sinks and many other reusable piece from dissected buildings, which will be sold to low income people and environmentally conscious builders. Rising refuse disposal costs, the development of an environmental ethic encouraging reuse of materials, and the need for affordable construction and remodeling materials in a low-income community make the ReUse Center a viable concept, according to George Garnett, The GREEN Institute's executive director. The store hopes to stimulate additional enterprises in the area; for example, there might be crews of people who contract to salvage the guts of houses scheduled for demolition. 

The ReUse Center will be opening in a 26,000 square-foot space in the Hi-Lake Shopping Center, across the street from the eco-industrial park site. Recently, the McKnight Foundation awarded the ReUse Center a $150,000 grant. The ReUse Center also is getting $250,000 from a federal Enterprise Community (EC) grant for rehabilitation of its building.

Eco-Village

Another project of The GREEN Institute is the Eco-Village which aims to revitalize the Phillips Neighborhood by working with residents to create a community that is sustainable both environmentally and economically. The project is not designed to require substantial capital investment, but rather to emphasize the improvement of local systems in order to create incentives and reshape the traditional patterns of consumption, development and employment into more efficient and sustainable patterns. In the Eco-Village, there will be an emphasis on energy efficiency, stressing passive solar heating and cooling, encouraging local food production, and reliance on local resources; and fostering creation of on-site jobs and neighborhood stores to revitalize communities and eliminate commuting.

The Eco-Village will be aided by a revolving loan fund. The District 4 neighborhood group will set specific design guidelines for all new construction and rehabilitation. The fund will finance changes in existing structures made by homeowners or landlords. These loans will be made in stages. The early stages will be for simpler conservation changes like getting every house to full insulation, retrofitting windows, and installing low-flow toilets. Later stages will be for homeowners or landlords who want to generate their own electricity through photovoltaic cells or wind generators. 

Environmental Design Charrette

The GREEN Institute will participate in an environmental design charrette (EDC) to involve the community and youth in the planning and design of the Institute. The charrette is one of 19 organized nationwide by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment and will take place on October 6-8, 1995. EDCs are intensive short-term workshops that are part of a longer, multi-disciplinary project study. According to the AIA, EDCs will educate citizen groups and make resources accessible to them; foster linkages among the community, professionals and the government; and accelerate the economic, environmental and energy benefits that can be realized through the adoption of sustainable development principles and practices. At the charrette, they will start by sharing information: maps, dreams, and slides of the neighborhood. Work teams will then be formed with community members and design professionals. 

Education/community involvement

The GREEN Institute is committed to educating the community about sustainability. "We are doing education now," says Annie Young, "People call us all the time and we go speak about the project. We are starting a workshop series in the fall on sustainability. We also see this as an eco-tourist site—we are building the design so that it can be an education center. One of our big commitments is to transfer our information." This includes publishing The GREEN Institute's quarterly newsletter, Green News & Views.

One of the key elements in the success of The GREEN Institute has been the involvement and support of the Phillips Neighborhood. Annie Young is using her organizing skills to educate the community. "I have been out hitting the pavement and talking to people," says Young, "Once the neighborhood bought into it, it was a lot more successful. Building community is about many many people being involved. When you're building a community it has to be a bigger picture." 

Young says that the biggest barrier to the project's success has been government bureaucracy, "Government never makes things easy for people. Our local politicians have not necessarily been as cooperative as other branches of government." However, this has been compensated for by support from other areas, "We are getting help from a lot of resources that we never expected. You have to reach out to a broader community, everybody wants to help; the reuse center has gotten an incredible amount of in kind donations."

The GREEN Institute is committed to changing the quality of life for Phillips Neighborhood residents. "Inner-city neighborhoods don't have to erode into slums, and they don't have to be gentrified," says Annie Young, "They can be restored and maintained for their original mission: as healthy environments for people of diverse means to live, work and grow together." 

Southern echo

Jackson, Mississippi

Contact: Leroy Johnson, Co-Director; P.O. Box 10433; Jackson, MS 39289; Tel.: (601) 352-1500; Fax: (601) 352-2266 

Scope: Statewide;

Inception Date: 1989

Participants: Mississippi residents

Project Type: Leadership development/training, environmental justice/equity, comprehensive community development

Methods Used: Intergenerational leadership development, community organizing

Lessons Learned: Leadership training helps people understand their own power. It takes time to overcome barriers and develop communities from the bottom up.

Southern Echo is a leadership development, education and training organization working to develop grassroots leadership across Mississippi and the Southern region. Southern Echo's primary objective is "to make the political, economic, environmental and education systems accountable to the needs and interests of the African-American community" by developing strong community organizations that address these four areas.

Training and technical assistance

In its five years of existence, Southern Echo has designed and conducted 16 residential training schools, more than 125 workshops and more than 650 community meetings for people from across Mississippi and the South. The staff have produced 15 training manuals on community organizing; non-profit organizational and board development; legislative, county and municipal redistricting; environmental racism; and creating a quality education system.

Environmental safety zones

Southern Echo is working with people across the state to identify and create environmental safety zones, where limits will be placed on the use of agricultural chemicals and other environmental hazards. Many community people believe the misuse of agricultural chemicals and the spraying of fields surrounding churches, schools and homes is a primary cause of the high incidence of cancer, disease and developmental disabilities in poor and African-American communities. Forty young people from seven Delta counties attended a recent training conference to learn more about environmental degradation and how to build support for the environmental safety zone concept.

In September 1995, Southern Echo will hold its third residential school on fighting environmental racism. The three-day program will be attended by young people, public officials and community activists from around the region. The curriculum helps people understand the hazards of agricultural chemicals and other pollutants, the ways that these substances move through an ecosystem, and how local zoning policies can be used to protect the community. Participants learn through hands-on activities that "there are difficult issues to balance when doing a zoning plan, but that they have the capacity to understand the issues and develop policies that are responsive to the needs of the environment and the community."

Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities

Since its beginning, Southern Echo has worked with small farmers, who cannot compete effectively against large plantations, to help them move toward diversification through alternative crops produced by organic and sustainable agriculture practices. Southern Echo has also participated in the region-wide economic justice network. More recently, Southern Echo's members have pushed the organization into new areas of economic development.

Southern Echo is currently working with a federally designated Empowerment Zone (EZ) and three different Enterprise Communities (EC) covering a total of 15 counties in the Mississippi Delta to plan economic development "from the bottom up." Southern Echo is helping to design the process of bringing the communities together over the next 6 months. One goal is to assess what resources are available in the different counties, and what "homegrown" businesses and cottage industries can be developed from within based on available skills. Another goal is to develop value added industries, such as sawmills to process the lumber from Mississippi tree farms. Southern Echo is also hosting meetings of workers and injured workers from the many catfish and poultry plants in the region to plan ways to improve the work environment in the industry.

Intergenerational model

The organization places a special emphasis on the inclusion of young people on an equal basis as adults. Young people are represented on Southern Echo's board, participate in projects with adults and elders, and run their own youth-led projects. Youth are involved in the entire organizational process, not only doing the work but defining what work should be done and critically evaluating the results. 

This intergenerational model is at the heart of Southern Echo's work and flows from the experiences of the organization's founders. Co-Director Leroy Johnson recalls first meeting Southern Echo's President, Hollis Watkins, in 1963. Johnson, then 5 years old, was brought by his father to a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee meeting in Holmes County at which Watkins, then 21 years old, was speaking. "The intergenerational process ties communities together, as generations learn about each other and we recreate ourselves. How do we continue that process? Those linkages remain a vital part of the ongoing struggle for justice."

History

Southern Echo began in 1989 when the three founders, who were working for different organizations, realized that communities were constantly bringing them together to provide training. Hollis Watkins came from the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Mike Sayer from the Center for Constitutional Rights' Voters Rights Project in Greenville, and Leroy Johnson from the Rural Organizing and Cultural Center in Lexington. The organization's board is composed of Mississippi residents who are active in their communities. Southern Echo depended heavily on volunteers and in-kind donations from the community, such as meeting rooms and office space. Only in 1993, after establishing a solid track record, did Southern Echo finally acquire grant money to open its own office. Southern Echo's budget this year is $250,000.

Obtaining resources and fighting racism

Obtaining enough resources to do the level of work requested has been a major challenge. Johnson notes, "The more successful you are, the more you get pulled to do. Meanwhile, funders think non-profits should be able to take $100,000 and hire twenty people. We're expected to do more with less than other folks do with plenty." The organization has forged partnerships with a number of foundations as "allies." The current goal is to develop more broad-based financial support, focusing on operational support rather than project-driven grants, through an extensive membership drive in grassroots communities in Mississippi.

Another major barrier the organization faces is racism. Southern Echo works in collaborations as widely as possible, but there are limits to how much the organization can broaden its base in Mississippi. Johnson states: "We need to stop viewing racism as a barrier that can never be breached. The reality is that we can. But it takes hard work, being creative, and being honest. Truth is absolutely necessary." In the meantime, the organization focuses on building political power to dismantle historical and institutional systems of domination and control over black communities in Mississippi.

Sometimes Southern Echo finds resistance from adults in the community to "giving up the baton" to young people. Johnson notes that "established leaders don't always want to play the role of elders, teachers, mentors and advisors while handing the spotlight to young people."

Southern Echo feels that it overcomes obstacles due to the strength of its members. "Once the human spirit is activated in people, once you give them the tools and the strength to move forward, you can overcome the obstacles and problems." An example is Tallahatchie County, where recent struggles to obtain potable water and fair election districts for black communities mobilized people to such an extent that additional changes have been made: the election of the first black county supervisors; new, affordable low-income housing; a bond issue to create and expand industries with higher-paying jobs; and two new public parks to which the black community will have access for the first time in the county's history.

Farm-to-city marketing project - patchwork family farms

Columbia, Missouri

Contact: Rhonda Perry, Program Director; Missouri Rural Crisis Center; 710 Rangeline Street; Columbia, MO 65201; Tel.: (314) 449-1336; 

Fax: (314) 442-5716 

Scope: Statewide

Inception Date: 1992

Participants: Rural family farmers, urban community residents.

Project Type: Cooperative marketing, community economic development, sustainable agriculture

Methods Used: Certification of the "Patchwork Family Farms" product label; marketing to targeted urban and rural groups 

Lessons Learned: Good planning is critical. Participants have to be committed to the long term and to learning new ways. Federal agriculture policy poses barriers to small farmers.

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project uses a brand label, natural farming, marketing to targeted urban and rural groups, and cooperative arrangements to help family farmers remain viable and support inner-city economic development. The project's goals are to provide sustainable economic development for family farmers, give an alternative to corporate control of all levels of food production, improve the quality of the food supply, and save the environment for future food production. 

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project is a response to the proliferation of corporate hog farming. The concentration of livestock and vertical integration of the industry in Missouri flooded the market with hogs, displaced family farmers and small processors, and contaminated groundwater. The Project was created by the Alternative Economic Development Committee of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. The Committee's members are current or former hog farmers, vegetable farmers, and an employee of the US Department of Agriculture in St. Louis who is an organizer of the government employees' union.

The "Patchwork Family Farms" label

This Committee developed and gained USDA approval for the "Patchwork Family Farm Products" label. The label tells consumers that the product was raised by local producers who follow strict standards of sustainable agriculture such as no growth hormones or antibiotic feed, integrated pest management, environmentally-friendly methods of fertilization, crop rotation and minimum tillage. The lower concentration of livestock than that found in corporate feeding operations leads to less local groundwater contamination from manure. 

The name "Patchwork" was chosen because the project brings together diverse groups, linking rural family farmers with low-income, urban communities of color to develop regional channels of processing, transportation and distribution. This will provide healthful food at prices that are fair to both producer and consumer and create jobs in both rural and urban communities. Patchwork products (currently pork and vegetables in season) have been marketed through churches in Kansas City and community groups in St. Louis. For example, the Project established a marketing program with the St. Louis Women's Support Group, an African-American organization that will sell meat through community groups. Direct marketing is also being done through six rural cooperatives with approximately 700 member families.

Elements of success

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project assists family farmers to survive in their business and on their land. The Project provides an economic base for rural businesses and communities that relieves some of the employment pressure on cities. In 1994, the Project's five participating hog producers sold a total of $38,000 in meat. This was the main source of income for one of the farmers and allowed another to resume raising hogs.

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project has been supported by the other organizing and advocacy programs of its parent organization, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC). A non-profit organization formed in 1985 in response to a tripling rate of farm bankruptcies, MRCC's mission is to "preserve family farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity, and strive for economic and social justice by building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban." The organization has a membership of over 3,200 families statewide.

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project also draws on a number of non-profit and government agencies in and outside of Missouri. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives provided training and technical support for committee members in how to conduct a feasibility study, focus the marketing efforts, and ultimately set up a producers' cooperative. The Campaign for Human Development gave MRCC a grant to conduct the feasibility study. The Missouri State Department of Agriculture's Marketing Department subsidized appearances of Patchwork Family Farm Products at trade shows and provided technical assistance. The University of Missouri Agriculture Department's extension program provides technical assistance in developing new value-added products; for example, formulating jams and jellies with a stable shelf life. 

The Project Coordinator cites a number of key elements that have made the Project work. The participants took the time and effort to educate themselves about how to start a business and do the research for a feasibility study, identifying markets as concretely as possible. For example, the Committee has decided not to target grocery stores because of numerous barriers to small producers such as expensive slotting fees. Bed and breakfast inns, on the other hand, are a likely market because they are locally owned by independent operators and are more flexible in their purchasing, and because many pork products are breakfast foods.

The Farm-to-City Marketing Project builds on the knowledge of its members: "They're hog farmers already; we're not asking them to raise ostriches." At the same time, the project depends on the willingness of project participants to learn something new: "The cooperative style is contradictory to the entrepreneurial mindset; farmers had to be willing to let others have a say in how they run their farms."

A major barrier has been the weather. The heavy rains that flooded fields and the local meat processing plant (along with much of the Midwest) in the summer of 1993 prevented the Project from meeting its first year goals. In June of 1995, some fields were already flooded and many crops were not yet planted. It also takes time for farmers to achieve the production standards required under the Patchwork label—raising a hog completely without using growth hormones or antibiotic feed.

Policies posing obstacles to family farmers

Another major barrier has been federal government policies relating to credit and technical assistance that favor high-chemical input, high-yield agricultural methods and large agricultural operations. Currently, the only access to the procurement agency of the USDA for family farmers, minority-owned businesses, and family farmer-run closed cooperatives is through subcontracting with large corporations. MRCC would like to see procurement policy change to encourage purchasing from family farmers. The federal Farm Bill also supports corporate livestock feeding operations while EPA regulations that provide some protection of water quality from large confinement feeding operations are in danger of being weakened.

The Committee has identified five markets for its produce: people who were raised on and maintain ties to farms, union members, members of urban community organizations concerned with environmental or social justice, health food stores, and bed and breakfast inns. The Committee will focus on developing more extensive relationships with these groups. The plan is for the Project to become financially self-sufficient within three years. Once that goal is reached, Patchwork Family Farm Products will spin off as a an independent cooperative business.

The Committee is investigating ideas for value-added products to make from vegetables raised during the summer of 1995, such as salsa. Missouri's climate often means a very short growing season for vegetables; value-added would allow family farmers to market products all year for more consistent income. By assuming the function of further processing and packaging, farmers also will retain more of the profit in food production and create additional jobs for low-income rural and urban people. Developing cooperative processing facilities is the next priority for the project.

Beartooth front community forum (BFCF)

Red Lodge, Montana

Contact: Gary Ferguson; Beartooth Front Community Forum; P.O. Box 1490; Red Lodge, MT 59068; 

Tel: (406) 446-2388 

Scope: Town/county

Inception Date: 1992

Participants: Residents, businesses, ranchers, planners, elected officials, developers, nonprofit organizations

Project Type: Communitywide visioning, comprehensive community development, public education

Methods Used: Public forums, working committees, grantmaking, education 

Lessons Learned: Need for early, tangible successes and for ongoing communication. Time to develop trust among residents in towns and neighboring rural areas. 

Background

Red Lodge, Montana has many assets, both tangible and intangible, that make it an excellent place to live. It has a high quality of life, clean air and water, mountain views and good recreational facilities, a healthy economy, and a neighborly citizenry who value and participate fully in the life of the community. 

In recent years, however, like many small towns located near the entrances to national parks, Red Lodge has been experiencing an annual influx of thousands of tourists. Known as a "gateway community" located 70 miles north of Yellowstone National Park on the Beartooth highway, it faces the potential challenges of growth from an increase in its population. 

Residents engage in anticipatory planning

In 1992 residents concerned about the possibilities of a changed character of the town as well as concurrent impacts of development needed a forum in which to discuss alternative futures in order to channel change. They invited Luther Propst, the Executive Director of the Sonoran Institute in Tucson, Arizona, to facilitate a forum to help residents develop a vision for the future. The Sonoran Institute has conducted a number of two-day Successful Communities workshops in many towns in the West facing comparable land use and growth issues. 

The workshop was attended by roughly 160 participants, a significant attendance in this town of 2000. Key to its success was the representation of a broad cross-section of the population: ranchers, developers, business people, educators, and senior citizens. In this community planning session, participants were invited to identify what they value, what they wanted to protect, and how they wanted to do it. In the course of the workshop a shared vision was developed of what the community might become. 

They defined what they liked best about the community, identified potential threats, and then formed committees to further explore what needed to be done. Among those areas identified as needing to be preserved were the water supply and the small town atmosphere. Town needs included more recreational choices for boys and girls, comprehensive planning and a protected greenway. This exercise helped to focus the needs and to provide the energy for local problem-solving and planning.

This workshop led to the development of the Beartooth Front Community Forum, a locally-based citizens organization that is inclusive, multi-faceted, and non-partisan. Its guiding philosophy has been to bring people together and find common ground. With a current membership of around 300 volunteers, it seeks to preserve and enhance Red Lodge's quality of life.

Early successes and a long range vision

As a direct result of the workshop, several projects were defined, both short-term and long-term. Among the early undertakings and successes were the creation of a youth center, a water quality monitoring program, a master land use plan, and a new post office in the heart of town. 

Boys and Girls Club

The prompt establishment of a Boys and Girls Club to serve the younger children of the area had general support from the community and was a significant milestone. It demonstrated precisely and visibly what citizens could do for themselves. Now as many as 250 children benefit from this center which offers after-school programs and summer-long recreational activities which encourage kids to explore their own talents and interests. It is staffed by an Executive Director and housed in facilities donated by St. Agnes Church. 

Post Office

One of the most galvanizing efforts for the BFCF centered around the proposed relocation of the post office. In Montana, there is no postal delivery for towns with a population under 2500. In Red Lodge, the post office serves as a social gathering center especially for senior citizens who make up 25% of the population.

When the government proposed moving the post office outside of town, many were concerned about the social changes that would result as well as the possible loss of downtown businesses. The possible gutting of the downtown area prompted a full-fledged resistance by BFCF and other civic groups which resulted in keeping the post office downtown. 

Land Use Master Plan 

The success of the post office proved to be just the right stimulus for other local initiatives. During the twelve months following the 1992 Forum, the BFCF land use committee talked with many individuals around the country — planners, elected officials, and others in small communities who had undertaken similar planning exercises. The BFCF presented the findings to residents in a public forum and helped to raise part of the funds necessary to hire a planner. Once hired, the planner helped to guide the process. 

In the fall of 1994 the BFCF brought townspeople together to help establish priorities in the plan. In April 1995 the first draft of the Red Lodge Master Plan was presented to the public. A series of "listening posts" were planned to solicit input in May and then the second draft, which included the central business district, the entrances to the community, residential neighborhoods, open spaces, growth areas and infrastructure, was presented and adopted in June. A more expanded plan to encompass areas as a special planning district just outside the county will be discussed over the coming months. 

Water Quality Monitoring

The BFCF committee, concerned with water quality in two local creeks, the Rock Creek and West Fork, was instrumental in starting a water monitoring project under the direction of A-CRIC (the Absaroka Creeks and Rivers Information Council). Initially funded by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, this ongoing project serves to provide a baseline of information about the health of these waters. Volunteers of all ages, trained in proper testing techniques by the Canyon Ferry Limnological Institute, collect the water samples. This work is now expanding to other areas along the Beartooth Front. 

In recent months there has been a growing interest in developing an assisted care living facility for senior residents and the possibility of linking with Habitat for Humanity to increase the availability of affordable housing.

Building a support network 

Ongoing assistance from the Sonoran Institute has proved very helpful in guiding this planning process. The Institute helped sponsor a workshop on sustainable jobs and has been instrumental in linking this effort with that of the newly-formed Corporation for the Northern Rockies. The goal of the Corporation is to help bring people together to work towards collaborative problem-solving and to search for ways to meet economic needs while sustaining their environment. It has been working with BFCF on sustainable economic issues. One of the ongoing challenges the town faces is to define exactly what kind of local enterprises are in fact sustainable.

During the past few years the local media has covered the issues, not simply the controversies, but much of the consensus and successes and has been quite supportive of the work of BFCF. Other support within the town has come from local elected officials, some of whom serve on the steering committee of the Forum. 

Challenges ahead

One of the most challenging aspects of guiding change has been to keep all interested parties engaged in and directing the process. It is important that land use decisions, for example, reflect the ideas and interests of the ranchers in the nearby outlying areas who tend not to participate in the town-oriented forums and are wary of changes they consider being generated outside the community. So the organizers and volunteers are taking a measured, inclusive approach to make certain that all voices are heard and information shared. 

Another extremely important area is finding out what other communities with similar needs are doing. Small jurisdictions often do not have the local expertise nor the budget to staff planning offices or employ expensive techniques to educate residents. The BFCF has been a useful forum in which to exchange this type of information. It also publishes a newsletter to keep citizens informed of recent developments in Red Lodge. 

The Beartooth Front Community Forum has gained state-wide recognition for its ability to foster community problem-solving. This past year representatives were invited to attend a Montana Consensus Council instituted by Gov. Mark Racicot. The model of coming together, developing a vision, and then breaking up into small groups for idea generation has worked for the Forum and has helped to educate other public officials on methods that result in consensus. 

The Beartooth Front Community Forum is demonstrating how effective a democratic, inclusive, long-term process can be. Early successes, ongoing communication and a "can do" philosophy is yielding very encouraging results. 

Center for Rural Affairs Land Link Project, Rural Enterprise Assistance Project 

Walthill, Nebraska

Contacts: Marty Strange, Program Director; Center for Rural Affairs; P.O. Box 406; Walthill, NE 68067; Tel: (402) 846-5428; Fax: (402) 846-5420 

Land Link: Joy Johnson, Program Director; Rural Enterprise Assistance Project: Rose Jaspersen, Program Director; Tel./Fax: (same)

Scope: Statewide, multi-state, national

Inception Date: 1973

Participants: Farmers, ranchers, educators, civic workers, other nonprofit organizations, businesses, government agencies

Project Type: Rural community development, sustainable agriculture, economic development

Methods Used: Research, advocacy, organizing, training, leadership development, and education

Lessons Learned: Importance of taking responsibility for rural communities. Need for partnerships with individuals and communities. Effectiveness of integrative approaches and intergenerational initiatives.

"We are committed to building sustainable rural communities consistent with social and economic justice, stewardship of the natural environment, and broad distribution of wealth. We work to advance our vision of rural America through research, education, advocacy, organizing, and leadership development."

— Mission Statement

Background

The Center for Rural Affairs was founded in 1973 in Walthill, Nebraska, a town of 800 residents, to provoke dialogue about social, economic, and environmental issues affecting rural America, especially the Midwest and Plains regions. Some of the issues it addresses are the loss of farms and residents, an aging population, the need for greater diversification of rural income, and greater access to information. Here in the northeast section of the state a staff of 24 carries out an integrated, complementary set of programs dedicated to improving rural communities and their residents. It is governed by a volunteer board of diverse constituencies representing agricultural, business, education and civic interests.

Strengthening rural communities

The programs of the Center fall into two broad categories: Stewardship and Technology, which includes projects on Agriculture Policy, Beginning Farmer 

Assistance Agriculture, and Research and Technology; and Rural Economic Opportunities, which includes Family Farm Opportunities, Land Link, Nebraska Issues, and the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP). 

Much of this work is national or regional in character and concentrates on rural communities and sustainable agriculture. Marty Strange, one of the Center's founders and current Program Director, explains that it is based on the philosophy that people need to take responsibility for their lives and their communities. One of the greatest challenges they face is widespread indifference and ignorance nationwide about the characteristics and needs of rural areas. He adds that the major contributions of the Center fall into the following categories:

• • • Defining the relationship between social systems, technology and the environment focusing on agriculture and rural communities. They have worked "to develop appropriate technologies with farmers who want to become more environmentally responsible and who are socially motivated."

• • • Organizing those who believe in family farming and the environment to work for policies that have an influence on both these areas. In this regard they work directly with the leadership of other organizations.

• • • Analyzing a wide range of policies ranging from global warming to environmental health implications of farming.

• • • Developing and delivering strategic services.

The Center is funded through grants from foundations and other private sources, contributions, the sales of its publications and fee-for-service contracts. Its FY94 budget was a little over $1,000,000.

Land Link Project 

Among the most recent and effective strategic services is the Land Link program. It addresses the need to create new opportunities to keep farmers on the land by matching young people who want to farm with older land owners who have the knowledge, management skills and resources to help them. This full service operation includes a range of farm management services, a licensed realty division and a computerized clearinghouse to help put people in touch with each other. Its main contributions have been to help individuals reconnect with community, to build relationships between generations, and to increase the numbers farming sustainably. As a successful model it has influenced program replication in fifteen other states throughout the Midwest, as well as in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. It is also responsible for developing a curriculum on sustainable practices for community colleges that is now being used across the country.

Because the Land Link program has received a lot of free publicity from national television, major journals, and local and national newspapers, there has been no difficulty attracting young people. One of the services Land Link provides is to help young people decide whether farming is what they really want to do. Another is to help them with management practices particularly those who have been away from farming for awhile. On the other hand, engaging the interest of older farmers has been more challenging. Timing is key. Many do not think about future of their farm until they are ready to sell. Others lack interest in the mentoring aspect. 

Matching the long range goals of each party is important. The computerized database is one tool to identify possible matches. Hundreds of listings exist. Staff at the Center act as brokers between the landowner and the young farmer and can help negotiate an agreement that is agreeable to both. In some cases there is a 50/50 partnership; in others, a diversification of the farm; in some, immediate or phased-in sale of farms. Staff help train young people to become sustainable farmers and offer them financial guidance. One ongoing concern, however, is the reduced funding available for financing both within the public and private sectors. Lack of access to capital is helping to steer young people into sustainable farming as it requires fewer and lower inputs. 

Numerous arrangements have been worked out. One such match, profiled in the Center's 1994-95 Annual Report, describes a young family that has participated in this program. Jim and Cheryl Bose and their two children took over a farm in Bloomfield, Nebraska when they wanted to build their cattle operation but did not have enough room on their family farm. Through Land Link they were able to connect with a land owner whose farm they now manage. They also stay in touch with the Center for ongoing support and assistance. 

This process is working well. According to its Annual Report, as of the end of 1994 the Center had successfully made 169 matches that collectively cover over 125,000 acres in just four years. In addition, the Center reports that more than 1,200 other farmers with an average age of 34 are interested in seeking a match. 

The Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP)

In 1990, the Center began another exemplary program, the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project, a Grameen-bank type of micro-enterprise system, designed to increase and diversify rural income and to develop local businesses. It helps members of local business associations to secure loans and receive assistance with strategic planning, loans to get them started, and ongoing counseling to manage their businesses successfully. The Center provides all these services to community members to help them expand and diversify their income base.

This program builds on local entrepreneurial spirit, and talent to keep locally generated dollars invested locally. Since its inception, REAP has lent roughly $130,000 in loans averaging $1,500 and experienced a default rate of under two per cent. The businesses created range from bed and breakfasts, crafts, and accounting to desktop publishing, small mechanics, and catering. One participant, a life-long farm wife, is now head of the Shell Creek Small Business Association, which serves five rural communities. These associations are key to the success of this program.

One of the advantages of this program is that it encourages small communities to support business formation. REAP requires the formation of small business associations comprised of microbusinesses and local residents, which, in turn, raise money within their communities. They typically raise from $1,000 to $3,000. For every dollar raised, the Center matches as many as ten from its endowment, which is funded by private foundations and the Small Business Administration. Members of the associations approve the loans and more than one member may borrow at any given time. Through this process, associations have a commitment to the communities and the communities have a strong stake in the success of the projects. 

Other states, among them Iowa, Kansas, Nevada and Pennsylvania, have replicated this program as a result of the annual training programs offered by the Center. REAP has established 22 associations in three states with over 180 active members representing 77 communities. Associations learn about the work of their counterparts through the REAP Business Update and periodic meetings. The Center also publishes a number of different newsletters and journals, staffs a hotline and has begun an electronic "conference" on the Internet. Among the publications are The Center for Rural Affairs Newsletter, The Beginning Farmer Newsletter, Consortium News. Many of these are free or available for a nominal fee. 

Leadership for the future

These two programs, in combination with the others, have helped individuals and groups take responsibility for their communities. They encourage participation, inclusiveness, diversification of businesses, local investment and capacity building over the long-term. They have promoted sustainable farming practices and policies and preserved family farming. The Center for Rural Affairs has provided the leadership and vision to increase social, economic and environmental sustainability. 

Unlv Office of Energy and Environmental Education

Las Vegas, Nevada

Contact: Christine Chairsell; Office of Energy and Environmental Education Environmental Studies Program; University of Nevada Las Vegas; 4505 Maryland Parkway; Box 454030; Las Vegas, NV 89154-4030; Tel.: (702) 895-4438; E-mail: chairsel@ccmail.nevada.edu 

Scope: Local/regional, urban

Inception Date: 1991

Participants: University personnel and students, state energy office, state utilities, local government agencies, local professional organizations, schools/students, citizens

Project Type: Public education; energy efficiency; economic development; natural resource management 

Methods Used: Partnerships and collaborative projects with local businesses

Lessons Learned: Corporations will participate in community education efforts; working with ecological subject matter is a good way to hold the interest of students.

Project Summary

The University of Nevada Las Vegas, Environmental Studies Program, Office of Energy and Environmental Education was created to stimulate a shift to a more energy-efficient, sustainable society in Nevada. The office has initiated a number of projects and programs directed toward the community at large, government agencies, utilities and businesses to promote a variety of goals including:

• • • improving natural resource management;

• • • preventing pollution;

• • • reducing global environmental stress;

• • • improving the quality of life; and

• • • improving the local economy.

These efforts are being undertaken with the belief that innovative ideas must be developed locally and have their effectiveness tested and demonstrated before being spread throughout the rest of the nation.

The programs undertaken by the office are designed to promote conservation and reduce consumption. The office also seeks to further the knowledge of government, business, and industry on matters related to:

• • • environmental restoration;

• • • environmental remediation;

• • • sustainable development; and

• • • energy efficiency.

Specific programs organized by the office in collaboration with its local partners include a series of conferences and workshops related to energy and the environment; educational programs for high school and elementary students; and the creation of the Nevada Energy Consumer Educational Council, which is producing a home energy manual, as well as expanded public and professional education programs.

The UNLV Office of Energy and Environmental Education receives no state allocation of funding through the University of Nevada Las Vegas. It relies solely upon funding through grants, partnerships, and revenue from contracted education events.

Regional Conference Program

A number of regional conferences have provided forums for local professionals to examine a range of current and potential problems. These have included: the Colorado River Basin Workshop, which was organized in conjunction with the President's Council for Sustainable Development; the Facilities Uniting to Utilize Resources Efficiently (FUTURE) workshops, dealing with energy and water issues; The Western State's Emergency Management Exercise, simulating responses to a natural disaster; Photo Voltaic Cell and Solar Workshops, exploring the state's role in using new energy technologies; Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMF) Conferences, examining health issues; and a Boiler Efficiency and Safety Conference, for local facility managers. Partners in these conferences have included the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Water Authority, the Nevada State Energy Office, the Nevada Power Company, the Sierra Pacific Power Company, the Southwest Gas Company, and the Western Area Power Authority. Other partners in specific conferences include U.S. Department of Energy, the Nevada Division of Public Safety, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Southern Nevada Facility Managers Association. 

Related courses for environmental professionals and managers have covered environmental risk management, remediation of subsurface contamination, organic chemistry nomenclature for remediation, pre-engineering energy efficient fuels curriculum, real estate seminar on energy efficiency, and an air quality workshop.

School Programs

The office has organized energy and environmental education projects for school children grades K-12. These have included workshops and a summer academy for teachers and the development of resource materials in areas such as society and the environment, energy and water, and Native American philosophies related to the environment. The office also established a "mentor" program in which students from the environmental studies program visit classrooms and present materials about energy and the environment, while serving as positive role models demonstrating their own environmental concerns. The office recently launched a highly successful SUNRISE (Students Understanding the Natural Resources in Society and the Environment) Explorers program, which involved 1,600 disadvantaged elementary school children. The program included summer energy carnivals at two local elementary schools and field trips to the Las Vegas Water District's Desert Demonstration Garden. Sponsors included the U.S. Department of Energy and the Southwest Gas Company. Forty university students participated as volunteers.

Recycled Art Project

The office organized a Recycled Art Project in cooperation with a number of local businesses in Spring 1995. The project utilized over 1,500 pounds of trash and defective materials that were collected and sorted for the project. About 8,000 students participated in a hands on "trash-to-art" activity at the Annual Earth Fair Celebration, which were viewed by 40,000 visitors to the fair. This project resulted in the establishment of a Reuse Center to collect scrap materials form local businesses for use in classrooms.

Nevada Energy Consumer Education Council

The UNLV Office of Energy and Environmental Education also established an ongoing partnership of local energy companies and government agencies, which is called the Nevada Energy Consumer Education Council. The council includes most of the partners previously identified with the conference programs, as well as the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association. Other groups affiliated with the council include the Nevada Association of Professional Architects and the Southern Regional Association of Energy Managers.

The council, developed to build partnerships with educators, community organizations, government agencies, the media, local school districts, and public and private corporations and businesses, supports and coordinates programs that will improve the quality of life and the environment in Nevada. 

Goals for the council include encouraging the public and businesses to:

• • • use energy efficiently;

• • • improve indoor comfort;

• • • manage consumption behavior; and

• • • maintain health and safety.

It was established in response to a state-wide survey (conducted by the Office of Energy and Environmental Education) of public energy awareness. The survey indicated high levels of concern about energy conservation and a need for additional public education. The council will maintain a number of the educational initiatives for school children and professionals begun by the Office of Energy and Environmental Education. In addition, the council will be active in public education, using a variety of media, including public service announcements, billboard displays, enclosures in utility bills, fact sheets, and newspaper articles and columns. The council will also publish a quarterly newsletter Energy and Environment News. One of the council's major efforts is the development of a consumer energy manual, which will be provided to builders, real estate agents, and property managers for distribution to new home buyers and renters.

Home Energy Manual

The Home Energy Manual; A Homeowner's Guide to Maintaining the Energy Efficient Home, which is currently available in draft form, provides a collection of information about home energy and water conservation measures and techniques. Some of the topics covered include:

• • • wall, duct, and pipe insulation;

• • • door, window, and other opening insulation;

• • • sun-shading devices and techniques;

• • • thermal mass storage;

• • • setback thermostats;

• • • energy efficient furnaces and air conditioning systems;

• • • fireplaces for heating;

• • • home ventilating systems;

• • • plumbing and water conservation systems; and

• • • lighting and appliances.

The manual also contains sections outlining home maintenance procedures for energy conservation and reviews a variety of energy-saving techniques. In addition, it discusses major home improvement techniques such as the use of water efficient landscaping to reduce heat gain and to provide screening, and the installation of fans to facilitate natural cooling.

The council is planning to engage in several other educational and awareness activities. These include sponsoring home/neighborhood energy audits and workshops, promoting energy conservation in low income housing complexes to reduce utility bills, and conducting a follow-up energy awareness survey to assess the progress that has been made. Another proposal for the council is to develop a state energy conservation icon and accompanying slogan, for use in recognizing energy efficiency efforts and programs.

The Community School

South Tamworth, New Hampshire

Contact: Martha Carlson, Director; P.O. Box B; South Tamworth, NH 03883; Tel.: (603) 323-7000

Scope: Bearcamp Valley/Lakes Region (Southern NH)

Inception Date: 1988

Participants: Teachers, parents, students, community members

Project Type: Environmental education, land use, community economic development

Methods Used: Creation of a school as economic development; progressive education for sustainable community development

Lessons Learned: Sustainable development is not linear; developing housing, jobs, land protection, and young people are related and synergistic activities. Community connections are vital.

The Community School is a private school on a restored, historic 307 acre farm. Forty-two students in grades 6-12 attend from Carroll County, the Lakes Region and western Maine. The school's goal is to teach students to be life-long learners and problem solvers; the school is also concerned with returning land and resources to sustainable production and promoting local economic development.

Developing Students and the Community

Students at the Community School learn about land management by taking charge of the farm and forest land. Students raise products that they sell, mainly vegetables and white pine. The school sold $40,000 of timber just from thinning the 230 acres of forest; students are also developing value-added products from "under-utilized" woods. After more than twenty years of neglect, the farm is getting back into the business of feeding people through a community supported farming effort. Local residents who subscribe to the program pay $200 in advance to receive a basket of food each week from late June through September; they are also invited to participate and help with harvesting.

Director Martha Carlson emphasizes the Community School's role as a new business contributing to local economic development and job creation. After beginning with two teachers, the school now employs seven full time and eight part time employees: twelve teachers, a bookkeeper and a secretary. Carlson relates that for three teachers who received health benefits from the Community School this year, it is the first time that they or their families have ever had health insurance.

Building the School

The Community School was created in 1988 by local residents, led by Martha and Rudy Carlson and Katy Thompson. The three had worked together previously on land preservation, local economic development, and low income housing, as well as teaching. The School opened in the Carlsons' house with nine students while the board, staff and parents raised money from the community to purchase the Perkins Farm under a conservation easement. 

The land and 110 year old farmhouse were purchased in 1991, at the recession price of $90,000. An initial $210,000 was raised to rebuild and expand the structure before moving the school in 1992. Parents and local residents donated their time and labor as well as money. A local philanthropic trust provided a total of $75,000 for start-up costs. The Trust for New Hampshire Land, a one-time state program, contributed $60,000 to purchase the conservation easement. Another $190,000 has since been spent on rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The school's budget this year was $260,000. Eighty percent of the budget is covered by tuition, set at $5,600 a year, plus another $1,000 for transportation. A scholarship fund helps support some students from single-parent families or families where only one parent is working. A number of students contribute as much as $1,000 from summer job earnings. Although Carroll County is the poorest in New Hampshire, some "summer families" and retirees contribute substantially to the school and scholarship fund.

Sources of Support

The New Hampshire Department of Education encouraged and facilitated state approval of the Community School's operation. The School has achieved the first step in the formal accreditation process, affiliation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Fifteen seniors have graduated so far and are attending colleges such as the University of New Hampshire, University of Vermont, Goddard College, and Maine Maritime Academy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Stewardship Incentive Plan has provided technical assistance from the Agricultural Stabilization Service to map, inventory and plan the management of the school's land. This process has made the school eligible for some federal cost sharing in land management for example, brush management on a 3-4 year rotation in a flooded former hayfield.

A major barrier to the school's own sustainable development was the economic recession of the late 1980's/early 1990's. Although the land and building were available at a "once in a century price," the school was hit hard on operating income. Parents lost jobs and could not afford tuition. "It was like the Great Depression up here." The school is planning alternative sources of energy as one method of decreasing costs and remaining sustainable. The conservation easement contains permission from the state (approved by special vote in 1991) to put up a windmill. The school cannot sell the power, but plans to install a wind pump irrigation system.

Working Toward Sustainability

The School is planning an endowment and reserves to maintain the physical assets. The need for scholarship funds also keeps growing if the School wants to remain a true "community" school. The staff and board are beginning to develop a "Year for a Year" program to provide full scholarships for students who agree to return after college to work in sustainable businesses or perform community work in the Bearcamp Valley.

To create sustainable local jobs that will allow youth to return to and remain in the community, the School participates in a local development planning project sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The "It Takes a Community" Project is generating and evaluating ideas for economic development in the Lakes Region that will provide employment opportunities at different skill levels.

The School is already implementing a new "eco-tourism" project, advertised as "A Day in the Bearcamp Valley," one of the last undeveloped valleys in the White Mountain area. Staff, students and volunteers will educate tourists about sustainable development, sell the students' vegetables and wood products to raise additional money for the scholarship fund, and help support local restaurants and businesses with tourist dollars. Community School Director Martha Carlson stresses that this model of schooling drawing on and contributing resources to the community can be replicated with different forms in different places. In an urban area, such as New York City, the neighborhood community, the multicultural society, and the arts are unique resources. In a rural area like northern New Hampshire, the great resource is the land and its forest. 

Carlson states, "we believe that young people are useful and that the world needs them. Our community is our classroom. Students apply their studies to solving real problems that arise on the Perkins Farm, in local towns, or the White Mountain National Forest." For example, students learn to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a land use management tool for the farm and forest. They also collect data with GIS for a University of New Hampshire study on the effects of ozone pollution on white pine trees, an indicator species. Students use GIS as a resource for local development, as well; the Town of Sandwich requested mapping of well tests, and students were asked to create a database to determine replenishment rates in nearby underground watersheds.

Martha Carlson cites the century-long tradition of conservation efforts in the communities of the region as one reason why they generated so much support to purchase the farm and establish the school. For example, the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen was formed in the Bearcamp Valley in the 1920's to help local people develop and market high quality versions of their traditional crafts; eleven shops around the state still exist to market these products. Twenty percent of the land area of the neighboring towns is protected as part of the White Mountain National Forest. Local people were receptive to the notion of the school because "for a long time, before we knew the word sustainability, people have been thinking about how to protect this place and preserve the community."

Isles, Inc.

Trenton, New Jersey

Contact: Martin Johnson, Executive Director; 126 North Montgomery Street; Trenton, NJ 08608; Tel.: (609) 393-5656; Fax: (609) 393-9513

Scope: Trenton region

Inception Date: 1981

Participants: Community residents, local and state government, businesses

Project Type: Comprehensive community development, land use

Methods Used: Organizing, community gardens, environmental education, housing development, job training, "brownfield" redevelopment

Lessons Learned: For organizations to endure they need to build relationships and develop credibility over time. Workable solutions help provide the resources and the framework for people to promote long-term change in their own communities.

Isles, Inc. is a community and environmental development organization that addresses issues of food, housing, and environmental improvement by fostering neighborhood-based "islands" of development. Isles has four focus areas: urban greening and land recovery, environmental education, affordable housing, and job training.

Urban Greening and land Recovery

Isles works with communities to transform vacant land into productive and valuable neighborhood assets. The Community Garden Project focuses on food production and community environmental improvement and control. Isles has created 65 community garden and beautification sites designed, constructed and maintained by local residents. The community gardens produced more than $100,000 worth of fruit and vegetables in 1994. Isles provides technical assistance to urban gardeners, including an annual plant sale for inner-city residents, a tool lending library, soil testing and experimental methods of removing lead from soil. Isles has completed a 200-page "how-to" gardening manual for use by other cities and organizations.

In its most recent endeavor, Isles is cooperating with the City of Trenton and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to reclaim abandoned industrial facilities, beginning with the seven-acre former Magic Marker site. Isles is bringing together area residents, government, and technical assistants to help clean up the site, plan its reuse and participate in its redevelopment while educating young people about this important New Jersey issue.

Environmental Education

The urban environmental education program has trained 100 teachers since 1991 and reaches 7,000 Trenton children every year. The Cadwalader Park Environmental Education Center provides hands-on science and environmental experiences for urban youth and teachers. The Children's Garden encourages participation from very young children. The Trenton Neighborhood Tree Project, a partnership between local schools, the community, the City of Trenton, Trenton Board of Education and the NJ State Department of Environmental Protection, has been implemented in six city schools.

Affordable Housing

Isles has constructed or rehabilitated 69 units of affordable housing in Trenton; 21 additional units are currently under construction. Local, minority crew members and contractors are employed on these projects. Isles recently formed a joint venture partnership with a for-profit developer to convert a local factory to 46 units of affordable housing and office space for nonprofit organizations. Isles has provided home ownership training in English and Spanish to more than 100 Trenton families; the organization also conducts home maintenance and repair training and mortgage counseling. 

To institutionalize this work, Isles helped to create statewide intermediaries. During the 1980's, Isles founded the New Jersey Community Loan Fund, a statewide nonprofit lender and technical supporter of housing and jobs development. Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) negotiations provided an initial infusion of capital. Some foundations gave program related investments and corporations and utilities also participated. The Loan Fund is up to $7 million capitalization and is growing. Isles also co-founded the Affordable Housing Network trade association.

YouthBuild Training

Isles has trained 36 at-risk youth in construction trades while completing affordable housing projects. Isles recently received a YouthBuild implementation grant from HUD to provide construction job training, classroom education and leadership skills to an additional 60 young people who will rehabilitate four vacant homes in Trenton's "Weed and Seed" neighborhoods. The homes will be sold to low income families.

Origins

Isles began as an offshoot of a student-initiated seminar at Princeton University in 1980. Director Martin Johnson recalls: "we were promoting appropriate technology development in the third world, but we were ten miles from Trenton. We had to look in our own backyard." The Institute for Community Economics, based in Massachusetts, was particularly helpful in helping them frame their early thinking on local development. Isles started as a technical assistance organization coming from an academic arena; over the next seven or eight years, the group evolved into a locally owned and controlled development organization. 

Key to this successful transformation was the commitment Isles' founders made to living and staying in Trenton, working with established community groups, and broadening their base of support by building relationships within the community. Each Isles program has evolved over time through the "creative tension" generated by the dialogue between technical ideas and community perceptions. Johnson sees time and commitment as major barriers to doing this work. "If you don't have relationships, you can't get things done, no matter how smart you are. We're successful because we've stuck it out. We built credibility over time."

To succeed, Isles had to integrate the different cultures of organizations that worked on economic or housing development, and environmental organizations that tended to be non-urban and middle class. Early on, housing development was seen as competition for open land. Isles' strategy was to define both open space and housing as basic human needs, critical to a sustainable quality of life in urban areas. Johnson relates: "We had a broadly interpreted goal of community organizing and development. We can make cities more self-sustaining through development initiatives that are controlled locally, culturally appropriate, environmentally sound, and speak to basic human needs."

Diversifying the Funding Base

Another barrier to overcome was financing the work without sacrificing integrity or the ability to be independent. Isles has strengthened its board's fundraising capabilities by creating a separate Resource Development Committee with thirty members who have ties to corporate and institutional interests and are willing to lend their names and their time to strengthen the organization financially. This board plays an advisory role to the twelve voting members of the Board of Trustees. 

Isles currently has a $1 million annual operating budget. Forty percent of funding comes from local, state and federal government sources. Sixty percent comes from the private sector—foundations, corporations, individuals and religious institutions. Johnson notes that "in New Jersey, we have tremendous wealth as a state dotted with pockets of poverty." The current challenge is to further diversify the funding base by targeting individuals and employment-based giving programs.

Johnson emphasizes that the comprehensive nature of Isles' work helps the organization to sustain itself over time; it broadens the base of financial and political support while reducing revenue volatility. Furthermore, Isles has a greater ability to affect state and local policies on a range of issues than it would as a single-focus organization. In New Jersey, environmental groups, largely based in middle-class suburbs, are more organized and have more political power than the urban community development organizations. By building relationships in both communities and breaking down preconceptions, Isles is able to tap into a stronger power base to further its work.

Ironstone Gardens

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Contact: Burke Denman (Developer); Denman & Associates, Inc.; P.O. Box 4938; Santa Fe, NM 87502; Tel.: (505) 983-6014; Fax: (505) 986-1419

Michael Ogden; Southwest Wetlands Group, Inc.; 901 W. San mateo, Suite M; Santa Fe, NM 87505; Tel: (505) 988-7453; Fax: (505) 988-3720

Scope: Local, urban

Inception Date: 1991 (phase 1 - renovation); 1994 (phase 2 - new construction)

Participants: Developer, residents

Project Type: Commercial development, redevelopment, 'green construction', waste water reuse 

Methods Used: Construction and rennovation using new building materials that replace wood and new technologies that save energy and minimize water consumption and waste

Lessons Learned: Find an advocate within the local bureaucracy to support new and innovative building techniques.

Project Summary

Ironstone Gardens is an innovative commercial development in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico's warehouse district. Situated in an abandoned industrial site—the former home of a concrete company—the development consists of 25,000 square feet of space, on a 85,000 square foot (or 2 acre) lot. The project began in 1991 with the rennovation of the existing buildings on the property.

The goals of the project's developer, Burke Denman, are to create a commercial development that is environmentally sound, aesthetically pleasing, and economically viable—with the overarching goal of creating a living environment that provides both a pleasant and a stimulating place in which to live and work. 

The many innovative features of the development include:

• • • passive solar design;

• • • low energy consumption;

• • • co-generating heating system;

• • • low water use; 

• • • on-site waste water reuse.

• • • heavy insulation (R40 in roofs; R24 in walls);

• • • low timber use;

• • • steel structural framing (60-70 percent recycled content steel); and

• • • pumice-crete building material.

Architectural Design Incorporates Old and New

Ironstone Gardens design incorporates 7,000 square feet of existing warehouse space, renovated at a cost of about $25 per square foot, and 18,000 square feet of new construction, at a cost of about $65 per square foot. Numerous plants, fountains, patios, benches, trees and pathways surround the buildings, which are clustered in a compound-like setting. To help preserve the park-like atmosphere that the landscaping provides, parking is located on the periphery of the property. 

With space for 20 tenants, the development is made up of offices, retail space, and artist studios (seven of them live-in). Second story studios have views of mountains from private balconies. Tenants include an engineering firm, landscape architecture firm, sculpture studios, photo darkroom, exercise studio, art gallery, and retail stone company. Annual lease rates are typical of rates in the area. Ironstone Gardens has leased all but one of its tenant spaces. Public enthusiasm for the project has been evident in the fact that all leases have been handled through the developer, with no need for a leasing agent and with minimal advertising.

Alternative Building Materials Save Wood

The existing buildings in the Ironstone Gardenss development included a cement block building and a steel structure (unstuccoed). Renovation, which began in 1991, included increased insulation, solarizing (by adding south-facing glazing) and cosmetic improvements. Of the four new structures in the development (built in 1994), three of them are constructed using a typical, metal warehouse-style steel superstructure. The steel "R-panel skin" is reversed, screwed in place, and then stuccoed to achieve the appearance of adobe, a popular building material in the Southwest. Interior walls are insulated with fiberglass (R24) and then sheet-rocked. The only wood used in the buildings is small-dimension wood used for trim, window and door frames, with 90 percent made with metal. Any large timbers used in the project were recycled from another building that was demolished by the developer.

The fourth building (5,200 square feet) is constructed with a material called "pumice-crete." This substance was used to build parts of the Parthenon, 2,400 years ago, and is being used as a commercial building material for the first time in Santa Fe. Because timber is an expensive commodity in the Southwest and is straining old-growth forest reserves elsewhere, pumice-crete not only produces cost savings while minimizing the impact on the environment, but also provides a stronger, more durable product for construction than many other alternative materials. 

Pumice-crete is a light-weight, cast concrete material that uses light weight pumice nodules bound by a light coating of cement and water. Typical concrete uses four to seven sacks of cement per cubic yard. Because of the energy-intensive methods used to make cement, it is a product that, while low in price, has high hidden environmental and energy costs. Pumice-crete, on the other hand, uses pumice, which is derived from volcanic ash. Only 2 1/2 sacks of cement per cubic yard is mixed with the pumice to produce a material superior to adobe in compressive strength and durability, with a natural insulating "R value" of "1 1/2 per inch," (versus an R value of ".3" for adobe or "1" for wood). This translates, in the case of this building, into an insulating value of R 24, using just the pumice-crete alone, without additional insulation. In addition to its insulating value, pumice-crete has a compressive strength of 600-700 pounds per square (psi) inch, compared to adobe, which is around 200 psi. In terms of overall cost comparison, pumice-crete is approximately 25 percent less expensive than adobe.

Energy Savings Through Solar & Co-Generation

The development—designed with the sun in mind—is positioned to maximize solar rays for interior heating in winter. It will also use a co-generation heating system for the first time this winter. A glassblowers studio in the compound, with two glassblowing furnaces that run at 2000 degrees, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year will be tapped to heat an additional 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of artist studios in winter.

The roof and walls are super-insulated for both heating and cooling efficiency. Heating costs are projected to be 25 percent less than normal; cooling, 50 percent less through the use of extra high ceilings, 10 to 20 feet tall. In summer, the high ceilings draw the heat away from the lower living and working areas, to produce comfort on most days.

Waste Water Saves Water

Water is a precious commodity in the Southwest. To minimize the impact of the Ironstone Gardens development on the aquifer and on community resources such as the sewer plant, several water-saving features, including low-flow devices for plumbing fixtures and 1.5 gallon low flush toilets, are used. 

What is most notable is the innovative, on-site waste water treatment system for water reuse that has been built into the project. It handles all waste water from the complex, returning it to be used for flushing toilets and irrigating the developments landscaping. 

The system, designed and installed by an engineering firm that is also a tenant of Ironstone Gardens, will allow the development to be taken off the already overloaded city waste water treatment system. The on-site wastewater treatment system uses anaerobic pretreatment tanks, constructed wetlands (with gravel beds planted with reeds, rushes, and cattails), and recirculating sand filters that have been incorporated into the site landscape plan. The advantages of this on-site treatment and reuse system are:

• • • water obtained from city water supplies decreases by approximately 70 percent (it is used only for drinking and washing); 

• • • treated effluent is made available for irrigation or, further disinfected through a UV disinfection system, and used to flush the toilets;

• • • since no wastewater leaves the property, the hydraulic loading of the city sewers and wastewater treatment facilities are not increased, and are, in fact, decreased.

Because the on-site system is the first of its kind in a commercial development in New Mexico, it is being used as a demonstration project. Periodic monitoring reports will be made available to interested parties and the facility is open to public view.

Working Through Challenges

The main challenge to Ironstone Gardens was the initial reluctance of the regulatory bureaucracy to allow the use of proposed, new technologies in constructing the development: Their cooperation was essential in obtaining approval of the innovative alternative building materials and wastewater methods. Persistence was required to gain the needed approvals for the project. At first, by challenging, and then by working to educate and build a proactive relationship with local authorities, the project eventually gained the needed approvals. 

Today, the developers vision is a reality and Ironstone Gardens can be credited with advancing the standard for commercial development in Santa Fe and the Southwest. 

Other sustainable building development projects are underway in the area, including one using "strawbale" construction, with a constructed wetlands for on-site waste water treatment. 

Nos Quedamos/we Stay

Melrose Commons, South Bronx, New York

Contact: Yolanda Garcia; Nos Quedamos/We Stay; 811 Courtlandt Ave.; Bronx, NY 10457; Tel.: (718) 585-2323; Fax: same

Scope: Neighborhood - 35 contiguous blocks

Inception Date: 1993

Participants: Residents, planners, architects, lawyers, public officials, civic organizations, businesses

Project Type: Coalition building, comprehensive community development, economic development

Methods Used: Community organizing, public education, citizen-led planning

Lessons Learned: Importance of strong collaborations between government officials and residents as equal partners. Early involvement of residents/stakeholders in planning. 

"All people have ideas worth hearing and saying.... differences in age, race, gender, religious affiliation, language, and cultural background should motivate people to work towards true, long-lasting change."

— Yolanda Garcia

Summary

Nos Quedamos is not only the name, but the mission of this nonprofit organization located in the heart of the South Bronx. It represents a broadbased, grassroots coalition of residents and groups who have a longstanding commitment to their community, Melrose Commons. 

In a few short months this organization created a sustainable plan for their community and developed an effective and productive collaboration with public agencies to implement it. The process they employed was responsive to social, economic and environmental issues and brought the community together in this successful effort to shape its future. For their work they have been recognized by the New York City Landmarks Commission, the New York chapter of the Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, and the metropolitan chapter of the American Planning Association. 

History

Melrose Commons, a 35-contiguous-block area east of Yankee Stadium, had largely been neglected by the city for roughly 30 years and suffered from the traditional housing, infrastructure and unemployment problems associated with urban decay. In 1990 it had 6,000 residents, primarily Latinos and African Americans, whose median annual household income was less than $12,000. The city owned 65% of the land and 30% of total housing stock. Of that 10% was abandoned during the 1960s and 1970s. 

In 1992 community residents came together to respond to the city's proposed Urban Renewal Plan. This plan would have resulted in major changes to the whole neighborhood. Estimates were that it could have displaced as many as 6,000 local residents and 520 local businesses. Citizens who had lived there for years and wanted to stay decided to undertake a planning process to put forward some of their own recommendations for the design of their neighborhood.

Building a collaborative planning process

The proposed Urban Renewal Plan was based on traditional planning designs and did not represent the desires or ideas of residents who would be affected. Those that attended the meeting stated that as long-term residents who had stayed in the community they knew best what transportation routes worked, what type of buildings were needed, the kind of employment they desired, and where parks were best located in the area. They wanted a community that would reflect their values and needs. 

Following the meeting, home owners, tenants and business owners came together to share ideas and information and called themselves Nos Quedamos or the We Stay Committee. They worked with the Bronx Center project initiated by the Bronx Borough president and co-chaired by Richard Kahan of the Urban Assembly and Harry DeRienzo of the Parodneck Foundation. The Bronx Center, a community-based planning effort in a 300-block area in the Bronx, would help direct the investment of two billion dollars of anticipated public and private funds. Hundreds of volunteers — citizens, public officials, educators and professionals — formed a number of working groups to address such issues as job training, technical assistance, housing and transportation. 

By 1994 Nos Quedamos had succeeded in postponing the certification of the proposed city urban renewal plan and had obtained a six-month extension granted by the Borough president to continue to develop an alternative proposal, the new Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan. Since that time the community initiative set up Studio 811, the Nos Quedamos office where city officials came to work with the residents on the initiative.

Residents conducted block-by-block surveys and held meetings at a local church to update those who could not attend the planning meetings. Ms. Garcia estimates that they held as many as 168 meetings during that year. In anticipation of the forthcoming election, they also conducted a voter registration drive at every meeting, increasing the voting rolls by 65%.

The participation of public officials in the community planning sessions was key. It gave government representatives a better understanding of local needs and resources and gave the community members the respect and consideration they deserved. According to Petr Stand, one of the architects who has worked very closely on this project, it demonstrated that "a positive democratic process was possible." Government was responsive to the needs of the citizens and the citizens assumed their civic responsibility. 

This community effort attracted the assistance of many professionals — planners, architects, lawyers, and others— who have contributed their expertise during the developmental stage. Two architects, Petr Stand of Magnusson Architects and Lee Weintraub of Weintraub & diDomenico, and urban planners worked with residents to help translate their ideas into a new urban design. Members of the community established a set of planning principles for the new Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan which became further refined as planning continued. They addressed social, environmental, housing, design, infrastructure, and many other community issues. 

Elements of sustainable planning

One of the initial issues to be resolved was the location of a proposed two-acre park. The city plan had placed it in the geographical center of the community, but the real center of activity was in the northeast section. Community members were interested in open spaces but they feared this park would attract criminal activity.

They developed alternative plans for various discrete block parks designed for different types of activities. The plan now includes a one-acre public park, small mid-block parks, and community gardens which are very important to residents. There will also be an area in the northern section of the neighborhood which will be developed for active recreation. Another area, now containing old railroad tracks, will serve as a tree-filled buffer zone to set it off from a manufacturing area.

Residents were also very interested in public transportation. They explored possibilities of increasing transportation links, mass transit and 'friendly' sidewalks and created a plan to reduce the amount of private parking as required by the city. Other attention centered on water use. As water is expensive in New York, ways to capture and recycle it through rainwater systems were explored. Planning for community gardens included consideration of water retention. 

Initially the plan included a number of middle-income housing units and blocks of attached houses. What the residents preferred was a mix of buildings — some with six- to eight-story buildings with businesses on the ground floor and other smaller ones, such as town houses and single family houses, that were affordable and built with environmentally-sound materials. These housing prototypes, while unusual, could be possible models for other urban areas. 

Nos Quedamos worked with local developers to help in the project. They received a grant from the NY State Council on the Arts to host a series of community design workshops. These attracted developers and contractors and prompted conversations about what housing could be and what guidelines would be needed. 

Currently 1700 new units of housing are planned, some for seniors, occupants of shelters, those 60% below the median income level, and potential homeowners. As over 70% of the families in the neighborhood are female heads-of-household, they are exploring possibilities for adapting co-housing models, which would include day care facilities, to the urban environment. 

A number of potential funding sources have been identified at the federal, state and local government levels. Two projects have been funded: one, a US Housing and Urban Development grant for loans for senior citizens; and the other, a city grant for the homeless and those under the 60% income level. 

Throughout the process Nos Quedamos has emphasized the importance of using local contractors to implement the plan and have met with local labor coalitions. A job completed by the middle of 1995 as a joint venture of a local contracting company with one of the largest construction companies in the city employed 80% of the workers locally. 

All of these efforts have increased the visibility of and knowledge about Melrose Commons locally and nationally. This process has brought in students from local colleges and universities such as City College and Columbia, other members of civic organizations, and from many downtown areas to attend hearings and to demonstrate support for the effort. In this way, others are connecting with Melrose Commons and the neighborhood residents are feeling less isolated.

Challenges ahead

Access to technical assistance and funding are continuing challenges. City funding is being cut back at a time when the neighborhood needs it to acquire some of the properties residents would like to sell. They also need to attract developers to construct and renovate the housing.

Institutionally, the strength of the organization and its efforts have been in organizing the community. In order to continue to implement this ambitious plan, ongoing momentum and support will be needed. 

Sunshares

Durham, North Carolina

Contact: Anne Aitchison, Executive Director; SunShares, Inc.; 1215 South Briggs Avenue, Suite 100; Durham, NC 27703; Tel.: (919) 596-1870; Fax: (919) 596-5382

Scope: Local/state, urban/rural

Inception Date: September 1980

Participants: Urban and rural residents, low-income housing communities, schools, businesses, churches

Project Type: Recycling, energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, public education

Methods Used: Demonstration projects, education, programs maximizing citizen involvement as volunteers and participants in community building projects 

Lessons Learned: Strong leadership and vision spurred initial activity in the community. SunShares' history and reputation in the community inspired the public trust and the building of institutional relationships necessary to expand activities and access opportunities.

Summary of Project

Since its inception in 1980, SunShares has grown from a small, local nonprofit organization with two staff members and an annual budget of $40,000 to a nationally recognized leader in the field of resource recovery, employing 62 people and generating $3 million annually for the local economy. 

SunShares' mission is to help people use the earths resources in a more sustainable, efficient, and healthful manner. It provides opportunities for communities and neighborhoods to recycle, reduce waste, conserve energy and water, and use more renewable resources. 

SunShares programs maximize citizen involvement as volunteers and participants in community-building projects. It partners with individuals, local and regional government agencies, corporations, small businesses and other organizations to facilitate the transition of the "Research Triangle" region (including the cities of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill) toward a more sustainable economy. SunShares works to facilitate that transition through education, demonstration and policy activities designed to involve the citizens and institutions of the region. 

Building the Foundation

In 1979, the Energy Information Office (EIO) was founded with proceeds from a newspaper recycling project established by the Council of Garden Clubs and the City of Durham Sanitation Department. Newspaper revenues allowed EIO, a non-profit organization, to offer energy conservation information and winterization services to the general public. In 1982, SunShares, a grassroots campaign to build low-cost solar heaters, was founded as a project of EIO. SunShares then merged with EIO to form a single non-profit dedicated to promoting recycling, energy efficiency and solar energy. 

The experience and contacts from these organizing efforts, combined with the resources of ECOS, an established local recycling effort, enabled the new SunShares to win long-term recycling contracts in a three county area, with the City of Durham, the Town of Cary, Durham County and the Orange Community Recycling Program. 

Partial funding for SunShares recycling programs comes from revenues generated by landfill tipping fees and solid waste collection fees. The revenue that SunShares makes from the sale of recyclables partially off-sets program costs. As a non-profit organization, SunShares also receives grants to investigate issues and carry out programs such as energy efficiency, water conservation, and market development for recyclable materials such as mixed paper. Individual and corporate partnerships help to support outreach and education programs. 

Leader in Recycling Technology

SunShares recycling programs now include 33 drop-off sites, serving over 300,000 residents in Durham and Orange Counties; as well as curbside collections from 43,000 homes in Cary, Durham and Orange Counties. Commercial and fee-for-service programs collect from over 200 area businesses.

SunShares is able to collect and process the materials cost effectively because of its unique collection system, recycling facility, and community participation. From curbside trucks, to drop-off bins, to the expander curbside container attachment—for which SunShares holds the patent—SunShares has been a leader in developing new designs for effective recycling. These designs have been adopted in many areas of North Carolina and other states, helping to make recycling more efficient and cost effective. 

SunShares community education programs support awareness of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" concept. Broad public participation in separation of recyclable materials enables SunShares to maintain the integrity of the materials it collects and helps to insure stable markets and maximum convertibility of new products.

SunShares Research and Product Development

Recycling is only a part of what SunShares is about. SunShares current research and development focus is on reducing waste at the source of generation, locating stable market uses for problematic recyclables, and combining organic portions of the waste stream together to produce compost. 

SunShares practices a team approach to decision making, analyzing with Board, staff, and client communities strategies that will result in long term economic, social and environmental benefits for the region. A good example is the process by which "Bull Durt" has been developed. Mixed paper constitutes approximately 20% of the total waste stream being landfilled in this country. With funding from the North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction and the Environmental Protection Agency, SunShares and its local partners, the City of Durham and Durham County, worked for three years to research and test this compost product that combines hard to recycle mixed paper with treated municipal sludge. At the same time, a public education campaign introduced "Bull Durt" to the public, answering questions related to product safety and applicability. SunShares, the City of Durham, and Durham County are in the process of establishing ongoing production of Bull Durt, providing a ready