Many excellent online links are contained in the few sites listed below.
The African Digital Library Project
http://AfricaEducation.org/adl
An online library with approximately eight thousand full E-text books in its collection. The library is available to any "resident" of Africa.
The Alliance to Save Energy
www.ase.org
This site offers an extensive selection of tips on how to invest in energy-efficient improvements in homes and, at the same time, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The alliance, based in Washington, D.C., is a coalition of business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide.
Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future
www.center1.com/ulsf
More than 270 institutional members focus on sustainability and academic disciplines, research initiatives, operations, and outreach.
BioGems
www.savebiogems.org
In a recent column, author Barbara Kingsolver offered a few suggestions for action individuals can take to register their thoughts on an array of environmental issues, including protecting the Arctic National Refuge, Greater Yellowstone, the Macal Rainforest of Costa Rica, and the Red Rock Wilderness of Utah. Kingsolver writes that “once registered [at this site], the National Resources Defense Council will send you E-mail alerts (while also respecting your privacy) every so often to ask for your participation in a fax or E-mail campaign.”
Center for a New American Dream
www.newdream.org
Deals with issues of fair trade.
Communities-by-Choice
www.CommunitiesbyChoice.org
Some of the most clearly written introductory materials on sustainable communities.
Consumer Reports' Greener Choices Eco-Labels Center (formerly Consumers Union Guide to Environmental Labels)
www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels/eco-home.cfm
Some tuna-fishing methods can injure or kill dolphins. The Dolphin Safe logo indicates that those methods weren't used or that dolphins weren't harmed in the process. However, because independent verification of such claims—by observers who board fishing boats or make surprise visits to canneries to inspect captains' logs—is not universal, the logo is not an ironclad guarantee that the tuna in any given can was caught according to the standard. For more information, check out the Consumer Reports Eco-Labels Center to "find out what the labels on your favorite products really mean."
Co-op America
www.coopamerica.org
This organization offers a free pocket guide titled "Building Communities" that provides information on how to avoid and combat predatory lending practices, and includes resources on responsible community investment options. Contact Co-op America at 1-800 58-GREEN, or visit their Web site.
Earth in the Balance
www.worldbook.com/fun/wbla/earth/html/earth.htm
World Book Encyclopedia with extensive resources for kids.
Earth Force
www.earthforce.org
This national non-profit service learning, environmental, and civic education organization seeks partners for its two new after-school offerings.
Earth Summit 2002
www.earthsummit2002.org
This initiative of the United Nations Environment and Development Forum seeking to ensure that all major issues, processes, and stakeholders are able to participate in shaping the 2002 Earth Summit. The site offers a range of online resources, including a monthly online newsletter, reports on the global sustainable development agenda, and briefing papers covering key environment, economic, and development issues.
EcoEquity
www.ecoequity.org
A new organization formed to note, analyze, and review the equity aspects of the emerging climate regime. Its goal is to put a single idea onto the agenda: a shift from the initial Kyoto framework to a new "equity framework" based on per capita rights to the atmosphere.
The Eco-Smart Homes and Building Program
www.ecosmartinc.com
This program was designed to bridge the gap between understanding and applying sustainable development principles. Operated under license from the nonprofit Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development, the program provides free materials and design consultations, links to owners seeking energy efficient financing, and helping builders and developers gain positive media attention for their "green" building efforts.
Education for Sustainable Development Tool Kit
www.esdtoolkit.org
The ESD Tool Kit helps schools and communities develop a process to create locally relevant and culturally apropriate education activities. Based on the idea that communities and educational systems within communities need to dovetail their sustainability efforts, the tool kit contains a description of the major thrusts and components of education for sustainable development; a discussion of twelve major issues; a number of exercises; and a case study of the Toronto Board of Education’s community consultation and subsequent curriculum revision that indirectly addressed ESD as a result of the citizens' vision and desires.
Electronic Green Journal
http://egj.lib.uidaho.edu/index.php/egj
Energy Star (Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy)
www.energystar.gov
Plug unseen leaks. Idle or turned off devices such as televisions, VCRs, and microwaves continue to consume energy when turned off. When purchasing new appliances, look for the Energy Star label, which indicates significantly less energy is used when the appliance is on standby mode.
The Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program (EPP)
www.epa.gov/oppt/epp/database.htm
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched a Web site providing information for more than six hundred products and services.
Environmental Literacy Council
www.enviroliteracy.org
EPA Public Involvement Policy
www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/public/index.htm
EPA Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE)
www.epa.gov/ecocommunity
(formerly Community-Based Environmental Protection)
EPA National Library Network Online Library System
www.epa.gov/natlibra/ols.htm
Information resources center.
EPA Green Communities Program
http://www.epa.gov/greenkit/index.htm
Step-by-step guide for local groups who want to work toward a sustainable community. Steps include: Where are we now? Where are we going? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? Let's Go!
Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp/conf_planners.htm
This site includes information on sustainable conference planning—pre-conference, conference, and post conference. It is a valuable site for those of you involved in conference planning, and outlines efforts you can make to reduce waste at all levels of the process.
The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)
www.ciesin.columbia.edu/indicators/ESI
The index measures overall progress toward environmental sustainability for 122 countries. The ESI is based on 22 core "indicators" that combine two to six variables for a total of 67 underlying variables.
Equal Exchange, Inc.
www.equalexchange.com
Fair trade issues.
Fair Trade Federation
www.fairtrade.net
Fair trade issues.
Guide to Environmentally Preferable Computer Purchasing
www.govlink.org/nwpsc
This recently issued report by the Northwest Product Stewardship Council provides tips on how to make more environmentally friendly decisions when purchasing computer equipment. Discover what product features can damage the environment, what alternatives to seek, and where to go for more information.
NEW! Home Power
www.homepower.com
To jumpstart your own micropower enterprise, using alternative, less energy-intensive methods, visit this hands-on journal for homemade, sustainable, power.
Indivisible: Stories of American Community
www.indivisible.org
Institute for Southern Studies
www.southernstudies.org
A new report by the institute titled "Green and Gold" ranks the fifty states by twenty economic and twenty environmental indicators. It concludes that for most places, strong environmental protection does not inhibit a robust economy.
Integrity in Science Database from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
www.cspinet.org/integrity
CSPI offers a free public database that provides information about the often-hidden links between academic scientists and private industry—mostly in the fields of nutrition, the environment, toxicology, and medicine. The site will also trace the corporate support received by professional, health, and nonprofit organizations.
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
www.iclei.org
ICLEI works with local governments in the United States and around the world to prepare Local Agenda 21 (sustainability) action plans, to develop and test sustainable development planning, and to implement specific pilot projects.
International Institute for Sustainable Development
www.iisd.org/ic
The Joint Center for Sustainable Communities of the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties
www.usmayors.org/uscm/sustainable
Librarians seeking support from local officials will find allies here for “economic enhancement, environmental stewardship, and social well being—the three pillars of sustainable communities.”
The JoMiJo Foundation
www.jomijo.org
This foundation supports grassroots projects that improve the quality of people’s lives or preserves the earth’s environment. In 2000, the foundation awarded $63,000 in twenty-one grants. Grants range in size from $3,000 to $5,000.
Keys to Information, Technology, and Education (KITE)
www.kiteinc.org
A newly formed nonprofit organization that has developed a Web site where users can find information about community development, technology transfer, open source software, and the global "digital divide."
Making Cities Work
www.makingcitieswork.org
A new strategy for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that targets growing rates of urbanization in developing countries.
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/oej/nejac
An advisory committee to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and related resources.
The Nature Conservancy
http://nature.org
From its inception as a small organization concerned about the Mainus River Gorge on the New York/Connecticut border, the conservancy has grown into a worldwide organization with a million members and at least one office in each of the fifty states.
The Online Volunteer Service
http://app-netaid.netlojix.com/OV
Working in conjunction with Netaid.org, which is operated by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the Online Volunteer Service has, in the first nine months of its existence, attracted approximately 2,800 applicants and more than 440 online volunteer projects.
The Planet Maintenance and Repair Guide
www.planetrepair.org
Launched by the Academy for Educational Development based in Washington, D.C., this site features an eighty-one-page youth activity handbook handbook on environmental health threats. Youth can become more aware of water conservation, air pollution, and chemical exposure issues.
NEW! PolicyLink's Beyond Gentrification Tool Kit
www.policylink.org/gentrification
This Web-based toolkit is for those in communities faced with gentrification, displacement, and disinvestment. It highlights "innovative and successful equitable development strategies in culturally diverse communities across the country."
The President’s Environmental Youth Awards (PEYA)
www.epa.gov
PEYA honors students and their sponsors who carry out projects in their communities to improve the environment. Projects are due each year by 31 July.
Promoting Research on the Environment and Sustainability: The Internet Research Register
www.mcbup.com/research
The Regency Foundation
www.regency.org
This United Kingdom-based non-profit organization working with the United Nations and its agencies was instrumental in setting up Telecentros Brasil (with offices in Sao Paulo), whose mission is to establish Sustainable Communities Telecenters (SCTs) in existing community centers throughout Brazil.
SafeClimate.net
www.wri.org/press/safeclimate.html
This site “challenges individuals and organizations to calculate the size of their own carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint and pledge to reduce it” by taking one or more of the actions outlined on the site.
SD Gateway
http://sdgateway.net
Leading nongovernmental organizations on five continents working to use the Internet to meet sustainable development goals; includes more than twelve hundred links.
Second Nature
www.secondnature.org
Environmental sustainability.
Simple Living Network
www.simpleliving.com
Sister Library/Sister Community Opportunities
www.ala.org/work/international
In addition to the ALA International Relations Office’s Sister Library Program, links can be made with communities around the globe through such organizations as Sister Cities ( www.sister-cities.org), Partners of the Americas ( www.partners.net), and the World Library Partnership ( http://rtpnet.org/wlp).
Smart Growth Network
www.smartgrowth.org
Sprawl Watch
www.sprawlwatch.org/newsletter.html
Volume 3 addresses issues such as the similarities between cities that gained or lost population, or remained relatively stable, as a result of the last census, growth management plans adopted in several cities across the country, innovative transit planning, urban redevelopment, historic preservation and Main Street projects, and the connection public health officials are drawing between America’s huge spike in obesity and our sprawling land use patterns.
SUNetwork
www.sustainableusa.com
The proceedings of, and follow-up activities to, the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America. Updated daily.
Sustainable Cities Weekly News Service
http://64.243.182.214
Sustainable Communities Network
www.sustainable.org
Sustainable community cases studies from each state and resources on creating community, smart growth, growing a sustainable economy, protecting natural resources, governing, and living sustainably.
The Trust for Public Land
www.igc.org/tpl/
The goal of TPL is to “. . . encourage livable communities and a healthy environment for generations to come.”
The United Nations
www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agreed.htm
Major international agreements on sustainable development and links to related programs of action, best practices from around the world, and other valuable information (for example, the Habitat Agenda and the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements).
U.S. Agency for International Development
www.info.usaid.gov/about/foreword.htm
USAID’s strategies for sustainable development: protecting the environment, building democracy, stabilizing world population growth, protecting human health, encouraging broad-based economic growth, providing humanitarian assistance, and aiding post-crisis transitions.
U.S. Department of Energy’s Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development
www.sustainable.doe.gov
Features twenty-two “top sustainable community development Web sites,” more than one thousand sustainable community resources, and K–U educational resources.
WasteWise Updates
www.epa.gov/wastewise/pub_c.htm
New publications from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
NEW! Web-a-dex Universal Translator
www.web-a-dex.com/translate.htm
For easy cut-and-paste translations. At this site you can copy and paste text into a box, select the language you want it to be translated into, hit a button, and voila (there you have it), a translation magically appears.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
www.wbcsd.ch/whatis.htm
A doorway to sustainable business issues and practices.
World Resources Institute
http://wristore.com
The executive summary of WRI’s latest biennial report, People and Ecosystems: The Fragile Web of Life (2000), can be downloaded for free.