Advisory Council

Our advisory council speaks and writes about alternative systems, sustainable communities, and local living economies.

Partner Links

Economic Sustainability

Supports humanly scaled politics and economics. Subscribe to receive the inspirational Home Town Advantage Bulletin with information on promoting local ownership and community empowerment.

An entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining.

Programs demonstrate that both social and environmental sustainability can be achieved by applying the values of human-scale communities and respect for the natural environment to economic issues.

A framework for developing a conservation economy.

Journal of readable case studies on small sustainable businesses dedicated to helping grow sustainable enterprises and to putting smart growth strategies into real world practice. Subscribe to receive BALLE updates through the “BALLE Beat” column in every issue!

Local Food Systems

Campaigning for food safety, organic agriculture, fair trade, and sustainability.

Founded by a group of concerned farmers to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.

A grassroots membership organization made up of farmers, as well as rural and urban residents, working together to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture, and to develop sustainable communities.

Ensuring the survival of local agriculture today and for future generations. Resources include the national CSA farm directory.

Provides communications tools, technical support, networking, and information resources to organizations nationwide that are working to rebuild local community-based food systems.

Downtown Preservation

National clearinghouse for the preservation-based commercial district revitalization movement.

Land Trusts

Provides technical assistance and financing to community land trusts and those working to produce and preserve affordable housing, land, and other resources in communities where they are most needed.

Offers user-friendly information on protecting land, setting up a land trust, and land trust success stories.

Healthcare and Health Insurance

Low-cost health insurance for everyday emergencies as modeled by the Ithaca Health Alliance and Philahealthia.

Community Corporations

Great resource for community-based economic development, with information about community corporations, CDCs, community land trusts, and many other innovations.

Business and Environmental Sustainability

Green Business tips and tools.

Critical lessons for the new century – energy technologies tailored to the needs of people, not the reverse, can improve the economy and the environment.

Estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. After answering 15 easy questions you'll be able to compare your Ecological Footprint to what other people use and to what is available on this planet.

Develops indicators that measure progress toward a sustainable economy, society, and environment.

Conscious Consumption

Find the independently owned coffee shops near you!

Fair trade and human rights organization fighting globalization; along with Co-op America they promote alternatives through their Green Festivals.

Community Capital

Started a decade ago to provide a meeting place and information-sharing forum for socially conscious investors, this group is expanding its activities, and membership, for sustainable investing.

Socially responsible mutual funds.

Carries its proxy voting decisions for the 400 companies in its mutual fund portfolio.

Weekly half-hour financial lifestyle magazine TV series redefining success through a positive look at what is possible.

Advocacy and Policy

CEDLF was formed to provide free and affordable legal services to grassroots, community-based groups, and local governments working to protect their quality of life and natural environment through building sustainable communities.

A national network of businesspeople, investors, and affluent North Americans concerned about deepening economic inequality who are working for widespread prosperity. They focus on tax fairness, corporate responsibility, and living wages.

National Business Networks

SVN brings together entrepreneurs, investors, environmentalists, and social activists to promote new ways to make our economic system benefit the natural environment and people, particularly those in need.