Institute for Sustainable Communities

Our mission is to create equitable, climate change solutions around the world. We do this by forming collaborative, people-focused partnerships that support communities disproportionately impacted by the global climate crisis.

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to clean air, clean water, and the ability to pursue economic stability. Yet for many around the world, this is unattainable due to historical inequities. Over our thirty-plus-year history, we have directly strengthened community resilience by delivering over 130 locally-based projects, programs, policies, and investments in 31 countries that are assured success because our focus is on actionable and implementable real-world strategies, not theories. Focal areas include energy efficiency, green infrastructure, natural resource conservation, regenerative agriculture, and technological interventions that reduce or eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, ISC works in the areas that contribute most to climate change; namely, the United States, China, India, and throughout the Mekong Delta. In the US, ISC's projects include leading data-driven resilience planning, facilitating the formation of regional climate collaboratives, and building the capacity of under-resourced urban, community-based organizations. In India, ISC has worked to decarbonize micro, small and medium size enterprises in the clean energy sector while elevating more women into the industry and in leadership roles. In China, ISC works with community based organizations to contribute to the country's 2060 carbon neutrality goal. In the Mekong Delta, ISC works on the decarbonization of factories in the supply chains of global brands while uplifting migrant and other minority workers.

Above all, ISC is committed to dismantling the systems that have perpetuated racial and economic injustice which have led to frontline communities experiencing the worst impacts of climate change. We exist to empower communities through collaboration and engagement to design specific and effective people-centered solutions that tackle present and future environmental, equity, and economic challenges.

Testimonials

"ISC makes every dollar count. Their high-impact approach is just what we need to tackle a huge issue like climate change." - Jerry Greenfield, Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's

"The mission of ISC ... with key values of equity and inclusion ... is the absolutely essential pathway to a future that our children, grandchildren, and their children can hope to inherit." - Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy of the World Health Organization