New Reports and Resources

 

REPORT: "The unbearable costs of sprawl:" the link between the mortgage meltdown, the global financial crisis, and unsustainable land use  

 

REPORT: "For those perplexed by the current controversy over climate change data:" sorting through the email scandal

 

REPORT:  "The urban dimensions of climate change:" Why cities will be more important than we think

 

REPORT:  New curriculum for graduate education in sustainable urban design, developed for the European Union's Leonardo da Vinci programme for lifelong learning

 

WHITE PAPER: "Climate Change and Growth:  The Choices Before Us," prepared for California's Office of Planning Research

 

Link to ESRG Wiki - includes survey of current work on pattern languages

Sustasis

 Foundation

Connecting the people and resources to meet the complex environmental challenges of our time

About the Sustasis Foundation

 

The Foundation’s name, Sustasis, is a Greek word that means “to stand together” or “to come together into integrality.”  The Foundation is a small catalytic organization that seeks to convene other collaborators in strategic ways, and thereby leverage its small resources for maximum effect.  The Foundation’s mission is to help to bring people and resources together to collaborate on the vital challenges of our time. 

 

Our foundation’s work can be divided into three categories:

 

ESRG – The Environmental Structure Research Group:  This is a consortium we have convened of some 30 researchers from around the world, including Christopher Alexander, Nikos Salingaros, Wiki inventor Ward Cunningham, and a number of other leading innovators, researchers, academics and practitioners.  For more information see www.aboutus.org/ESRG or www.tectics.com/ESRG.htm.

 

The ESRG has held a number of symposia (at University College London, the University of Oregon and elsewhere) and published a number of papers on sustainable development and best practice in design.

 

INTBAU – USA: Sustasis Foundation is the legal entity that hosts the USA chapter of INTBAU, the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism.  INTBAU is a UK patronage of the Prince of Wales, and sister charity of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, where Sustasis executive director Michael Mehaffy served as the first Director of Education.  Through a partnership with A.W.I.S.H. Foundation, an umbrella incubator for start-ups like ours, we can take tax-deductible donations in the US.  INTBAU USA held its start-up conference in New Orleans in 2007, where many members are still involved in rebuilding work, with our many allies there.  We held the second annual conference in Chicago in 2008, and the third annual conference in Baltimore in 2009.  Our board includes representatives of the University of Miami,  the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Classical Architecture, the Building Process Alliance, the New Urban Guild, and others.

 

Other project, research and publication activities:  We are engaged in a number of peer-reviewed papers and research collaborations on the topics of sustainable urban development, climate change, and social and ecological resilience.  Executive director Michael Mehaffy serves as advisor to a number of research projects and NGOs, and sits on the boards of three international urban research journals.  He works with the Council for European Urbanism, the Portland Metro regional government, the Portland+Oregon Sustainability Institute, and other partners and allies with similar missions.

 

Michael has also played a strategic role in the recovery planning of New Orleans, where he developed proposals for resilience and capacity-building.  A notable example is a proposal for "Neighborhood Resource Recovery Centers" that is now part of the Unified New Orleans Plan, and being implemented as part of the City's permanent master plan.

 

We continue to use modest support from our partners (including airfare, accommodations and the like) and funding from private activities such as fees for professional consulting.  We are grateful for all of this support and we will pursue these and additional sources for modest but increasing growth in activities for 2010.

 

We are grateful for the institutional affiliation with A World Institute to Serve Humanity, a global incubator NGO and collaborator/supporter of the Sustasis Foundation.  For more information please see www.awish.org.    For links to our pages on the A.W.I.S.H. website, see http://www.awish.net/projects/north-america/sustasis-foundation.html.

 

We welcome your interest in this work and any questions you might have about it.

 

Our executive director, Michael Mehaffy, is available for speaking engagements on these and related topics.  For more information please see www.tectics.com/cc-speaker.htm.

 

 

Contact us at (503) 756-1595, or email michael dot mehaffy at the gmail domain.  Thank you!