Staff From Leading Cities Form Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Julia Parzen
June 3, 2009

A planning group of city sustainability directors from Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Fayetteville, New York City, and Seattle, formed the Urban Sustainability Directors Network in early 2009. The co-chairs of the Planning Group are Sadhu Johnston, Chicago, and Amanda Eichel, Seattle. The goal is to build a professional network of city sustainability directors that enables members to easily exchange information, collaborate to advance their practice, and more quickly find solutions to their sustainability challenges.

As of mid-May 2009, the Network had 44 members, representing cities in all regions of the United States, including Albuquerque, Annapolis, Ashville, Atlanta, Austin, Babylon, Baltimore, Berkeley, Boston, Boulder, Burlington, Cambridge, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dade County, Dallas, Denver, Eugene, Fayetteville, Flagstaff, Fort Collins, Fort Wayne, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Savannah, Seattle, Tucson, Washington, D.C. and Winston-Salem.

The Planning Group raised funds from the Surdna Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Blackstone Ranch Institute to cover the costs of participation in the Network for up to 65 municipal sustainability directors.

The Global Philanthropy Partnership (GPP) is hosting the Network with Julia Parzen as Network coordinator. ICLEI is the lead technical partner of the Network. The Sustainable Cities Institute of The Home Depot Foundation is building a Network website. Network activities include conference calls to share lessons, in-depth working groups, shared documents and web-based discussion, and an annual two-day meeting.

For more information, please contact Julia Parzen, Network coordinator, at juliaparzen@ameritech.net.