USDN Sustainable Consumption Inititative for Cities

The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) is launching a new initiative to make sustainable consumption a guiding paradigm for city sustainability work. The network hopes to develop the paradigm in ways that will unify a number of sustainability agendas that have tended to operate separately until now, including climate action, social equity and sustainable economic development.

After three years of studying sustainable consumption and developing a Sustainable Consumption User Group, USDN is ready to launch a pilot projects phase. The initiative will identify a small number of cities that will focus on opportunities to develop programs in the areas of housing, economic development, government procurement and community sharing.

Their lessons will be widely shared through USDN’s membership of more than 150 cities in North America and cities in other parts of the world that are part of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA). USDN has been developing their work on sustainable consumption in partnership with the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), One Earth, EPA West Coast Forum, Climate and Materials Management, and others.

Blackstone Ranch Institute and the Garfield Foundation have provided early grants to seed initial pilot projects in one or two cities, and support a gathering of experts and researchers in sustainable consumption at the University of Maine in June 2016.