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I-SUSTAIN has been a sustainable development firm since 2003, focused on researching, documenting, and exposing others to global best practices. Through a combination of international delegations, compelling research and communication projects, and innovative events, I-SUSTAIN has had a significant impact in the Pacific Northwest.
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I-SUSTAIN’S clients include elected officials and public agency staff as well as public and private utility and transportation executives, real estate developers, architecture and landscape architecture firms, engineering firms, planning firms, forest companies and mill owners. By exposing these influential and involved urban professionals to global best practices, I-SUSTAIN has helped to provide them with the information and knowledge they need to create policies and implement projects that increase the sustainability of the Northwest.

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We believe that better solutions are achieved when disparate interests are brought together to forge a better path forward. Because climate change is already here and worsening with every hurricane, fire, and flood season, the imperative to work together has never been greater.  For many years, I-SUSTAIN’s focus has been the urban environment. We have brought mayors, council members, department heads, real estate developers, architects and others to almost every continent to look at best practices that they can adapt to their own cities. We have recently expanded our work to include rural areas, particularly when it comes to using farm and forestry waste for renewable fuels, as well as mass timber for buildings.

 

Our study tours bring together together business interests with policy leaders, and it is clear that doing so has greatly improved the livability and environmental footprint of the cities we work with. Government, architecture/engineering, and real estate development represent the regulatory, design, and finance/development elements that are essential for good urban design.  By bringing these groups together to experience and formulate a shared vision of what a sustainable urban environment could look like, public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, green spaces, natural stormwater systems, energy efficiency and more have all improved in the cities we've work with. We are now also working to bring utilities, labor groups, government policy makers, and others together to bridge the urban-rural divide and bring economic development to rural areas through the development of renewable fuels. We hope that our impacts will be as great at the state level as they have been with cities.