Sustainability Online Resource Center

Sustainable Long Island's Online Resource Center is a comprehensive source of information on issues, events, projects, and how-to's in regard to sustainability with a general focus on Long Island. This Sustainability Online Resource Center provides visitors to our website and all Long Islanders with the tools and guidance they need to quickly find specific sustainability-related information they are looking for. Take a look and let us know if you'd like to see something added to an existing category below or create a new category all together by emailing info@sustainableli.org.

Sandy Resources:

Resource Highlight: Blueprint for a Greener Long Island

The New York League of Conservation Voters - one of the state's largest environmental organizations - recently unveiled its 2012-2013 Blueprint for a Greener Long Island. Encompassing dozens of specific policy recommendations, the Blueprint offers step-by-step guidance to help elected officials and policy makers transition to a more sustainable, innovation-based economy. The Blueprint for a Greener Long Island sets the bar for progress in five broad areas: sustainable economic development, climate adaptation, natural-resource protection, cleaner energy and water quality. The recommendations in these areas will yield significant environmental benefits while also controlling costs. Download it here today!

Resource Highlight: Long Island's Last Stand

The Nature Conservancy of Long Island has released its annual "Long Island's Last Stand" report detailing conservation efforts and for the first time focusing on protecting groundwater and saltwater harbors, bays and marine areas. Long Island's Last Stand is a coalition of over 100 concerned environmental, civic and business associations that supports a ten-year action plan to save the most significant remaining open spaces and farmland and to restore and protect our harbors, bays and public parklands. Read more information here!

Resource Highlight: Federal Funding Opportunities

Each year the federal government distributes billions of dollars in grant and loan money to institutions throughout the United States. New York’s non-profit organizations, colleges, universities, businesses and local governments are exceptionally well qualified to compete for these funds. Due to this opportunity, Senator Kirsetn Gillibrand has launched The Grant Opportunity Action Listing (GOAL), meant to provide assistance to those New York institutions seeking federal funds, providing insight on important federal funding opportunities. Finding the resources that meet your needs in the complex web of agencies can be an impossible task, but you can access useful information on federal funding in the more comprehensive, topical funding guidebooks the Senator has compiled here!

Resource Highlight: Contaminated Sites Email Listservs

The DEC's Division of Environmental Remediation is committed to informing and involving the public during the investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites being addressed under the State's various remedial programs. As a listserv member, you can periodically receive site-related information/announcements for all contaminated sites in the counties you select. DEC invites you to receive site information by email by signing up at the appropriate county listserv(s) identified on their website. It's quick, it's free, and it will help keep you better informed.

Resource Highlight: Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food 

The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass is a digital resource which highlights USDA investments in local food systems, local food success stories, and an interactive map. The 2.0 version of the map is searchable by keyword or zip code, is easier to use and has thousands of new data points (including USDA-funded local food projects in all 50 states, farmers markets, food hubs, wholesale markets, meat processing facilities, and other critical infrastructure). USDA has also updated its Food Environmental Analysis visualization, which provides a range of data including store and restaurant availability, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, local foods, health, and community characteristics.

Resource Highlight: How's My Waterway

EPA's environmental justice team has developed How's My Waterway - where you can instantly get localized information about waterways in map and list format by simply entering a zip code or place name. Anyone can check on local waters anywhere in the nation in seconds-even at the water's edge, for those using smart phones. This program may especially help those communities where there are less resources to access and decipher complicated information from EPA's data systems. With better information, people are safer and communities are more able to take action.

Resource Highlight: Smart Growth and Economic Success

Smart Growth and Economic Success is the first in a series of reports from EPA’s Smart Growth Program designed to inform developers, businesses, local government, and other groups about the benefits of smart growth development. This report incorporates feedback from a one-day workshop in December 2011 when business leaders, real estate developers, and economic development professionals came together to share their thoughts and make suggestions about how to expand on work in this area. Additional reports will build on this work, exploring how real estate developers and investors can overcome real and perceived barriers to benefit from infill opportunities, how decisions about where to locate will impact the bottom lines of businesses, and why smart growth strategies are good fiscal policy for local governments.

The Turning Point for Offshore Wind Energy

Vacant Land in Cities Could Provide Important Social and Ecological Benefits