Green Allied Organizations

American Farmland Trust (AFT)
Founded in 1980 by a group of farmers and conservationists concerned about the rapid loss of the nation's farmland to development, American Farmland Trust is the nation's leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation. AFT works with communities and individuals to protect the best land, plan for agriculture, and keep the land healthy.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
NRDC is a large environmental action organization that uses law, science, and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to safeguard the planet: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
The American Council on Renewable Energy is a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that focuses on accelerating the adoption of renewable energy technologies into the mainstream of American society through work in convening, publishing, and communications. With a focus on trade, finance, and policy, ACORE promotes all renewable energy options for the production of electricity, hydrogen, fuels, and end-use energy.

American Institute of Architects (AIA)
Since 1857, the AIA has represented the professional interests of America's architects. Its members, more than 80,000 licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners, express their commitment to excellence in design and livability in our nation's buildings and communities.

Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO)
AMPO is a nonprofit membership organization established in 1994 to serve the needs and interests of metropolitan planning organizations nationwide. AMPO offers its member MPOs technical assistance and training, conferences and workshops, frequent print and electronic communications, research, a forum for transportation policy development and coalition building, and a variety of other services.

Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)
Since 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has shown urban communities across the country how to develop more sustainably. Before the term sustainable development was even widely used, CNT has been demonstrating its unique brand of sustainable development: development that is good for the economy and the environment; makes better use of existing resources and community assets; and improves the health of natural systems and the wealth of people — today and in the future.

Conservation Fund
The Conservation Fund is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting America's most important landscapes and waterways for future generations by pioneering a balanced, non-advocacy, non-membership approach to conservation, one that blends environmental and economic goals and objectives. Since its founding in 1985, the fund has helped its partners safeguard wildlife habitat, working farms and forests, community green space, and historic sites totaling more than 5.5 million acres nationwide.

Enterprise
Enterprise is a national nonprofit with 20 years of experience in the community development and affordable housing field. Enterprise is widely known as the leading provider of capital and expertise for affordable housing and community development. Enterprise's newest initiative, Green Communities, provides grants, financing, tax-credit equity, and technical assistance to developers for creating low-income housing according to their specific green criteria. APA is a partner in this program.

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)
EESI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally sustainable societies. EESI produces credible information and innovative public policy initiatives, including publications, briefings, workshops, and task forces, all of which lead to transitions to new social and economic patterns that sustain people, the environment and the natural resources upon which present and future generations depend. APA is currently working with EESI on a multi-year research and education project, Planning our Way to a New Energy Future.

Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
The Environmental Law Institute provides information services, advice, publications, training courses, seminars, research programs, and policy recommendations to engage and empower environmental leaders the world over. ELI's audience is leading environmental professionals in government, industry, public interest groups, and the academy.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
With a mission to protect human health and the environment, since 1970 the EPA has led the nation's environmental science, research, education, and assessment efforts to help make a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

Growth Management Leadership Alliance (GMLA)
The Growth Management Leadership Alliance is a network of leaders from state, provincial, and regional organizations in the U.S. and Canada that carry out programs to directly shape and implement smart growth policies and actions. In July 2005, GMLA merged with Smart Growth America. This merger strengthened the alliance's capacity to address critical policy and technical and organizational needs. Specifically, GMLA provides access to cutting edge information and experience, a network of mutual learning among new and experienced growth management leaders, a connection to national efforts, and motivation for those working on the ground in the struggle to better manage the future of their communities.

Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
Founded in 1930, the Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international educational and scientific association of transportation professionals responsible for meeting mobility and safety needs. ITE facilitates the application of technology and scientific principles to research, planning, functional design, implementation, operation, policy development, and management for any mode of transportation. Through its products and services, ITE promotes professional development of its members, supports and encourages education, stimulates research, develops public awareness programs, and serves as a conduit for the exchange of professional information.

International City/County Management Association (ICMA)
Founded in 1914, ICMA is the premier local government leadership and management organization. Its mission is to create excellence in local governance by advocating and developing the professional management of local government worldwide. In addition to supporting its 8,200 members, ICMA provides publications, data, information, technical assistance, and training to thousands of city, town, and county experts and other individuals throughout the world.

Local Government Commission (LGC)
The Local Government Commission is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that provides inspiration, technical assistance, and networking to local elected officials and other dedicated community leaders who are working to create healthy, walkable, and resource-efficient communities. The LGC's membership is composed of local elected officials, city and county staff, planners, architects, and community leaders who are committed to making their communities more livable, prosperous, and resource-efficient.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
LISC helps resident-led, community-based development organizations transform distressed communities and neighborhoods into healthy ones — good places to live, do business, work, and raise families. By providing capital, technical expertise, training and information, LISC supports the development of local leadership and the creation of affordable housing, commercial, industrial and community facilities, businesses, and jobs.

Mayors Institute of City Design
The Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD) is a partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, the Mayors' Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. It achieves its mission by organizing sessions in which mayors engage leading design experts to find solutions to the most critical urban design challenges facing their cities. Sessions are organized around case-study problems. Each mayor presents a problem from his or her city for the other mayors and designers to discuss.

National Association of Counties (NACo)
The National Association of Counties represents county governments in the United States. Founded in 1935, NACo provides essential services to the nation's 3,066 counties. NACo advances issues with a unified voice before the federal government, improves the public's understanding of county government, assists counties in finding and sharing innovative solutions through education and research, and provides value-added services to save counties and taxpayers money. NACo's membership totals more than 2,000 counties, representing over 80 percent of the nation's population.

National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP)
The National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals is a not-for-profit organization that represents local government personnel responsible for ensuring environmental compliance and developing and implementing environmental policies and programs. NALGEP's membership includes more than 140 local government entities located throughout the U.S., ranging in size from the largest cities to much smaller local communities. NALGEP was established in recognition that local government environmental professionals are often confronted with tight budgets, complicated requirements, and problems that may have been encountered and dealt with by other localities.

National Neighborhood Coalition
For more than 25 years, the National Neighborhood Coalition has stimulated collaboration and innovation by providing common ground for the nation's leading advocates for lower-income neighborhoods. It is where national and local leaders come together to generate the resources, public policies, and solution-oriented strategies that strengthen and sustain neighborhoods. NNC's broad network of more than one million members affords groups a voice in Washington, D.C., opens doors to partnerships among nonprofits and commercial entities, and keeps low-income problems and solutions on the agenda for key policy makers.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
NOAA is a federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and the atmosphere. It plays several distinct roles within the Department of Commerce, including a supplier of environmental information products, a provider of environmental stewardship, and a leader in applied scientific research on water, climate, ecosystems, commence, and transportation.

National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP)
Founded in 1949, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to saving historic places and revitalizing America's communities. Recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the trust provides leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to protect the irreplaceable places that tell America's story. Staff at the Washington, D.C., headquarters, six regional offices, and 28 historic sites work with the trust's 270,000 members and thousands of preservation groups in all 50 states.

National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
The National Wildlife Federation engages diverse audiences in its conservation work, as the federation believes that strength comes from diversity, both in the natural and human worlds. NWF seeks to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future by bringing diverse people together in support of this goal and to give them the knowledge, the tools, and the help they need to build a better future.

Northeast-Midwest Institute
The Northeast-Midwest Institute is a Washington-based, private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states. Since its founding in the mid-1970s, the institute has conducted research and analysis, developing and advancing innovative policy, providing evaluation of key federal programs, disseminating information, and highlighting sound economic and environmental technologies and practices.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization working with communities to preserve unused rail corridors by transforming them into trails, enhancing the health of America's environment, economy, neighborhoods, and people.

Scenic America
Scenic America is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to safeguard America's natural beauty and community character by promoting good urban planning and design guidelines as well as natural conservation.

Sierra Club
The Sierra Club works to protect our communities and the planet. Through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying and litigation, the Sierra Club works to protect the health of our environment and to preserve our remaining wild places.

Smart Growth America
Smart Growth America is a coalition of national, state, and local organizations working to improve the ways we plan and build the towns, cities, and metro areas we call home. The coalition includes many of the best-known national organizations advocating on behalf of historic preservation, the environment, farmland and open space preservation, neighborhood revitalization, and more. SGA's state- and regional-level members are community-based organizations working to save treasured landscapes while making our towns and cities ever more livable and lovable.

Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP)
The Surface Transportation Policy Project is a diverse, nationwide coalition working to ensure safer communities and smarter transportation choices that enhance the economy, improve public health, promote social equity, and protect the environment. STPP is a nonprofit organization funded by individual donations and a range of national and regional foundations.

Sustainable Communities Network
The Sustainable Communities Network is an online professional network for those who want to help make their communities more livable, wherein a broad range of issues are addressed and resources are provided to help make sustainability happen. Its website is being developed to increase the visibility of what has worked for other communities, and to promote a lively exchange of information to help create community sustainability in both urban and rural areas.

Trust for Public Land (TPL)
The Trust for Public Land is a national, nonprofit land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come.

Urban Land Institute (ULI)
ULI is a nonprofit research and education organization supported by its members. Founded in 1936, the institute now has more than 34,000 members worldwide representing the entire spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines, working in private enterprise and public service.

WorldWatch Institute
The WorldWatch Institute is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society, in which the needs of all people are met without threatening the health of the natural environment or the well-being of future generations. By providing compelling, accessible, and fact-based analysis of critical global issues, WorldWatch informs people around the world about the complex interactions between people, nature, and economies. WorldWatch focuses on the underlying causes of and practical solutions to the world's problems, in order to inspire people to demand new policies, investment patterns, and lifestyle choices.