Overview: The Center for Sustainable Communities received a $86,700 grant from the state’s Growing Greener program in April 2003 to spearhead a project entitled “Pointing Pennsylvania Toward a Sustainable Future: A Proposal in Support of the Sustainable Pennsylvania Partnership.”

Working with the Governor’s Green Government Council and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Futures Project, the researchers have developed a preliminary set of state sustainability indicators and measurement protocols, and a series of recommendations for moving Pennsylvania toward a more sustainable future.

The project was undertaken by the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy (PCIEP), a consortium of 43 colleges and universities, with Temple University — represented by the Center for Sustainable Communities — as the lead institution. Temple specifically focused on the “social indicators” such as adult literacy and health care for the project.

Status: The report, entitled “State of the Commonwealth: Is Pennsylvania Moving Towards A Sustainable Future?” has been completed by the PCIEP. The final report, which highlights about 40 sustainability indicators, has been submitted to the DEP for review and future implementation of the recommendations presented.