Eco-Cities are places where people can live healthier and economically productive lives while reducing their impact on the environment. They work to harmonize existing policies, regional realities, and economic and business markets with their natural resources and environmental assets. Eco-Cities strive to engage all citizens in collaborative and transparent decision making, while being mindful of social equity concerns.

For more information, see About Eco-City Studio and Eco-City Movement.

Sustainability is progress that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The central goal of sustainability is to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural worlds.

A sustainable community is an environmentally, economically, and socially healthy place where people can live, work and play for decades to come:

• Ecological sustainability ensures that all parts of the natural and built environments work together as a single ecological system.
• Economic sustainability ensures a healthy economy that supports and sustains people and the environment in which they live over the long-term.
• Social sustainability ensures that a community meets residents’ basic health and social needs (shelter, water, food security, sanitation and other quality of life factors) and has the resiliency to prevent and/or address problems in the future.

For more information, see Sustainability.