Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. They are attractive, diverse, thriving, safe and healthy, for the environment as well as the people who live there. They protect the environment and stimulate local economic growth. And they create more choices for residents, workers, children, families, single people and older adults - choices of where to live, where to work, where to play, and how to get there. A sustainable community has a set of qualities that makes it a place, not simply an anonymous cluster of homes, roads, office buildings, and retail outlets.

Making Sustainable Communities Happen is a 30-minute interactive PowerPoint presentation and accompanying brochure showing what different communities in the Metropolitan Phoenix area are doing to make sustainable communities. Volunteer speakers from organizations across the Valley are available to show citizens, community organizations, business leaders and public officials this presentation and to consider strategies of making sustainable communities happen that can:

• lower public costs
• promote healthy life styles
• provide affordability for more people
• preserve land and natural resources
• replace "drive time" with "family time"

Growing Sustainable Communities in the Valley of the Sun includes members from various public and private sectors throughout Metropolitan Phoenix who supported and participated in developing this educational presentation. The speaker's bureau is administered by the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family.