Sustainable Communities Partnership Receives Generous Bullitt Foundation Grant

This month, the Sustainability Engagement Institute received a significant show of support from the Bullitt Foundation, the Northwest’s foremost environmental philanthropy organization. The $80,000 grant will support the institute’s community-university partnership program, the Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP), to advance equitable and inclusive climate resilience at the local level over the next two years.
 
Moving forward, the SCP will support communities that experience disproportionate impacts from climate change and/or face barriers to addressing climate change, to remove or overcome the barriers. Equitable access will be key in selecting partner communities so that under-resourced communities and those facing political challenges in promoting climate action will be connected with the university’s resources.
 
Western faculty that participate in the SCP will integrate discussions of diversity and inclusion in their teaching, so projects incorporate these elements. Faculty will apply their research area of interest to local climate resilience work and integrate discussions of diversity and inclusion in their teaching, and students will gain real-world climate-solutions focused experience as part of their coursework. Local communities will benefit from access to technical expertise paired with cost-effective, high-quality work as they develop more resilient systems and structures.
 
Ultimately, this project will help strengthen communities’ ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.