Grantee Spotlight: Community Builders
Community Builders works across the Intermountain West with rural communities on projects focused on economic development, affordable housing, transportation, and land use. The New Belgium Family Foundation is supporting Community Builders through the organization’s next phase with a three-year general operating grant. We recognize that the transportation sector accounts for 30% of all Greenhouse Gas emissions in U.S. and that car-centric development patterns in the West have created barriers to mass transit and bike/pedestrian infrastructure. Strategies to change these development patterns will not only have positive climate outcomes, but will also help revitalize rural economies that have suffered in the past few decades as more people move to urban centers.
“Our New Mobility West Initiative is working to ‘un-sprawl’ the American West by reinvesting in downtowns, creating walkable neighborhoods, and building healthy and connected regions through equitable transportation. We focus on working with communities to create smarter approaches to transportation—from better street design to expanded connections and enhanced bike and pedestrian access.”
Community Builders provides training and technical assistance for projects that make rural Western towns more livable and vibrant.
“Livable communities - places with compact, walkable and transit-served neighborhoods – make it easier for people to drive less, resulting in reduced vehicle emissions. By shifting future growth towards this more sustainable model, we can combat climate change, while creating healthier, more equitable and prosperous communities that demand less from the environment.”
Read more about how Affordable Housing can be part of the solution to Climate Change
See Clark Anderson’s Presentation about the link between Community Builders’ work and Climate Change