Director
Urban Center, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
The Urban Sustainability Accelerator was created to assist government agencies, businesses and nonprofit organizations in the US in the implementation of their sustainability projects. The Accelerator draws on the special sustainability expertise in the Portland region, which includes everything from urban growth boundaries, active transportation, energy conservation, urban natural area protections and green infrastructure. We have worked with teams across the country, from Sacramento to Portland Maine, and from Waco Texas to Lansing Michigan and statewide in California. Our assistance efforts have focused on redevelopment of downtowns, downtown adjacent neighborhoods or commercial corridors; many of those projects also had elements relating to transit, active transportation and green infrastructure. We helped state, regional and local governments in California to implement Senate Bill 743 which has shifted the focus of environmental impact analysis and mitigation from reducing congestion by building new roads to reducing driving. During 2018-19 we worked with teams in Washington DC, Seattle and Charlottesville Virginia promoting the construction of accessory dwelling units and find ways to use those new units to help realize equity, affordability and sustainability outcomes.