The Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC), based in Portsmouth, VA, has been working to make communities greener, cleaner, safer, and more climate resilient since 2015. CSC is laser-focused on communities across the South facing urgent challenges including energy burden, food insecurity, and climate vulnerability that disproportionately impact low-income residents. In Portsmouth alone, residents endure a deadly cocktail of toxic pollutants including lead, mercury, asbestos, and PCBs—legacies of industrial and military activity that threaten the health of vulnerable communities in this city of 100,000 people.Through hands-on education programs and collaborative community projects, the Center equips residents with the skills to build resilience. Their work brings together diverse groups —from local families to government agencies—to implement practical solutions that improve quality of life, economic opportunity, and environmental health. By focusing on people-centered sustainability, the Center creates lasting change in communities that need it most.
Center for Sustainable Communities founder and executive director Garry Harris documents flooding in a Portsmouth community. Photo: Center for Sustainable Communities
Founder and Portsmouth native Garry Harris leads CSC with a diverse team of volunteers, bound by a passion for justice. As Harris says, “Equity has to be at the center of everything we do. It ensures that we’re building a bridge between community and prosperity.” The Center’s wide-ranging successes include programs like Breaking Barriers, a workforce development program that provides specialized training in sustainable building practices, creating pathways to high-paying careers in green construction and expanding into opportunities like weatherization, solar installation, and facility management. They’ve worked with thousands through STEM education initiatives such as SMART Academy, Just Science Scholars, and Inspire and Empower for Girls and Women.The Center also helps residents reduce their energy use through outreach and education, appliance change-out programs, advancing heat pumps and retrofitting initiatives, community-scale solar, conducting healthy-home assessments, and supporting clean-energy and energy-efficiency research.