What does rural sustainability look like, anyway?

When I think about the characteristics of a sustainable community, I think of high population density; interconnected, multi-modal transit options; mixed use neighborhoods…the picture in my head is decidedly urban. And that’s probably how most of us tend to think about it. Indeed, when I try to mesh sustainability with rural America, what comes to mind is decidedly un-sustainable: how Wal-Mart seems to be the only place to shop, with a 20 minute car trip as the only way to get there. It turns out, though, that I am not giving rural communities or the sustainability movement enough credit.

I started thinking about the role of rural communities in the sustainability movement after reading Sean Markey’s “Sustainable Rural Communities” box in Roseland (p. 24). As he points out, when we think about sustainable community solutions as solely for high-density urban areas, we leave out important chunks of people who care about vibrant lifestyles, ecological health, and economic stability. At the time of the 2010 Census, 19.3% of people lived in rural communities across the United States. What does the ‘sustainable communities’ movement have to offer them, and how can they contribute to advances in sustainability?

Roseland’s chapter left me wanting more tangible answers to these questions. Markey’s “Sustainable Rural Communities” box vaguely refers to “numerous (and now well-tested) solutions for rural communities,” but doesn’t go into which types of solutions he is referring to. Throughout the chapter, Roseland addresses rural communities only a handful of times, discussing “rural sprawl” and the need to make the countryside more rural with sustainable agriculture and forestry. But what does sustainable community development look like, in concrete terms, for rural communities?

It turns out that there is a significant amount of government and community attention going to rural sustainable development in the United States:

Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities, a publication by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities (consisting of HUD, DOT, and EPA), details how sustainability is being incorporated in rural communities and includes several case studies that are full of the concrete details I felt were missing from Roseland’s chapter. Sustainability is integrated into rural communities partially through principles similar to those advocated in urban areas, such as:

• Revitalization of main commercial streets and town centers
• Construction/retrofits for walkable neighborhoods
•  Development of walking, biking, and public transit options where feasible, especially through regional transit services
• Funding for community and regional development planning

There are also ways to foster sustainable communities that are more salient and/or unique to rural locations:

•  Expansion of broadband internet to facilitate working from home
• Cultivation of ecotourism potential where present
• Protection of watershed and soil health
• Installation of renewable energy facilities (especially wind and solar) using spatial resources
• Implementation of sustainable agriculture techniques (for an especially innovative one, check out the EPA's livestock methane recovery program, AgSTAR)
• Strategic conservation of connected acreage to maintain habitat and ecosystem function 

(The International City/County Management Association and the Smart Growth Network also have a document highlighting sustainable development in rural communities (Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities) that is good reading for understanding the challenges of rural areas, how smart growth can be part of the solution, and a number of policy suggestions to guide the implementation of smart growth in rural communities.)

One of the most surprising things I learned from this research, perhaps because of my own ignorance, is that rural communities suffer from many of the same challenges we observe in city centers—contracting economies, out-migration, population shift to community fringes, transportation infrastructure with limited connectivity. And, although every place presents its own challenges, solutions presented by sustainability are in some cases very similar regardless of if the area is urban or rural. However, it is important to highlight that some essential sustainability practices are only possible in rural areas. After we recognize this, we must also acknowledge that people and communities in these rural areas are integral to reshaping the way we operate in this country.

When we talk about sustainable communities, we touch on deeply personal values—how and where people choose to spend their lives. This post does not make any judgments about urban sustainable communities versus rural sustainable communities in terms of which is most ideal. Rather, it is aimed at highlighting some of the most salient efforts in rural sustainable community development so that they can be included in the conversation. The popular sustainable development discourse in the United States would benefit from expanding to fully recognize the array of tools we have to shape communities across the country, from rural to urban, so that everyone has the chance, in the broadest sense, to be a part of the sustainable community we are building.