Our Mission

Sustainability has been defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

We believe the debate is over: human behavior has substantially compromised the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

We’ve seen this evidenced in Southold and other communities across Long Island where once fertile farmland and natural habitat has been replaced by ill conceived sprawl and commercial development, yet housing has become unaffordable for most working class people. We have seen our local waterways degraded by pollution, overfishing and inappropriate shoreline development, yet we allow harmful practices to continue. We have witnessed how the absence of a coherent energy policy affects us: Long Islanders pay some of the highest gas prices in the country. Although the extent is not fully understood, climate change will impact our local environment, yet we still struggle to adequately implement viable alternatives to fossil fuel and aggressive conservation measures.

Good things are being done by many individuals, non-profits and even by some governmental entities, but in order to meet the urgent and critical challenges that we face, much more must be done. Southold belongs to us all and saving it will require the involvement of each one of us.

Sustainable Southold hopes to initiate a dialog among the citizens in our community who recognize the daunting environmental threats we face, but who also believe that change is possible and we can in fact, on a local level, be part of the global solution.

Through information, open dialog and grassroots organization, we hope to engage concerned individuals in a process leading to changes in individual behavior and public policy, thus leading to a sustainable Southold.