Sustainable West Florida operates within the westernmost counties of the Florida Panhandle to broaden public support for communities that are environmentally sound, socially just, and economically healthy.  We promote sustainable living and respect for the planet by organizing discussion courses primarily based on materials developed by the Northwest Earth Institute, of which we are an affiliate.  In addition, we seek to raise public consciousness about a wide range of sustainability issues through public meetings on such topics as local food, global warming, and green building.  Last spring we held a public meeting on global warming that featured the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and actions individuals and communities can take to curb carbon emissions. 

Currently, in partnership with other local organizations, we are launching an effort to enlist our city and county leaders in the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign.  We seek to develop stronger partnerships with other organizations around key environmental issues and with the faith community.  We are in the initial stages of planning a discussion course based on Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.  As we look to the future, our biggest challenges are developing a stronger, more active membership and more effective community outreach.