The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is a continuing-education-based program within the Department of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University. IISD is also a sister organization of the independent non-profit, non-governmental community development organization Village Earth also, based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The impetus for establishing the Institute (as well as Village Earth) emerged from an international conference on sustainable village-based development held in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1993, with 240 development practitioners from 34 nations attending. More than 250 papers were submitted for the four-day conference. Driving this response was a deep concern over the fact that two out of three people in the world live beneath the poverty line in small communities, and have very limited access to the world's resources. In the spirit of this conference, IISD was founded to focus attention on this "silent majority" and facilitate the kind of participatory development that is responsive to their needs.

Click here to watch a short video about IISD.

Training
IISD holds workshops and courses for development practitioners (at project, intermediate, and policy levels of society) to help impart knowledge and skills essential to sustainable development. Courses cover development-based subjects such as planning, motivation, leadership, management, communication, and evaluation.  IISD also organizes conferences on community-based development, where participants can exchange ideas and build upon their field experiences.

Research
IISD conducts studies on its own or upon request to explore relationships between key concepts and variables relating to sustainable development processes, and contributes to the larger body of knowledge. IISD develops research programs in collaboration with other universities, NGOs, government agencies, businesses, and private organizations.

Technical Assistance and Consultancy
IISD assists practitioners in planning, designing, implementing, managing, monitoring, and evaluating development projects/programs.