Sustainable Systems Research Foundation

Welcome to SSRF!

“Developing sustainable solutions to wicked problems in the community commons“

Our Mission

The Sustainable Systems Research Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit green think tank based in Santa Cruz, California that designs, develops and deploys local projects and programs to promote community development through “citizen science and engineering.” SSRF seeks to address complex and wicked environmental and sustainability problems that confound communities, defy singular technical or social solutions and cannot be addressed successfully at a global scale. We bring together numerous stakeholders with competing interests, capacities and approaches to develop and pursue project design, development and deployment that is local, replicable and scalable, based on best practices and insights drawn from successful projects elsewhere. We believe that, if a project or program can be implemented successfully at one site, it can be replicated elsewhere, with appropriate adjustments to local conditions.