The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a nonprofit research and educational organization that provides technical assistance and information on sustainable development issues to government agencies, citizen organizations, and industry. Since 1974, ILSR has researched the technical feasibility and commercial viability of environmentally sound, state-of-the-art technologies with a view to strengthening local economies.

Throughout our history spanning more than 50 years, the growth of ILSR and its mission to dismantle concentrated power and equip changemakers to build communities with locally accountable power has become a story worth telling. From taking on corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart to leading the charge against utility and waste monopolies, ILSR’s research, advocacy, and community assistance continue to break new ground for advancing vibrant, sustainable, and just cities and towns.

The seeds of ILSR were sown in 1974 by three D.C. neighbors with a shared vision of local resilience. Inspired by their community’s newly won rights of self-determination, their work first took root in a three-story townhouse in the Adams Morgan neighborhood — complete with a rooftop sprouts garden and a basement composting toilet — and quickly blossomed into what ILSR would become known for 50 years later. “We wanted a framework of local self-reliance that could be applied throughout all the sectors of the economy, broadly, but then we also wanted to get down and dirty,” recalls co-founder David Morris on ILSR’s Building Local Power podcast.