Thanks for visiting the Fort Collins Network Environmental Sustainability Tool (NEST)! This tool was developed by Colorado State University graduate student Carolyn Conant in collaboration with Dr. Jeni Cross (Department of Sociology), the Institute for the Built Environment, and the College of Liberal Arts’ Digital Hub.

The purpose of the NEST is to help people and organizations across sectors and fields of specialty in Fort Collins to better work together to accomplish important, time-sensitive work relating to local environmental sustainability.

Social network maps such as these ones can be helpful to individuals and organizations in many ways. Being able to see your network position can shed light on how well-connected or disconnected you are, as well as your organization’s strengths and opportunities for leadership and collaboration. You may not have realized how central to the network you are, or what an important role you play in connecting others. You might learn that although you are well-connected to others of a certain sector or topic area of work, you are lacking ties to people and organizations in other realms that could help you to accomplish your environmental sustainability goals. Seeing what ties exist between other people or organizations might help you to identify that an organization that you are currently working with has a relationship with an organization or project that you would like to be working with as well.

Overall, there is a lot to learn about your collaborative potential based on the structure of the social network and your position within it.

Curious? Click here to explore the NEST!