MUM courses:
- Energy Use by Man and Nature
- Hands On Course In Sustainable Technologies
- Permaculture Design Certification
- Sustainability Forest Academy
- Artisan Foods and the Slow Food Movement
- Local Economy
Grinnell College courses:
Resource Center
Tom
“Institute for Local Self-Reliance”.
Strengthening communities for more than 30 years
http://www.ilsr.org/
This organization has locations in Minnesota, and Washington DC. The website covers all areas of sustainability with exceptional completeness. They cover laws on the books, proposed changes, and new indicatives, industries that are trying to get around standards, a review of almost everything we could ask for. This is a support system that should not be overlooked. This crossroads of information helps us to quickly find support on all topics needed too build our local economy in the most advantageous way.
On the website in the top left your will find the links to the major areas.
- program areas
- new rules project proposed rules to support
- waste to wealth
- health building network
- carbohydrate economy
- e bulletins
- democratic energy
- healthy building news
- home town advantage
- new rules project news
ILSR Mission Statement
The Institute’s mission is to provide the conceptual framework, strategies and information to aid the creation of ecologically sound and economically equitable communities. To that end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens.
Minnesota Feed-In Tariffs
Tom’s blog.
This program if adapted would I think allow for a huge growth in renewable energy technologies and help local towns and areas become more energy independent. Localities can become carbon neutral much quicker, helping to alleviate our global warming crisis. I particularly like the prospect of local people owning their own large scale wind farms. What comes to mind is the article we read on Samao the island in Denmark. With the profits from a wind farm going to locals this would truly strengthen our local economy. I would like to see us create a coop situation like in Navarre, Spain where we could set up a credit union to finance our local wind and solar projects. This would also help to keep our money circulation local and available to locals in the form low cost loans for local business expansion. The profit from wind could finance a co-generation plant fuel by switch grass which would supply energy to the grid and the byproduct of heat for a more extensive winter greenhouse projects and other building heating projects. This project would restore faith in our system to take care of our needs without having to compete with other economies like China.
Minnesota Feed-In Tariff Could Lower Cost, Boost Renewables and Expand Local Ownership
By John Farrell
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Executive Summary
Several European countries, and more recently the Canadian province of Ontario, have adopted a simple yet powerful strategy to expand renewable energy and benefit local economies. It is called a feed-in tariff: a mandated, long-term premium price for renewable energy paid by the local electric utility to energy producers. Evidence shows that a feed-in tariff achieves greater results at a lower cost than do other strategies like tax incentives or renewable electricity standards.
Feed-in Tariff Benefits
Supports small-scale, grows large-scale - Germany’s feed-in tariff has led to an astonishing 20,000 MW of installed wind capacity, with 45% of turbines locally-owned. Even more remarkable, Germany had 2,500 MW of on-site solar electric at the end of 2006, about 250 times more than Minnesota despite Germany’s weaker solar resources.
Lowers costs - 20-year tariffs stabilize project revenues, lowering the cost of capital for all investors. By supporting all commercial renewable technologies, tariffs create economies of scale. And tariff rates are set to allow for reasonable profits, no more. Finally, by spreading the costs over all ratepayers, the cost to the individual household is very low. Germany’s massive expansion of renewables, for example, costs the average German household $2 per month.
Improves fairness - By enabling broad participation, feed-in tariffs are more equitable than other renewable energy policies. Current renewable electricity standards tend to favor those institutions large enough to play in a wholesale market, typically utilities and large independent power producers. Federal tax credits benefit only those with sufficient tax liability to use the credits effectively. In contrast, tariff rates adjust for size and quality of resource, allowing producers of any size and any geographic region to participate.
“Institute for Local Self-Reliance” cont.
New rules project
Designing rules as if communities mattered http://www.newrules.org/
Why new rules?
Because the old ones don't work any longer. They undermine local economies, subvert democracy, weaken our sense of community, and ignore the costs of our decisions on the next generation.
Agricultural sector
Agriculture is the foundation of all sustainable wealth. Even today, when agriculture plays a diminishing role, the productivity of the soil and the health of farmers are still a fundamental concern. Agriculture may be the sector most closely associated with the idea of community, of mutual aid, and self-reliance. Throughout history, healthy and enduring democracies often emerged from nations of independent farmers
Democratic Energy sector
Here you'll find news and information on developments that show how energy consumers are becoming energy producers, where governments are exerting their authority to enact new rules that promote an energy system that relies on maximizing efficiency, local ownership, on-site generation and geographically dispersed generation.
This section also offers existing rules, from statutes and zoning codes to utility tariffs and innovative programs that encourage decentralized technologies, local ownership and responsibility to future generations. If you have questions, comments or ideas to share
A new policy brief from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance concludes that universal dividends are a critically important tool to create the political will and public acceptance for a carbon cap. Universal dividends have the potential to hold harmless a large segment of consumers while we move to a low-carbon economy.
New California Law Hopes For Dramatic Expansion of Solar Hot Water Systems
The California Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 (AB 1470), creates a 10-year program aimed at installing 200,000 solar water heaters in homes and businesses using a $250 million fund. The law authorizes the California Energy Commission to “impose the surcharge at a level that is necessary to meet the goal ...” The surcharge will be applied to natural gas consumption on a per Btu basis and is estimated that it will cost the average residential natural gas user an additional 13 cents per month. The bill was signed into law on October 12, 2007.
Column: On Renewable Energy, Go Local
This column by ILSR's John Farrell argues that in their desire to expand renewable-energy production, activists and policymakers focus almost entirely on “more,” rather than “better.” Twenty-seven states have renewable-energy standards, requiring utilities to produce or sell 10, 20, even 30 percent of electricity from renewable sources in the next two decades. The U.S. House just passed an energy bill with a national renewable-energy standard and a drastically higher biofuels mandate. This tunnel vision on “more” overlooks the substantial benefits that local ownership can bring to our energy future.
Environment sector
We take our environment for granted. When we flip the light switch we expect the light to go on. We don't much care why or how that happens. And most people don't care about the intricate workings of our solid waste system of disposal and recovery, unless that system breaks down or rates skyrocket. Without responsibility, authority will be exercised in shortsighted ways. This section of the web site identifies rules that encourage communities to adopt a longer perspective and embrace policies that are responsible to the next generation. The most enduring way to reduce pollution is to extract the maximum value from local resources. The higher the efficiency, the lower the waste, the lower the pollution.
The carbohydrate economy clearinghouse
The Carbohydrate Economy
New technologies, new laws and an increasingly aware public are ushering in a new materials base for the 21st century - plant matter. Carbohydrates, the building blocks of plant matter, can be converted into chemicals, energy, textiles, building materials, paper, and many other industrial products. We call this new materials base a "carbohydrate economy." A carbohydrate economy reduces pollution, builds stronger rural communities, and supports a rooted farmer-owned manufacturing sector.
“Institute for Local Self-Reliance”cont.
Maine passes Law Requiring Economic Impact Studies of Big-Box Projects
The Maine legislature has given its approval to a bill that ILSR worked on extensively that requires cities and towns to evaluate the economic effects of large-scale retail development and to approve only those projects that will not have an adverse impact on jobs, local businesses, and municipal finances. The legislation is the first of its kind in the nation.
After watching the DVD on Wal-Mart’s impact on local businesses and especially small towns I can really appreciate this effort by Maine to protect its local economies. A lot of damage has already been done to local economies and it’s about time we use prevention to avert oversights in planning. This section includes a section called “Big Box Tool Kit” which gives advice on how to fight big box development.
Save yourself from having to fight a big-box proposal
in the future by changing your community's land use and development policies. Our kits include a model ordinance, examples of cities that have enacted the policy, answers to common questions, key arguments in support of the approach, sample flyers, and other educational materials. show how citizens fight the expansion of existing stores from getting there way.
Glen Carbon, IL –Glen-Ed Citizens for Fair Growth
has persuaded Wal-Mart to pull its application to convert an existing store into a supercenter. The project entailed adding another 80,000 sq. ft. to Wal-Mart's store and demolishing part of an existing shopping center, including a two-screen movie theater and about 20 small shops. The citizens group argued that the expansion would be detrimental to traffic, property values, noise, and small businesses. When the city approved Wal-Mart's plan anyway, the group sued, contending that the city violated planning ordinances when it granted Wal-Mart several zoning variances. With opposition growing, Wal-Mart pulled the plug.
“Institute for Local Self-Reliance”cont
Waste to Wealth - 2007 Annual Report
This website “Waste to Wealth’ now in its 33 year has been actively encouraging recycling, and lobbing for biodegradable packaging and products. They help communities stop waste incineration which produces DIOXIN the most toxic of all substances. They have worked hard to encourage the development of an industry to recycle plastics and other waste into new products which increases employment opportunities. Other alternative methods like composting bioplastic products are being developed.
For 33 years ILSR's "Waste to Wealth" program has helped to convert wastes from environmental and economic liabilities into valuable resources that contribute to community development.
In 2007, our work has focused on the following:
1. encouraging sustainable biomaterials to replace fossil-fuel-based plastics 2. developing green industrial parks 3. salvaging building materials through deconstruction 4. deterring waste incineration projects and promoting in their stead zero waste planning and recycling-based economic development 5. establishing a composting program in our home city of Washington, DC.
The World of Microfinance as seen in the Internet loan program of http://kiva.org
What is microfinance?
Local Economy Exam
Tom Lassota
What are ecosystem services?
These are services that nature provides in great abundance for no cost to us. This includes solar energy which creates ocean current, wind, and the hydrologic cycle, decomposition of waste, photosynthesis provides food and oxygen
Solar energy drives wind currents and ocean currents like the gulf stream that circulate warm water from the tropics north to Europe to warm the northern latitudes.
Wind dives the weather and provides us with wind for wind generation of electricity
The hydrologic cycle of evaporation of water which falls in the form of rain and snow and distributes water over most of the earth. Fairfield gets a million gallons per acre delivered right to your roof top where you can fill you barrels or cisterns with 30 to 50 thousand gallons a year.
What is ecological foot printing? How does it relate to localism?
How big a footprint we have is related to our energy and embodied energy in products we use and hence the amount of carbon and other greenhouse we individually or collectively release into the atmosphere. It’s also any waste we produce. By using locally produced vegetable and other produces we can reduce the amount of CO2 released from shipping of produced on the average of 1500 miles.
What distinction does Herman Daly make between sustainable growth and sustainable development? Why?
Sustainable Growth is limited by our physical environments ability to provide and renew itself and recycle nutrients. Unlimited growth is impossible. Sustainable development is respecting the limits of nature to provide renewable cycling of resources continuously into the future by respecting the nature limits of ecological systems. These are two totally different concepts of sustainability. Utility is a basic concept in standard economics. Throughput is not, in spite of the efforts of Kenneth Boulding and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen to introduce it. So it is not surprising that the utility definition has been dominant.
How does a steady state economy differ from the growth economy we have now? Is steady state necessary for sustainability?
Our growth economy continually demands more exploitation of natural resources to the extend that unrenewal resources like oil and gas are peaking in reserves and production. Biological resources like ocean fish are being harvested faster than their capacity to renew themselves. Global economy is causing everyone to lower their prices in order to compete and the distribution of wealth goes to the already wealthy leaving the poor much poorer. It’s a race to the bottom where richer countries deplete their resources and then import and deplete others resources. This is our false sense of growth at the expense of our human and natural resources. A steady state economy recognizes the laws of nature and its limits like the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Building a strong local economy helps us by reducing the drain from transportation infrastructure. We can compete with global prices by farmers and primary producers by selling directly to the customer.
Name three historical figures in the history of thought on localism, and describe why they were important.
Henry David Thoreau is a well know writer and part of the Transcendentalist movement which included Ralph Waldo Emerson. Having read Vedic literature and coming from personal Transcendental experiences he had very clear thinking about direction our civilization was going in and warned of the breakdowns and disconnection he saw with natural law. He saw in the local people the need to work ever harder to make ends meet but also the tendency to want stylish clothing and marketed things that they really didn’t to have a good life. His write nonviolence formed the basis of Gandhi’s nonviolent movement in India to resist the British unfair taxes.
Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was for strengthening the local economy and was against the British policies of exporting cotton to England only to buy it back as a finished material thus depleting the local economy. He lead a nonviolent revolt which gave India its independence in 1947.
E.F. Schumacher working at one of Europe’s largest commercial organizations of its day contributed to his conviction that large-scale technologies were dehumanizing and that “man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.” That thought inspired the title of his 1973 indictment of the neoclassical economic model Small is Beautiful. In it, Schumacher introduced the concept of “natural capital” and outlined an alternative economy based on human-scale, decentralized, and appropriate technologies that has inspired generations of environmentalists. He is also the author of Buddhist Economy.
Herman E. Daly Herman E. Daly’s writings on global economy, the limits of growth and its destructive effects mostly on those without capital mainly the poor who have only there labor to sell has exposed the inequities of our present policies. He was Senior Economist in the Environment Department of the world bank, where he helped to develop policy guidelines related to sustainable development. While there, he was engaged in environmental operations work in Latin America. We need to promote national and international policies that charge adequately for resource rents, in order to limit the scale of the macroeconomy relative to the ecosystem and to provide a revenue for public purposes. These policies must be grounded in an economic theory that includes throughput among its most basic concepts. These efficient national policies need protection from the cost-externalizing, standardslowering competition that is driving globalization. Protecting efficient national policies is not the same as protecting inefficient national industries.
Richard Douthwaite Richard Douthwaite is a contemporary economist and co-founder of Feasta: The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, an Irish based economic think tank. His books include “The Growth Illusion”, “Short Circuit”, and the “Ecology of Money”. His writings examine the effects of Globalization on local economies and constant need to cut wages and costs to compete. He is well versed in all aspects of raise of free trade and its effects over the last 50 years.
Name three contemporary figures in the localism movement and discuss their work
Judy Wicks is a true heroine of the localism movement. Judy Wicks is owner and founder of Philadelphia’s 24-year-old White Dog Cafe, and is a national leader in the local, living economies movement. She is co-founder and co-chair of the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), and founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN). She is also president of the White Dog Community Enterprises (formerly White Dog Cafe Foundation), a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to building a local living economy in the Philadelphia region.
Judy has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Business Enterprise Trust award, founded by Norman Lear, for creative leadership in combining sound business management with social vision. More recently, she received Business Ethics Magazine’s first “Living Economy Award,” and the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year, 2005. With a four-part mission of serving customers, community, employees, and the natural environment, the White Dog Cafe has created numerous educational and community-building programs which focus on topics such as economic & social justice, environmental protection, peace & non-violence, drug policy reform and community arts.
John Abrams
John Abrams founded the South Mountain Company, a design and building firm, on Martha's Vineyard more than thirty years ago. Through a commitment to place and community entrepreneurship, he has seen the company grow and prosper, while at the same time experimenting with a revolutionary employee ownership model that has challenged the traditional business rhetoric of unchecked growth.
The Company we Keep is more than the success story of a revolutionary company. It sets down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that has piqued the interest of entrepreneurs around the country.
Duncan Macmaster
Duncan Macmaster is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, a master craftsman, and Big Green Summer faculty. He loves showing people how to use traditional Japanese hand tools. On our visit to his shop he presented his views on traditional wood working and the energy that it embodies in the finished product. In a room filled with hand made items for practical uses, like tables, chairs, and useful household items we naturally feel relaxed at home and bathed in personal intimate energy of happy contented crafts persons. This crafts movement has been revived over the years and is a great place for individuals to find a local nitch and a life of satisfication.
Which economy operates more like the economy of nature, a steady state or a growth? Discuss why.
The laws of nature create limits to the exploitation of natural resources. Steady state economy respect these limits and works with then maintaining supplies for future generations.
Growth economies do not respect these limits. they try to externalize costs by cutting wages and short cuts in production that cause pollution and heavy environmental damage.
When limits are reached they export there industries to other counties and use their human and natural resources until they are also exhausted.
Discuss the concept of compound interest and its effects in a sustainable steady state economy.
Growth of compound interest is exponential and cannot by matched by real world ecological systems.
If allowed to grow it surpasses the total wealth of a nation. The stock market is based on this inflationary concept of speculation and growth beyond the means of real productivity in real goods and services.
Identify three case studies we looked at in the class and briefly describe them.
In the film “Life and Debt” about Jamaica the country had a financial crisis and was force to take loans from the IMF. The terms of the loan stipulated that they had to participate in free trade and since the could not make exports cheap enough they continued to spiral down until most of their local industries and farms collapsed. Heavily subsidized food and goods from the US undercut there local economy
Give your vision for a relocalized Jefferson county.
I envision availability of local produce to grow and supply stores like HyVee because they will become reliable. There will be a farmers coop with a permanent year round location delivering to restaurants. We will plant fruit trees in all the city and county parks and other eatable plants like raspberries, blueberries, serviceberries, strawberries etc. We will lobby for raw milk and cheese and remove other restrictions to food production. We will offer solar hot water and solar electric through a local loan program so that most houses will have access to them. I would like a grant for the university to develop more renewable resources. We will have alternate lanes for NEVs. The Art Walk and Theater will become bigger and better.
List three functions that currency performs.
Currency is a unit of exchange, a unit of value, and store of value.
How is currency different than wealth?
Currency is not backed by any thing. Paper is only good for exchange because people have faith in it. Currency called virtual wealth which is defined as the aggregate value of the real assets that the community abstains from holding in order to hold money instead Real wealth is in commodities and obey the laws of thermodynamics.
Describe how money is created in the US economy.
The privilege to create money is called seigniorage reserved for issuance by the government as legal tender. The way it is created is by banks loaning it into existence. They must keep 10% in reserves against the 90% it loans out.
Describe two local currencies.
Ithaca Hours is a local currency of Ithaca New York. They come in denominations of one hour of labor which represent ten dollars or ½ or ¼ or 2. these dollars are used with regular money as discount coupons. There are 350 businesses in town that accept these dollars including for banking services. Many small businesses thrive because people save their up to us for luxury items like massages from local vendors.
Larkin Merchandise Bonds. This was a typical depression scrip. The Larkin Company, a mail order company issued the script and paid it to it’s employees during the bank holiday declared by President Roosevelt. They were guaranteed to be accepted for goods and services. The issuance of $36,000 dollars worth circulated enough to boost the economy by $250,000 dollars. The Larkin company gradually withdrew then from circulation as the regular curacy recovered.
Why is localism essential for sustainability?
Dependence on supply lines that may stretch around the world leaves us in a bind if something brakes down like shortage of gasoline as in the 1970s oil embargo.
A locality is total venerable without developing its own sources of basis commodities.
Name two local, regional or international organizations dedicated to localism.
Transition town, Totnes is the UKs first town explores how to prepare for e carbon constrained, energy lean world. TTT is a community led initiative which is working toward the creation of an energy descent action plan designed to deal with coming peak oil when energy scarcity with force community to change there life styles to compensate.
Findhorn Foundation is the now famous place in English were people talked with the plant devas as a spiritual and practical exercise to understand these intelligent beings.
United Nations and the Findhorn Foundation The Findhorn Foundation is an Non-Governmental Organization associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information and takes an active role at UN headquarters in New York especially in the areas of education, sustainability and values.
List Richard Douthwaite’s five principals of local sustainability.
- Every system used in its area should be able to be continued, and every production cycle repeated, without environmental deterioration or other problems emerging in the next 1,000 years.
- The population is should be stable and the district's economy should be growing or changing very slowly, if at all. The district must certainly not depend on economic growth for the maintenance of employment and prosperity.
- The district must produce at least enough food and raw materials to enable its members to live simple, comfortable lives while staying within the limits of their environment and not exploiting other parts of the world.
- All the energy used in the district must come from its own renewable resources.
- To avoid being exploited or disrupted from outside, the district must have its own currency or currencies and its own banking system. Because investors' interests are rarely compatible with those of a community, capital should not be allowed to flow in or out and interest rates, if any, should be determined internally.
List Douthwaites four action steps for greater local self reliance.
- the establishment of an independent currency system.
- the establishment of an independent banking system.
- the production of enough energy for renewables
- production of the areas basic food and clothing
Describe two ways local economies can compete with global etc.
Cut wages. If workers take a cut in a local business the benefits stay in the community.
Cut capital cost. By avoiding barrowing from commercial banks. Communities can create their own currency they can lend it for lower rates or interest free. He named his book Short Circuit to denote braking away from global economy. Short cutting the circulation of money and goods.
Name three legal forms of business organizations.
- Limited liability companies or LLC
- Corporations
- Mondragon cooperative corporation, Coops
What is the difference between a credit union and a bank?
A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members. Credit unions differ from banks and other financial institutions in that the members who have accounts in the credit union are the owners of the credit union.
Credit union policies governinginterest rates and other matters are set by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by and from the membership itself. Only a member of a credit union may deposit money with the credit union, or borrow money from it. As such, credit unions have historically marketed themselves as providing superior member service and being committed to helping members improve their financial health.
Bank is a financial institution that acts as a payment agent for customers, and borrows and lends money. It is own by share holders not it’s depositors.
5 big ideas.
Local currency. This is a big idea because it can help a local town become more self reliant and transition from dependence on the global economy. Cooperative corporations like Mondragon has created a complete community that is very self suffient. They created large industries that are employee owned. This allows for opportunity to create innovation that grows the industry for everyone’s benefit.
Interest free banks. The Danish bank Jap has house loan which only cost to consumer a few percent instead of the commercial bank where you pay two and one half times the purchasing price.
A steady state economy recognizes the laws of nature and its limits like the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Building a strong local economy helps us by reducing the drain from transportation infrastructure. We can compete with global prices by farmers and primary producers selling directly to the customer.
Energy independence. Local energy production of electricity from wind farms and photovoltaic systems. Collector for salary hot water. Energy companies are a monopoly and prices will continue to raise.
SCI
Water the root and enjoy the fruit. The world is as we are. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Well begun is half done. These are just a few of the SCI principal that apply. Our goal is a life of progress and satisfaction with a sustainable basis. We do not wish to give our life energies away to support the ignorance of profiteering organizations. Our joy is to become more in accord with nature law as time goes on. As Maharishi always says life is here to enjoy and our joy is to support a shift toward a steady state economy. Do less and accomplish more. Nature operates with least action. I would like to see millions of wind generators slowly turning and geared to harvest the abundant resource given freely by nature. All this free energy is from the sun the center of our universe, the giver of life. Harvesting the effortless bounty of nature we eliminate all problem of pollution and global warming. This program is the effortless direction that evolution is taking us in. Our abundant Vedic Organic Produce will keep us healthy and promote the virtues of Ayurveda. As you sow so shall you reap has a most positive meaning when growing food.