It’s been forty years since Donella Meadows and her team at MIT published The Limits to Growth, but their message still needs to be heard–today more than ever. When their groundbreaking book first came out in 1972, the Limits to Growth team argued that there are limits in any finite system, and we were rapidly approaching them. Forty years later, many scientist believe that we have already overshot many of these limits on our planet, echoing the study’s famous “Overshoot and Collapse” scenario.

Last Call: The Untold Reasons of the Global Crisis examines these limits in today’s context. The film reconnects with key members of the original study, including Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows, both of whom are still working to spread their urgent message and change the course of the crises we’re currently facing. Through a combination of historic footage, interviews, new filming, and even some scenes shot right here at DMI, Last Call aims to explain today’s global crisis and bring the Limits to Growth message to a wider audience while there is still time to take action. The film’s director, Enrico Cerasuolo, explains, “I want to share a compelling vision of a sustainable future, that’s why Last Call must be seen and heard by as many people as possible.”

Help the Last Call team “change the ending” by supporting the film! The team just launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them through the final stages of editing and distribution, and your participation can make a real difference. Here are some great ways to get involved and support the legacy of Donella Meadows and The Limits to Growth:

• Support Last Call by checking out their campaign page
• Order a copy of the film or arrange a screening in your area
• Visit the film’s webpage to learn more
• Like the project on Facebook and follow it on Twitter
• Share information about Last Call with your online network
• Talk about the film with your family and friends!

Dr. Andreas Wieg and Dirk Vansintjan, two leaders in Europe’s community-based transition to renewable energy, will visit the Upper Valley as part of their Vermont, New Hampshire, and Ontario week-long tour starting April 22, 2013. During their time here, they will engage with local colleges and schools, businesses, and organizations and explore how renewable energy projects can spur local business, strengthen the
economy, and benefit the environment.

In Germany, much of the push towards a clean energy transition comes from a bottom-up approach at the local level. A revolution is literally underway where towns and villages are designing community-owned cooperatives for producing and distributing renewable energy. People are increasingly realizing the potential of these initiatives for economic development in the form of well-paying jobs, tax revenues, and strengthened community ties.

While in the Upper Valley, the delegation will visit local energy organizers, renewable energy businesses, educators and the general public to explore how electric cooperatives, municipalities, the agricultural community, policy makers, and the private sector can work together to advance biomass, wind and solar projects.

A public forum is scheduled for April 24 at 7:00 PM at the Cook Auditorium, Dartmouth College. All interested community members are encouraged to attend.

The forum is organized by the Donella Meadows Institute, the Dartmouth Energy Collaborative, Sustainable Energy
Resource Group, Sierra Club of the Upper Valley, and Vital Communities.

Dirk Vansintjan is the manager of Ecopower, a rural electric cooperative in Belgium and is co-founder of REScoop.be, the Belgian federation for renewable energy cooperatives.

Dr. Andreas Wieg has an MBA and PhD in Economics from the Philipps-University Marburg and is the manager of the “New Cooperatives Working Group” of the German cooperative associations based in Berlin.

The delegation’s visit is sponsored by funding from the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Information about the “German Energy Transition” to renewable energy can be found at: www.energytransition.de

Monday’s events in Boston have had our staff here at DMI hen-like in their soft “clucking” concerned for our friends and family in Boston and the region.

Indeed, it has been hard to focus on what seem like trivial “to-dos” compared to what people were going through who were present and/or connected to individuals running and cheering around Copley this Monday.

Two immediate things were important that day –

• Checking in on friends and family to ensure they were safe, and
• Doing whatever might be useful for those who were suffering either from injury, shock, dislocation, or grief for another.

In that sense, as a former runner, I felt the athletes present were examples of qualities we might call up in ourselves: those of tenacity, dedication, patience, and self-awareness. They were examples of holding fast to that which drives us in life – our relationships, the moments of connection and community which so exemplify the essence of Marathon Monday. They were examples of the tenacity and dedication of 26.2 miles of pavement and what it takes to complete each step, knowing that, whether it’s injury, loss, or grief, there is a journey ahead towards worthy goals that will take drive, vision, and respect of their not coming cheap at times. Finally, they were examples of an awareness of measured energy in the face of an epic goal and finishing each step to completion. At times that meant feeling the pain and going easy for a moment so they could continue on, tapping into resources like love and offered support, pushing up the hills facing them, and coasting down again when offered a little reprieve.

Yesterday amidst the relief of friends being safe, and anguish for those not so lucky, I went out to the barn to check on the bottle fed lambs.  Kneeling down to share some mutually beneficial love, the smaller of the two tucked himself firmly under my thigh and started butting his head against me, looking for an udder.  It brought me a warm smile and pleasure in having life so feistily and forcefully demand attention.

It was a good thing – a little life not lost for the effort the farmers are putting in to replace his mother, and, in thriving, his ability to share some of that zest with a woman grieving for innocents caught by a senseless act.

Spring today seems truly here at last, as it felt in Monday’s sun. My hope for you, no matter what the challenge of your association with the events Monday or the countless similar events that happen globally, might be that you find your “wee lamb,” however that presents itself in your life, and take the time to celebrate life, now, today…no matter what step you are on in your journey.  Love, community, hope, appreciation, and compassion are conscious choices made every day. We do have the choice, no matter if we are at the start, on the climb, or enjoying coasting down a “hill” with the sun on our faces.

image credit: soniasu_ via flickr

With a shared understanding of DMI’s mission, articulated as “building resilience through connecting people and place,” we look forward to increased capacity and tools to bring back to the Upper Valley and share with our peers and clients. If you are curious about the Academy for Systemic Change or Way of Nature, please explore the links above and feel free to contact us if you want to discuss how these approaches and tools are accessible in the Upper Valley.

In addition, the video of Peter Senge’s “Breaking the cycle of Fatalism” resonates deeply with the common characteristics enabling Vermont to show up at the front lines of the emergent economies. There is a deeply sensible and grounded awareness here that “it is possible and we can do that.” While we are all prone to the occasional moment of frustration, it is very clear that  this attitude prevails–as evidenced by the mobilizing (a post Irene morale) license plate reading “I am Vermont Strong.” I have no doubt that the village communities of the Green Mountains and the protection of historical ways of life lay somewhere near the heart of how the region has retained and reinforced its resilience and adaptability. That, combined with a ruthless devotion to a “what works works” sensibility, has allowed awareness and relatively swift adaptations to challenges like a carbon economy, urban sprawl and gentrification, climate change, or human health systems. There truly seems to be the heart of a lion right behind that reserved New England facade!

We look forward to sharing new tools and clarity with you in May!

Pamela

Growth in GDP was long ago decoupled from personal indicators of well-being, as many Americans report being overworked, stressed, and lonely. (image credit: Stanley Wood)

Happiness: is it just a fad of the day or the wave of the future? On July 19th, 2011, the United Nations (UN) passed a resolution urging governments across the globe to start measuring happiness and well-being “with a view to guiding public policy.” The UN recognizes that gross domestic product (GDP) is an insufficient guide for safeguarding the well-being of people or our future. Instead, the UN suggests “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes sustainable development, poverty eradication, happiness and well-being of all peoples.”

In April, 2012, the UN held its first High Level Meeting on Happiness and Well-Being. Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley of Bhutan set the tone:

The time has come for global action to build a new world economic system that is no longer based on the illusion that limitless growth is possible on our precious and finite planet or that endless material gain promotes well-being. Instead, it will be a system that promotes harmony and respect for nature and for each other; that respects our ancient wisdom traditions and protects our most vulnerable people as our own family, and that gives us time to live and enjoy our lives and to appreciate rather than destroy our world. It will be an economic system, in short, that is fully sustainable and that is rooted in true, abiding well-being and happiness.

We’re part of a team that is working to find concrete ways to engage individuals and communities in just the sort of reassessment the United Nations proposes. We started a project we call The Happiness Initiative in 2010. Before we explain how our model works, it’s important to understand why such a project is needed.

A Broken System

It’s clear to those who’ve been paying attention that our current economic behaviors are on a collision course with the earth’s limits, an issue the founders of the Balaton Group warned about 40 years ago in their seminal book Limits to Growth. Recent reports by the Global Footprint Network and others confirm their predictions. We are now using resources and generating wastes at rates 40 percent higher each year than can be sustained. If every country on earth were to consume at U.S. levels, we’d need five planets.

As the UN points out, part of the problem is our current metric for societal success: GDP. While the United States has one of the world’s largest per capita GDPs, it trails most other wealthy countries and some poorer ones in many ways. A few examples:

• Americans are more likely to report experiencing stress than are people of 144 other nations. Rich and poor Americans are more likely to be anxious or worried than people in 88 other nations. The United States ranks 11th in “life satisfaction” according to the Gallup-Healthways poll, but well below Denmark, Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands.
• Americans consume nearly two-thirds of the world’s antidepressants.
• More than a third of Americans over 45 report being chronically lonely, up from 20 percent in 2000.
• U.S. life expectancy is 50th in the world according to the CIA World Factbook, shorter than in any other rich country, despite the fact that Americans spend twice as much on health care per capita than other countries do.
• Rates of poverty and child poverty in the US are the highest among wealthy countries, and more than double the average in Europe.

Yet sadly, the American economic model is becoming more dominant, even in Europe. We are sacrificing our health, happiness, social connection, leisure time, and the environment in the blind pursuit of growth. We can’t go on like this.

Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness

Since World War II, the consumer society has been triumphant. It’s time to look beyond consumerism to happiness, argue the authors. (image credit: James Vaughan/Flickr)

Forty years ago, King Jigmi Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan was asked what he was going to do to improve his nation’s gross national product (GNP). He replied that, “Gross national happiness is more important than gross national product.” In 2004, with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program, Bhutan brought in a group of scientists and developed its first happiness survey based on nine domains of life: material well-being, good governance, environmental quality and access to nature, community well-being, cultural well-being, education, health, psychological well-being, and time balance.

At the same time, Bhutan identified 72 objective metrics for the nine domains of happiness. Subjective survey results, complemented by these objective metrics, are now used to guide policy decisions and allocation of resources in Bhutan. Recently, for example, when faced with deciding whether to build a dam in a large Himalayan valley so it could sell hydropower, the government decided that preservation of ecosystems and the value of nature to Bhutanese culture outweighed expected monetary gain.

The Global Search for New Measures of Well-Being

A handful of world leaders have already been following the example of Bhutan. The British prime minister, David Cameron, says he wants his legacy to be a measure of happiness. The United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics conducted its first survey and found the British to be “unhappy” about work, family, education, and health care, but not very concerned about climate change.

In 2010 France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy strongly urged all world leaders to consider happiness and well-being measures in addition to GDP.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, an organization called Future Vision is working with high school students, training them to go door to door in neighborhoods, survey residents’ well-being, and hold town meetings. An unexpected outcome of these projects is a newfound respect between neighborhood residents and youth.

Canada recently issued its first Index of Well-Being, using objective metrics. These well-being indicators will be considered in forming public policy. At the same time, the City of Victoria in British Columbia refined the survey used in Bhutan and was the first to survey its population, using a random sample. That work brought refreshed awareness to Mayor Dean Fortin who believes we need to find different models of success: “Our children will not be the consumers that we are. Our world cannot afford that level of overconsumption.” Their idea sparked our project.

The Happiness Initiative

The Happiness Initiative began as Sustainable Seattle’s fifth set of regional sustainability indicators, but has now become an independent project. We launched the project by putting Victoria’s happiness survey online in January of 2011. People from every state in the United States took it, as did 500 people from other countries. The survey was a shortened version of Bhutan’s, but still took half an hour to complete (a problematic length in an age of short attention spans).

At the insistence of King Jigmi Singye Wangchuck (at right), Bhutan in 2004 created gross national happiness as a counterweight to gross national product. (image credit: Gelay Jamtsho)

The First Happiness Report Card: In November of 2011, we issued our first happiness report card to the City Council of Seattle, which had unanimously proclaimed it would consider the results in future policymaking.

The first happiness report card compiled the results of 7,200 people who completed the survey, including 2,600 from the Seattle area. The happiness report card for the Seattle area found that the lowest score was in time balance. Scores were also low in community participation, and satisfaction with government. Scores were high in material well-being and psychological well-being, but the objective metrics tell a somewhat different story. For example, average income trends down and reports of domestic violence are up.

Perhaps the most surprising finding in the Seattle report was that youth, ages 19–24, were the least satisfied age group. They scored low in affect, satisfaction with life, time balance, the environment, and material well-being. This differs from previous results in well-being research. While it may be that our sample is not fully representative of youth, the Occupy movement and consistent messages of environmental decline and unemployment rates may play a role in the gloomier outlook among young people. For all ages, closer community ties bring greater happiness.

Immigrants were even less happy than youth. A Seattle Department of Neighborhoods grant allowed us to translate the survey into several languages used commonly by immigrants in the city. Local organizations serving the Vietnamese, Somali, Oromo, and Filipino communities used these surveys with immigrants. In all domains, their scores were well below (10 to 25 percent) city averages, particularly in “confidence in government.” Community meetings were held to address the issues; one held by the Vietnamese Friendship Association drew 200 local community members and many city and police officials. While being taught how to make Vietnamese “spring” rolls, the group looked for ways to increase trust and understanding.

New, shorter survey now available: We have also launched a new, shorter, fully validated, and more effective survey. The new survey includes 10 domains of well-being. It was developed by a team led by San Francisco State University’s Ryan Howell, who says that, “When you take into account both time efficiency and comprehensiveness, I firmly believe this is the best well-being survey out there anywhere. Individuals, organizations, academic institutions, and governments can all benefit from using this survey.”

A representative sampling of Americans has been taken to provide baseline data for the new survey. Each survey-taker receives a personal score, comparing the taker’s well-being in each of the 10 domains with a national average score. Aggregate results are provided to communities by zip code or to organizations using referral codes or unique URLs.

Here is the latest data from the survey: http://www.happycounts.org/overview/

Across the United States, city council members, city managers, members of regional governing boards, and many community activists are showing interest. In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 66,000, the city manager convened a team including local universities, the chamber of commerce, the public library, and other organizations to launch an initiative. Many colleges and universities are also beginning class- or campus-wide initiatives. Students at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire are conducting the survey on campus and in the nearby town of New London as part of a transitional towns initiative.

Started in January of 2011, The Happiness Initiative, based in Seattle, is using surveys to measure the well-being of people across the country. (image credit: Greg Drzazgowski)

Internationally, interest in the Happiness Initiative is also growing. At the Balaton meeting, Gyongyver Gyene, a professor and community activist from Budapest, Hungary, declared that, “A happiness initiative in our transitioning area could be very timely as we negotiate increasing tension, economic instability, and rapid changes to our built and social environments in Budapest.” Swapan Metha, who led an effort that brought 10,000 youth to march in the streets of New Dehli, India, to protest corruption, added that, “It is important that people have a way to communicate what really matters to them, and for policy makers and other decision makers to hear this. Our current systems are not working, so maybe something like this could make a difference.”

There are nine steps to conducting a happiness initiative:

1. Form a happiness team. For a city or town, this includes people representing local government, universities, or other educational institutions, business representatives, health authorities, community-based organizations, and other institutions such as the public library. We have developed toolkits so that anyone can measure happiness. These can be found at www.happycounts.org. Each organization is encouraged to proclaim its public support for the project and a model proclamation is included in the toolkit.
2. Conduct the survey, using a unique url provided by the Happiness Initiative (email happyhappycountsorg  (happyhappycountsorg)   for the url). This will allow your community, college, or organization to receive your specific aggregate survey results. The survey can be conducted in two ways: a voluntary “opt-in” survey that is continually available online so that individuals can take the survey and access their own comprehensive well-being assessment as a path to deep self-reflection. If there is funding, a city should also try to conduct a random sampling to get the most scientifically valid results.
3. Determine and gather data for objective metrics. Many areas already have their objective metrics, but the Happiness Initiative suggests indicators for organizations and areas that don’t already have them.
4. Issue a happiness report card to the team members and for the public. The content of the report depends on the level of analysis. A basic report includes just the survey results and objective metrics for the domains of happiness. A detailed report analyzes correlations and demographic trends.
5. Reconvene the team and bring in new partners. Who should be at the table? Who should know about the state of well-being in the area? Who is positioned to take positive action or make things happen? These are the partners to include on the team at this point.
6. Convene town meetings to discuss the happiness report and explore where people are hurting and where they are thriving. Ask questions to find out what people want to do themselves, and want to see done by local policy makers, businesses, and not-for-profits.
7. Conduct happiness projects where resources are available. These can be small individual actions or large community-scale initiatives. Team partners may make policy changes or use the report card to inform resource allocation decisions. These, too, can be collected for the next step.
8. Issue a happy town report that compiles the community input from the town meetings and explains the happiness projects. The report should be issued to the team, but also be released to the media in order to inform the public.
9. Reconvene the team to interpret and learn from the results, and decide when the next assessment should occur.

Supporting activities for a happiness initiative include creating a website for the project or web pages on a team member’s website. Attracting positive media attention will encourage more people to take the survey and lend greater support for policy makers who use the results. Thus far, the media have loved the project, with coverage ranging from Al Jazeera to Reuters and the Atlantic.

Pursuit of Happiness Day and Week: As part of the Happiness Initiative, and in partnership with many other organizations, we are co-sponsoring Pursuit of Happiness Day on April 13, 2013 (the birthday of Thomas Jefferson) followed by a week of “Sustainable Happiness” ideas leading up to Earth Day. In 2012, Vermont’s governor proclaimed Pursuit of Happiness Day and the event was celebrated on several colleges. More information can be found at: www.happycounts.org/celebrate.

Forty years ago, Limits to Growth warned us that we needed to slow down our rates of production and consumption, pollution, resource depletion, food production, and population growth. We did not. Twenty years ago, Sustainable Seattle created the first set of regional sustainability indicators so policy makers and businesses would truly value and preserve our natural, built, social, and personal environment. They didn’t. Now we must prepare ourselves for the future. The Happiness Initiative is just one of many solutions that can help us adapt. It uses a personal approach by asking questions; and by providing a platform for conversations to spark actions for our well-being.

It has now been 100 years since that January day in 1912 when thousands of mill workers, most of them immigrant women, left their jobs and marched in the snowy streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts, demanding “bread, and roses, too.” They knew they needed “bread”—a raise in wages from 16 to 18 cents per hour. But they also needed many non-material things including shorter working time—“to smell the roses.” As the great labor song put it: “Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew… hearts starve as well as bodies…”

Since the triumph of the consumer society after World War II, our focus has been entirely on the bread, the money, the stuff, what we measure with GDP. But the nonmaterial side of life—love, art, beauty, time, caring, connection, nature, and so much more—all that counts for nothing as far as GDP is concerned unless we buy it, all the most important things in life that are not things at all but that truly make us happy—all the “roses” have been left to wilt. It’s time to value them again, time to count them again, time to water them again.

Join us, not only to measure happiness, but to find it as well!

This article was reposted from the Solutions Journal, February 2013.

Office Redesign Competition! Help DMI transform its office space into a reflection of our work and our community–something innovative, inspiring, creative, and collaborative.

DMI is looking for talented, adventurous folks in Vermont and the Upper Valley area to help us turn our office into a place that amplifies our creativity, nurtures our passions, and reflects the values of our Institute. Between now and March 15, we will be accepting proposals for the redesign of our office space. We welcome proposals from artists, designers, and anyone else with ideas about creating productive, exciting, and healthy work spaces.

The winning designer(s) will work with DMI staff to implement their proposed designs the weekend of March 30th and 31st. In return for their brilliance, inspiration, and ideas, the chosen designers will have their work featured at our Community Open House on April 6th and shared with our network of friends and followers online. This is a great opportunity for anyone wishing to share their skills with a local nonprofit and gain exposure for their work!

We’re open to anything from living walls to oversized chalkboards to hammocks, so send us your proposals. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

For more information on submitting a proposal, including important dates, a video tour of the office, and suggested resources, please visit our Office Redesign Competition page. Proposals may be emailed to sarahdonellameadowsorg

The U.S. Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) will hold its 2013 Conference on June 9-12 at the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington, Vermont. DMI is pleased to be a sponsor for the conference, which will be hosted by the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. The event is organized around the theme of “Building Local, Scaling Global: Implementing Solutions for Sustainability.” It will aim to research and catalog sustainability lessons learned at local, regional, and state levels and identify solutions that can be scaled up.

The State of Vermont has been described as a “laboratory” for sustainability science and policy, with progressive programs in energy and land-use planning, ecological economic indicators to guide public policy, and a grassroots movement to transition to a post-fossil fuel economy. In the spirit of “getting on with sustainability already”, this year’s meeting will be organized around an emerging optimism that local solutions are bubbling up everywhere. 2013 is the year to synergize and strategize.

Proposals for paper, panel, poster, and workshop submissions are currently welcome, especially as they relate to the conference themes.

Please visit the Call for Papers page to submit your presentation ideas online. Abstracts are due by February 15, 2013. For questions, contact conference organizers at ussee13uvmedu  (ussee13uvmedu)   or call UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at (802) 656-1353. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee, chaired by John Gowdy, former president of both the USSEE and ISEE.

USSEE 2013 is sure to be an enlightening and inspiring event. Please help spread the word!

I’ve learned a lot about the economy since the Donella Meadows Institute launched its Sustainable Economies program earlier this year. I’ve learned about problems with fractional reserve banking and our traditional economic model, and I’ve learned about alternatives like public banks, complementary currencies, and cooperative ownership models. But perhaps the piece of knowledge that surprised me most of all was learning just how much I didn’t know about our economic system.

Despite taking economics courses in college, keeping up with the news, and managing my own finances, I discovered that the inner workings of our financial system were sometimes a mystery to me. Luckily, there is a huge wealth of information out there. The internet is filled with resources that explain how our current economy works and how it might work better. I’ve collected some of these resources below as a starter guide for interested folks. If you find yourself unsure about exactly what happens to your money once you’ve deposited it in the bank, these resources are for you. If you want an alternative to high interest costs that are built into every purchase you make, these resources are for you. Dive on in!

1. Banking 101 Video Course from Positive Money UK

Positive Money is a not-for-profit organization that works to raise awareness of the connections between our current monetary system and some of the biggest social, economic and environmental challenges facing us today. As part of this mission, they have created a number of excellent educational videos, including some that focus on how our banking system really works. These videos are a great place to start, since they take a step-by-step look at how the system functions. View the first in this series below, and then visit their website to watch the rest.

2. Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources

Released earlier this month, this book by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill takes a look at the problems inherent in our growth-dependent economic system. They explain why growth shouldn’t be—and, ultimately, cannot be—our prime economic goal, and then move on to explore more viable economic structures. Enough is Enough is a great read for those interested in a blueprint for building a sustainable economy that can meet human needs.

3. Web Chat with James Gustave Speth and Rob Dietz

On February 1, environmental leader James Gustave Speth and ecological economist Rob Dietz will team up to discuss the breakdowns in our political and economic systems—and how we can take action to fix them. Join in the discussion and learn what you can do to mend the system by taking part in this free Web Chat.

4. Caring Economy Starter Course

As the Caring Economy Campaign notes on their website, “We are not accustomed to seeing economy and caring in the same sentence. Nor have we been taught to think of economics from the perspective of caring for people or nature.” If we want an economic system that meets our needs, these things will have to change. To that end, the Caring Economy Campaign is offering free lunchtime webinars to engage participants in the possibilities of economic and cultural transformation. Join them to learn about possibilities for more sustainable and humane economic systems.

5. Videos from the Center for a New American Dream

Once you have gained an understanding of the issues with our current financial system and learned about some alternatives available to us, New Dream’s website is a great resource. The videos in their library focus on helping you implement alternatives such as time banks, clothing swaps, sharing circles, and energy co-ops in your own community. Watch this video about their vision for a Plenitude Economy below, and then check out their other videos to start building it!

Do you have other favorite resources you’d like to see on this list? Please share them with us in the comments section below!

Conference attendees discussing complementary currencies at one of the morning’s sessions

The Vermont’s New Economy Conference on December 7 brought together 110 individuals from across Vermont and its neighboring communities. Attendees included members of Vermont’s legislature, local business owners, educators, nonprofit employees, and others. After a keynote address by Ellen Brown of the Public Banking Institute, participants split up to take part in three rounds of concurrent sessions on various New Economy topics. These sessions were split into five separate tracks—Public Banking, Measuring What Matters, Complementary Currencies, New Finance and Investment Opportunities, and Ownership Models. The conference sessions were organized using an Open Space format, which allowed attendees to suggest sessions on their topics of interest, discuss their ideas and concerns in groups, and move between sessions as they saw fit.

On an individual level, one of the primary results of the conference was the great amount of learning and networking that participants gained as they shared their knowledge, stories, and ideas. For DMI, one very important result was the emergence of themes, needs, questions, and actions relating to the development of a new economy. These results are detailed below. They will help guide us as we move forward to develop a healthier, more local, and more resilient economy in Vermont.

Themes and Lessons Learned

Communication & Education

• We need to develop the language to discuss New Economy issues with the public and the legislature in a way that will resonate.
• Public conversations about new economic alternatives and opportunities need to become mainstream.
• There is a tremendous amount of information out there about New Economy ideas and possibilities, but people don’t know how to access it.
• We need to make new economy ideas attractive and clearly communicate a goal worth achieving.

Mindsets

• We need to create a sense of urgency around economic issues and the formation of a new economy.
• There are psychological barriers to talking about money that we will have to work through.
• We must learn to see beyond the money value in things and think of money as just one tool to help us achieve other goals such as learning, happiness, fulfillment, and growth.
• We have to change our focus from a “me” to a “we” concept and emphasize community.
• The New Economy’s focus on common good and non-monetary values is a real attraction for many people.

The Vermont Community

• There is a lot of interest and energy in Vermont to make progress on economic and social issues.
• Most people at the conference were already involved in some sort of sustainability work, and they want ways to put these new ideas into practice now.

Organization & Support

• The coalition of support needed to pass bills and get governmental action on issues like public banking is not there. At the same time, the opposition to public banking hasn’t formed yet, either. The same is likely true for other new ideas like time banks and alternative indicators.
• Sustainable institutional support will be needed to keep things like time banks and public banks going.
• Conference attendees represented a whole set of institutions and interests in the area, but there needs to be a coalition that can organize their collective actions and efforts. As one attendee commented in the wrap-up session, “We represent a whole set of institutions and organized groups of people working on similar things. Building a coalition is going to make the change that we need.” This desire for unification and collaborative action was also reflected in the formation of working groups during some of the sessions, including time banks and GPI.

Questions

Eric Zencey of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics explains the problems with GDP and the benefits of measuring wellbeing using GPI

The talks and discussions at the conference brought up many questions about the New Economy and how to implement it. While many were specific to particular session topics, a number of broader questions were raised that span the many facets of a New Economy in Vermont. Discussing, researching, thinking, and experimenting with these questions will be an important aspect of DMI’s work going forward. If you have any thoughts about them, please share with us by leaving a comment below!

• What is an economy, and what is it for?
• How can we value the things that matter most?
• What will be the scope of Vermont’s new economy? How do we define local and how do we fit into the larger economy?
• How do we fund these ideas and support them in the long term?
• How do we make information easily available to the public?
• What are the leverage points we should target to create a new economy in the quickest, most effective way?

Actions and Next Steps

In addition to learning and sharing ideas, the conference also resulted in specific action steps and focus groups that are already working on carrying New Economy ideas forward. Many of them are steps that you can take, too! Please email us at infodonellameadowsorg if you would like to be added to the Vermont Coalition for a New Economy list.

Conference-Wide

• Form a Vermont Coalition for a New Economy made up of conference attendees
• Move money to local banks and divest it from destructive industries like fossil fuels

Measuring What Matters

• Read the GPI bill that passed in the Vermont Senate
• Learn about what is happening in other areas that are working with alternative measurements, such as Maryland, Canada, and Bhutan
• Establish a working group interested in pursuing alternative measurement in Vermont
• Talk to people in the legislature and the media about GPI and GNH
• Fine tune the GPI for application to Vermont

Public Banking

• Form a Friends of Vermont Public Bank to raise broad support for further legislative action
• Occupy the state capitol and demand that Vermont pass a Vermont State Bank Bill
• Conduct outreach to increase awareness within the public
• Conduct in-depth study of how a state bank would work in Vermont

Time Banks

• Create a working group of people interested in starting a time bank in Burlington (an email list was circulated so all session participants could keep in contact)
• Pitch the idea of a Burlington-area time bank to City Market at their next board meeting

DMI would like to thank each and every one of the participants who shared their ideas and enthusiasm at the conference and helped us learn. Improving and strengthening our economy is a huge project that depends on the involvement and support of many caring people. Please get involved by sharing your thoughts and reactions below and by keeping in touch via Facebook and Twitter for updates about future events!

The following piece was written by Donella Meadows and published December 29, 1988. Twenty-four years later, her simple, practical suggestions for what we as individuals can do to contribute to the health of our planet still ring true. The year 2012 was marked as a year of unprecedented environmental disasters, but we can all work to make 2013 the year we turned those disasters around.

“What can I do?” It’s been twenty years since I’ve been asked that question so insistently. A new generation is discovering the environmental problems of our troubled planet, and I’m hearing from students, from readers, from people everywhere. “I’m really scared about acid rain, the ozone hole, the greenhouse effect. What can I DO?”

There may be some grand, sacrificial, heroic answer, but the best answers I know are almost trivial. Environmental problems are caused by billions of small, unthinking actions. They’ll be cured by billions of small, sensible actions, simple substitutions of environmentally conscious habits for thoughtless and wasteful ones.

For example, here’s a list of New Year’s resolutions that anyone can follow — and each of them produces at least three guaranteed environmental benefits.

1. Recycle your bottles and cans and paper and plastic and everything else you can. Twenty years ago recycling was a difficult and socially wierd practice. Now, because of the landfill shortage, it’s easy. There is almost certain to be a recycling center near you. If not, start one. Hundreds of towns have done it and can tell you how. Your town can even hire consultants to set the whole thing up.

Why bother? First, because the real cost of dumping is beginning to be assessed, and your community will save money. Second, because recycling brings multiple blessings. Recycled aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy it took to purify the metal, 95 percent of the water pollution and 97 percent of the air pollution. Every ton of recycled paper saves 35 percent of the energy, 74 percent of the air pollution, 35 percent of the water pollution it takes to make new paper. If you recycle plastics, you’ll save not only dump space, but fossil fuel, and the production of some of the most hazardous wastes in all industry.

Take it from an old-timer; when it becomes a habit, recycling is no more bothersome than brushing your teeth, and it’s just as socially necessary.

2. Drive the most gas-efficient car you can find. The average mileage of this country’s car fleet is a piggish 18 mpg. It’s easy to find a car (even an American-made one) that gets 30-40 mpg. If we all did that, we would still get to all the places we have to go, we would save billions of dollars, become independent of Middle Eastern oil, make huge cuts in acid rain and greenhouse emissions, and even get our cities to meet Clean Air Act standards. We would also demonstrate enough interest in energy efficiency to convince the manufacturers to produce the 5-passenger 70-100 mpg cars they already have in prototype.

3. Tighten up your house. Amory Lovins says there’s the equivalent of a Saudi Arabian oilfield leaking out of our attics and windows. Again, that’s not only money lost, it’s unnecessary greenhouse and acid rain emissions, air pollution, oil spills, and refinery wastes. The cure is to insulate, caulk, and weatherstrip. Keep your furnace tuned up. Put in double-glazed or heat-mirror windows.

Rocky Mountain Institute suggests a $70 investment that will cut home energy bills by up to $140 in just one year. It includes a low-flow showerhead (it delivers not a wimpy drip, but an invigorating shower with half the water); faucet aerators to save hot water in bathroom and kitchen sinks; and screw-in compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Each bulb uses 18 watts to give the same illumination as a 75-watt bulb and lasts 10 times longer. Over its lifetime one bulb (costing $15-18) will save one ton of carbon dioxide emissions, 20 pounds of sulfur dioxide emissions, $20 worth of bulb replacements, $20 of electrical generation costs, and $200-300 worth of new electrical generating capacity.

4. Make a compost pile. If your kitchen and yard wastes get mixed in with your trash, they make the paper unrecyclable. If they are sent to a landfill, they turn into methane, a greenhouse gas. If they go to an incinerator, they become carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas. If they’re made into compost, they put carbon and plant nutrients back into the soil where they belong. They reduce the need for fertilizers, which brings down energy use and several kinds of pollution.

There’s a mystique about making compost piles — ask five neighbors and you’ll get five different sets of instructions. All that’s really necessary is to mix organic matter with air and water and a little soil to provide the bugs who do all the work. I just make a pile at one corner of the garden and shovel out the good black stuff at the bottom whenever I need it.

City-dwellers can start a neighborhood composting effort. In Witzenhausen, West Germany, a university professor began a composting center on the edge of town that now serves 60,000 people and pays for itself by selling compost to landscapers.

Recycling and energy-saving may not sound like much of a big deal. In fact they are so crucial to the environment that if we don’t do them voluntarily, a government wiser than we are may require them some day. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather do virtuous things on my own than be forced to do them. So we might as well get started, while we can still feel righteous, and while there’s still time to make a real difference to the planet.

Image credit: bayasaa via Flickr