SCEC – Solidarity and Local Complementary Currency in Italy

An interesting concept: a complementary currency to the Euro trialled in parts of Italy that encourages discount trading in local communities.
SCEC stands for Solidarietà che Cammina – Solidarity that walks. It is a complementary currency that is designed to start its life circulating in parallel to the official currency, the Euro. Adapted to the Italian [...]

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Building a new democrcay – from the bottom up

A new mobilisation could revitalise politics in the UK – but only if you get involved.
For the first time in my life I resent paying my taxes. Until now I have seen this annual amputation as a civic duty – like giving blood – necessary to sustain the life of a fair society. Suddenly I [...]

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Free Download: Thriving on Less – Simplifying in a Tough Economy

If this is not an idea for a New Year’s resolution … the author of the upcoming book The Power of Less Leo Babauta offers a companion ebook that’s free to download now. Thriving on Less – Simplifying in a Tough Economy tells you how to do just that.
The 27-page PDF describes advice garnered from Babauta’s own [...]

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Tucson Community Food Bank – From handouts to DIY

This is the final example from Orion’s November/December magazine for how people work towards sustainability in their own communities or in their own lives. Here people are working on getting away from foodbank handouts by growing their produce and establishing urban farming and gardening practices. [image inserted by me]

BY KYLE BOELTE, TUCSON, AZ
Published in the November/December [...]

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The Pedal People of Northhampton

This is a very interesting example for actively working towards achieving a sustainable society – it’s something I wouldn’t have thought of in a million years: peddling rubbish. [images inserted by me]

BY ELISSA ALFORD, NORTHAMPTON, MA
Published in the November/December 2008 issue of Orion magazine
NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS—The Pedal People troll our streets almost every day, bicycling not for play [...]

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The Sustainability Revolution

This is a great story – from war and oppression to building and living in a peaceful, sustainable community. It’s remarkable what people can achieve when they come together as collaborators and co-operators, with a yearning for peace on their minds and a sense of something bigger than their individual and even human-species existence. [images [...]

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The homegrown revolution – urban farming

There are parts in me that recoil a bit from the sprinkled-in bits of American culture (like the TV reporter’s gooey superficiality), the romantic yet ‘primitive’ hippie-roots lifestyle and certainly the drudgery of gardening (for example battling pests or droughts or committing to the huge amount of establishment work when the [...]

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Attachment Parenting: TRUST YOUR CHILDREN

I’ve been busy lately uploading 1.500 photos onto my Flickr site and therefore totally neglected my blog; hopefully I’ll be able to devote a bit more time to it again. Here’s a great article from an equally wonderful site called “The Natural Child Project“. I came across it coz Gunda practices this concept [...]

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Introverts and extroverts: the magic of difference

My dear friend Helena pointed me to a post on EcoSpace that talks about introversion in a world that favours group-oriented personalities (the discussion threads following that article are quite interesting too, talking for example about the relationship between introversion in relation to activist groups, Aspergers or the lack of community).
Humans are social animals, so [...]

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Sustainability Fair: Food for The Future

Food For The Future – 11th October 2008

Come and join foodies from far and wide
Indulge your passion for the home-grown!
Farmers’ market fruit + veg and ready-to-eat delicacies
Organic wines, coffee and cheeses
Urban gardening + eco-friendly products
Tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint

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Fully Stoked

Sometimes I really enjoy liberally minded papers, such as the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and The Age in Australia, the New York Times and certainly the Guardian. Only problem: already suffering from information overload, I just don’t do it often enough – which is not totally regrettable because a lot of the material offered is [...]

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Gudhara Holistic Sanctuary

My friend Che is currently organising a wonderful event around education, which will include a conference as well as a three-day meeting space for students and professional people acting as elders, advisors, visionaries or what ever role might emerge for them in that space. In the context of hearing about the preparations I came [...]

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