Click Here for: A free download for consumers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, community builders & for promoting the local, globally
Excerpted from The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition, by Michael H. Shuman
LocalSustainability.Com attempts to respond to most, if not all, of the needs identified on this his check list:
Small-Mart Revolution Checklist
twenty-seven items for consumers
BEST PLACES TO LOCALIZE SPENDING (and often save money)
* All the items can be at least cost neutral with careful shopping, but items with an asterisk actually can yield significant household savings.
1 Localize Your Home* Rent from a local landlord, take a mortgage from a local bank, or own your home.
2 Live in Local Style Use local building materials for your house, with local architectural designs. Furnish with locally fabricated tables, chairs, beds, and couches.
3 Minimize Automobiles* Ride your vehicle less by walking, biking, carpooling, living in "walkable communities," and using mass transit.
4 Fuel Up Locally Make your next car very fuel efficient. Use local biodiesel and ethanol as they become available.
5 Local Car Services Find a good local mechanic whom you trust and who charges reasonably. Use the local car wash, local auto-parts store, and local insurer.
6 Eat Out Locally Avoid chain restaurants, especially fast-food joints that addict children to high-fat, high-salt food.
7 Buy Fresh Link up with local farmers and hydroponics operators for fruits, vegetables, and meats through farmers markets, co-ops, direct delivery services, and community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Rediscover local bakers, butchers, cheese makers, chefs, and caterers.
8 Support Local Retailers Dump Safeway, Albertson, Wal-Mart, and even Wild Oats for local grocers. Be loyal to competitive local pharmacies, bookstores, hardware stores, coffee roasters, photocopy centers, and so forth.
9 Play Local Minimize your passion for high-end electronics and television. Spend more time at local sports events, health clubs, playgrounds, pools, parks, games, films, plays, puppet shows, dancing, music, and debate leagues. If you must gamble, favor local lotteries, casinos, and horse tracks.
10 Heal Local Use local doctors, dentists, therapists, acupuncturists, and nursing homes.
11 Live Healthy* Emphasize local nutrition, exercise, emotional balance, and spiritual nurturing, all of which minimize the need for nonlocal pharmaceuticals.
12 Sign A Living Will* Have the hard conversation with your family about end-of-life decisions to save them from expensive, nonlocal life-support systems.
13 Minimize Household Energy Use* Add insulation, double pane the windows, buy compact florescent lights, replace the inefficient furnace and appliances, and do the 101 well-known items that cut purchases of nonlocal electricity, oil, and natural gas. Better still, put photovoltaics or a wind-electric generator on your roof and sell your electricity back to the utility.
14 Give Local Target charitable giving at local causes & nonprofits.
15 Axe Bad Habits* Minimize consumption of booze (except local microbrews and wines), cigarettes, and naughty Internet sites, all of which are hard to localize.
16 Educate Locally Support local public schools. If they are beyond repair, send your kids to local private schools.
17 Read Locally Buy books from local authors or local publishers, sold at local bookstores. Advertise in the local papers. Become a regular at the local library.
18 Honor Junk* Pare down your piles of "stuff" by repairing, reusing, and refurbishing. Substitute hand-me-down clothing, especially for young kids who never heard of Nordstroms. Give more gifts from the heart and fewer gift certificates to Best Buy.
19 Rent More* Rent or lease more big ticket items, like Zip cars. Create neighborhood tool sheds for shared lawnmowers or snow blowers.
20 Recycle More Send your paper, glass, and plastic to the local recycler not only because it’s good for the environment but also because it gives local industries affordable local inputs.
TOOLS TO ASSIST LOCAL PURCHASING
1 Directories of Local Business Create lists for your neighbors in print, online, in newspaper ads, and on coffee cups.
2 Directories of Local Products Highlight, again in print or online, the many locally made goods or locally provided services that are available.
3 Local Labels Develop a insignia of local ownership, so that you know if a store is locally owned or if a product is locally made.
4 Buy Local Days Or weeks, months, or seasons, all of which can provide the basis for a buy-local campaign.
5 Local Currency Mobilize your community to print its own "money" that can only be used by local businesses and consumers.
6 LETS Create computerized trading systems, which are especially popular in Europe, that encourage locals to trade with one another without touching mainstream money.
7 Time Dollars Set up a computerized system for tracking volunteer hours as a way of legitimizing and expanding such contributions for the community.
twenty-seven items for consumers(cont.)
http://www.small-mart.org/
Small-Mart Revolution Checklists
The Story Of Stuff - On Line Video
What is the Story of Stuff? http://www.storyofstuff.com/
[This does an excellent job of providing the "big picture" on the true cost of the things we buy. The further from the source we are, the greater the social impact]
"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."
Plugging The Leaks: Making the most of every pound [dollar] that enters your local economy
Plugging The Leaks - This site by the NEF (New Economics Foundation) provides a simple to understand web based explanation of the flow of local money. It helps one understand why money flows out and how more of it can stay in. "Going Local" helps keep money in. They offer books but you can simply use the menu to follow the basic story (sorry, no video but it does have pictures and a good online story). CLICK ON "How your local economy works" and then on "How local money flows". A useful tool for any community.
G R A C E - Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
Click HERE To View A Slide Show Of Why Local And Sustainable Is Important
[GRACE is a private non-profit based in NYC. It is the home of 7 Major Non-corporate Sustainability Sites: FactoryFarm.Org, The Meatrix, Eat Well Guide, Sustainability Table, H2O Conserve, Network for New Energy Choices, & National Energy Research Data Base. Each site provides amazing services for LOCAL and SUSTAINABLE minded people and groups and is worth checking out. There is are no advertisements or corporate sposors listed. If anyone finds out more about this organization please comment. They are not willing to disclose who organized this nonprofit and who funds so it is unclear what motivates the backer. However, it all appears to be consistent with higher order principles shared by most sustainabily minded people and groups.]
GRACE Mission Statement
"Working with research, policy, consumer and grassroots organizations, GRACE promotes and helps develop community based production and consumption of food, water and energy.
Creating innovative awareness campaigns, GRACE advocates for economically and environmentally sound alternatives to practices that are harmful to the ecosystem and public health."
