"In A Conservation Economy, Economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, Natural Capital and Social Capital."

What does a sustainable society look like?

On ConservationEconomy.net, fifty-seven patterns provide a framework for an ecologically restorative, socially just, and reliably prosperous society. They are adaptable to local ecosystems and cultures, yet universal in their applicability. Together they form what we call a Conservation Economy.

Together, the patterns form a visual and conceptual framework that can be used to inspire innovation, focus planning efforts, and document emerging best practices. A conservation economy comprehensively integrates Social, Natural, and Economic Capital to demonstrate that a sustainable society is both desirable and achievable.

What is a pattern language?

A pattern language is a structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise. It is characterized by

1. Noticing and naming the common problems in a field of interest,
2. Describing the key characteristics of effective solutions for meeting some stated goal,
3. Helping the designer move from problem to problem in a logical way, and
4. Allowing for many different paths through the design process.

When a designer is designing something (whether it is a house or a computer program or a stapler), they must make many decisions about how to solve problems. A single problem, documented with its best solution, is a single design pattern. Each pattern has a name, a descriptive entry, and some cross-references, much like a dictionary entry. A documented pattern must also explain why that solution is considered the best one for that problem, in the given situation. When design is done by a team, pattern names will form a vocabulary they can share. This makes it necessary for pattern names to be easy to remember and highly descriptive.

A Pattern Language for Sustainability - Toward a Conservation Economy

In A Conservation Economy, Economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, Natural Capital and Social Capital. While A Conservation Economy functions on a global scale, it can be imagined as a healthy mosaic of Bioregional Economies forged within coherent biological and cultural units. Even in a globalizing economy, diverse Bioregional Economies that are more self-sufficient in meeting their own needs will be more competitive and less vulnerable.

Pattern Index

A Conservation Economy

Social Capital

• Fundamental Needs: Subsistence Rights, Shelter For All, Health, Access To Knowledge
• Community: Social Equity, Security, Cultural Diversity, Cultural Preservation, Sense Of Place, Beauty And Play, Just Transitions, Civic Society

Natural Capital

• Ecological Land-Use: Connected Wildlands (Core Reserves, Wildlife Corridors, Buffer Zones), Productive Rural Areas (Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Forestry, Sustainable Fisheries, Ecotourism), Compact Towns And Cities (Human-Scale Neighborhoods, Green Building, Transit Access, Ecological Infrastructure, Urban Growth Boundaries)
• Ecosystem Services: Watershed Services, Soil Services, Climate Services, Biodiversity

Economic Capital

• Household Economies
• Green Business: Long-Term Profitability, Community Benefit, Green Procurement, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Materials Cycles, Resource Efficiency, Waste As Resource, Product As Service
• Local Economies: Value-Added Production, Rural-Urban Linkages, Local Assets
• Bioregional Economies: Fair Trade, True Cost Pricing, Product Labeling

"Our industrial-affluent-consumer society is extremely unjust and ecologically unsustainable. The argument [in this article] is that these problems cannot be solved in a society that is driven by obsession with high rates of production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth. A sustainable and just world order cannot be achieved until we undertake radical change in our lifestyles, values and systems, especially in our economic system."

"The alternative we must work for is the Simpler Way, based on frugal "living standards", co-operation, high levels of local economic self-sufficiency, and zero economic growth. There is now a Global Alternative Society Movement in which many small groups are building settlements of the required kind. The final section below argues that the top priority for people concerned about the fate of the planet should be starting to build these new lifestyles and systems within existing towns and suburbs." (Ted Trainer)

Read the full article >>> (Central theme: local cooperative and participatory economic self-sufficiency)

For a more detailed account of the rationale for, and the probable shape of such alternative sociey, read:

1. The Problem of Affluence and The Values and Worldview of Consumer Society - The Biggest Problem
2. Saving the Environment - Do You Realise What It Will Take?
3. Renewable Energy Can't Save Consumer Society
4. Capitalism: A Brief Critical Outline, Is a Humane Capitalism Possible? and Why Marx Matters
5. Our Empire, It's Nature and Maintenance
6. Our Economic System - Why It Must Be Scraped
7. Conventional Development vs. Appropriate Development and Appropriate Third World Development
8. The Alternative Sustainable Society - the Simpler Way
9. The New Economy for the Simpler Way
10. Can We Set Up a Community Cooperative Firm?
11. The Radical Implications of the Limits to Growth Analysis for the Design of Settlements
12. Agriculture: Conventional vs. Alternative and Can Permaculture Save the Planet?
13. How Cheaply We Could Live and The Way I Live
14. Spiritual Significance of the Simpler Way
15. Education: A Radically Critical View and Education in the Alternative, Sustanable Society
16. Cartoons Dealing with "The Simpler Way" Themes
17. The Transition is Underway and Thoughts on the Transition to a Sustanable Society
18. The Way It Could Be: A Visit to a Sustainable Society. This is a 250 page novel by Ted Trainer describing the experiences of a person who visits a fictitional settlement that has adopted Simpler Way principles. It is in 12 parts, all of which are available online free to read. (Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11. Part 12)
    

Here's an excellent definition and explanation of the concept "Sustainability":

"Sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals indefinitely. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire planet."

Accompanying this description is "a number of common principles [which] are embedded in most charters or action programmes to achieve sustainable development, sustainability or sustainable prosperity", synthesized by Hargroves, K. and M. Smith (2005) in their book "The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century". These include:

• dealing cautiously with risk, uncertainty and irreversibility;
• ensuring appropriate valuation, appreciation and restoration of nature;
• integration of environmental, social and economic goals in policies and activities;
• equal opportunity and community participation;
• conservation of biodiversity and ecological integrity;
• ensuring inter-generational equity;
• recognizing the global dimension;
• a commitment to best practice;
• no net loss of human or natural capital;
• the principle of continuous improvement; and
• the need for good governance.

Read more at PermaWiki >>

(Photo by bb_matt)

"Today's organizations face complex challenges in fast and global environments. Knowledge and excellence based on past experiences have lost their valid promise for future success. What we learned about organizations, systems, management and processes and what worked for us up till now does not necessarily give answers to the diverse problems of today and less so of tomorrow. And although managers and leaders world wide try to face these challenges, usually with costly organizational changes on structure and process levels and with a high investment in training and human resource development measures, they still draw from the (known) past - for an unknown future."

"Letting go of the past and the patterns in which one is thinking and acting and creating the future from how it emerges is the maxim of Theory U. Leaders, argues organization research shooting star C. Otto Scharmer, are like artists in front of a pure canvas - they must sense the painting long before the brush touches the varnish. They must feel and see it emerge, long before it is put on the fabric. Only then it can turn from a mere drawing into a piece of art. Good leaders are creative artists, they know, see and sense by more sources than the traditional ways what is emerging. They can sense the presence (presencing) holistically and can draw from knowledge beyond the past and learn from the emerging future for their strategy and actions." (Barbara Schratz-Hadwich)

(Click title or "read on" below to read the full summary.)

(Photo by somewhereinak)

Humanity is living one of its most crucial moments. The time of the great empires is in decay. There is no specific culture or country arising as a new empire, but instead there is a Global Emerging Culture. It seems that the planet is growing a new social body where all humans are connected giving birth to a global brain.

We are living in the peak of an evolutionary leap. The past century we started riding horses and ended riding to the moon. We have reached a high level of development in technology, but we haven't evolved in the same proportion in the development of our consciousness. That is indeed a dangerous formula for our planet.

Taking that in consideration the guidelines I suggest for the Emerging Global Civilizations are the following:

1. Personal Mastery
2. Social Technologies
3. Global Collective Intelligence
4. Citizens of the World

(Click "Read on" below to read the full message. Photo by big-e-mr-g)

Several years ago, I read of a Buddhist teacher who offered his encouragement to a group that was filled with despair over the state of the world. His advice was simple, profound and placed things in historical context: "It's just our turn to help the world."

What I love about this statement is that it reminds us of other times and other people who stepped forward to help create the changes that were necessary. We do live in an extraordinary era when, for the first time, humans have altered the planet's ecology and created consequences which are just beginning to materialize in frightening ways. But throughout human existence, there have always been people willing to step forward to struggle valiantly in the hope that they might reverse the downward course of events. Some succeeded, some did not. But as we face our own time, we need to remember that we stand on very firm and solid shoulders.

Full article @ Berkana Institute >>

(Photo by fubuki)

"Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn't change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what's possible. This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change."

"But networks aren't the whole story. As networks grow and transform into active, working communities of practice, we discover how Life truly changes, which is through emergence. When separate, local efforts connect with each other as networks, then strengthen as communities of practice, suddenly and surprisingly a new system emerges at a greater level of scale. This system of influence possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the individuals. It isn't that they were hidden; they simply don't exist until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the system that emerges always possesses greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. Emergence is how Life creates radical change and takes things to scale."

Full article @ Berkana Institute >>

Money as a Manifestation of Fear

Most of us think that we understand the facts of money: money is good, lack of money is bad; having more money is better than having less money; competition and scarcity are normal because it's a jungle out there; the way to cure economic depression and hunger is to throw more money at the problem; and so on.

In other words, most people have an innate sense that there is simply not enough: that explains not only why they are always striving to get a bigger piece of the pie, but why some people suffer in poverty and hunger. However, basic analysis of the situation shows that there is more than enough food to feed the world--and more than enough stuff in your life to bring happiness.

This myth of scarcity breaks down into three parts:

1. There's not enough. This is a myth that we use to delude ourselves into believing that there is a 'pie' of a certain size that can't grow any larger and that if we don't grab a bigger slice of it, someone else will. This belief creates a fear base that underlies many of our decisions and actions.
2. More is better. This belief causes us to always grab for that bigger piece of pie, even to the exclusion of others. It drives us into a competitive culture of accumulation, acquisition and greed that heightens fears and quickens the pace of the race, but doesnt make life more valuable.
3. Thats just the way it is. This gives us a very weak excuse to act upon our fear and greed. It creates an environment of hopelessness and disempowerment and prevents us from re-examining the first two myths.

The truth? All of these are complete myths--there is enough resources for all. We use these myths to justify our fear and our greed.

To counter these myths, we need to look deeply into the human needs that are associated with money. Not just the needs of human beings in what she calls "resource poor" (developing) countries, but the needs of people who have resources, abundant resources, but who still struggle with their relationship with money and its meaning in their lives. This is because, it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, you still have the capacity to make decisions that don't truly reflect your ideals, and it is those repeated wrong decisions that leave people feeling empty and hollow.

When talking about sufficiency and contentment, scarcity and fear, the following question naturally arise, wouldn't the poor all over the world be better off with more money in addition to gratitude for what little they do have?

Absolutely they'd be better off. There certainly are places, people, and times where the authentically appropriate thing is to reallocate resources to those who need it, but not always. Even in the poorest of the poor countries, and certainly those in Ethiopia or other places that need more money, more help, more resources, people are much more in touch with the context and grace of sufficiency than are those of us who have excess. It's a real paradox. What we really need to do is to reallocate resources from fear to love. And often, what that really means is moving money!

More important than that however, is to understand that what people all over the world, including the poor, are longing for is an experience of sufficiency--which will not come from having more money. So, though we need to move money around in a way that helps people and makes the world more equitable and just, at the same time, we don't want poor people in Ethiopia who need more money to look to money for their happiness in life, like so many of us in wealthy countries do. Even the rich have terrible, rooted feelings about scarcity and being rich has its own vicious cycle, often worse than the cycle of poverty's grip. The conclusion remains the same, the psychology of scarcity is a real toxic myth.

So, we need to realize that so many of us separate our soulful life (the one centered around our values) and our financial life (the one centered around our money). Within each world, we behave differently: the soulful life is usually full of following the things that really matter, being fair to others, helping people, cooperating and so on, while the financial life is full of greediness, petty behavior, compromises to our values and more ofthen than not, full of unhealthy competition.

But why does this dichotomy have to exist? Why can't the soulful side be on the same page as the financial side?

(Click the title or "Read on" below to read the rest of the article)

If we are to slow and ultimately reverse the social and environmental disintegration we see around us, we must change the rules to curb the pervasive abuse of corporate power that contributes so much to those harms.

Taming corporate power will slow the damage. It will not be sufficient, however, to heal our relationships with one another and the Earth and bring our troubled world into social and environmental balance. Corporations are but instruments of a deeper social pathology revealed in a familiar story our society tells about the nature of prosperity.

Empire Prosperity Story

The prevailing prosperity narrative has many variations, but these are among its essential elements:

• Economic growth fills our lives with material abundance, lifts the poor from their misery, and creates the wealth needed to protect the environment.
• Money is the measure of wealth and the proper arbiter of every choice and relationship.
• Prosperity depends on freeing wealthy investors from taxes and regulations that limit their incentive and capacity to invest in creating the new jobs that enrich us all.
• Unregulated markets allocate resources to their most productive and highest value use.
• The wealthy deserve their riches because we all get richer as the benefits of the investments of those on top trickle down to those on the bottom.
• Poverty is caused by welfare programs that strip the poor of motivation to become productive members of society willing to work hard at the jobs the market offers.

This money-serving prosperity story is repeated endlessly by corporate media and taught in economics, business, and public policy courses in our colleges and universities almost as sacred writ. I call it the Empire prosperity story.

Few notice the implications of its legitimation of the power and privilege of for-profit corporations and an economic system designed to maximize returns to money, that is, to make rich people richer. Furthermore, it praises extreme individualism that, in other circumstances would be condemned as sociopathic; values life only as a commodity; and diverts our attention from the basic reality that destroying life to make money is an act of collective insanity. In addition to destroying real wealth, it threatens our very survival as a species.

Earth Community Prosperity Story

Consider these elements of a contrasting life-serving prosperity story that looks to life, rather than money, as the true measure of wealth.

• Healthy children, families, communities, and ecological systems are the true measure of real wealth.
• Mutual caring and support are the primary currency of healthy families and communities, and community is the key to economic security.
• Real wealth is created by investing in the human capital of productive people, the social capital of caring relationships, and the natural capital of healthy ecosystems.
• The end of poverty and the healing of the environment will come from reallocating material resources from rich to poor and from life-destructive to life-nurturing uses.
• Markets have a vital role, but democratically accountable governments must secure community interests by assuring that everyone plays by basic rules that internalize costs, maintain equity, and favor human-scale local businesses that honor community values and serve community needs.
• Economies must serve and be accountable to people, not the reverse.

I call this the Earth Community prosperity story because it evokes a vision of the possibility of creating life-serving economies grounded in communities that respect the irreducible interdependence of people and nature. Although rarely heard, this story is based on familiar notions of generosity and fairness, and negates each of the claims of the imperial prosperity story that currently shapes economic policy and practice.

Read the full article @ YES! Magazine >>
(The High Cost of Making Maney, Putting Life First, Rules for Conserving and Sharing, Community-Based Economics, The Essential Choice)

Nature is nothing if not extravagant. Four billion years of natural design, forged in the cradle of evolution, has yielded such a profusion of forms we can barely grasp the vigor and diversity of life on Earth. Responding to unique local conditions, ants have evolved into nearly 10,000 species, several hundred of which can be found in the crown of a single Amazonian tree. Fruit trees produce thousands of blossoms-an astonishing abundance of blossoms-so that another tree might germinate, take root and grow. Birds, too, seem to have a taste for the extravagant: Who could say the wood duck's plumage is restrained?

For most of our history, the human response to the living earth, to particular places, has expressed the same flowering of diversity. Bearing the unique human ability to imagine and create, we entered the show and developed our own extravagant gestures. We built not just shelter, but beautiful, elegant responses to locale; the breathing, shade-providing Bedouin tent along with the ornate, aspiring temples of cool, coastal Japan. We designed not just wraps against the wind but tailored garments for ritual, celebration, and our own delight. We spoke and moved not just for utilitarian ends but to make drama and poetry, Balinese dance and Shakespearean verse-human creations stoking the fire.

Though human industry in the past 150 years has resorted to brute force rather than elegant design, commerce, too, could become a wellspring of creativity, productivity, and pleasure. Think of the thriving marketplaces that have enlivened the world's great cities, the cherished objects and materials that transform shelter into soulful dwelling. These need not be sacrificed to protect our forests, rivers, soil and air. Indeed, human industry and habitations can be designed to celebrate interdependence with other living systems, transforming the making and consumption of things into a regenerative force. Design can perform and preserve the extravagant gesture-in the marketplace, in the human community, and in the natural world.

Read the full article >>>

Buy and watch the movie: "The Next Industrial Revolution" >>>

100 Friends

The 100 Friends Project is a small, informal grassroots project dedicated to helping people in Third World Countries facing myriad problems. We collect the donations from donors and then we bring the funds overseas to distribute as directly and intelligently as possible. The recipients are always delighted that there are a group of strangers reaching out to help them with no strings attached.

Sometimes we make micro-loans that can be utilized over and over again as they are repaid. But usually funds are used to pay for education, small businesses, medical costs and other uses and in those cases they do not have to be repaid.

However, we usually suggest that they use part of it to help others. For example, if we give a needy person 1500 Rupees (approximately $33.00) for some good purpose, we will often suggest that they give something like 50-100 Rupees from the donated funds to some one who is perhaps even more needy than them. They always seem to brighten when I suggest this, perhaps because it makes them feel part of a larger cycle of giving and receiving. Occasionally when we are involved in a small income-generating scheme (purchase of a sewing machine, setting up a bicycle repair service, etc.) the person may repay the money over a long period of time so that someone else can use the money to start a small business in the future.

The project began in 1990. I had a dream about going to India as a boy and then I had the same dream as an adult. When I first went to India in 1990 I met a Tibetan family in the Himalayas. I was able to restore the hearing and arrange for a cure of a terrible ear infection for a Tibetan woman for very little money. I was shocked that something so important could be accomplished with a small amount of funds.

The disparity in income and lifestyle between the industrialized world and the Third World had been profoundly disturbing to me for a very long time. I realized that my experience as a project coordinator (I?fve worked in AIDS prevention, substance abuse treatment and as a teacher in inner-city schools) could be used to generate funds for this project. The next time I went to India (1992) I wrote a simple letter to 100 people I knew asking for any support they were willing to give. I expected to raise $300-$400. To my surprise I raised over $2,100. That is a lot of money over there. Since the project began, I have raised $46,230. That is approximately 2,100,000 Rupees. That is a lot of money, over two million rupees!

So, what can you do with $64,530?

That is the amount of money I have raised since 1989 for the 100 Friends Project. About 12% of the funds went for newsletters, mailing, website costs, etc. I pay all of my own travel expenses. So the approximately amount that was actually used for helping needy people in the Third World is 88% of $64,530 which comes to $56,786. Here?fs what I did with that amount. I think it?fs astounding how much you can do with so little:
1. 1989. Purchased antibiotics to save the life of a Tibetan woman with ear infections. ($1)
2. 1989. Restored hearing of Tibetan woman with a hearing aid. ($35)
3. 1992. Medicines for Mother Teresa program in Calcutta, India. ($100)
4. 1992. Medicine for Dr. Jack Preger?fs street clinic in Calcutta, India. ($100)
5. 1992. Support provided for a school for blind children. Calcutta, India. ($100)
6. 1992. Support provided for medicine fund in a pediatric unit hospital in Aurangabad, India. ($100)
7. 1992. Support provided for baby orphans in Mumbai, India. ($50)
8. 1992. Major heart surgery for a woman in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. ($75)
(Click here to see all 166 uses of the money or read more about Marc Gold)

Three Cups of Tea

Do you know anyone who would be willing to sell everything they own and live in their car just so they could save every dollar for someone else? Greg Mortenson, a great American hero, did just that when he followed through on his promise to an impoverished Pakistani village to build a school for its children, and in the process has found himself playing a major role in one of the most historically and culturally pivotal areas in the world today.

In Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. . . One School at a Time (Viking/On-sale date: March 6, 2006) Greg Mortenson, and acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world -- one school at a time.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.

While recovering he observed the village's 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school.

From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism and terrorism by building schools?\especially for girls?\throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Mortenson had no reason to believe he could fulfill his promise. In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC's Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,000. But his luck began to change when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin, donated $623 in pennies, thereby inspiring adults to take his cause more seriously. Twelve years later he's built fifty-five schools.

Mortenson and award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin have written a spellbinding account of his incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived an armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. Yet his success speaks for itself. This year the schools will educate 24,000 children.

Room to Read

Room to Read was founded on the belief that "World Change Starts with Educated Children" - and that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. We strive to provide children access to education, one child at a time, one school at a time, and one village at a time. Through partnerships with local communities we work to create educational opportunities and establish educational infrastructure. Our efforts are currently focused in Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and South Africa - all countries with a desperate lack of resources to educate their children. In addition to these countries, we continue to take on new countries and new projects each year.

The Room to Read story begins in 1998 with Founder & CEO John Wood. In 1998, John was an overworked Microsoft executive looking for the quiet solitude of a trekking vacation. While backpacking in the Himalayas, John met a middle-aged Nepalese man who invited him to visit a school in a neighboring village. Hoping for a chance to see the real Nepal, rather than his tourist's trek, John agreed. Little did he know this short detour would change his life forever.

The man John met was a Nepalese "Education Resource Officer." However, John soon discovered that despite his huge heart and tremendous work-ethic (traveling mountain passes on foot to visit his schools), this man had very little resources to offer the schools in his charge. At the school John came face to face with the harsh reality confronting millions of Nepalese children - there were almost no books. John was stunned to discover that the few books they had - a Danielle Steele romance, the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia, and a few other backpacker castoffs - were so precious that they were kept under lock and key... to protect them from the children!

As John left the village that day, the school headmaster made a simple request: "Perhaps, Sir, you will some day come back with books." His request would not go unheard. After returning from his trek, John emailed friends to ask for their help in collecting children's books, and was overwhelmed with the response - over 3,000 books arrived within the next two months. The following year, John returned to Nepal, rented a yak, and returned to the village to deliver the books.

On that trip, John made a decision. He would leave the corporate world in order to devote himself to starting a new non-profit. In his memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, John explains, "Did it really matter how many copies of Windows we sold in Taiwan this month when there were millions of children without access to books?" In late 1999, John quit his executive position with Microsoft and started Room to Read.

With Room to Read, John sought to marry the corporate business practices he learned at Microsoft with an inspiring vision - to provide the lifelong gift of education to millions of children in the developing world. He contended that with 750 million illiterate adults worldwide and 100 million children without access to school, a non-profit "with the scalability of Starbucks and the compassion of Mother Theresa " was required.

Beginning in Nepal, John and future Nepal Country Director Dinesh Shrestha began working with rural communities to build schools and establish libraries. To date, we have created over 4,100 schools and libraries.

In 2000, recognizing that in addition to the economic difficulties facing students in the developing world, many girls are also overlooked due to cultural bias, we began the Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program. This scholarship fund is targeted at young girls and provides a long-term commitment to their education that lasts an average of 10 years. There are now over 3,400 girls on Room to Grow Girls' Scholarships.

In the summer of 2001, Erin Keown Ganju joined the team as Chief Operating Officer and was instrumental in our expansion into Vietnam, where she had previously worked for two years. Erin quickly became John's partner as the two of them continued to push hard to expand Room to Read's geographic and programmatic presence. With growing demand for our programs, we further expanded our work in Cambodia in 2002, followed by India the following year.

In 2003, Room to Read also began publishing local language children's books, in addition to the donated English-language books we use to stock our libraries. Because the children's book publishing industry is generally nascent in the countries where we operate, we work with local authors and local illustrators to develop new children's books and publish them in-country. To date, we have published 146 local language children's book titles.

2004 was another very significant year for Room to Read. We celebrated one of our first major milestones on April 29th when we opened our 1,000th library in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Later that year, just days after the December 24th Asian tsunami devastated thousands of villages, we made the bold decision to launch operations in Sri Lanka in order to rebuild schools and help ease the suffering of children there.

In addition to expanding into Sri Lanka in 2005, we began operations in Laos - our 6th Asian country of operations - in the middle of the year. Then on September 2nd, we opened our 2,000th library, once again in Cambodia - only less than 18 months after our 1,000th library ceremony. We ended 2005, with another big milestone - the donation of our millionth book.

2006 has been an important year for us thus far. In addition to completing a five-year strategic plan (see Our Vision for the Future), we expanded to a new continent by beginning work in South Africa.

What We're Capable

"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." (Thomas Edison)

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." (Robert F. Kennedy)

"Living integral lives is daunting. We must achieve a complex integration that spans the contradictions between inner and outer reality, that supports both personal integrity and the common good. No, it is not easy work. But, by doing it, we offer what is sacred within us to the life of the world." (Parker Palmer)

Also read A Life Lived Whole by Parker Palmer

Introduction of the book

The overall goal of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) is ?gto integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning to encourage changes in behavior that allow for a more sustainable and just society for all?h. A key question that often emerges is: what are the values inherent in sustainable development that could help us, as human beings, to realize the vision of sustainability?

Increasingly, more groups and individuals around the world are recognizing the Earth Charter as an empowering and practical source of these values. The Earth Charter resulted from a decade-long, worldwide, cross-cultural civil society dialogue to identify the widely shared values and principles of sustainability, and is being used as a values-based educational tool to guide humanity towards a sustainable future.

As a matter of fact, UNESCO, during its 32nd General Conference in October 2003, adopted a resolution recognizing the Earth Charter "as an important ethical framework for sustainable development". The resolution affirms member states' intentions to ?gutilize the Earth Charter as an educational instrument, particularly in the framework of the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development?h. So, how is this being accomplished? This publication has been envisioned to offer stories -- case studies from around the world -- that highlight how groups and individuals are using the Earth Charter as a tool for education for sustainable development. These stories come from non-formal and formal educational settings and describe a variety of experiences, including the development of guidebooks for primary school teachers, the inclusion of sustainability values in universities?f departments of education, law, engineering and general studies; the reshaping of local, regional and national curricula; and, the creation of vital and engaging programs and workshops for children and youth.

The richness and diversity of these stories demonstrate that the Earth Charter?fs integrated approach can help to clarify the vision of a more just, sustainable and peaceful world at the same time as it broadens this vision. These stories also show that there is no single ?eright way?f of approaching this task -- the methods used for bringing the values of sustainability into educational practices depend on the context, creativity and the level of engagement of those involved.

In the process of preparing this publication, a set of criteria were developed to select these stories which best responded to the purpose of the "good practices" series, of which this publication is now a part. The following criteria were used for selecting the stories:

* Are values-driven experiences that use the Earth Charter as a framework or tool

* Promote transformative learning -- characterized mainly by:
- Promoting ?elearning?f more than ?eteaching?f
- Concentrating more on the construction of meaning than on communicating the message
- Promoting the mutual transformation of teachers and learners
- Focusing on local knowledge and community-based decisions and actions
- Orienting learning more towards process than product/result
- Use constructive and participatory methodologies
- Use multiple methods and integrative approaches
Experiences that use interdisciplinary approaches to assess and address issues, drawing upon a variety of
methods: writing, art, drama, debate, scientific analysis, etc.
- Are context specific and action oriented
Experiences where teachers and students (and/or community members) are learning about regional,
national and global issues while carrying out actions through field trips, projects, and community service opportunities.
- Are on-going experiences that can also offer ?elessons learned?f

This publication includes twenty-seven illustrative stories from countries around the world. Each one is written by a different author -- a schoolteacher, community activist, youth worker, university member, minister of education, law professor, teacher trainer, art instructor -- and each brings a different experience to light. To build some continuity in sharing these experiences an effort was made to organize the content of each story around three main sections:

1. A general description of the experience, including its objectives, duration, target group(s), and information about the leading organization(s) involved;
2. A detailed explanation of the methodological aspects and activities of the experience; and
3. A final section on the conclusions and lessons learned from the experience.

The stories in this collection share a common objective -- to contribute to building sustainable societies. We hope that you will enjoy the wide variety of contexts, objectives and methodologies presented in this publication. Furthermore, it is our hope that these experiences will stimulate and inspire new efforts to integrate the values of sustainability into education and into all educational settings across the globe.

UNESCO & Earth Charter International

Download the book here (169 pages PDF file)

The issue is that we believe that many products that we take as normal permanent needs are very recent in history and will not exist in the future, so they are not worth re-designing.

A lot of the mainstream approaches to how we might make things more energetically efficient and ecologically friendly, although well intentioned, from a permaculture perspective are a waste of time.

So we can see some parallels between permaculture and other ideas that have influenced industrial manufacturing like biomimicry for example, where you use the patterns in nature to design industrial systems of manufacture. But the question is, What are we manufacturing? And, Is this necessary?

For example, nowadays there is much focus on how we can make clothing manufacture more ecologically friendly, but we have enough clothes in the world for the next 20 years, we don't need more clothes manufacture.

(Read the full interview here)

Related readings:

Permaculture: a Design Philosophy and Practice for a People-Planet-Caring Civilization

"Less, But Better," Dieter Rams's Ten Commandments on Good Design and the Design of a Just and Sustainable World

Cradle to Cradle - Remaking the Way We Make Things - a Case for Truly Sustainable Design by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Design for 10,000 Years by Jeremy Faludi

In the midst of the winter holiday season's explosion of festive commerce, I find myself thinking about voluntary simplicity, a term originally used by Ghandian Richard Gregg in 1936 to describe a focused existence excluding the clutter and complexity associated with 20th century acquisitive lifestyles of the middle classes. Duane Elgin revived the notion in the late 1970s, as a study (coauthored by Arnold Mitchell) supported and released by Stanford Research Institute. This spun off as a popular book, published in 1981. Elgin was among several writers and thinkers (Michael Phillips, Ernest Callenbach, E.F. Schumacher, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin) who explored the potential to live more simply and sustainably, generally minimizing consumption and diverting time and energy into arguably more productive pursuits.

Read the full article at WorldChanging.com

"It is incorrect to say that necessity is the mother of invention. In the rich world, invention is the mother of necessity." (George Monbiot)

In this article contrasting the lives of the rich and the poor, Monbiot present a case that financial and material wealth can not satisfy our wants and give us happiness, while poverty does not necessarily makes us miserable and distressed:

Simon Fairlie ... envisages the future which most of the rich world's governments, economists and media foresee. In this vision, economic growth proceeds at some 3% a year, without threatening the earth's capacity to support us. By 2100, if this rate is sustained, we will be 18 times richer than we are today.

Fairlie asks the question which so many economists have ducked. When we possess this fabulous wealth, how will we spend it? "A fraction of this amount," he notes, "will provide all of us with the one car per two people which appears to be the saturation rate. ... What next? Will everyone be jetting around the world on a weekly basis from airports in every town? Will each home have 10 rooms and a swimming pool, and if so where are we going to build them?" Will we then inhabit the terrestrial heaven which the advocates of endless growth have promised us?

I hardly dare to mention this, for fear of being accused of romanticising poverty, or somehow conspiring to keep people in the picturesque state to which I would never submit myself. But it is impossible not to notice that, in some of the poorest parts of the world, most people, most of the time, appear to be happier than we are. In southern Ethiopia, for example, the poorest half of the poorest nation on earth, the streets and fields crackle with laughter. In homes constructed from packing cases and palm leaves, people engage more freely, smile more often, express more affection than we do, behind our double glazing, surrounded by remote controls.

This is not to suggest that poverty causes happiness. In southern Ethiopia people desperately want better healthcare, better education, better housing and sanitation, not to mention smart clothes, motorbikes, refrigerators and radios. But while poverty does not cause happiness, there appears to be some evidence that wealth causes misery. Since 1950, 25-year-olds in the United Kingdom have become ten times more likely to be affected by depression. And it is surely fair to say that most of us suffer from sub-clinical neuroses, anxiety or a profound discomfort with ourselves.

One of the powerful conclusion he reached in his analysis is:

In other words, as Simon Fairlie argues, the rich world is approaching the point at which "satiation turns into deprivation". Even if we were to forget the damage our growing economies inflict upon the environment, even if we were to ignore the conflict between our greed and the fulfilment of other people's needs, we should be able to see that economic growth in nations which are rich enough already is a disaster.

Read more articles by George Monbiot @ www.monbiot.com