The following letter is a draft, an exploration
of a possible new organization, the Sustainable Living Collaborative,
that does not yet exist. I'm following my own advice, and inventing
something (a) that I'd love to do, (b) that I would, in partnership
with the right other people, do very well, and (c) that is, IMO at
least, urgently needed. Let me know what you think, and shh! please don't tell Dr. Suzuki yet.
DRAFT
 Dear Dr. Suzuki:
The
newly-formed Sustainable Living Collaborative would like to make you
aware of our four 'Sustainability within a Generation' programs, and
invite you and the David Suzuki Foundation to partner with us. Our
programs are designed to add grassroots momentum to your Foundation's Sustainability within a Generation initiative, and to dovetail with the eleven public policy programs outlined in David Boyd's Sustainability within a Generation report:
- Generate
genuine wealth: Expand the narrow goal of economic
growth to the triple-net objective of genuine wealth and well-being (ecology, economy, and equity).
- Improve
production eco-effectiveness: Increase the effectiveness of
energy
and resource use by a factor of four to 10 times.
- Shift
to clean energy: Replace fossil fuels
with clean, low-impact renewable sources of energy.
- Reduce
waste and pollution: Move from a linear
“throw-away” economy to a cyclical
“cradle-to-cradle” economy.
- Protect
and conserve water: Recognize and
respect the value of water in our laws, policies, and actions.
- Produce
healthy food: Ensure food is
healthy, and produced in ways that do not compromise our land, water,
or biodiversity.
- Conserve,
protect and restore nature: Take effective steps to stop the decline of
biodiversity and
revive the health of ecosystems.
- Build
sustainable cities: End urban sprawl
in order to protect agricultural land and wild places, and improve our
quality of life.
- Promote
global sustainability: Increase affluent nations' contribution to sustainable development in poor
countries.
- Introduce
fiscal reforms: Shift
taxes
to promote sustainable and to discourage unsustainable production and
consumption, and eliminate perverse subsidies that enable
unsustainable business practices to be hugely profitable and which
discourage innovation and inhibit competition from small enterprises.
- Respect all life on Earth: Institute and change laws and regulations to respect all life on our planet as sacred, not treat it as mere human 'property'.
As
your Foundation drives sustainability for Canada at a macro-economic,
top-down level through these eleven programs, the Sustainable Living
Collaborative will be driving sustainability at a micro-economic, bottom-up
level, identifying personal actions that reinforce and support these
eleven programs, and providing many more answers to the questions What can we, as individual Canadians, do to promote Sustainability within a Generation?
Our four programs are:
- The sustainability information exchange:
A social network which will allow all citizens to learn about, actively
engage in discussion, and create
personal and collective action plans to help achieve sustainability
within a generation. It will enable citizens to virally communicate
information about and support responsible, sustainable, local
suppliers, organize against and boycott irresponsible, unsustainable
companies, identify unmet needs to inspire new sustainable enterprises,
and monitor how governments and public sector organizations are
performing in enabling and encouraging sustainability.
- The sustainable enterprise training and certification program: Self-study, community-based programs that will show
citizens, through visits to sustainable enterprises and communities,
how sustainability can work, and how to find business partners and
establish and operate sustainable 'natural enterprises'. It will also develop a method of assessing and certifying businesses as sustainable.
- Personal sustainable living programs: Programs, and supporting networks and tools, that will encourage and enable individual citizens to live a life of radical simplicity: how to use less stuff, reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse
(to buy what's not needed and not well and responsibly made),
appreciate the virtues of a single-child family, relearn how to imagine
and to trust our instincts, learn to become less dependent and more
self-sufficient, become a vegetarian or vegan, find (or become) a role
model of sustainability, and live a healthier, less stressful, more
joyful
life. Your Foundation's Nature Challenge and the federal government's
One Tonne Challenge could be incorporated into these more extensive,
ongoing programs.
- The model sustainable community development program: Establishment, support and promotion of model sustainable
communities,
including programs to teach people (especially young people) how to
organize and establish such self-sufficient communities, and give them
the opportunity to visit and learn about
living in communities that are wholly committed to sustainability and
the well-being of all their members.
All four programs will enable, encourage, connect and help organize local, grassroots efforts to achieve sustainability from the bottom up
-- starting with committed individuals and families and then expanding
to the 'cellular' level -- small communities of interest, both physical
and virtual, self-forming and self-sustaining, and then linking in to
national and global programs and initiatives. The idea here is that
each 'cell' develops its own customized program for sustainability --
things that make a difference at ground level, things that the cell's
members are personally committed to and will help each other see
through to completion -- and, just as important, this program makes
moving closer and closer to sustainability a way of life,
a consideration in everything the cell's members do, something that
colours all their daily activities, instead of just being disjointed
and temporary 'challenges'.
Our partners bring exceptional
skills in environmental economics, open source technology, research and
analysis, leading-edge complex problem-solving techniques,
entrepreneurship and innovation, sustainable business, intentional
community formation, and social networking, organization and
communication.
In our partnership with you, the Sustainable Living Collaborative is seeking the following:
- Regular meetings with members of the Foundation working on your Sustainability within a Generation initiative, to coordinate our two organizations' activities and to obtain your advice in running programs of this type
- Sponsorship, endorsement and publicity for our programs
- Assistance in obtaining funding for our programs
In return, the Sustainable Living Collaborative offers your Foundation:
- Momentum for the Sustainability within a Generation initiative through four potentially very visible, newsworthy and participatory programs
- Publicity for the Foundation and the Sustainability within a Generation initiative
- Actions that 'average' Canadians can take to be part of the solution to sustainability within a generation
- Skills that our partners can bring to bear on other projects of the Foundation
If
you are agreeable, we would like to suggest an initial meeting be held
[date & place to be determined], involving representatives of the
Foundation and partners of the Collaborative, with the following
objectives:
- Discuss and explore areas of synergy between our organizations -- specific ways we can further our mutual goals,
- Decide how we should 'brand' and publicize the four Sustainable Living Collaborative programs for maximum exposure, and
- If
both organizations agree it is appropriate, draft an agreement setting
out proposed areas of collaboration, support and joint activity.
[closing to come]
I have identified twelve individuals (only some of whom I know personally, and none of whom
I have spoken to about this) who I think would collectively bring most
of the varied skills and knowledge promised above to the four
Sustainable Living Collaborative programs. If they, and you, think this
idea is viable, I will then propose a Formation Meeting, using Open
Space invitation and organization methods, probably in Vancouver next
month. I hope this isn't boring to non-Canadians -- it may make sense
to set up a whole network of national Sustainable Living Collaboratives
around the world (the principles shouldn't be that different from
country to country), but for now we need to walk before we run. If you
are interested in launching one simultaneously in your country, please
keep in touch and we'll coordinate our activities. |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
