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In Part 1 of this post, I point out that our investment choices affect the wellbeing of other people and the planet. This can be for better, or for worse. It struck me awhile back that money invested far away, where the investor can’t truly see what it’s doing, can be as bad for communities and the planet as an oil spill.

To say I’m not an expert in finance would be a great understatement. I’m an everyday person. But the whole point of my book and this blog is that we as everyday people have the power to change the world.

Just as everyday people in their capacity as consumers have the power to change the world with their spending choices, so everyday people in their capacity as investors have the power to change the world by where they put their money. (No money? No problem! We everyday people, in our millions, also have the power to change the world by where we invest our time and attention.)

I have started a short list of ideas for local investment. If you have money stored somewhere that is tied to Wall Street, and would like to shift part or all of that money to investing in your local community, here are some ideas.

– Buy a commercial building (store front) and either rent it out, or run a store there yourself. You could do this with a group of friends/neighbors or via a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

– Buy an apartment building or rental house, be a landlord

– Carry the note for a friend who wants to buy a house

– Be the money partner for a friend or neighbor who wants to start a business

– (This one is for people who own a business and are getting ready to retire): Instead of selling the business, taking your cash and parking it on Wall Street, keep your money in the business and let your junior associates/employees run it.

– Become an investor in local agriculture. (The nonprofit Slow Money offers opportunities to support local agriculture by donating money for low-interest loans, but there could also be other channels, which allow people to actually earn income while doing good by extending low-interest loans to farmers.)

– And of course, you could start a business of your own. (In a subsequent post in this series, I’ll share some of my ideas for businesses you could start to earn yourself an income, while also helping your community become more vibrant and resilient.)

– Own a home, and rent out your spare rooms to housemates. And, if you are able to own your place free and clear, that’s a bonus because more of your money is staying in the community rather than getting sent away to pay off mortgage interest.

As I think of more ideas, I will come back and add to this list. And please drop me a line to share any ideas you would add!

A question that comes up in just about any conversation I’ve had on the topic of local investment is, “What about the return on investment? How can it be as good as what I’m getting on Wall Street (=stock market, mutual funds, etc.)?”

This article by Marco Vangelisti, “What Returns Could We Expect from Local Investing?”, brings up the very important point that while your return on local investment may not be as high in percentage terms, that does not necessarily matter, because when it comes to investing in your own place, there are some very compelling factors other than financial return.

Vangelista, who calls himself an “angel DIvestor” (as opposed to “angel investor”), invested in a local co-op that was not in his neighborhood, simply because he did not want any part of his home city to be a food desert.

A friend of mine is buying rental houses in her neighborhood to provide herself with retirement income. It’s a win-win because she is a caring landlord who is providing her tenants with a clean, safe, stable home.

When an investment gives a net benefit to communities and/or ecosystems, we permaculturists call it a “regenerative investment.” Regenerative is a step above just “sustainable.”

There are “green” and “sustainable” investment funds, of course. I think there are quite a few more of them than there used to be. But if you want to see up-close what your money is doing, and maximize the benefit to the community you call home, I suggest you explore options for becoming a local investor.

I realize that a lot of the ideas I mention above require you to place your trust in friends and other people. That can be scary; you could end up losing your money. To this I would say don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Also, I think we really have to face up to the fact that much of our “remote investing” has had a damaging effect on people, communities, and ecosystems around the world. Not only that, but the withholding of financial capital from our local areas is surely keeping them from flourishing as much as they could. Next time you see a developer destroy a forest or neighborhood in your community, ask yourself if your money, invested locally, might help steer things in more of a direction you’d like to see. Do we want to keep hiding our heads in the sand and expecting passive income on financial instruments as our birthright, or do we want to start bringing more of our money home to our communities?

(Note to readers in other countries: I realize this post is very USA-centric. And I would be interested to hear how things are in other countries, in terms of investment patterns of everyday people.)

This topic is something I’ve been thinking about for some years now, but have only recently begun attempting to articulate publicly. I hope this post has furnished you with some helpful ideas.

Further Reading

For more about the concept of regenerative investment, read this post by Laura Oldanie, on her “Triple Bottom Line FI” blog. In this post, Laura also offers rich detail about her low-footprint lifestyle, and tips for achieving “multi-capital abundance” and personal resilience. By the way, my fellow Floridian (and fellow permaculturist) Laura is going to be our keynote speaker at the Florida Permaculture Convergence in December. She’ll be speaking about financial permaculture and the various forms of capital. I can’t wait! For those of you not lucky enough to be in Florida to hear Laura speak in person, she has speaking engagements in other parts of the country too. And her blog is excellent. Enjoy!

New addition 10/2/19: Laura Oldanie featured in CNBC! Article on How To Put Cash into Socially Responsible Investments and Still Make Money.

It’s a common complaint: “That plant just takes over my yard.” “I wouldn’t plant that plant … It takes over.”

To which I respond, “Great! Free organic matter, stormwater absorption, and temperature buffer!” (And depending on the vegetation, could also be noise buffer, visual privacy screen, wildlife habitat and more.)

Usually the person making this lament isn’t referring to an invasive per se; just a plant that grows prolifically.

My favorite method for dealing with prolific vegetation — a method I learned in permaculture design courses — is to “chop and drop”: Leave the plant alive, but cut it back and use the trimmings as mulch. We want little to no bare ground, anywhere. And having living plants — living roots in the soil — is preferable to just having mulch. The living plants feed sugars to beneficial fungi living in the soil, and those fungi in turn channel essential minerals to plants.

Even when unwanted plants sprout up in my pots of veggies and herbs, oftentimes I will “chop and drop” rather than pulling up the unwanted grass or other so-called “weed.”

As for invasives — While I don’t advocate deliberately cultivating invasives, if you already happen to have invasive plants growing, it may not be a big problem. “Chop and drop” goes a long way. (And if you are a science-geek, experimental type, why not look into making biofuel from that invasive plant matter! I think it’s an overlooked local industry which could work just about anywhere.)

Plants are almost like a perpetual-motion machine, capable of turning sunlight and carbon dioxide into an endless supply of green matter.

Recently I took an online course about the importance of soil in mitigating carbon. I always knew trees were important, and I donate to reforestation and conservation projects. But, while trees are important and we should plant as many as possible, it turns out the power to mitigate carbon ultimately lies in the soil itself.

The course is called “Soil Is the Climate Solution.” I missed the free promotional period, but the course was well worth the $50 I paid for it. Not only does it teach about the power of soil; it also teaches how you can (if you desire) become a more credible advocate for soil, speaking to others about the simple, often-overlooked solutions to desertification, extreme drought-flood cycles, and other largely human-caused ills that will if left unchecked lead to widespread famine and displacement in the near future.

If this interests you even a little bit, check out the course here: Soil is the Climate Solution – taught by Kiss the Ground’s Finian Makepeace; offered via Commune. With the course, you get to download a slideshow which you are free to personalize so you can go right out into your community and be an advocate.

Mr. Makepeace’s organization, Kiss the Ground, is a nonprofit dedicated to “inspiring participation in global regeneration, starting with the soil.”

The other day at the climate march, I met a woman who said she was exhausted by having to cut the prolific vegetation in her backyard. I suggested (since she doesn’t actually use her backyard) that she just let the vegetation be, and only cut back enough to avoid obstructing the walking path or whatever.

“But I might have to sell the house,” she said, “So I have to keep it cut back.”

I suggested she cross that bridge when she comes to it, and in the meantime, save herself a whole bunch of labor and stress. Anyway, whoever buys the house might actually want to have that vegetation, and have the option of cutting it back according to their needs, rather than inheriting a baked scalped yard where they have to build up the plant life and cool microclimate from scratch.

A final thought: When you see plants “take over” an empty lot, some corner of your yard, a riverbank, or other space, thank them for providing ecosystem services.

Pix from the climate strike here in Daytona Beach.

“In an address to the French parliament, in July, [16-year-old climate activist Greta] Thunberg put it this way: “Maybe you are simply not mature enough to tell it like it is, because even that burden you leave to us children. We become the bad guys who have to tell people these uncomfortable things, because no one else wants to, or dares to.”” (from New Yorker magazine online)

Does your town, city, county or other local government have a sustainability action plan?

Turns out my home county does, though I didn’t know it til recently, when I was researching the sustainability offices and action plans of other cities and regions. The Sustainability Action Plan for Volusia County (Florida, USA) was published in 2012.

I’m only about a fifth of the way through the 84-page report, but I have read enough to know the goals sound good (reduce driving miles, promote local food, and that sort of thing). What I don’t know is how serious we are about making it happen.

Looking around me, I see a lot of car-dependent housing developments and car-centered commercial developments (the latest new project is a giant gas station that will have 120 pumps!) over what used to be forest and wetland.

And I see destructive landscaping practices which all too often seem to show no regard for native flora and fauna. (Personally, I think no one should be allowed to make a penny doing landscaping until they get at least basic knowledge of the native plants of the region where they are working.)

The destruction of our lush wetlands pains me. We could’ve had a vast nature park along I-95, and that would be visitors’ first glimpse of Daytona Beach. Campgrounds (including “glamping” parks), rustic rental cabins, canoe and kayak rentals, camera safari guide shops, fishing expedition outfits, Old Florida-themed boutique hotels. All of it built to complement and blend in with the natural surroundings rather than stick out garishly. Instead, what visitors driving on I95 see when they get to Daytona Beach is a string of giant car dealerships (brightly lit 24-7), and “factory outlet” type shops. And soon, a mega petroleum tabernacle with 120 gas pumps. It’s a harsh reality, what we humans have chosen.

But I believe in focusing on what can be done, not in crying over spilt milk. Otherwise I would not be able to get out of bed in the morning. So I will be looking into how I might be able to help my region meet its stated sustainability goals.

My next steps are to finish reading the report and to make contact with my county sustainability office. (I have tried calling a couple of times but got a voicemail recording and did not leave a message.)

Eye-opening statistics I’ve learned from the report, about our community’s carbon emissions: Transportation and electricity together account for almost 86 percent of the total! Transportation is 38.8% (of which on-road accounts for 34.6%); electricity 46.9%. Good to know; I tend to see large percentages like this as a sign of low-hanging fruit. The next-highest category, at a very distant third place, is wastewater at 10.5%.

Your homework assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to 1) find out if your local government has a sustainability action plan; 2) read it; and 3) connect with the people in charge of implementing it.

Enjoy, and let me know what you find out! I will keep you posted on my efforts.

Recently I learned the term “15-minute neighborhood.” It’s a neighborhood where residents can get their everyday needs met within a 15-minute walk. Whether you live in a historic urban core areas that used to be this way (or maybe still is this way), or whether you live in a car-dependent suburb, there are things that residents and local governments can do to create “15-minute neighborhoods.”

This article by StrongTowns summarizes 7 things any community can do to create (or restore) the 15-minute neighborhood. These 7 things are: 1) bring back the neighborhood school; 2) make sure food & other basic necessities are available locally; 3) carve out small pockets of community gathering space; 4) re-introduce varied housing options; 5) allow a seamless mix of homes, businesses, & public spaces rather than segregating them into zones; 6) add shade by planting trees (trellis vines work too!); and 7) ease up excessively rigid restrictions on small local entrepreneurs. 

Some of these suggestions are at the level of local government action, but some (such as planting trees, and making community gathering spaces) can be done by individuals.

Here are some suggestions I just now thought of, for actions that can be done by individuals to create a neighborhood where more necessities are within walking distance:

1) Bring back the neighborhood school: Start a homeschool co-op or babysitting co-op in your neighborhood.

2) Make sure food & other basic necessities are available locally: Grow food in your yard and share it with neighbors. Share tools, plants, advice, and labor with your neighbors who want to grow food in their yards. For other necessities: When you’re going to the store, offer to pick up items for neighbors. This is a great way to build social cohesion (and reduce fossil-fuel consumption) in a car-dependent neighborhood.

3) Carve out small pockets of community gathering space: Make a habit of sitting on your front porch or patio. If you don’t have a porch or patio, put a picnic table in your front yard and create an inviting space for neighbors to hang out. (For inspiration, check out the Turquoise Table movement. #FrontYardPeople!)

4) Re-introduce varied housing options: Rent out your spare room to a student, elder, or someone else who would love to have a room in a house.

5) Allow a seamless mix of homes, businesses, & public spaces rather than segregating them into zones: Talk to your neighborhood group, HOA, etc., about the idea of bringing in mixed-use development to the neighborhood. If you get a positive response, work with local government to cultivate such development.

6) Add shade by planting trees: Anyone can plant a tree, trellised vine, or other bit of greenery. Every bit of green helps; even a small potted plant or two that doesn’t add shade, can still contribute to a more walkable environment by adding beauty and a sense of coziness.

7) Ease up excessively rigid restrictions on small local entrepreneurs: A lot of cities have strong restrictions against home-based businesses, food trucks, cottage industries, and other small enterprises, and micro-scale commercial activity in general. It’s tempting to blame government, but the truth is that this restrictive climate is largely the product of social norms which are created and reinforced by everyday people. What we as individuals can do is challenge our own limited thinking, and also help our neighbors see how they can benefit from allowing a healthy level of micro business activity in a neighborhood.

The StrongTowns article linked above is an informational motherlode, with each of the seven bullet-points offering further links to related articles. If you like StrongTowns as much as I do, you’ll be busy reading for a while! There are a variety of actions we can take to bring back the walkable neighborhood; many of these actions can at least be initiated by everyday people even if some participation by government leaders is needed.

In my last post, I gave examples of situations when you might want (or need) to ease up on your default eco practices. When you’re ill, traveling, or visiting someone else’s home, for example, it just might not be feasible or advisable to adhere rigidly to your everyday green habits.

Then again, I’ve found there are times when I can expand my “green influence” without other people’s participation. The best ways I know to do this are to serve on the food committee, cleanup committee, or other essential task groups of organizations I’m involved in. For me right now, that’s mainly my church and my neighborhood group. For other people, it might be school or workplace, scouting group, hobby group, or any other organization or gathering.

By helping out with food and cleanup, I’m in a better position to make sure food gets used up rather than being thrown away. I’m also better able to keep food scraps out of the trash, and instead compost them. Nobody else has to participate — though in fact, many people in my groups already cared about this stuff (in fact, the first compost bin was started by other members long before I joined), and many others have gotten on board. I emphasize the personal benefits we get from keeping goopy stuff out of the kitchen trash can: the can stays cleaner, lighter, doesn’t fill up as fast.

My neighborhood group meets in a place where there’s no compost bin. But I sometimes bring a bucket to our gatherings and take the food scraps home to my compost.

Another example of being a beneficial influence without requiring any extra effort from others: One neighbor brings reusable dishes to the meetings — not just for herself, but enough for everyone — and she takes them home and washes them. Now that is a selfless service. And since her house runs on solar, she might actually be reducing everyone’s footprint!

(People do notice and appreciate the pretty dishes and utensils. And they get the benefits whether or not they are green-minded!)

Have you found ways to expand your green influence without any extra effort on other people’s part? If so, I would love to hear about them, and (with your permission) share them on this blog.

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you have at least one or two green habits you’re committed to. (And I know a lot of you are, like me, extremely deep into this lifestyle.) But are there times when can be OK, or even advisable, to ease up a bit on your practices or standards? I say yes, and here are some examples:

• When you’re ill: Medicines often come in multi-layered non-reusable packaging. Doctor’s offices are filled with single-use stuff like plastic gloves. Illness can require many trips to doctors and hospitals and pharmacies. Try not to worry about this. Take care of your health as you deem necessary.
• If your practice or standard has started to hinder you in some way (beyond just requiring a bit of extra effort or attention) or affect your wellbeing: For example, a friend who’s vegan found she needed to eat meat on occasion during her pregnancy. Or, if you generally do not accept people’s offer of car rides if it takes someone out of their way, but your bicycle has a flat and there’s some meeting or other event you really want to be at but would not be able to get there in time without said ride.
• When you’re visiting the family home or traveling together: A family is a subculture. Your eco habits may end up causing tension or conflict in your precious family relationships, that outweigh the benefit of whatever eco thing you habitually do. If you’re food shopping together, don’t beat yourself up about the plastic bags. (Sometimes it might be feasible to bring your cloth bags and use those, but it might not work in your situation.) If the group wants to drive somewhere that’s a distance you would usually walk, focus on enjoying the togetherness and don’t sweat the petroleum. Think of it this way: Their lifestyle is a day-in, day-out thing, as yours is. Your presence is not adding to their footprint. Anyway, you might be surprised — you might find that the people you thought you knew are more eco-minded than you realized, and that they share some of your habits. This paragraph goes for close friends too, although some people might find it easier to maintain their usual daily practices around close friends than around family members. (Important note for people with kids: Child-rearing differences — cloth vs. disposable diapers, toys, approach to schooling, that kind of thing — can be tricky to navigate and cause inordinate levels of stress and conflict with non-like-minded family members. For tips and emotional support with this important area, I highly recommend you join the Journey to Zero Waste Facebook group. There is a search button on the page; type “diapers” or “kids,” “child-rearing,” etc. You will find a wealth of information. Same goes for dietary differences; you should not have to compromise your health or your ethical standards in order to keep the peace with family members. You will find the J2ZW group an invaluable resource.)
• When you’re at someone else’s home: Most of the time, going with the flow is best. As with the family example, their lifestyle is a day-in, day-out thing, as yours is. Your presence is not adding to their footprint, at least not significantly. Don’t stress out about accepting a single-use plastic plate, for example. In some settings I have been able to avoid using a disposable napkin or disposable utensils because they weren’t necessary, but when I can’t avoid it I try not to stress out. Ditto for water-use practices. At home, maybe you don’t flush the toilet after a pee. At someone else’s place, naturally you will abide by their practice. And don’t agonize about the extra water use (speaking as someone who sometimes does agonize … do as I say, not as I do, right?)
• When you have houseguests: Be up-front about your living environment and practices. For example, if you don’t use air conditioning, say so. (And encourage heat-sensitive friends to visit in the cooler months.) If you compost, you could (depending on the guest) invite them to participate by putting their food scraps into the compost bucket rather than the trash. Or you could simply have them leave any leftovers on their plates and you deal with that. You can also have a separate level of convenience for when guests or housemates are present. When it’s just me, I only use a mini fridge that is just cool enough to keep food cold, not cool enough to freeze anything. So no ice. When other people are staying with me, I plug in the giant fridge that holds massive amounts of perishables and has a proper freezer. Although I don’t use a water heater myself, I switch it on for guests.
• When you’re on the road: Sometimes food and drink will only be available in plastic containers or other packaging that you would usually refuse. And you can’t always get fresh produce or your other usual foods while on the road. Do your best, but don’t go hungry or thirsty just to maintain your eco standards. Dehydration, particularly, is dangerous. (Do as I say, not as I do, says the woman who routinely refuses bottled water even in the dead of summer in Florida. I’ve gotten better about remembering to keep my bicycle water-bottle filled.)
• During emergencies: Medical emergencies, natural disasters, and such may make it simply impossible to do your usual eco stuff. If you have to evac for a hurricane and you forget your reusable water bottle and utensils, or you have to use a flush toilet when you usually use a compost toilet, don’t beat yourself up.
• To avoid causing undue disruption: If you’re in the supermarket checkout line, be considerate of those behind you. Are you super fast and organized with the cloth bags? If so, great. If not, keep practicing; you’ll get better. If in the meantime you end up accepting a plastic bag you didn’t want, reuse it.
• To avoid hurting someone’s feelings: Did your nice neighbor bring you a homebaked treat? Be happy and try not to stress out about the plastic wrap or plastic fork that came with it. If it’s a food you don’t eat, you decide whether it’s worth letting your neighbor know for future reference. You could say, for example, “I so appreciate that you made me this treat. Unfortunately I have dietary restrictions.”
• Sometimes you just plain need new stuff: A lot of us rarely or never buy anything new for ourselves, preferring to acquire clothing or other necessities via freeboxes, thrift stores, or other zero-waste channels. That’s all well and good, but there are times when you just plain need a pair of shoes or whatever, and can’t find them secondhand. Even us diehard RIOTers allow ourselves $1,000 worth of new goods a year. Enjoy what new stuff you choose to buy, and trust yourself to know the difference between a reasonable purchase and excess.
• When you forget to specify “no straw please,” and the server brings you one: No, you are not supposed to atone for this heinous eco sin by committing seppuku on the spot. (After all, you wouldn’t want to ditch your friends, or leave a mess for that nice server to clean up, right?) Repurpose the straw if you can — I cut them into segments, which I use as protective guards for my fine-point paintbrushes or calligraphy pens — but if you can’t, just try to let it go.
• For the greater good (lose the battle but win the war): pretty much any of the above examples. A voluntary extreme-low-footprint lifestyle is supposed to be about love and inspiration and caring, not guilt, scolding, shame, or undue hardship. Do your best, and set a joyful and flexible example.

These examples might sound trifling and a bit obsessive. But I know from experience that people who care about the environment feel these kinds of things keenly. And the positive actions such as eating a plant-centered and local diet, avoiding single-use plastics, and minimizing car trips do add up. We just can’t let it get us down too much when we find ourselves in situations where we can’t keep our habits as much as we’d like to.

And we can’t let our practices become a thing that trashes our human connections, or we lose the whole point. At different points in my life I have inadvertently hurt the feelings of people I loved, and I only found out about it years later. Separating glass and aluminum from trash just isn’t worth that much to me. Of course, there is always an invitation to become more graceful about how I approach a practice such as recycling or composting when in the presence of others.

I will say that, over time, with practice, I have become more skilled at sticking to my personal habits without causing undue disruption or alienating other people. And this wish to minimize disruption or alienation is not just about social comfort (except to the extent that I’m human and want to be loved and accepted just as most people do); it’s really about not wanting to do anything that would cause people undue emotional distress, or undermine the mission of inspiring people to live lighter on the earth.

Finally, to the extent that you believe we are in a state of planetary emergency, while most of the people around you do not, accept that you are probably always going to be in for some cognitive dissonance. Take care of your emotional and spiritual health.

How about you? When, if ever, do you allow yourself to compromise or relax your eco standards or practices?

Further Reading:

Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Difficult Choices, and the Urge to Help (book by Larissa MacFarquhar). “In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. … A woman believes that if she spends money on herself, rather than donate it to buy life-saving medicine, then she’s responsible for the deaths that result. She lives on a fraction of her income, but wonders: when is compromise self-indulgence and when is it essential?” (from Amazon description). I bought this book and found the case studies helpful in finding my level of acceptable tradeoff about some aspects of my low-footprint lifestyle choices.

“What If We Stopped Pretending <that the climate apocalypse can be stopped>?” (New York Times article) “Our resources aren’t infinite. Even if we invest much of them in a longest-shot gamble, reducing carbon emissions in the hope that it will save us, it’s unwise to invest all of them. Every billion dollars spent on high-speed trains, which may or may not be suitable for North America, is a billion not banked for disaster preparedness, reparations to inundated countries, or future humanitarian relief. Every renewable-energy mega-project that destroys a living ecosystem … erodes the resilience of a natural world already fighting for its life. … Keep doing the right thing for the planet, yes, but also keep trying to save what you love specifically—a community, an institution, a wild place, a species that’s in trouble—and take heart in your small successes. Any good thing you do now is arguably a hedge against the hotter future, but the really meaningful thing is that it’s good today.”