Planetsave

If you’re going to change the world, wouldn’t you like it to be epic?

Stacey Monk, Co-founder and CEO of Epic Change, does, which is why she and Sanjay Patel decided to launch their unique approach to sparking social change by converting people’s “epic” stories into financial resources they can use to improve their communities, their lives – and the world.

Rooted in the best practices of successful businesses and charities, their somewhat novel approach to funding uses donations to provide interest-free loans to finance community improvement efforts, which they repay by generating revenue-driving projects based on each epic story, and then recycle by duplicating those ideas in other communities, effectively spreading hopefulness and change to everyone their program touches.

I had the opportunity to talk with Stacey to dig a little deeper into their change model, and this impassioned former management consultant with a degree in Public Policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University boasts an impressive resume, but her most compelling attribute by far is a genuine desire to promote positive change and a dewey-eyed hopefulness that makes me believe she can.

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San Francisco’s Prop H is taking on their biggest opponent today - PG&E! The utility company has spent more than $9.9 Million to prevent San Francisco from having cheaper and renewable energy.

Come join the rally at: PG&E’s downtown headquarters at 77 Beale St at noon.

They’ll be erecting three twelve-foot “Yes on H” wind turbines and showing support for green jobs and an affordable green energy future. They’ll have signs ready for you to carry if you want to protest!

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Across the country, cities are passing new laws to allow backyard chickens.

Cities across the country have shown new leniency in the urban chicken arena.  Ann Arbor, Michigan, South Portland, Maine and Fort Collins Colorado, have all voted in the past year to allow backyard chickens.  They join the growing number of U.S. cities to make legal the raising of poultry in the backyard.

Illegal or not, city chicken flocks are more popular than ever.

“It’s no longer something kinky or interesting,” said Jac Smit, president of the Urban Agriculture Network. “The ‘chicken underground’ has really spread so widely and has so much support.”

Though some worry that backyard chickens might carry and transmit avian flu, advocates of urban chicken farming claim that farming poultry on a small scale presents less of a risk of disease than large-scale production.

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In the small town of La Plata, Missouri, something of a revolution is beginning. A brand new intentional community has recently formed, and its aims and message are radical, inspiring, and daring: the Possibility Alliance is a completely car-free, petroleum-free, and electricity-free community striving to raise a new level of awareness regarding sustainable, cooperative, and compassionate living.

Currently composed of a small handful of members, the Possibility Alliance is totally off-the-grid and uses candlelight and wood stoves for heating and cooking, and it owns no vehicles. Instead, members use bicycles as their main mode of transport. (See above for an example!) Another of the group’s goals is to depend entirely on 100% local food, so that whatever is not grown by the community is obtained within a 200 mile radius. The Possibility Alliance hosts students, visitors, and guests and provides educational workshops free of charge on topics such as permaculture, bicycle maintenance, gardening, etc. Although the group might use the term “radical simplicity” to describe the lifestyle they have taken on, they see it as more of a return to what makes sense for humans living harmoniously with the earth.

Last week, I wrote about the Superheroes bike ride which is currently traveling through Missouri. I spoke at length with friend and communitarian Ethan Hughes, who is heavily invested in both the Superheroes and Possibility Alliance projects. There is a strong bond between both movements, as Ethan explains in this interview about the project. We discuss at length what it means to live sustainably, and what the sustainability community needs to do to take the next step in progressing the ecological movement.

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Hi. I’m Brian, a new writer here at Planetsave. For the past eighteen months, I have been living off-the-grid at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a rural intentional community located in northeastern Missouri.

Dancing Rabbit is a community composed of 45 individuals dedicated to sustainable living and creating cultural change. Renewable energy from solar panels and wind turbines powers the entire village, which is made up of green buildings constructed using earthen (such as straw bale and cob) and reclaimed materials. All drinking and cleaning water is collected using rain catchment systems, and three biodiesel-fueled vehicles provide the entire group with transportation needs. Much of our food is grown in our organic gardens.

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