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Our Impact (Denominator)

Health Consequences of 85,000 Human-made Chemicals

The market for chemicals designed for World War II fell flat at the war’s end. What to do with the infrastructure and knowledge used to create these chemicals? Find a new market. Enter the chemical revolution in agriculture and other areas as well. But, without a precautionary principle (test for safety first and then mass […]

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Thriving on One Planet: The Big Picture

The big picture of One Planet Thriving: (1) Our modern way of life is the largest, most unethical failure in human history. (2) We know how to reverse that failure and thrive on one planet’s worth of resources. (3) The trick is transitioning to that way of life. For more detail, read this post which, in turn, has links to more detailed posts and resources.

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My first summer at Troy Gardens Cohousing

Since moving to Troy Gardens Cohousing Community last November (2013), many people have asked me what is cohousing and what does it actually look like. I’ve spent some time trying to process my own experience of living here and to communicate why cohousing is an important option.

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Notes from UW Sustainability Forum, March 7, 2013

Sustainability Forum at UW-Madison Engaging Change: Our Food, Our Energy, Our World Craig Benson & Pat Eagan (Darren Harris = MC) Funding sources: NSE, SIRE (UW), EPA: P3 Sustainability Metrics Initiative (SBMI): STARS Operations (Faramarz Vakili, Director of Campus Sustainability Operations) 20 million sq ft of buildings 8th largest city in the state if separated

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Saving Our Children: Connecting to Ourselves for Sustainable Well-being (video)

Video of a recent 60-minute talk with music in 9, bite-sized bits, entitled: “Saving Rumi: Connecting to Ourselves for Sustainable Well-being”. It’s a good summary of the sustainable well-being project. Through words and music, the talk discusses how our current way of life is the largest failure in human history, advocates making changes to maximize sustainable well-being, describes some psychological principles needed, and suggests solutions, ranging from a scientific and cultural project called “Open Source Life Design”, to solutions being modeled by pioneering communities throughout the world, to an incubating idea for a Community Supported Sustainable Lake House (CSSL).

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One Planet Communities

There are several communities described by BioRegional and at oneplanetcommunities.org (see this map) that follow the One Planet living framework which adheres to the 10 principles detailed in the figure to the left. They are communities designed to maximize sustainable well-being, chiefly by reducing planetary impacts. The first One Planet community in the United States

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Our Budget: Ways of Measuring Our Impact

Sustainable well-being = well-being ÷ the resources it takes to achieve that well-being. This section focuses on ways of measuring different aspects of this denominator. In other words, how do we measure our impact on the planet and each other?  The goal is to understand ways of measuring/quantifying the equitable budget our lifestyles must work within.

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The Dysfunctional Status Quo of Gradual Societal Collapse

For those who like to put things in context, read this short post covering the big picture of One Planet Thriving. The point of life is sustainable well-being: happiness, health, and long lives achieved in a way that can be sustained over multiple generations. That means we have to achieve our well-being while using only

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Sustainable well-being

We can live lives that are beautiful, rich, connected, and sustainable. They can be sustainable for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the planet. We know how to do this…now. We have never had greater knowledge of historical successes and failures, greater technological help, greater resources, or broader access to different modern models for how

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