by Tom & Carol Braford

Many people make New Years resolutions in January and for many of us it includes losing some weight.  This year, in our household we have a different kind of weight loss resolution; we will be adopting the Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds by David Gershon.

Like any weight loss program, the first thing we need to be effective is peer support.  We already know that to lose weight we should just eat less and exercise more, but knowing that makes very little difference.  If we have a support system, however, that can make all the difference.

The same is true when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint.  We know that all it takes is to conserve more, use less and whenever possible produce your own renewable energy, but knowing that is not enough.    Well, the secret behind the Low Carbon Diet is that you invite the rest of your household and your neighbors to do it with you.  You form EcoTeams.

EcoTeams consistently produce a 25% reduction in personal carbon footprints.  As we create more and more successful EcoTeams and build lots of ecovillages with renewable sources of power and locally grown food, achieving our goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2020, which is what most scientists say we need to do, becomes a real possibility.

The really cool thing about this approach is that there is an unintended consequence.  All kinds of great things can and do come out of getting to know your neighbors.

When whole cities take this on, it’s called a Cool Communities campaign.  These campaigns have happened in several other cities around the US, including Kansas City.  The first statewide campaign is happening in Massachusetts and the Low Carbon Cities movement is igniting a Cool Cities Campaign in China.

The beauty is that you don’t have to reach everyone in the first year.  All it takes is to engage the 15% early adopters.  Once they are in action, another 35% will follow.

To learn more about how to get started, please join us for an open house and potluck lunch at our Ecovillage on Saturday, February 20th at 11:00.

Contacts:

Culver Way Ecovillage:

Tom & Carol Braford,

www.CulverWayCohousing.com,

braford@sbcglobal.net,

314-534-4780.

Green Beings Urban farm:

Sabrina Hilton,

www.greenbeings-stl.com,

greenbeings@gmail.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 at 6:21 pm and is filed under February 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.