By Tom Braford
Since economies in service to life are circular by definition, they need to close the capital resource loop.
A current example is the rapidly growing micro currency in the Basque region of France. Community members fund administration and expansion by purchasing the local currency at 3.5% above face value. Community businesses accepting the micro currency pledge a percentage of their profits to support community nonprofit enterprises.
In our case, we have an untapped asset of millions of dollars in Neighborhood Preservation Act tax credits that will pay out at a discount once construction is complete. We could use these now to get this circular economy going by assigning tax-credit sale proceeds in excess of face value.
This fits well with a recommended feature of micro currencies, called demurrage, that encourages the rapid circulation of the currency. Instead of having to pay a fee to purchase your Ecovillage Ingots, we could issue this currency above face value with a demurrage rate of 1% a month, so that you would receive an initial reward in greater purchasing power.
This could jumpstart the Ecovillage hub economy by funding the start-up of a number of in-house businesses, like Resilient Innovative Permaculture Environments (RIPE), the Green Beings CSA, Rapid Integral Building System (RIBS), landscaping products, Renewable Integrated Micro Systems (RIMS) and the E-Lawn Service.
We could even include purchases like Arizmendi Ecovillage memberships, home or business reservations or home upgrade and option packages. This would demonstrate to funders that we do indeed have a market for the products and services we are producing.
To cover initial legal, administrative and marketing costs, purchasers of Ecovillage Ingots could receive an additional percent above face value that they could immediately turn into a discounted Green Beings CSA share, thereby launching the first business and lowering their healthy food cost at the same time.
Our donation to the Green Beings enterprise of productive garden beds, tools and equipment is making this initial launch possible, so we would love some assistance to cover our upfront costs.
Special Opportunity: join us for free concerts at Eliot Chapel at 7pm on June 14 and 20. See more on our website.
Contact: braford@sbcglobal.net
www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com