I would like to make an extra effort in the coming months to revitalize the BASAC concept that led to the formation of Bay Area Sustainable Action Coalition (BASAC) discussion group.
I do think there is a strong link between oneVillage Foundation’ s (OVF) attempt to create a global sustainable development strategy and the transformation (The idea of Silicon Valley Transformation has been a hallmark of OVF’s two pronged global sustainable development strategy) of the Bay Area towards a major effort to retool its infrastructure and production systems so that they are dramatically reducing ecological impacts from the currently grossly unsustainable levels of activity and consumption today. Its really a way of balancing the need for global change with practical actions towards sustainability that will have an impact in the way we live our lives in the Bay Area.
I see this blog as a simple step to begin to encourage people in the Bay Area to better integrate their various efforts in relation to sustainability towards a point where the majority of new buildings are designed to be sustainable and to also promote what I feel is OVF’s unique perspective on development stressing a community driven assets based approach.
Such an community approach is needed probably as much here (if not more here) as it is in Africa and the rest of the developing world. We need to begin to get us to visualize sustainability in our lives and then finally take the steps to build a sustainable world in our lives in a way that is economically viable. Of course there are signs throughout the blog that people all over the world are taking those steps and that the sustainability movement has reached the Tipping Point as expressed in Paul Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest.
Yet the major challenge is not just to figure out to build sustainable communities but to empower the people building and living in them so that it is they that are determining their own destinies, rather that the development apparatus and the means of production being driven by large scale, top down entities who are not accountable to the needs of local people. Thus the term Localization or Relocalization (relating to the process of taking the power back from highly centralized systems) has been the new rallying cry of those in the sustainability movement committed to community oriented development models. Some examples of leadership in this particular aspect of the sustainability movement include the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and also PostCarbon.org.
Further reference on the concept of Silicon Valley Transformation please see this post.
