Action Items for Building a Self-Reliant Richmond, Indiana

This blog entry is a repository of personal "action items" that I suggest when I give my talk entitled "Going Local: Building a Self-Reliant Richmond, Indiana," first presented in its current form in November, 2007. As I say in the talk:

• You may already know a lot of this stuff
• I don't like telling people how to live, and I very much still aspire to practice some of these things myself, so I don't offer these up with any sort of moral authority
• This can be thought of as a menu of possibilities, rather than a list of imperatives or instructions

If you're not completely sure why it might be a good thing for Richmond to become self-reliant or why these action items might help, then please invite me to give the talk for your group or organization. It's chock full of great information about the energy crisis, climate change, the economy, and the implications for life in Richmond and Wayne County, Indiana. I also tell some jokes.

Now, on to the list, which is largely centered on reducing our dependence on and usage of fossil fuels:

1. Follow Our Comprehensive Plan
   It already has a strong focus on sustainability, and if we pay attention to its recommendations, particularly around planning and zoning, we'll be moving in a good direction. You can read the plan online.
    
2. Drive Less
   Learn more at driveless.org
    
3. Get a Smaller Car
    
4. Carpool with Friends
   Learn more at dividetheride.com and carsharing.net
    
5. Use Public Transportation
   Call Rose View Transit at (765) 983-7227 or see waynet.org/business/transportation.html
    
6. Ride a Bike
   Learn more at bikerichmond.org
    
7. Ride a Cargo Bike
   Learn more at bikerichmond.org/cargobike
    
8. Walk more
    
9. Build Walkable, Bikeable Communities
   It’s 2007 and you still can’t easily walk to our newest developments (e.g. Richmond Village), because there are no sidewalks going there!
    
10. Buy Carbon Offsets
    Learn more at CarbonFund.org
     
11. Eat Local
    The average U.S. household spends $2,300 per year at restaurants. Wouldn't it be great if most of that was going to local restaurants?
     
12. Eat REALLY Local (Start a Garden)
    This includes learning about canning, drying, and refrigderation of foods you grow. Check out the book Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman.
     
13. Start a Community Garden
    Learn more at CommunityGarden.org
     
14. Have More Potlucks
    We all need to eat - why not do it in community?
     
15. Have a 100-Mile Radius Potluck
    Imagine having a meal where all ingredients are from within 100
    miles of Richmond...cool!
     
16. Support a Local Food Cooperative
    Learn more at clearcreekcoop.org
     
17. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
    Learn more at localharvest.org
     
18. Get (or build!) a Solar Cooker
    Learn more at solarcooking.org
     
19. Eat Less Meat
    Nearly half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals for food. One-third of the raw materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal industry. And it's not even very effective: animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein.
     
20. Drink Local
    Give the average of $376/year that we spend on booze to local/regional breweries, niche vineyards, etc.
     
21. Stop Smoking
    Tobacco depends on special climates and soil. (And Lung Cancer requires exotic, non-local medial equipment to treat.)
     
22. Do an Energy Audit at Home
    Consider getting a do-it-yourself energy audit kit, or hiring a professional
     
23. Have a Weekly Power-Off Day
    Remember how much fun it could be as a kid? See what your day is like with no power usage and all of the devices around the house turned off.
     
24. Collect and Re-use Rainwater and Graywater
    Consider installing a rain barrel, or sending your laundry water out into the yard instead of into the sewer.
     
25. Create a Permaculture Design Plan for Your Land
    Learn more at permacultureactivist.net
     
26. Mow Your Yard With a Scythe
    Learn more at scythesupply.com
     
27. Share Your Neighbor’s Scythe (and mower, tile cutter, hammer, circular saw, ladder...)
    We don't all need to own one of our own. Set up a community tool shed to check out infrequently used tools, and to share (and thus reduce) the costs of maintenance and replacement.
     
28. Control the Population
    If you take any given problem in the world and add more people to the population, the problem will probably just get worse. Use birth control, or adopt, or have only one child, or share resources with other families in raising your children.
     
29. FreeCycle
    Give away the things you no longer need, get new things for free. Learn more at freecycle.org/group/US/Indiana
     
30. Support Sustainability Education and Advocacy
    Learn more at copeenvironmental.org
     
31. Support Living Wage Policies
    Living wages allow us to not only meet our needs, but to plan for future betterment of ourselves and our world. Learn more at livingwagecampaign.org
     
32. Create and Support Local Business Networks
    Learn more at livingeconomies.org
     
33. Create and Support Local Businesses
    Every dollar spent locally is turned around 7 times in our community. Let's build local wealth instead of sending our hard-earned dollars to Wal-Mart headquarters. Learn more at rwchamber.org/this_year/buy_local.html
     
34. Create a Local Stock Market
    Why do we send our savings accounts, retirement funds, pension funds, and other investments off to other communities? Let’s invest SOME of that in the success of the local community.
     
35. Get to Know Your Neighbors
    Attend a neighborhood association meeting.
     
36. Build Community With Neighbors (through co-housing, eco-villages, etc.)
    Learn more at cohousing.org and ic.org.
     
37. Support Local Currency: Time Dollars
    Learn more about the Wayne County Time Bank.
     
38. Contact Your Representatives
    Ask them to support legislation that moves us toward sustainability.
     
39. Run for Office
    Help create policies and legislation that moves us toward sustainability.
     
40. Resolve Conflicts Locally
    Learn more at ConflictResCenter.org
     
41. Ask the Media to Cover These Issues
    Write letters to the editor, attend editorial board meetings, submit press releases and event announcements, and call reporters directly.
     
42. Become the Media
    Learn more at RichmondNewsReview.com, ProgressiveWayneCounty.org, or WCTV.info.
     
43. Bring your own plastic bags instead of using new ones
    Learn more at bringyourbag.com.
     

As noted, this list is intended to grow and change over time with your comments and suggestions. Please comment below and help make it even better. I'm also working on some alternate ways of presenting some of the information from my talk, including video. You can contact me, Chris Hardie, directly at chrishardie.com.