Economic Resilience
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Economic Resilience
How can we make our communities more financially sustainable? And what are the deeper issues of the economy that affect the sustainability of communities? This section will look at alternative economies, drawing on innovative examples of communities who are walking out of unsustainable economic models and into models of economic resilience that are good for people and good for the planet.
Visioning Questions
What are ways we can sustain ourselves as individuals, families, as a community group and as a wider community – economically, socially and environmentally?
How can we begin to challenge some of the unsustainable elements of the current economic development model within our community? E.g. Zero Waste, local currencies, alternative means of exchange, cooperatives, etc.
Visioning Activity
Research some alternative economies. How can we integrate some of these approaches or ideas into our community? Examples of alternative economies include green economy, circular economy, blue economy, solidarity economy, sharing economy.
https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/environment/topics/sustainable-development/circular-economy/Pages/default.aspx
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Develop ethical purchasing and travel policies for your organisationEncourage staff to avail of cycle-to-work scheme to help reduce your impact on the environment.
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Carry out a waste audit for your organisationLearn more about the Food Waste Charter for Ireland and how you can sign up. See the template from Galway County Council on preventing food waste within organisations.
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Carry out an energy audit for your organisationYou can apply for a Better Energy Communities grant - Ireland’s national retrofit initiative. It's aimed at upgrading the energy efficiency and renewable energy usage of buildings and facilities.
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Organise a workshop for households on how to create water harvesters for their homeOrganise a workshop on how to create water harvesters for homes locally.
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Encourage people in the local community to sign up to an 'Eco-Pledge'See: http://southernwasteregion.ie/content/ecopledge/sustainable-living
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Make information available for households to to retrofit their homesThere are a range of grants available through SEAI: www.seai.ie/grants/home-grants/better-energy-homes/ and retrofit programme: https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-grants/deep-retrofit-programme/
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Facilitate a process of working towards becoming a Transition TownCheck out: https://transitionnetwork.org/country/ie/
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Set up a community gardenYou can get support from http://cgireland.org/ or even apply for Energia 'Get Ireland Growing' funding from Grow It Yourself, e.g. clearing space for an inner-city community garden, putting a polytunnel on a school roof or creating a pond at an allotment. https://giy.ie/get-involved/grow-in-the-community/
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Apply to become a Tidy Townwww.tidytowns.ie
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Develop a biodiversity plan for the local area, including measures to encourage pollinating insects"See what has been achieved by Ennis Tidy Town: http://ennistidytowns.com/project/wildlife/
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Invite your supermarket to host an information day on packaging and to offer recycling points for packaging wasteSee what Midleton Tidy Towns achieved: http://localprevention.ie/2013/04/08/midleton-event-on-alternate-environment-friendly-household-cleaning-agents/
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Use the ‘See It Say It’ app from EPA to report pollution in the local areaThis is something local people can get involved with in the reporting: http://www.epa.ie/livegreen/myhomemycommunity
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Sign up to the Sustainable Energy Community networkYour community can work towards becoming as energy efficient as possible: https://www.seai.ie/sustainable-solutions/community-projects/community-network/
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Make 'Wild' any green spaces within your local communityConsider wilding green spaces within your local community.
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Work with local businesses to support them in their waste prevention, as well as raising awareness of hazardous waste and promote sustainable alternatives"Learn from what Carlow and Kilkenny county councils have created: http://localprevention.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/carlow-kilkenny-midres-2.pdf
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Arrange a community workshop on recyclingCheck out the Recycling Ambassador Programme from VOICE Ireland: http://voiceireland.org/our-work/recycling-ambassador-programme/
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Organise a monthly birdwatch or wildflower walkFor more information on free wildflower walks, visit: www.facebook.com/WildflowerWalksIreland. Birdwatch Ireland organise walks and other events on their website.
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Link in with: https://www.foeeurope.org/natures-keepers European network showcasing what it is that people love about nature in their local area – invite someone locally to contribute a video!
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Draw attention to nature!Organise a monthly bird watching morning/ wildflower walk/ other activity to draw attention to nature – if there is no one with local knowledge on these issues there are lots of online apps to assist with this!
Case-studies
Further Reading / Resources
Moneyless Man:
http://www.moneylessmanifesto.org/why-free/
https://preciousplastic.com/en/creations.html
The Wheel Funding Handbook: http://www.wheel.ie/sites/default/files/the_wheel_EPA_handbook_web.pdf
A Governance Resource for Sustainable Communities:
http://www.wheel.ie/sites/default/files/TheWheel_SustainableCommunities_Governance%20FINAL%20ELECTRONIC_0.pdf
