The Buy Nothing Project is a global network of real-life neighbors who share in a world of abundance through hyper-local gifting economies. Its mission is to create a space for them to share, receive, lend, borrow and to express gratitude amongst each other. It is also a social experiment that focuses on how we can prevent waste and unnecessary consumption to lessen the carbon footprint.

Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller founded the Buy Nothing Project in 2013 in Bainbridge Island, Washington. The underlying principal is that through creating a network of neighbors who truly connect and build trust with one another the social fabric of the community will become stronger. Integrity, honesty, inclusivity and civility are central; the true wealth is valued in the human connections that are made.

Within five years, the founders' one little gifting economy has turned into a worldwide network. It spans six continents, 30 countries and 3,500 Facebook groups with over 750,000 members, and it is rapidly growing. In Los Angeles County, we currently have 61 active groups with anywhere from 20 to over 1,000 members each. (You can look for your hyper-local group here.)

As a Regional Team Member, I have the honor of gently coaching local admins throughout L.A.; I guide them on how to build their networks, engage their members and help them create a space where everything is ‘freely given’ so that neighbors will trust in the abundance and open up. (By contrast, people in a scarcity model tend to be afraid to ask for things.)

How is this different from other “free” sites you ask? It’s vastly different in that the focus is on creating a connection between real-life neighbors. It’s not about the “stuff.” Physical gifts can be the catalyst for neighbors to meet and connect, however the Gifts of Time, Gifts of Self and Gifts of Talent are really where the magic happens.

These kinds of gifts bring neighbors closer; they spend time together, help one another, learn a new skill or share in a talent for any cause that might benefit another member. Whether it’s sharing in time over a cup of tea or on a playground, or offering to help an elderly neighbor screw in a light bulb, these gifts are what truly weave the community together. Home groups even have extensive Lending Libraries where a world of resources like gardening tools, party dishes, decorations, carpet cleaners and saws can be shared amongst our little network.

In my little hyper-local group called Altadena (West), which opened in November 2016, we now have 814 members. I was motivated to volunteer and build my group because I was doing a Zero Waste Year and Buy Nothing Year simultaneously in 2017. I was able to do a huge clean out and gift lots of things to my neighbors while at the same time being invited to spend time with them as well. As an example, I was gifted everything from clothes, to kitchen ware, furniture and a washer and dryer.

What I didn’t know was that by sharing in the gift of time with a couple of my neighbors I was also going to meet my fiancé and find our first home together.

—Jaime Rosier

Congratulations Pasadena 100 volunteers and fans! We got what we asked for!

After spending two years lobbying City officials for their support of renewable energy — yes, renewable energy is possible and financially sound — Pasadena 100 recently saw two of its specific requests approved.

1) The City will not sign anymore long-term contracts for natural gas and
2) It will include a Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) in the planning analysis for determining future resource choices and their utilization to meet electric energy needs.

Both these asks, "No long-term fossil fuel contracts" & "Don’t ignore the real costs of carbon" —  were included in our IRP (Integrated Resource Plan).

The City Council voted in favor of the requests on December 10, 2018. You can view the agenda for the meeting and the recap, including the words "Action: Approved Staff Recommendation", on the City website here. (Look for item #12!)

Feeling happy! It's time to celebrate!

—Sylvia Holmes
Water Harvester
Transition Pasadena/Transition US
"Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world." (Howard Zinn)

Transition is burrowing into my heart more deeply with each passing year. For coping with the holidays, my gift to you is my own 12 Ways of Christmas.

1) Begin and end with gratitude, count blessings. It’s the thought that counts. 
No self-chastising for not having a big gift among competitive givers. 

2) Look outside the money economy. Regift, repurpose, harvest, share seeds and plants and fruits, give gifts from the hand and heart. The Buy Nothing Project or Nextdoor.com are platforms to ask, and you may receive! I have potted scavenged succulent pups and narcissus bulbs in terra cotta pots.

3) Give the gift of your time. Childcare, help to finish a household project, a date for a hike are welcome gifts.

4) Think consumable: food, plants, soaps, music and entertainment cobbled up by me or a local artist. Avoid layers of packaging that choke the landfill. My 92-year-old mom reminisces on Christmases in snowy Minnesota; oranges miraculously appeared with horehound and marzipan candies. I do hope my navel oranges are ripe by Christmas. My kids look forward to the sweet Sesame Seed Snaps, Blackjack gum, and a new toothbrush, bamboo this year! 

5) Buy local. Keep the carbon footprint small, think no-drive gifts. Support small businesses; avoid corporate stores which don’t keep the money circulating in the local community. This tips our fragile economy to favor the wealthiest few. I buy fancy jams from a foodie at our Farmers Market and gift certificates to our mom-and-pop bakery. I will buy a few things that have not crossed an ocean on a methane-belching cargo ship.

6) Be an early bird. Online, shopping early and efficiently is key! It feels good to click the No Rush button to bundle items for fewer shipments.

7) No plastic. No brainer.

8) Save a tree. Send holiday “cards” electronically. Gift bags are reusable if you must giftwrap. Another way to save a tree is to not buy a Christmas tree. After seven years of not buying a tree it’s hard to hold fast on to this one with a three-year-old in the family. I collect wind-fallen branches to add the fragrance of the season to our home.

9) Inspire a change of heart for action on Climate Change 
Share the documentary on Amazon Prime taken from the book of the same name, Being the Change, or give to Citizens Climate Lobby, Transition Network, YES! Magazine, or other nonprofits that pull at heart strings. My quest continues for how to deliver love and affection to the detained immigrant children in Texas. Meanwhile, donations to nonprofits offering legal aid will have to soothe this heartache.

10) Save energy. No Christmas lights for me. I’m open to the idea of some solar LED lights, but I think it’s part of the divine plan to give us darkness for comfort in this time of holiday stress, and global unrest. I prefer moon and star light. 

11) Emanate peace: smile, meditate, connect in person, disconnect from the media. Winter solstice is a reminder that lighter days are ahead.

12) Watch the parade! What could be more local, more festive, more promising of happy days ahead?

​—Therese Brummel

GET TO KNOW A GARDENER

In Memoriam
January Nordman
June 16, 1953 - December 10, 2017

January began growing food in the mid-seventies at University of Michigan’s garden co-op. Lots of zucchini! Gardening became a lifelong love.

She attended Caitlin Bergman’s Permaculture Design Course in 2010. In 2011 she became a leader in visioning, designing and ultimately managing the Throop Learning Garden. She taught about companion planting; thus, the geraniums stayed with the tomatoes. And we learned crop rotations: fruits, leaves, legumes and roots. She was always pursuing more information on seed saving, composting, soil enrichment, pollinator attraction and critter abatement.

​She had a particular interest in water, taking the Metropolitan Water District state tour to better understand drought and water conservation; thus, the water tank, French drain and swales. She was an artist at heart, designed many gardens, and taught her clients that native plants support pollinators for food gardens.

January freely shared her wisdom and energy. Her whistling while she worked instilled gardeners with the joy she felt while she gardened. She frequently recruited others for garden "capers," such as climbing over the chain link fence at Cal Tech (watched by the guard who didn’t have the right key for the gate) to get a close look at the olive tree they offered for the garden centerpiece. Another caper was moving that thousand pound tree into its place. 

She arranged countless classes on garden-related topics, including Native People's use of local medicinal plants. Thus we have Yerba Santa, mugwort, milkweed and sages, as well as comfrey. 

Her spiritual practice connected her to plants and the sense of oneness with all of earth’s delights. January found it easy to nestle into the mulch and lead us in a brief garden meditation before we dug in. She knew the ravens in the church tower were avatars of garden blessings. 

A childhood friend says that from a very early age Jan was fascinated by hawks. On her final day in the garden, a Cooper’s hawk swooped in, settled into the apricot tree and looked down on her. She took its visit as a parting blessing. 

—Therese Brummel
​
This article first appeared in a newsletter published by Throop Church.

"Drawdown" is a practical book, and an uplifting one. It shifts from fear-inducing and hand-wringing to hopeful and candid concern. In his opening essay, editor Paul Hawken, an environmentalist and author, proposes we shift the preposition of global warming happening to us — as if we were victims of actions that happened in the past — to global warming happening for us.
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This shift in perspective inspires us to reimagine everything we make and do to the present, creating a wholly different approach and attitude. We take responsibility for what we do and don’t blame others or past happenings. We see extraordinary change in climate as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, and take it as an opportunity that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. As a consequence, in dealing with climate issues, we exercise our humanity.

Many sectors of human activity contribute to global warming including what we eat and how we grow food, the energy we use, what we consume, how we get around and occupy ourselves, places we inhabit, and many other undertakings. Drawdown consolidates 100 solutions into seven major sectors wherein emissions and sequestrations are examined and greenhouse gases investigated for their effect. Rating these strategies, is based on how many giga-tons of CO2, or the equivalent thereof, a solution will remove or keep away from the atmosphere in the years between 2020 and 2050.

The topmost net reduction to global warming, are gases used in refrigeration. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) will start to be reduced actively starting in 2019, but it will take many years before replacement refrigerants are substituted. By replacing global warming refrigerants by 2050, 89.74 giga-tons of CO2 will be reduced from the atmosphere, and a net savings of $902.8 billion will be realized.

Among the 100 strategies researched, nearly one fifth come under the category of energy where solutions involving wind, geothermal, solar farms, and rooftop solar are explained. In one example, an Urnos woman who lives with her two daughters on one of the many islands on Lake Titicaca uses a rooftop panel instead of kerosene to provide electricity for her family. (Fittingly, the Uru People know themselves as Lupihaques, Sons of the Sun.)

Educating girls and family planning rank sixth and seventh among the 100 best ways of reducing global warming. Combined, they will save about 120 giga-tons of warming gases to enter the atmosphere by 2050. Educated girls have fewer, healthier children, have lower maternal mortality, are less likely to see their infant child die, are more familiar with better nourishment and can better contribute to economic growth. In exercising their intrinsic right to education, they also lay a foundation for a substantial sense of self-worth for their families and the community.

At the close of "Drawdown," we are reminded of its beginnings. Reducing global warming depends on cooperation, community, and collaboration. Groups of people; farmers and city dwellers, leaders and acolytes, businesses and non-profits, schools, universities and churches, all participating with nature, are involved. And within each body are individuals who can determine for themselves what best to do. From not dumping the banana skin into the trash to donating to build a school in Kenya, each is collaborating with others and acting as one with nature to further advance us as caring humans.

—Greg Marquez

Drawdown
The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
Edited by Paul Hawken
256 pp. Penguin Books. (2017)