At Lowimpact.org we’re interested in helping to bring production back to communities, and so we’re going to be talking with craftspeople, smallholders, natural builders, renewables installers and small business owners in our range of topics. I’ll be asking them about their jobs, and for advice for other people who are interested in doing similar things. Read more …

Would you like to be an ecological smallholder? The Ecological Land Co-op are looking for smallholders for plots of land in Devon and Cornwall. More below from Luci at the ELC: Read more …

This is the third part of an interview with Jon Halle of Sharenergy, about the prospects for keeping energy production local and mutualised. Here we talk about community energy, mutual credit and mutualisation of the economy. Read more …

Hi. I’m Andy Reynolds – author, instructor, forester, promoter of self-reliance, and for the last few years I have been reflecting on our project’s progression, as it seems to have reached the stage of early maturity. The project – rebuilding a home, and changing the surrounding fields from dead agricultural land into an oasis of natural life, and a delightful place to live – is something that many people may aspire to, or even dream of. Read more …

This is the second part of an interview with Jon Halle of Sharenergy, about the prospects for keeping energy production local and mutualised. We talk about community energy, Energy Local and the Big Solar Co-op. Read more …

What are those yellow flowers?  Its a common question asked by visitors to the plot at this time of year. The eye-catching flowers that tower above everything else are parsnips.  It’s a shame that more don’t keep their parsnips in the ground overwinter and let them flower. Not only are they attractive plants with their clouds of yellow umbels, but there other benefits too.
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Today I’m speaking with Jon Hallé. We go back about 20 years. You ran courses on how to make biodiesel for Lowimpact, back in the early noughties, and you authored a book for us about making biodiesel, that sold about 15k copies in the first year. It caught the zeitgeist then, but of course diesel vehicles have had their day now. Then you started Sharenergy, setting up community energy schemes around the country. Now you’ve founded the Big Solar Co-op. Read more …

This article explores the history of the legal rights of herbalists to practise, and looks particularly at the use of medicinal plants in wartime Britain. Read more …

Today I’m talking with Shaila Agha of the Sarafu Network about ‘chamas’ and mutual credit, and how they’re changing Africa. Read more …

As it’s Community Energy Fortnight, I thought I’d have a word with my old mate Jon Hallé, who used to run Lowimpact’s ‘How to Make Biodiesel’ courses in the early noughties (and authored a book of the same title with us), and since then has gone on to found Sharenergy, who have helped over 100 community energy schemes to launch, using wind, solar, hydro and biomass. We’ll publish an interview with Jon soon, but first I wanted to tell you about his latest venture – the Big Solar Co-op (BSC) Read more …

There’s an approach to life that sees craft jobs, or smallholding and food production, including baking, brewing and beekeeping, as well as any kind of job that involves manual work and dexterity as somehow retrograde and passé, and that ‘work’ now means mainly putting on a suit and travelling to an office to do something-or-other in sectors such as finance, advertising, sales, fashion or PR. Read more …

Now there’s a question – posed by Chris Smaje of the Ecoogical Land Co-op. Chris joined the board of the ELC as Dave of Lowimpact left, and since then Chris has produced a book called A Small Farm Future, which we review here. Members of Lowimpact have become involved in the world of mutual credit, while Chris has tried to convince us that the future of farming is mixed, organic smallholdings rather than giant industrial farms using pesticides. Read more …

This is part 2 of a conversation with John Thackara. In part 1 we talked about what the future might hold for humanity, and here we talk about what our responses might be. ‘Strange’ ideas might be required for strange times. Read more …

Complement your home or outdoor space with an easy chair, rocking chairs or a living willow chair! This guide should help you to build a bent willow chair – a fantastic piece of willow furniture. Building a willow chair is incredibly satisfying. Just imagine, when you’ve finished you can literally sit back and enjoy your endeavours. Read more …

Here’s a quick and dirty history of money. Since I’ve been involved in the mutual credit world, I’ve been reading various ‘history of money’ texts, and so I thought I’d organise the notes I’ve taken into a blog article. It’s a half-hour read, to accompany our new ‘Low-impact money’ topic, and I think it gives a good overview of monetary history – but leaving out nonsense like ‘money evolved from barter’, or ‘Kings introduced coins so that their subjects could trade more easily’. If you think anything is wrong, missing or needs more explanation, do let me know in the comments. Read more …

This is part 1 of a conversation with John Thackara – senior fellow of the Royal College of Art, visiting professor at Tongji University, Shanghai, founder and director of the Doors of Perception sustainable design conferences, and author of many books, including How to Thrive in the Next Economy. Read more …

You’re invited to join our presentation on the ‘Credit Commons’ – a protocol to connect and unite mutual credit groups globally – on Friday 4 June from 4-5.30pm. Sign up here. Read more …

Nature, democracy and community aren’t partisan issues. No-one sensible, of any political persuasion, speaks out against them. They’re essential for human well-being. But they’re being destroyed, and disunity wastes energy and prevents us from being able to do anything about it. Read more …

This is Part 2 of a conversation with Michael Linton – founder of LETS, the moneyless exchange system. In Part 1 we talked about LETSystems and why it didn’t grow in the way Michael would have liked, and in Part 2 we’re going to talk about his new idea – Open Money. Read more …

Are you planning for a green funeral? Our friends at Ethical.net continue to explore sustainable funeral options, including green burials, coffins, burial sites, wakes and more. Read more …