Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing and the Steady State Economy

[Rob Dietz (rob_dietz]

Fellow Cohousers,

I am a member of Coho Ecovillage in Corvallis, Oregon and the director of the 
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE).  Here at Coho, 
I recently gave a presentation in our common house on ecological economics and 
the steady state economy.  It was well received and generated a thoughtful and 
imaginative discussion, one which I plan to continue.  Following from that, I 
want to share these ideas (in brief) with the broader cohousing community.

The steady state economy is a non-growing economy capped at a scale that does 
not exceed the carrying capacity of the planet.  I see a strong link between 
the cohousing movement and efforts to establish an ecologically sound, 
sustainable economy.  In fact, my latest blog on the CASSE website 
(www.steadystate.org) begins to describe this link.  One strategy for 
generating political interest in a sustainable economy is to obtain signatures 
on the CASSE position on economic growth.  This position acknowledges the 
conflict between economic growth and environmental protection (among other 
things), and calls for wealthy nations to lead the way in establishing steady 
state economies.  If you are inclined, please read and sign the position at
<www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html>.  I also invite you to check out 
the other information and resources on the website.  And please let me know if 
you have ideas or feedback.

Thanks -- yours in community,
Rob Dietz
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
www.steadystate.org