Thomas Stanton

Wherever there are local governments inclined to make progress towards sustainability, best-practices can be expedited by providing necessary information about how to get started. Lacking comprehensive information about start-up results in tremendous amounts of wasted time and effort as hundreds of local governments all try to reinvent the same basic ideas. Please read more below . . . The Problem this Project Addresses The cost...

Crowd-investing is now legal, both at the U.S. federal level and in at least 30 states. That means non-accredited investors can pool their funds to support local and state-wide projects in the realms of agriculture and food products. My personal focus is on Michigan first, because that is where I live, but the exact same principles apply to almost every state that has already passed...

The "Conservation Economy" is a pattern language intended to describe fundamental principles and practices to guide people towards understanding all of the major factors needed to ensure community sustainability: See http [colon slash slash] www [dot] conservationeconomy [dot] net [slash] pattern_map [slash] noflash [slash]. The initial set of concepts was developed for the EcoTrust in the Pacific Northwest, so case studies and examples are focused...

Crowd-investing is now legal, both at the U.S. federal level and in at least 30 states. That means non-accredited investors can pool their funds to support local and state-wide clean energy projects. My personal focus is on Michigan first, because that is where I live, but the exact same principles apply to almost every state that has already passed laws that provide for intrastate exemptions...

Advances in solar+batteries and human-powered generators are making it practical for hundreds of tools and appliances to operate without traditional electric grids. In the developing world, there are already millions of these stand-alone energy systems and projections call for over 200 million more remote mini- or micro-grids to serve as many as a billion people. Plus, in the parts of the world that already have...

Volunteers will help develop a complete business model for a home security company that works with neighbors to monitor security, at low cost and while keeping dollars circulating in the most local economy. Traditional home security companies require substantial monthly monitoring fees, but they are effectively sweeping those dollars out of the local economy while providing little value added to the neighborhoods they serve. An...

Imagine a design competition like the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathalon, which works with multiple universities to develop designs for particular kinds of buildings in addition to houses. For example, a few types of buildings are large energy users, for example data centers, commercial greenhouses, and large indoor sports facilities (e.g. for hockey and ice skating sports; for tennis; for golf; for football/socker). Since...