SHARE 350.0

Action Profiles are now live on the site. Action Profiles give you an opportunity to quantify your efforts to create a sustainable community. Join 349 like minded souls in creating a profile of your efforts to create sustainability.  An Action Profile is an easy to use form that allows you check off actions in different categories of sustainability.  Cumulative data of the group’s actions will be compiled and shared with the group.

To participate all you have to do is create a profile on this site and start logging your actions!

Developers Note:

The plugin used to create and store action profiles was developed with Share350 in mind.  It is still being refined and as such you might encounter a bug or some other unexpected behaviour.  If so, please contact us and let us know what happened and we’ll get it fixed as quickly as possible.

By registering, you can create a green actions profile and save it for future reference.

If you’re bothering to read this site, then I hope you’ll take the next step in joining us to BUILD a sustainable future for our kids.

I hope you can get past the “war of mass distraction” that is looks like our current reality. In your gut I hope you feel with me the truth that this ephemeral manifestation of “the way things are” is built on illusory premises and passing values.

There is a truth about our biologic reality and connectivity to the living systems that comprise our world that impels us to confront the destructive forces at play in our times.

My dad asked me last week “why don’t people care?” about this war, this destruction, this consumption and greed. I think people do care, but that fundamentally, we know that to act meaningfully in these times requires a level of action and conviction that is well beyond the scope of current rhetoric.

When you dare to envision a truly sustainable culture, you have to be willing to go beyond this new “green” fashion. Sustainability is not a product, it’s a radical notion.

Do we love ourselves, our children and each other enough to say what needs to be said and have the conviction to propose and act on that proposition that needs to be made?

Are we willing to put the rights of nature, which support our lives, on par with our own? Are we willing to literally fight those interests which WILL oppose this?

We are not in a position to even name what needs to be named and subsequently map out a plan to enable it, but we do know where we need to start. We need to start by doing the things we can do — every single one of those things. And do them together. And build relationships through that action that lead us to a new level of engagement that doesn’t yet exist, but that will become the platform for the next level of action, and the next and the next.

So what do you have to say to that?!?

Your friend in action,
Randy

If you close your eyes and imagine the realization of the GREEN future being advocated through the products, services and policies of progressive governments, businesses and non-profits –

you will NOT be envisioning a
SUSTAINABLE CULTURE . . .

because our culture is based on a vision of self and family, economic structure and cultural engagement that is fundamentally UNSUSTAINABLE no matter the GREEN WASHING we put it through.

We must replace the inherent production of redundancy that our culture is based upon, with a new VISION based on stewardship of our landbase and the wealth of our CONNECTION to each other. As parents we teach this to our children as SHARING.

The main environmental problem that we seek to address is not EXACTLY environmental! To quote Bill McKibben, it is that “we believe too firmly that we, each of us as individuals, are the most important things on the earth.” This cultural programming is driving the destruction of the planet.

We are promoting a sustainability education platform that places human existence in a context of interconnectedness with an ecosystem at a regional level. All of our projects seek to address facets of that interconnectedness and explore ways that can tweak our systems to become balanced in that overall system. The process we use to do that exploration is collaborative design and artmaking, which provides a tangible experience of community activity that isn’t based on individual genius.

It is perhaps only art that can shape culture, and without a cultural change, environmental policy and activism cannot stop the destruction of the planet. So, we call our mission The Sustainability Revolution, and we envision, inspire and manifest it.

Contact Us

Please fill out the form below to contact Randy Jewart (randy [at] austingreenart [dot] com) for more information.

Weblinks

• Bill McKibben - Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering.
• Derrick Jensen - Derrick Jensen is the author of The Culture of Make Believe, A Language Older than Words, Listening to the Land: Conversations about Nature, Culture, and Eros, a USA Today Critics Choice for one of the best nature books of 1995, and Railroads and Clearcut
• Holmgren Design Services - The source of permaculture vision and innovation.
• Integrative Design Collaborative - Assisting clients to move beyond sustainability.
• Paul Hawken - Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author.
• Slow Food USA - Supporting good, clean and fair food.
• The City Repair Project - An all-volunteer grassroots organization helping people reclaim their urban spaces to create community-oriented places.
• Wiser Earth - Toward a just and sustainable world create by community.
• World Changing - Change your thinking.

Local Resources

• Austin 350 - Global Warming. Global Action. Global Future
• Austin CarShare - The freedom of driving with cars on demand.
• Edible Austin - Edible Austin magazine is a quarterly publication celebrating local, fresh foods in Austin and Central Texas. Comprehensive online resource for local food-related sources (for growing and buying), eco-resources, and events calendar.
• Green Life Eco-Consulting - Living green is easier than you think.
• Sustainable Food Center - Creating a Food Secure community by improving access to local, healthy, and affordable food for children and adults in Central Texas.

Recommended Reading

• Blessed Unrest - How the Largest Movement In the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming, by Paul Hawken
• Deep Economy - The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, by Bill McKibben
• Endgame - Endgame Volume I: The Problem of Civilization, Endgame Volume II: Resistance, by Derrick Jensen
• Natural Capitalism - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken

Who thanks individuals for taking GREEN action?

We are providing a frame-work that allows individual action to be contextualized within a continuum of GROUP action, and recognized and rewarded.

Soon you will be able to log your green actions on your profile.  Items on the profile will be used to collectively quantify the group’s good.

Why 350?

Research indicates optimum community structures of 250 to 500 people. When 350 Austinites register for this program, it will represent HALF of ONE-TENTH of ONE percent of the regional population of this supposedly GREEN city.

When those 350 people reach the threshold of ACTING together, their impact will be SIGNIFICANT, measurable and inspiring.

350 is also a conscious symbolic connection to Bill McKibben’s 350.org project. 350 parts of CO2 per million parts of atmosphere is the scientifically proven threshold to prevent global warming. We’re already at 387. Participating in SHARE builds a model that can proliferate internationally to combat global warming.

When is the game over and when does registration close?

Our framework is always open. We don’t have all the answers. Sustainability is a never-ending process based on the CREATIVE contributions of all community-members. Once we reach 350, we’ll start our second module.

What does it cost?

Participation will SAVE you MONEY! Participation will also contribute to BUILDING a community that can RESIST national recession, peak oil, natural disasters and political turmoil.

Eventually, a sustainable CULTURE is also based on richer self-fulfillment by PARTICIPATION in edu-tainment opportunities as opposed to consumption of the culture industry.

The Sustainability Matrix maps sustainability as a process. We may not know what sustainability is in practice yet, but we know what its elements are, and that enhancing connectivity between these elements continually increases sustainability even as those changes must continually adapt as natural conditions vary.

Sustainability Wheel:

• a conceptual map of sustainability as a process
• a community map of organizations
• a tool to assess sustainable progress for any entity
  • Food
  • Transit
  • Green Building
  • Water
  • Waste
  • Art
  • Wildlife Habitat
  • Native Plants
  • Economy

Individuals and community share:

• learning
• restoration
• stewardship
• relationships
• growth

• every citizen should be a sustainability steward
• every site should have a sustainability assessment and development plan
• community groups should be aware of and participate in enriching a sustainability matrix

Visit often.  We are continually developing the site!

Join 349 of your neighbors in building community and accounting for your actions toward creating a sustainable Austin!

Introduction

The Share350 program is comprised of two main components.

One is this site, which has a web-based personal action profile with easy forms to check off actions in different categories of sustainability.  Cumulative data of the group’s actions will be compiled and shared with the group.  The rest of the site has resources on sustainability and a blog for discussing progress (which will soon be open to the entire group).

The second part is a monthly event with food, music, or a short educational program.  This will give you the chance to meet your neighbors in person, discuss progress on and invent new sustainable projects.

Participation

To participate all you have to do is create a profile on this site and start logging your actions!

Action Profile

Click the image below to get started with your personal action profile allowing you to create a list of actions you are taking to create a sustainable community.