Evenin' Suzanna, just getting time to shoot you an email with David Suzuki's info. http://www.newdream.org/consumer/carbon.php http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/Climate/Ontario/sprawlfacts.pdf http://www.davidsuzuki.org/ I couldn't find exactly what I was attempting to articulate to you last night, so I will try again. When I heard David speak in Seattle this fall, what struck me most was his approach to communities. He mentioned two communities that had successfully started their own cooperatives involving residents and local businesses. One was Ballard, a hill in seattle, another was in Boston. The basic concept was that local residents would want to shop and support their local businesses, and local businesses in turn would be able to hire more local employees because of increased revenue and free labor. He said the two examples were very effective and were working extremely well. Basically, to entice consumers to spend the extra 5% at your local cd store, versus go to best buy, provide an optional program for residents to subscribe to local businesses in order to get discounts at them. It takes the physical form of a credit card, like a safeway club card that you could swipe at the checkout. Residents could either, a: pay a monthly premium which would go to the businesses subscribed, or b: donate hours to one of the businesses that were a pat of the cooperative. Given this option, it provides for a diverse economic basis of people that could be involved. It does not discriminate by money. The basic jist: money stays local, jobs stay local, visitors are given full price- while the whole community profits. It makes the community a desirable place to live, which increses property value and pumps the economy. Good luck finding examples. The idea is amazing, and I think your project could be the nucleus for something which could effectively change Eugene and it's economy. Piper Lucas