globalbriefs
Community Currency
Forget About Your Worries; Get Rid Of Your Pain…
A local currency movement is again emerging as a way to focus business capital, especially consumer spending, on community economies. BerkShares illustrate the phenomenon. First issued in 2006 in the southern Berkshires region of Massachusetts, more than 2 million of these paper notes are currently in circulation. One hundred BerkShares can be purchased for $95 at one of five local banks and exchanged at participating merchants with the same purchasing value as U.S. dollars. The program provides consumers an incentive to keep the notes active and shop and dine locally in the 400 neighborhood businesses that accept them. “At the moment, we’re a very sophisticated ‘buy local’ program,” says Susan Witt, co-founder and administrator of BerkShares, Inc., “but the potential to move to an independent currency is built in.” Networking is key. Some local currency success stories include New York’s Ithaca Hours, North Carolina’s Plenty and Wisconsin’s Madison Hours, but others have not survived, despite sometimes extensive marketing support. BerkShares continue to represent a relatively small part of the region’s local economy. Witt says: “In the short term, it’s about educating people about local economies. In the long term, it’s transforming the institution of money. We’re not there yet. But everyone knows what BerkShares are.”
Call for a FREE Stress Assessment ($45.00 Value!)
Call Today - 504-250-7477 Massage Hypnosis Reiki
PSYCH-K
Annick Juneau CHT, LMT #2660
Hands Help Heal www.HandsHelpHeal.com
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” ~Muhammad Ali
Private Mints on the Upswing
Source: Adapted from E/The Environmental Magazine.
Fairer Trade
B Corps Aim to Right the System
T
raditional business models have recently experienced many manmade traumas, including the housing/banking industry collapse, world recession, nuclear pollution in Japan, the BP Gulf oil spill and the Massey Energy Company coal mining deaths in West Virginia. The conventional response is that smarter regulation is needed to prevent such crises in the future, but a growing number of business analysts say the problems go deeper, and a new kind of corporate legal structure is needed that requires companies to operate for the good of society, not just for their shareholders. These new entities, called B Corporations (the B is for benefit), are growing in number, having been adopted so far in Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia. According to B Lab, the nonprofit behind the concept, “Our vision is simple, yet ambitious: to create a new sector of the economy that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. It will be comprised of a new type of corporation—the B Corporation—that meets rigorous and independent standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.” Jay Coen Gilbert, a B Lab co-founder, says, “We can’t have a new economy unless we have a new type of corporation. Corporate law actually works against sustainability.” Its certification effort helps consumers identify truly responsible companies. It also works with private equity investors to help them make better-informed investment decisions. Ultimately, it is pushing for new laws to, “…redefine fiduciary duty and hold companies accountable to create a material positive impact on society and the environment, as measured by an independent, transparent, third-party standard.” Source: GreenBiz.com 12
New Orleans
NOLANaturalAwakeningsMag.com