Sustainable Connections Reaps What It Sows
  A Look at Think Local First and the Food and Farming Program

Sophia Kidd graduated from University of California at Santa Cruz in 1999. She then flew to China and spent eight years on the mainland and in Taiwan. After she returned to the U.S. in late 2007, Kidd began publishing in American journals, magazines and newspapers on a variety of subjects. Kidd is deeply impressed with the health and vitality of the community here in Whatcom County, and researches its mechanisms.

With an emphasis on brand consciousness, Sustainable Connections is reaching through the local economy into our thoughts to change our consumer habits and revolutionize our behavior as a community. There’s a lot going on here. You could call Sustainable Connections a five-pronged fork, serving up local fare, incubating local farms, developing new business models, convening revolutionary builders and lighting our homes with green power. It’s hard to imagine one organization can manage so much at once. Meet Sustainable Connections ... if you haven’t already.

Michelle Long, executive director and co-founder of Sustainable Connections, and Sustainable Connections co-founder Derek Long worked as national coordinators for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) until 2004. BALLE started as a component of Social Venture Network, a national domain of socially conscious entrepreneurs. My understanding of these organizations’ central ideology is that they’re pro-democracy, pro-local, anti-corporation and anti-centralization.

These advocates joined together to form BALLE, officially adopting the moniker in 2001. Michelle and Derek Long, while serving as national coordinators for BALLE, were simultaneously creating Sustainable Connections in Bellingham.

When BALLE says it advocates living economies, they are not kidding. Not only do their business models live, they procreate! Or in any case, they reproduce. A large aim of BALLE and Sustainable Connections is to seed campaigns in the likeness of themselves throughout communities nationwide. Very soon I can see campaigns going beyond U.S. borders into other countries, where local farmers seek ways to subvert global trade monopolies.

A Think Local First campaign “how-to” kit is available for purchase online at http://livingeconomies.org. Distributed by BALLE, the kit is attributed largely to and based upon Sustainable Connections’ successful Bellingham Think Local First Campaign. It is 90 pages of streamlined information, appendices, resources and links to help a community become more self-sufficient.

When I met up with Michelle Grandy, Sustainable Connection’s Think Local First manager, at the local Black Drop Coffeehouse, she was leaning over the coffee counter, laughing. The first thing I saw, though, was the Think Local logo she wore across the entire back of her hoodie. Her style and her job were integrated into an air of relaxed yet vigilant purpose.

As she gave me an interview in the sun, Grandy explained to me how her background in marketing, printing and food markets informs her work at Sustainable Connections. She works hard to create a buzz for people to recognize the Think Local, Buy Local, Be Local logo. Maybe this is why she sometimes dresses up as the Be Local Bee when she shops for local vegetables.

So far, more than 600 independently owned businesses are listed in the Think Local First directory, and every one one of them uses the logo to spread the word about local living economies through sustainable connections. This directory is available for free at many locations throughout Whatcom County.

Members in the program are encouraged to buy from local suppliers, operate on green power energy, and build with alternative and recycled materials. The community, in turn, recognizes these businesses’ efforts to “green” their operations, and to re-circulate their revenues in the Bellingham area.

In an article written by the president and CEO of Northwest Computer in Bellingham, for The Bellingham Herald in December, 2006, John D’Onofrio wrote, “No one is saying that local businesses deserve your business simply because they are local.” A local business has to offer “value propositions that compare favorably with those available elsewhere.” This not only means sales volume, but also service and expertise. “Smaller, independently owned businesses have the option to focus on offering this kind of value. Not all do. Those who do deserve your consideration.”

According to D’Onofrio’s article, 87 percent of Sustainable Connections members say that becoming a member inspired them to improve their business model, and 67 percent have decreased their carbon footprint and contributed more to the county’s unique culture.

Local entrepreneurs tend to be passionately engaged with their product, and personally acquainted with their suppliers and consumers. Grandy says she loves working with such unique and driven people.

When asked whether Think Local First is as much a cultural model as an economic model, Grandy didn’t think it added up to that. She thought, however, that thinking local first “reminded people of community values that have always been there, though at times more strongly than now.” She continued, “These are kind of old-fashioned values” that emphasize “relationships in goods and services, relationships that are lost on the Internet or at the mall.”

I asked Grandy whether thinking local ignores global crises. She answered that she used to be really concerned about making global change. Now, however, vitalizing the local economy comes first. But she pointed out that thinking local first doesn’t mean thinking local only. “It’s a starting point,” says Grandy.

I then asked whether Think Local First campaigns were geared toward wealthy communities. Experience has shown that it’s more difficult for Think Local First campaigns to gain traction in poorer urban areas. It’s hard to convince people to buy local when local products are often more expensive. Some people shop at box stores or buy from multinational corporations because of savings and bulk-buying opportunities.

Grandy agreed that these were difficult questions. She pointed out, though, that in the long run, much of a dollar spent at box stores leaves the community by the end of the day, while money given to local businesses re-circulates in the community three or four times before leaving. So indirectly, while people save money at a box store, they may lose money in the long run. How?

Well, a penny saved on clothing, deodorant or some other personal or household item may benefit your family for a day, week or month. But according to economic impact studies available on the Sustainable Connections Web site, that penny, along with a few others will be lost before the end of the year.

One such study, “The Economics of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A Case Study in Midcoast Maine,” was made in September 2003 by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Friends of Midcoast Maine (http://www.newrules.org/retail/midcoaststudy.pdf.) It states that, “Three times as much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services from locally owned businesses instead of large chain stores.”

The survey looked at eight local businesses selling a total of $5.7 million in 2002. It showed 44.6 percent of that revenue was re-circulated within two surrounding counties. An additional 8.7 percent was spent within the state of Maine. Local spending came from wages and benefits given to local employees, goods and services bought from local suppliers, profits earned by local owners and lastly, taxes paid to local and state governments.

Analysis discovered that a domestic big box retailer returns just 14.1 percent of its revenue to the local economy. Lastly, the study discovered that “local businesses contributed more to charity than local chains.” Indeed, Sustainable Connection’s Think Local Campaign claims, “Nonprofit organizations receive an average 250 percent more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.” I’m assuming those are local nonprofits?

A poll taken in 2006 by Applied Research Northwest (ARN), an independent Whatcom research firm, showed that three in five Bellingham households are familiar with the Think Local First logo. The poll also revealed that 67 percent of business participants have made positive choices because of the program.

Michelle Long, executive director of Sustainable Connections, wrote in response to the poll, “This kind of reciprocity is our goal. We work with the owners of our local businesses to help them in their stewardship and innovation toward green building, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and more. In turn we ask the community to support our locally owned businesses.”

Sustainable Connections is a very integrated approach to revitalizing a community. It incorporates multiple points of healthy production and consumption into local peoples’ lives. Not only does the Think Local First campaign encourage people to buy local products, but the Food and Farming Program incubates farms to provide product.

Shonie Schlotzhauer, Manager of Sustainable Connection’s Food and Farming Program, met with me, also at the Black Drop. Her education and work experience bespoke someone at least a decade older than the beautiful astute young woman I sat across the table from. She handed me a number of materials, among them the Whatcom FarmMap & Guide and a brand new Eating Local Guide, both publications overseen by her.

Whatcom FarmMap & Guide lists over 100 products and the farms that are producing them. Included in the listings are roadside stands, u-pick farms, farmers markets, CSA (community supported agriculture) shares and agricultural events. The Food and Farming Program adopts the “Think Local Buy Local Be Local” logo, using the same graphic with the text “Think Local Buy Fresh Be Local,” shifting focus to production. There’s also information on the many ways to buy fresh, besides shopping at a grocery store. It suggests visiting farms, investing in farms, eating out and reading labels.

The Guide to Eating Local in Whatcom County lists businesses that are committed to supporting local agriculture. The guide is also an educational resource, which interlaces nicely with similar Think Local First messages. “Why Eat Local,” a section in the Eating Local guide, lists “Tastebuds, Health, Pocketbooks, Neighbors, The View (preservation of farmland), and the Future (peak oil and climate change info).”

There’s also information on Eat Local Week, coming up this September 7 through 14. Eat Local Week will culminate in the 8th annual Fall Harvest Dinner at Depot Market Square, Downtown Bellingham.

I would list the Web site for this event, but there are so many agricultural events listed for 2008 in this Eating Local guide. It’s worth going to the Sustainable Connections Web site (http://www.sustainableconnections.org) and clicking on the Food and Farming Program to seek out information for specific events. While there, check out other aspects of that program and also explore Sustainable Connections’ Business Development, Green Building and Energy components.

This organization is going to be one to watch in decades to come. Maybe that’s why The New York Times, Utne Reader, NPR and the Orion Magazine have all reported on it. In such a complex global marketplace, it’s hard to gain a stronghold on our local economies. But like life, economics is not a spectator sport — you gotta be in it to win it. Winning it will be easier with Sustainable Connections around. I am thankful for their efforts to imbed the infrastructure of awareness into our social networks. §