Presentation for 2018 Massachusetts Sustainable Communities and Campuses Conference in Plymouth, MA

1. Historic Roots of Our Sustainable Future
Greg Watson
Making Sustainability History
The 2018 Massachusetts Sustainable Communities and Campuses Conference
Plymouth, Massachusetts | April 27, 2018
Personal Reflections

2. My Roots: Cleveland, Ohio
Cuyahoga River | 1960s

3. Lake Erie | 1960s
My Roots: Cleveland, Ohio

4. A Time of Change

5. Sustainable Development vs. Growth
Challenge Toolkit Strategy

6. Boston Urban Gardeners
A Pre-Internet Virtual Organization/Community Dedicated to
Helping People Grow Food In the City

7. Do More With Less : The New Alchemy

8. “Crisis In Yankee Agriculture”
Trends

9. Working together,
Massachusetts urban
consumers and rural
farmers help save the
state’s farm sector and
much of its remaining
prime agricultural soils.

11. A Sustainable Urban Revitalization Plan

12. Challenge Conventional Wisdom

13. A New Economics

14. Community Land Trusts | Community Supported Agriculture

15. Global Search For Best Practices

16. Cuba’s Agroecology Movement

17. Designed Bottom Up by Farmers
Polyculture
Mulch
Manure
Nitrogen-Fixing Plants
Intensive Planting
Successional Planting
Companion Planting
Raised Beds
Vermi-culture
Permaculture
Integrated Pest
Management

18. Sovereignty vs. Security
▪ Land Redistribution
▪ Small Landholdings
▪ Food Sovereignty
▪ Family Farms
▪ Farmer-to-Farmer
▪ Gender Equality
▪ Cooperatives
▪ Resource Efficiency

19. Our Existential Threats

20. Politics of Pollution
The urgent need for transforming our
energy infrastructure

21. Solutions That Transcend Either/Or

22. New Tools for Sustainability?
❑Artificial Intelligence
❑Analytics
❑Big Data
❑Blockchain
❑Cryptocurrency
❑Geoengineering
❑Internet of Things
❑Nanotechnology
❑ ?
❑ ?
❑ ?
❑?

23. “The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Design It”
R. Buckminster Fuller
Global Energy Interconnection | World Grid

24. Dare to be naive
gregwatson@centerforneweconomics.org