Ideas

stay tuned for a decription of our ideas

About Ideas

 

ABOUT OUR IDEAS 

Post Carbon Institute is both a think tank and an action tank. Therefore we develop and proceed with both ideas and initiatives. Our ideas are intended to generate further research and discussion on a particular topic. Some ideas will become initiatives in the future; however, some will remain as ideas or will be undertaken by groups independent of Post Carbon Institute.

 
Great ideas are the stepping stones for great success. If you are interested in any of the following, we would love to have your feedback and thoughts. Thank you for your interest in Post Carbon Institute ideas. We hope to keep developing our current ones and have new ones on board very soon!

 

To let us know what you think about our ideas, or about any ideas of your own, email us at:

info@postcarbon.org 

 

check out these links to find out more about our specific ideas:

cummunity supported manufacturing 

local energy farms 

energy backed currency 

corporate disobedience 

citizens commission on peak oil and decline 

end of suburbia 

education 

Bookclubs

 bookclubs

With the impending peak in oil and natural gas, it is essential that we all become much more informed about energy issues. Since most of us do not have training in energy issues or the related impacts of peak oil, we as concerned citizens must read books and articles, and have regular conversations on the difficulties we all face.

Forming a bookclub to read and dicuss High Noon For Natural Gas, Powerdown, Twilight in the Desert and other books will help readers to better understand energy, our predicament, and our choices for action.

Here are some suggested steps:

  1. Form a group of friends, associates, and colleagues around the intention of becoming more energy literate and understanding what people can do on an individual and community basis.
  2. At regular meetings (e.g., once a month) discuss the previous months reading in the context of people's lives. Below are some questions to get you started.
  3. At each meeting, agree on how much to read before the next meeting and set a meeting date

Here are some suggested titles to get your bookclub started:

  1. High Noon For Natural Gas, by Julian Darley: http://highnoon.ws
  2. Twilight in the Desert, by Matt Simmons: http://www.twilightinthedesert.com/
  3. Powerdown by Richard Heinberg
  4. The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg
  5. Half Gone by Jeremy Leggett
  6. Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak by Kenneth Deffeyes
  7. The Long Emergency by James Kunstler
  8. The End of Oil by Paul Roberts
  9. The Coming Oil Crisis by Colin Campbell
  10. Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein

 

 

 

 

 

COPAD

COPAD: The Citizens' Commission on Oil Peak & Depletion

The Citizens' Commission on Oil Peak & Depletion, is an idea of Post Carbon Institute that calls national governments to take action to prepare for an energy constrained future. The goal of COPAD is to ultimately become an active commission with experts and luminaries acting as a force for governmental action and change.

COPAD has developed a full declaration on the coming ‘Oil Peak’, explaining what it is, what the implications are, and calling on governments to take action.  For more information and for a complete review of COPAD and the declaration please follow this link to www.COPAD.org

Corporate Disobedience

Corporate Disobedience 

Corporate Disobedience is a project that explores ways that citizens, groups and organizations can intentionally choose to disengage from the forces of globalization by refusing to support products and services offered by global corporations or by any group or affiliate they are contractually bound to.

Corporate Disobedience is a legal version of civil disobedience. By choosing to discontinue your support of large corporations, resources can be drawn back into communities and used to support local economies and cultures. To find out more information about Corporate Disobedience, see CorporateDisobedience.org

Education

 

EDUCATION 

 

Post Carbon Institute seeks to have educational aspects within and throughout every section of the main website. However, this specific education section, is where the most recent educational initiatives Post Carbon Institute is supporting, will be posted.

Currently we offer the following; 

 

For links to these resources, please see the drop down menu above.

If you would like educational materials to make presentations on Relocalization to your community, municipality or others, please contact us, and we can assist you in the development of the outreach materials you require.

Community Supported Manufacturing

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED MANUFACTURING (CSM)

Community Supported Manufacturing (CSM), is a prominent feature of the Relocalization strategy, and is discussed in detail in the forthcoming book by Julian Darley, David Room, Richard Heinberg and Celine Rich entitled, Relocalize Now! Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil (New Society, 2006).

 Many of the goods and services we currently rely on for our daily needs are almost totally dependent on oil. Not only do our products travel thousands of miles to get to our doors, requiring massive supplies of cheap energy in the shipping process, they also contain oil. Everything from plastics, household appliances, to processed foods is derived in some way from petroleum products.

This reliance on oil has caused many problems and has many future implications. We are already facing climate change and environmental degradation from the emissions produced in the shipping process. Cultural erosion and a loss of community are occurring as we increasingly rely on global corporations that employ cheap labour, working in substandard conditions, to supply us with low cost basic goods. If these problems are not enough, when this cheap energy supply is no longer available, we will have no way of acquiring the goods we have come to depend on.

Post Carbon Institute offers a solution to these many difficult challenges. The concept of Community Supported Manufacturing, means taking back the means of production in a socially and environmentally responsible way. It means we must return to a reliance on local production systems as the primary source of our basic goods. It means we have to resurrect the traditional production and distribution knowledge that has been eroded by our dependence and support of global corporations. It means that communities must work together to overhaul their infrastructure in order to support community based manufacturing.

CSM is an extension of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, where local production is basically extended from the farm to the workshop.  These production systems will likely have multilayered ownership, where municipalities, co-operatives, family businesses and local firms mutually support each other. The primary focus of CSM is to Relocalize production and manufacturing, in order to reduce the environmental damage and the cultural erosion that has occured from our reliance on a cheap energy source, that may soon be unavailable.

Given that the relocalizion of production means a reversal of decades of global economic policy and the rebuilding of regional supply lines, it is obvious that we can only sketch the outlines here. The details will be developed over time and will require much research as we return to self-reliance.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CSM, OR TO TEACH OTHERS ABOUT THE CONCEPT: 

Download a powerpoint presentation on community supported manufacturing CSM Powerpoint presentation V0.9. 

Local Energy Farms

 

Relocalization: The focus on Local Renewable Energy

A new and intense focus on renewable energy is now emerging in response to the challenges of peak oil & gas and to the environmental ramifications of global over-reliance on cheap energy.

Peak Oil, the time when the extraction rate of oil reaches its highest level and thereafter declines inexorably, has been predicted by many experts to occur within this decade. Without unprecedented levels of preparation and cooperation peak oil will cause massive disruptions to essential provisioning systems such as energy, food, money, transportation, security and health care. Now there are growing fears that global natural gas may be peaking, which has profound implications for electric power generation, heating & fertilizer production. Beyond these threats, global over-reliance on cheap fossil fuel energy has disrupted the global carbon balance to such a degree that global warming has become a threat to human and eco-systemic survival.

In response, Post Carbon Institute has launched the Local Energy Farm Demonstration Project in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. This project, part of our Relocalization Strategy, aims to dramatically reduce and eventually eliminate community dependence on fossil fuels for energy, which would ensure that after the oil (and gas) peak, public provisioning systems delivering electricity, water, sanitation, transportation, food and many other essential services would continue.  Local renewable energy systems would also dramatically reduce the CO2 production in communities helping them to meet their Kyoto commitments and to improve local environmental conditions.

 Local Renewable Energy: Goals

The Local Energy Farm Demonstration Project is focused on producing reliable renewable energy locally at a commercial and community scale

All farm inputs including work and fertilizers will be sourced as locally as possible and will strive to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in the system wherever possible. Our production methods will voluntarily meet or exceed COABC guidelines for organic farming.

The Local Energy Farm Demonstration Project seeks to improve the quality of the soil, water and surrounding eco-systems, provide habitat for indigenous species and improve biodiversity.  

Click here to find out about our Energy Farm Demonstration Project

 

Currently, there are local renewable energy projects in the works, such as The West Beacon Farm in England. The creator of this farm Tony Marmont sits on our Local Renewable Energy Advisory Panel, along with other experts in the field.  

 

For details on the West Beacon Farm, visit www.beaconenergy.co.uk Photographs of West Beacon energy Farm:

 

Local Energy Farm Demonstration Project

Energy Farm Demonstration Project: An Overview

In February 2006 Post Carbon Institute initiated a project in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Working on up to two acres of UBC Farm land, this experimental project will test different energy crops, refine harvesting and processing techniques and evaluate varied sources of alternative energy. The demonstration is projected to last at least five years, after an initial one-year trial period.   

The CSFS Program and Production Coordinators, as well as a variety of organizations working with the centre are providing supporting information, resources and tools for the project.

Current overview

up to two acres of land, in up to three separate plots: The land will be used in a number of different crop ratios including 60-30-10 (compost crops, energy crops, food crops).

  • Compost Crops

- It is intended that a portion of the land will be used for compost crops to help maintain soil fertility. These crops (and other biomass such as blackberry bushes and various prolific weeds) may also be used to feed a biogas digester, which produces methane and improves the compost. The nutrient loop will be kept as closed as possible, so that crop and other organic residues will be returned to the soil wherever possible.

- Plots will be farmed using intensive hand cultivation methods, adapting many techniques common to the French Intensive, “Grow Biointensive” and Permaculture production principles. Techniques will be modified as necessary to best fit the local agro-ecological context.

  • Energy Crops

- Energy crops such as oilseeds and Jerusalem artichokes for the production of liquid biofuels through various types of processing.

- Energy production from crops will be carbon neutral. Carbon from atmospheric CO2 will be absorbed by the biomass during the growing phase and equal amounts of carbon (in the form of CO2) will be returned to the atmosphere when the resultant fuel is used.

- Wind power: We propose wind power generation from vertical axis turbines, which will be made locally, working in conjunction variously with UBC engineering professors, Post Carbon Institute Energy Panel Advisor Tony Duggleby of Katabatic Power and other local engineers. If successful, Local Post Carbon Groups will be encouraged to build similar devices.  

- Solar power: generated from solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, donated by Day 4 Energy, a local and highly innovative solar photovoltaic cell & panel producer. The panels will be mounted on the roof of a Farm building. The Day4Energy panels employ a new system of copper conductors on the cell face which improves performance, especially when using solar concentrators.

- Water power: Waste water and rainwater run-off from the southern end of the UBC campus has the possibility of powering a water turbine. This feasibility of this is being actively investigated in collaboration with Professor Robert Millar of the Civil Engineering department.

- The ecological footprints of each of these alternative energy sources will be investigated and analyzed.

  • Food Crops

- We are examining growing an experimental nutritional garden and/or growing crops to be sold at the UBC market (with proceeds returning to the farm).

- Food Crop planning will be based around a nutritionally complete vegetarian diet that would feed one adult for one year.

  • An ambient energy monitor streams live data from farm site available at:

http://energyfarm.postcarbon.org/Current_Plus.htm

Short Term Goals

  • Gather materials and tools needed on the farm site itself
  • Determine the most suitable energy crops to plant with a focus on diversity and suitability
  • Recruit and coordinate the volunteer effort that will be required to begin the initial working of the land including staking the plots, soil preparation, seeding and planting
  • Determine logistics, such as locations of a possible biogas digester, compost collection sites and alternative energy sources. 

Longer Term Goals: Five Year Projected Timeline

  • Determine what crop combinations allow maximum energy harvesting with maximum benefits to the local agroecosystem, soil and the wider ecological region.
  • Continue to raise public awareness of the importance of local energy, local food production and small scale farms. There is also a focus on exposing damaging environmental effects of energy production including habitat destruction that results from developing expansive energy crops.
  • To promote and advocate for the importance of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the UBC Farm and its mandate, both in the public sphere and the University of British Columbia.

Key Immediate Needs

  • People power - the time and commitment of volunteers who want to help out with this effort.
  • Development of a strong advisory board that will offer opinions and expert advice as the project develops.

 

Click here to find out about the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC

The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm: An Introduction

The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm

Overall goal of the Centre

  • To retain and re-create existing farm and forest lands at the University of British Columbia into an internationally significant centre for sustainable agriculture, forestry and food systems

History

1913 - Plan for new University sets aside 200 acres of Farm Lands on the southern-sloped portion of the Point Grey plateau

1915 - Faculty of Agriculture helped prepare agricultural research land at UBC's future Point Grey location**

1925 - 1950's - Agricultural areas shifted from west end of campus to the south end.

1950's - early 1980's - Agricultural research and teaching facilities shifted again to the south.

1970's - 80's - Began the move even further south to where the farm is now located.

1990's - changing research priorities and uncertainty of future land uses lead to a decline of activity on the south campus farm areas

2000 - Present: Active re-invention of the existing farmlands, creating the current multi-functional academic and community working farm system.

Future - Students and community members are increasingly excited by the possibility of retaining land-based, sustainably managed, participatory agro-ecological systems here on the UBC campus. The farm continues to diversify and expand. With continued growth and support, the future looks positive!

Overview

  • Located on the traditional territory of the Musqueam First Nation, historically this area was forest used as hunting grounds
  • 24-hectare teaching, research, and community farm
  • Student driven initiative, supported by staff and members of the community and faculty
  • The only working farmland within the city of Vancouver

Main areas of focus

Education

  • Focus on providing experientially based environmental education opportunities for UBC students and the wider community
  • Ensure education is engaging interactive and participatory

Research

  • Home to many student and non-student research projects over the last five years
  • Emerging research projects with faculty members, government, and non-profit organizations

Community

  • Holds public markets in the summer
  • School programs and summer camps
  • Community garden projects

Local Energy Program for Municipal Leaders

 

 
 
 

Local Energy Program for Municipal Leaders

The Local Energy Initiative is designed to provide local governments with:

  • The expertise to develop local, reliable renewable energy sources
  • Increased energy security and a much smaller ecological footprint
  • Increased local employment



The coming energy crisis

As the world goes into energy decline and the impacts of climate change accelerate, local governments will feel the largest direct impacts.
Municipal leaders are responsible for providing critical services to meet their citizens’ daily
needs, including home heating, electricity generation and public transportation. In order to
provide these services and many others, local governments must have access to reliable
sources of energy.

However, the combustion of fossil fuels for energy has serious environmental impacts. In
addition, relying on foreign energy imports increases a community’s vulnerability to supply
interruptions caused by global political unrest, economic instability, or an overall decline in
the world’s oil and gas reserves.

Municipalities must also not rely on uncertain future technological developments to solve the world’s
energy problems. Instead, they must safeguard their cities and exercise due diligence by
using currently available technologies to plan for the future.



The need for municipal action

Municipalities have greater resources than individuals and can act on a larger scale to
produce, store and distribute local energy. Private enterprises cannot be relied upon to fulfill
this need, as the market for small-scale renewable energy is not yet profitable.
Infrastructural changes designed to reduce municipal energy consumption will take years to
complete, but severe shocks to the energy system may come with little or no notice. Civic
leaders cannot wait for a serious energy crisis to take action. Long-term planning for a
renewable energy future must begin today.

Post Carbon Institute partners with municipalities who wish to take concrete steps to increase
their energy security and reduce their environmental impact by developing local sources of
renewable, reliable energy. By participating in the Local Energy Farms program, municipalities act as innovative role models for other cities and communities around the world.


The role of Post Carbon Institute

Civic leaders planning for a renewable energy future face many challenges. Many renewable
energy sources are not available consistently enough to be useful, or are difficult to
concentrate and store. For example, a city powering its hospitals exclusively with solar
energy can only reliably serve patients during summer daylight hours. In addition, renewable
energies are useless for transportation unless they can be harnessed in a powerful battery or
transformed into electricity.

Post Carbon Institute works with municipalities to develop:

  • An assessment of local energy generating capacity
  • As assessment of local energy use needs
  • An integrated strategy to deliver reliable and renewable local energy

We support our municipal partners by providing them with consulting from some of the
world’s leading renewable energy experts. We also connect them with a network of
municipalities and community groups working to achieve the same goals.
As a non-profit organization, we actively seek funding from diverse sources to help
municipalities implement their local energy strategies.

Municipal partners are expected to engage in the assessment process by gathering
information about its current energy production and consumption and by actively working
with Post Carbon Institute to develop an integrated local renewable energy strategy. In addition,
municipalities are asked to publish the outcomes of their project to facilitate shared learning.




Energy Backed Currency