Importance of Buying Local
BUY LOCAL FIRST! Coupon Book
BUY LOCAL FIRST! Directory
BUY LOCAL FIRST!
EAT LOCAL!
GROW LOCAL!
LOCAL ENERGY!
LOCAL CURRENCY!
Keep Me Informed About the BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign.
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BUY LOCAL FIRST!
 | "Sustainable businesses replace national and internationally produced items with products created locally and regionally, take responsibility for the effects they have on the natural world, create objects of long-term utility whose ultimate use or disposition will not be harmful to future generations, and engage in business practices that are human, worthy, dignified and intrinsically satisfying."
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– Paul Hawken
Natural Capitalism
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"BUY LOCAL FIRST!" refers to a commitment to the community. Rather than simply promoting "buying local," the campaign suggests our larger role as stewards. By thinking local first, we can make choices that have dramatic impact on our community, our economy, and our environment.
While it will rarely be possible to buy everything we need or use from local independent businesses, we are advocating for people to first think local in order to maximize the impact of daily actions and purchasing decisions.
Compared to national competitors, local independent businesses return more money to the local economy and give an average of two to three times greater support to non-profit organizations. They are better positioned to respond to the special needs of the community and more invested in its future.
Local, independently owned businesses are the backbone of an economy, the lifeblood of a community. By increasing the number of independent, local-to-local economic transactions, we can:
- Support local entrepreneurs
- Sustain family farms and ranches
- Create local jobs that stay in our community
- Have greater control over environmental impacts
- Increase sales and tax receipts to finance schools, hospitals, police, arts, transportation, and open spaces
- Maintain a unique sense of place, directly contributing to what will keep our home place alive and special in the long-run
- Maximize the economic multiplier (that means every expenditure of a dollar generates more than a dollar's worth of activity and cascades into a larger number of transactions that enrich the community). Choosing local over non-local has 2-3 times more financial impact in our community, promotes more reinvestment locally, creates quality jobs, and encourages more donations to local charities and causes.
Boulder County's BUY LOCAL FIRST! campaign asks the community to be supportive of local, independently owned businesses. This will help enhance the livability of the community, the stability and diversity of the local economy, and support the retention and expansion of independent, locally owned businesses through increasing awareness about the personal, community, and economic benefits of choosing local first.
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