BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL is a non-profit organization fostering a county-wide alliance of local citizens, organizations, independently-owned businesses and primary employers, as well municipal and county governments, all united together to develop more resilient, self-reliant communities.

Our mission is to be a catalyst for relocalization, i.e., developing local self-reliance in food, energy, transportation, media, systems of care, and economy, while regenerating community.

We serve as a Transition Team, initiating a county-wide process of relocalizing all essential elements that our communities need to sustain themselves and thrive.

Our role is to provide inspiration, empowerment, education, and support of individuals, businesses, organizations, communities and local governments, working together to consider and implement a collective vision of a relocalized future.

Our goal is to prepare our communities for the local impacts of climate change and peak oil through county-wide adoption of integrated, inclusive approaches and concrete actions that will dramatically reduce our collective carbon footprint and lead to ethically and gracefully making the transition to a more sustainable, localized economy in a carbon-constrained future.

BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign

We have launched the BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Campaign to help build community resilience and strengthen the local economy through partnership, collaboration and engagement. The Campaign sets the theme for a decade-long transition to a stronger, more localized economy in an energy-constrained future.

With its multiple themes, strategies, projects and events, this Campaign presents positive pathways of engaging citizens, communities, business and government to take the far-reaching actions that are required to mitigate the local/regional impacts of peak oil and climate change. Given the likely disruptions ahead resulting from these crises, resilient communities—self-reliant for the greatest possible number of their needs—will be infinitely better prepared than those who are dependent on globalized systems for food, energy, transportation, health, and housing.

Campaign Themes

BUY LOCAL FIRST!
Promoting buying local whenever possible, and being local by supporting local independently-owned businesses

EAT LOCAL!
Supporting local growers, CSAs and farmers’ markets, promoting local restaurants and stores offering locally-grown food; bringing new awareness, energy and vitality to the local food system; promoting closer connections between our communities and those who grow our food

GROW LOCAL!
Developing local food security through flourishing gardens, community greenhouses, and community farms

LOCAL ENERGY!
Catalyzing appropriate community responses to the coming energy crisis, developing sustainable local renewable energy sources

LOCAL CURRENCY!
Channeling flows of local economic energy to match unmet needs with untapped resources while keeping economic power within the local economy

Campaign Goals

• To celebrate and strengthen a renaissance of local, and begin reversing the local effects of economic globalization

• To reweave the fabric of connections that is at the heart of our communities

• To stimulate economic self-reliance based on local production of food, energy, goods and services

• To increase public awareness of the need for community responses to over-reliance on cheap fossil fuels

• To reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions to prepare our communities for an energy-constrained future
• To catalyze community actions that can become working models for other communities

Campaign Strategies

PUBLIC AWARENESS EVENTS
Speakers, panels, documentary films, teach-ins, and community dialogues focused on the five themes of the Campaign

THE GREAT RESKILLING
A curriculum of classes, courses, and workshops to reinvigorate traditional life skills that will be essential in making the transition to a more localized economy and a carbon-constrained future

BUY LOCAL FIRST! CAMPAIGN
Supporting locally-owned independent businesses, promoting buying choices that have dramatic impacts on our community, our economy, and our environment

EAT LOCAL! CAMPAIGN
Bringing new awareness, energy and vitality to the local food system, promoting closer connections between members of the community and those who grow our food

2008-2009 BOULDER COUNTY GOING LOCAL! Resource Guide & Directory
Advertiser-supported all-local magazine featuring directories of the local food system (growers, producers, restaurants, organizations) and locally-owned independent businesses, along with inspiring and educational articles by local writers

A RENAISSANCE OF LOCAL!
County-wide celebration of local food, local energy, and local business, complete with festival, conference and expo (Spring 2009)

2008 CAMPAIGN SPONSORS

 

2008 CAMPAIGN PARTNERS