This book offers a fresh look at sustainable consumption, exploring how grassroots community action can spread ideas in society. It presents a "New Economics" approach based on alternative measures of wealth and value, examining how these are put into practice through local organic food systems, low-impact eco-housing, and complementary currencies.

This book offers a fresh look at sustainable consumption, exploring how grassroots community action can spread ideas in society. It presents a 'New Economics' approach based on alternative measures of wealth and value, examining how these are put into practice through local organic food systems, low-impact eco-housing, and complementary currencies.

Climate change is forcing us to rethink our lifestyles, but green consumerism won't save the planet. Mainstream approaches simply cannot deliver the radical changes we need for a sustainable society. This book, now available in paperback, offers a fresh look at sustainable consumption, presenting a holistic "New Economics" approach. It explores how grassroots community actions for sustainability are experimenting with new ways of working, measuring value and progress, and expressing ecological citizenship.
Local organic food systems, low-impact eco-housing, and complementary currencies are examined to measure their success at delivering localized economies and inclusive communities, enabling people to reduce their ecological footprints, harnessing collective energies and building new forms of social organization. Viewing these activities as innovative "green niches," the book explores the opportunities for grassroots innovations to spread and influence wider society, and the barriers preventing them achieving their potential.