A Sustainable Community

When asked to design my ideal community, the first characteristic that came to mind was sustainability.  Ever since I heard Henning Sehmsdorf describe his farm where he practices biodynamic and sustainable farming, the idea has fascinated me.  I have always been interested in farming, but it just didn’t seem practical in the modern world.  Yet here was a university professor telling me that he runs a sustainable, debt-free farm that produces everything his family needs except for toilet paper, which they pay for from the sale of farm produce.  I have dreamed of going and learning how to run a sustainable farm, but what would be even better would be a sustainable community. 

There are many benefits to living in a sustainable community.  On the top of the list would be improved health resulting from higher quality food and increased exercise.  The community would also dramatically reduce its impact on the environment and the farming techniques would improve the land.  There would also be an increase in a sense connectedness due to neighbors helping each other farm.   All these factors taken together would increase the community members’ levels of satisfaction. 

While this community may sound great in my head or on paper, making it a reality is taking it to a whole new level.  That is something that I can’t do myself, which may lead me to give up on the idea.  However, according to Seth Godin, if I can build a tribe around my idea, than anything is possible.  I don’t need to convince the world that my community is the answer to its problems; I simply need to convince 1000 people.

So how do I create a tribe around my idea?  Godin proposes four steps that I have seen to be effective for leaders of various movements.  The first is to tell a story to people who want to hear it.  This step is what I’ve already begun to do in writing this blog.  The key is to find 10 people with whom I can share and further cultivate my passion for sustainable farming.  These 10 will find another 10 who will in turn find another 10 and voilà, 1000 individuals with a common interest that can link them together.  The second step is then to connect these individuals into a tribe based on their desire to practice sustainable farming.  How convenient that farming requires teamwork.  Humans seek community.  We want a place to belong.  The idea is to make a tribe that satisfies that desire. 

Now this tribe needs a leader.  This sounded the most daunting to me at first.  Telling a story about my passion to people who want to hear it naturally brings people together, but now to lead a movement, that is scary to me.  The problem is my concept of leadership.  I don’t have to know all the answers or possess all the skills to lead.  Rather, I can actually be a more effective leader by recognizing my inadequacies and finding others who excel in those areas.  By helping each person to find his or her niche, the area where he or she can shine, I can strengthen the tribe.  Now we are ready to take the final step, to make a change.

Change is not easy.  In fact, overcoming people’s fear of change would be one of the biggest obstacles to making my community a reality.  In order to form this community, the members of the tribe would have to reject old unsustainable habits and embrace new, sustainable ones.  This would involve learning new skills.  They would also have to give up some of the luxuries that we take for granted without considering the environmental consequences of their production.   All of the above is possible if one decides that the outcome, a sustainable community, is what they want. 

There would also be the difficulty of maintaining the community by building a strong internal structure because as the community grows, more and more challenges will present themselves.  For this I would rely heavily on talented individuals in the tribe for leadership and support.  However, for now my task is to build that tribe and become acquainted with the various strengths of the members.