Info Sheets

Top Ten Conserver Actions

Live Local

Wherever you live, make the most of it!

If you live in a rural area, living local means to be self-reliant. But if you are part of the 85% of Ontarians that live in an urban area, living local means to make the most of your community.

1. Individual Actions

• Live local:  be a part of your community.

• Shop local: support local stores.

• Play local: support local arts and culture and other community events.

• Get involved:  join a local group, become engaged.

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2.  Community Projects

Projects 

• Look no further than Jane's Walk for a great project to start getting people involved in thinking about your community

• Map your community assets and develop a neigbourhood village plan to identify local priorities for planning and development (a good workbook for this can be found here)

• Aid citizen involvement in the planning process.  (Also check out these online resources as examples of how one might organize this via “online neighbourhood networks”)

• Give a presentation on the need for local, sustainable food.  Here is a great suite of toolkits from Sustainable Table: Presentation Kits

• Buy locally: here are ten good reasons why and how

• Live Local: Experiments in Local Living – an online project that allows people to upload “experiences” with their “experiments”!

• Become a Locavore!

• Find projects, restaurants, eateries, butchers, famers’ markets, etc., in any area you need local information for in this fantastic directory: Find Good Food – Local, Sustainable, Organic

• Projects of “Farm Folk, City Folk”

• International Community Development Projects at the Centre for Sustainable Community Development

Campaigns 

• The 100 Mile-Diet Campaign – making the pledge!

• Local First Campaign

• The 10% Shift Campaign

3. Key Organizations/Networks 
 

• The Ontario Smart Growth Network supports groups working on replacing urban sprawl with smart community planning.

• The Ontario Healthy Communities association helps to develop community-based plans and projects that support the goals of a healthy community
   

Other Organizations:

• Evergreen

• Everdale Environmental Learning Centre

• Living Local: Directory of local goods, services, suppliers and producers in Canada

• Locavore365

• Centre for Sustainable Community Development

• Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

4. More Resources 

·         Delicious – to see articles and websites that CCO has recently tagged with “local”, please visit this link

·         Great Green Directory – search the Great Green Directory for products, services, programs, financial incentives, and resources specific to the “Live Local” conserver action

·         EcoScore – learn what your ECOscore is! Take five minutes to rate yourself and find out where you want to improve as a conserver.