From oil dependence to local resilience

Business opportunities in the Transition Towns movement

I have never been a commercial entrepreneur, just a social one, but when I read Rob Hopkins book and think more and more about the coming crisis, I see business opportunities everywhere, especially for cooperatives. Anyone want to contribute their ideas? Mine are:

New dairy coops (why should we locally be tied to the global price of milk and butter and cheese?). Huge scope for butter, cheese etc.
Natural fertilisers. e.g comfrey water, seaweed etc etc
Handmowers
Carts, drays, carriages and coaches
Local transport businesses using the latter or acceptable biofuel.
Animals for animal power
Grain, pulses growing

Tags: business, cooperatives, ecobusiness

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Permalink Reply by Johanna Knox on August 6, 2008 at 17:00

This is a great discussion.

Sharon Astyk is looking at the issue of post-peak oil employment in her recent blog posts:
http://sharonastyk.com/

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Watkins on September 8, 2008 at 8:49

When I had a solar hot water system put on my house in England I got all the expected benefits - tons of free hot water even in the English winter.

However the work involved in getting the system put in surprised me. It was a high efficiency tube system with two panels either side of the roof. A big heat exchange tank, and what seemed like enough piping and pumps to run a steam engine. All these bits added to the cost and complexity of the system and having fitters in the roof for a few weeks would also put people off.

Here there appears to be issues with resource consents for putting systems on roofs etc. Also tenants can't put in solar systems, people move houses etc.

So it occured to me that we should be looking for a containerised solution. This would be a crate containing everything you needed to setup a solar hot water system. Pump, panels, tanks, pipes, maybe a couple of PV panels to run the pumps etc. Fixed price, easy installation, you just place the crate in the corner of your garden as you would any other shed. you run a pipe from the system to your hot water tank and thats it.

No consents required, minor plumbing.

on the down side you lose : the head of water from being on the roof, and maybe the better solar collecting space.
on the up side you gain: simple packaging, mobile system, a design pattern anyone can reproduce.
you could have a solar hot water system delivered and running in an afternoon.

Andrew

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Permalink Reply by Geoff Cox on September 8, 2008 at 9:37

I like this idea - any design thoughts ?

Geoff

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Permalink Reply by Jake Humphreys on March 5, 2010 at 14:23

Seems a shame to lose the extra utility of the roof area and to have to use a sunny (productive) site on your section instead.

Making a module of the pump/heat exchanger is a great idea, though.

Of course, having an approved standard for solar panels and cutting the red tape would be better in the short run! You don't have to ask to put up a satellite dish or a VHF aerial unless you're looking to talk to space probes...

Getting over, around or through red tape is going to be a common theme, as with any small business.