Vote With Your Wallet, Living The New Economy Presentation at IdeaJAM, Victoria April 2013

Are you aware that you vote with your wallet, voting for what you empower by what you chose to buy? Do you think before you shop, as citizens of Victoria, do you think local and eco first?

Attach your brain to your wallet.

What if we built environmentally as if we planned to stay here, both here in Victoria and here on planet earth?

How could I design into your home any material that has even the smallest chance of being carcinogenic, when safe and healthy alternatives are available? A responsible designer must specify only non-toxic and preferably local materials and home furnishings.

We need to stop the myths around energy. Buckminster Fuller once answered me directly, “We have no energy crisis; we have an ignorance crisis.”

Some clients of mine drive a car powered by their roof. Millenials are choosing to live car-free in urban centres.

In the hippest new buildings in Portland, reducing energy use is a bragging right. In these LEED buildings, people’s energy use meters are visible for all to see on the front of their mailboxes.

A new green economy can benefit both our city and our planet, while enriching our lives.

Vote with your brain attached to your wallet, think local first Victoria.