Equalogy

Posts Tagged ‘Michelle Long’

Every week I will post a short biography on one woman who has made considerable contributions to the environment.  This week features Michelle Long from Bellingham, Washington:

Michelle Long hails from Beillingham, Washington, a town that leads the way for America in green power.  Long played an integral role in the town’s transformation as co-founder of the non-profit company Sustainable Connections.  Now she wants to spread the word and use what she’s learned to transform North America also.  Yes Magazine interviewed her recently and here is an excerpt.  To read the whole thing, click here.

Brooke: What is a local living economy?

Michelle: A local living economy is one where local business owners make up the majority of the local economy, where today’s innovations in sustainable agriculture, in green building, in renewable energy and energy efficiency, in community capital, in green jobs, in local manufacturing are all tied together within the context of a place, so that you have an economy that is community-based, green, and fair.

Brooke: And how does BALLE help create that?

Michelle: BALLE is the fastest growing membership organization of socially responsible businesses in North America. We have 79 community networks, but they have members that now represent 21,000 independent businesses. What BALLE does is catalyze the creation of new networks of businesses in different communities—we connect them to each other so they can share best practices, and we strengthen them with new tools and resources.