One man’s perspective on stories that matter. Look for these posts on ILSR.org and the landing page for my work, From the Desk of David Morris. Table of Contents: The Race to Cashlessness Hits a Speed Bump Is Britain’s Long Love Affair … Read More
Pay As You Throw (PAYT) a proven global waste metering system is the vital first step to reaching Zero Waste. For all those municipal leaders that have made a commitment to reducing waste, but have not yet implemented PAYT, it’s time to move from stagnant to progressive recycling based on how residents pay for trash.… Read More
Today, California claims a whopping 750,000 unique solar projects — an order of magnitude more than the number that existed in the state a decade ago. We illustrate this impressive, rapid expansion of solar projects throughout California over time in a cool, new animated map.… Read More
The Compost Collective is an entrepreneurship program where youth are trained in workforce skills, food access programming and community-scale composting. They are receiving guided, hands-on experience managing a small-scale composting operation and its expansion, and using the compost they create to grow fresh produce for the community at Filbert Street Garden.… Read More
As a growing number of U.S. cities make commitments to reach 100 percent renewable electricity, how can cities actually achieve these goals? In this first episode of Voices of 100%, a multi-part series of Local Energy Rules, John Farrell interviews Mayor Dale Ross from Georgetown, Texas, one of the few communities in the country that has already reached its ambitious goal for renewable power. The two discuss how Georgetown reached its goal, what benefits it has seen from prioritizing local power, and what the city plans to do next.
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Interest in broadband as a utility continues to rise across the country and in places where elected officials need a show of support, grassroots groups are stepping up. Recently in Portland, Oregon, a group of locals launched Municipal Broadband PDX, an effort to grow an already increasing momentum in the Rose City.… Read More
The triumph of renewable electricity has implications for other sectors traditionally controlled by the fossil fuel industry, and for regulators of those industries. Public overseers of gas and electric utilities now face the question of whether it’s appropriate to redirect scarce conservation dollars to “fuel switching,” providing financial incentives to switch energy customers to rapidly-becoming-renewable electricity.… Read More
The city of Santa Monica’s efforts to shrink the digital divide ranks as one of the Top 25 Programs in American Government of 2017. That’s according to Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, who names the top programs in governance based on innovation in government policy.… Read More
In this policy brief from our Community Broadband Networks team, we crunched the numbers to determine the extent to which the largest cable and telecom companies are underinvesting in rural broadband they’re being paid to provide. Explore the brief… Read More
