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POMME ARROS,

MANUELLE CHANOINE, JEREMY

KIROUAC

AND COURTNEY ROBINSON

Social businesses are emerging as a power-

ful means to reduce Canadas ecological

footprint. Where the mainstream environ-

mental movement often conflicts with Ca-

nadian citizens basic economic interests,

social businesses provide services that cre-

ate social, environmental and economic

betterment.

First Power Canada is a social busi-

ness that helps empower First Nations

communities in becoming fossil fuel

independent while simultaneously cre-

ating opportunities for employment

and cultural revival. While First Power

and other social businesses are helpingCanada move towards a more sustain-

able economy, they lack adequate access

to financial resources.

We offer development banking and

Slow Money as two approaches to pro-

mote a new kind of investment that

strives for social and environmental bet-

terment by funding social businesses.

While development banking provides

a practical approach that can be imple-

mented by the Canadian government,

Slow Money is an approach that can

change the priorities of the investment

community.

Approach 2: Slow Money

Tus far, the environmental movement

has largely committed to a government

regulatory approach which provides little

empowerment and little motivation for

citizens to participate. Instead, what

society needs is the rise of a new con-

sciousness (Speth, 2008). Tis implies a

significant cultural change and a reorien-

tation of what society values and prizes

most highly.

Slow Money is an emerging movement

which provides a perfect example of the

kind of change envisioned in the new

consciousness. Tis movement addresses

the present distance between the envi-

ronmental movement and the needs of

Canadian citizens, and offers a profound

revelation on how to slow down the cur-

rent speed of capital flow and the forces

of high-speed returns.

Te idea of Slow Money, developed by

Woody asch, is derived from the Inter-

national Slow Food Movement founded

by the activist Carlo Petrini which uses

food as a vehicle to reconnect people to

their natural communities. Tis move-

ment embodies a new vision of capital-

ism that knows its limits, respects nature,

and acts in service of man.

In relation to speed, Petrini compares

the new tempo to the rate of human

metabolism, one that is placid and slow

(Colpaart, 2007). Te movement there-

fore advocates a lifestyle in which people

take the time to savour food, and take

pleasure in eating locally-sourced prod-

ucts, rejecting large-scale farming and

the hectic way of eating and living that

damages our bodies and the world (Gut-

nick, 2009).

Similarly, the Slow Money movement

advocates a society where investors value

slow, rather than fast, returns to invest-

ments which promote social and envi-

ronmental wellbeing.

Te first component of Slow Money

refers to the creation of capital flows to

specifically support small-scale, diversi-

fied, local and organic food production.

Secondly, the Slow Money concept ad-

dresses the critical effects of the speed of

capitalism above and beyond the food

system. Within the capitalist framework,

lenders and investors conduct business

on the basis of fast and high returns: todate, the potential for returns that im-

prove social and environmental condi-

tions has gone largely unnoticed.

asch (2008) states that the first s tages

of a more profound fiduciary realign-

ment include socially-responsible invest-

ing, mission-related and program-related

investing by foundations, venture phi-

lanthropy, social entrepreneurship and

local economies.

Tough some of these initiatives remain

incremental and laden with ambiguity,

others are indicators of more fundamen-

tal, tectonic shifts along the boundaries of

for-profit and non-profit, shareholder and

stakeholder, global investor and local citi-

zen. Tis process of economic and cultural

transformation calls for a new prudence, a

new urgency [and] a new vision of capital

markets designed to usher in the age of

restorative economics (p. 6-7).

Te Slow Money movement advocates

for a new way of thinking which values

the kind of opportunities promoted by

social businesses. Businesses are in a great

position to accelerate the transition awayfrom traditional capitalism by creating

a new image

for themselves:

instead of focus-

ing on profit,

they can create

returns in the

form of social

betterment.

he incentive

is to be an agent

of change, to place value on new symbols

and to redefine wealth in non-monetary

terms (Yunus, 2007). Businesses that op-

erate with a Slow Money mindset have

the power to create a place in the mar-

ket for assets like poverty alleviation and

environmental awareness. asch believes

that we must put the share back into

the concept of the shareholder.

Investors have the opportunity to put

their money where their values are while

not entirely dismissing the fact that busi-

nesses need profit to stay competitive.

herefore, if investors start practic-

ing the principles of the Slow Moneymovement, they will see the value in

investing in social

businesses like First

Power Canada. As

the movement grows,

increased competi-

tion between social

businesses will pro-

vide more incentive

for other businesses

to enter the market

and compete.

Consequently, investors will be com-

pelled to compete amongst themselves,

resulting in social betterment on a larger

scale.

To read the full version and bibliography

of this paper, visit: web.uvic.ca/~essa/

EXCERPT: Bridging the gap: Alternative finance

models for environmental and social wellbeing

The incentive is to bean agent o change,

to place value onnew symbols and to

redefne wealth innon-monetary terms

The idea o SlowMoney, developedby Woody Tasch, isderived rom the

International SlowFood Movement

ounded by the activist

Carlo Petrini

JULIE PISANI

What career are you going to pursue after

you graduate? Tis is probably the most

common question we are confronted with

as university students. Its a more specific

version of a question weve been askedsince childhood: what do you want to

be when you grow up?

First, I wanted to be a detective. Next,

an astronaut. Ten, a professional hockey

player. Te older I got, the less sure I be-

came. Choosing a single vocation started

to seem too restricting, like backing my-

self into a corner. he implications of

pursuing a single profession and skills

specialization had me feeling uneasy.

In the university system, we are re-

quired to narrow our field of interest to

a faculty, a degree program, a major. Tis

persistent focusing of our skills results in

highly trained individuals who are experts

in a certain professional area, and though

their abilities in that specific realm run

deep, they lack the breadth (or diver-

sity) required for resilience in the face of

changing, unstable economic or environ-

mental conditions.

It was liberating when finally the an-

swer dawned on me. Tere is not just one

career I want to strive for, rather, my goal

is to gain skills in manyareas; I want to

be able sustain myself and contribute to

my community.

For me it was a revelation, but skill

based self -suffi ciency is not a new idea.

Weve only been removed from this real-

ity for the past few generations.

My great-grandmother would find it

strange that it dawned on me to learn

to preserve food or make my own cloth-

ing. For her, it was not a choice but a

necessity i f she didnt do it no one else

would.

As a kid growing up in the 90s in a

middle class Canadian community, I was

never prompted to learn how to sew, howto grow and can food or how to build

shelter.

Reflecting on my peers and my genera-

tion, many of us do not have the skills

to take care of our basic needs. We rely

on outside sources developers and con-

tractors to build our houses, factories or

sweatshops to make our clothing and

agri-businesses to provide our food. Te

fact that we are largely dependent on oth-

ers, often who are far away and unknown

to us, to supply us with our basic material

needs, is all too often taken for granted

and unacknowledged.

Our individual resilience is being put

to the test by the current economic un-

predictability, for example. Stats Canada

reported that 213,000 jobs have been lost

since October. My mother is part of this

statistic. She worked as a production edi-

tor for a corporate educational publish-

ing house that decided to outsource their

work to cheaper employees in India.

If we as individuals are so reliant on our

single professions as our source of income

and survival, what happens when that job

no longer exists? What happens when the

people we depend on for food and shelter

are no longer capable of providing for us

if their businesses fold or if their ma-

terials run out or if their means of trans-

porting goods to us fail?

My solution is what I like to think of as

a quiver of skills. Currently Im complet-

ing a degree in creative writing, which I

see as a skill that fulfills the basic human

need to express oneself and communicate

with others. When I complete my degree,

I will continue to broaden my skill base

rather than depend on that one skill of

writing as my sole means of bringing din-

ner home.

I will continue to develop skills in

growing and preserving foods. I want to

acquire the skill of natural building with

materials like cob, to learn how to frame

a house out of timber, and how to split

cedar shakes for shingles. And pursue the

art of making and mending clothes.

Accumulating these diverse abilities

puts me in direct control of my wellbe-

ing.

In my vision of the future, I am able

to provide my own basic needs, and in

turn am capable of providing for others

around me. On top of that, I would have

the option to trade my skills (knitting,

house-framing, food-growing) for money

to positively interact in this currency-

based economic system.

A multi-skilled individual is a resilient

part of the greater whole, and that is what

I want to be.

Got Skills? Reclaiming a Multiskilled Lifestyle

PHOTO BY JULIA BENNETT

CANNING USED TO BE A COMMON SKILL PHOTO BY MILA CZEMERYS

March 17, 2010 ESSENCE 9