Community Initiatives/Boulder

Boulder Valley Relocalization
From Boulder Valley Relocalization Website

Boulder Valley Relocalization (BVR) is a citizen organization advocating the urgent development of a local response to a looming energy crisis. BVR has been organizing a series of public awareness events to inform citizens about the coming energy crisis and to stimulate individual, neighborhood and community preparedness for adjusting to an energy-constrained future as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply.

On November 5, more than 100 people attended a presentation by Julian Darley, founder of Post Carbon Institute and Global Public Media, and author of High Noon for Natural Gas.
On September 28, more than 200 people came to the Fiske Planetarium to hear co-founder of BVR Michael Brownlee discuss the need for relocalization in the Boulder community. This event also featured Stephen B. Andrews, a Colorado energy consultant and co-founder of the American branch of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA).

BVR events often include a preview of the documentary film, The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream, which is inspiring American communities to move towards relocalization—the process by which communities localize their economies and essential systems, such as food and energy production, water, money, culture, governance, media and ownership.

On January 14, the organization convened a day-long community event called “Going Local! Preparing for the Accelerating Energy Crisis” on the University of Colorado campus, which included a “relocalization resource expo” and a broad range of guest speakers.

Relocalization Resource Groups
In February 2006, BVR launched a special project to formulate a strategic community relocalization plan. The first stage of the process will be to form Relocalization Resource Groups which will research, discuss and provide summary reports with recommendations in specific areas:

• The energy crisis
• Relocalizing energy and heating
• Relocalizing food production and distribution
• Relocalizing manufacturing and employment
• Health care
• Parallel economic infrastructure
• Transportation
• Crisis preparedness
• Preparing our community, ourselves

Each group will be tasked with the following:

• Define existing situation
• Identify coming challenges
• Evaluate local resources
• Explore range of response options
• Propose recommendations