Every community has untapped potential that can create living-wage jobs, plus increased income, business, and saving. Listed below are dozens of ways communities are tapping this potential today through Natural Capitalism. Many of these actions are well known, others innovative. They distribute benefits widely across the community and they’re compatible with the environment. Most require little or no community expansion. While not all apply to every community, the length of this list highlights the undeveloped wealth-generation power in virtually every community. Often, community development decisions are made behind the scenes. In contrast, Natural Capitalism is most effective when people from all walks of life choose their community’s future collaboratively and base their choices on practicality and compatibility with the community and its environment.

I. Invest in Resource Productivity by “plugging the leaks”

A local economy might be compared to a bucket that the community would like to keep full. Business recruitment and community expansion are attempts to pour more money into the bucket. While these strategies may have succeeded in the past, today they often fail or generate more costs than benefits to the community.Focusing entirely on more ways to fill the bucket ignores vast opportunities for “plugging leaks.” Economic buckets invariably have holes through which pounds or dollars leak every time local resources are used inefficiently. Smart communities seek profitable ways to keep the bucket full by plugging unnecessary leaks through one of more of the techniques listed below. As a result their economies are more resilient and less vulnerable to the influences of the global economy. This strategy is good news for communities that have little hope for expansion. It’s equally encouraging for those in which expansion is creating problems. Instead of relying on the hope of continuous expansion, that is also imposing large costs, rapidly expanding communities now have many alternatives. As you read the following examples, think about similar or quite different ways to plug your community’s leaks.

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