Author: Jonathan Cloud

2017 Programs

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At the beginning of 2017, we posted this as our CRCSolutions.org web site: CRCS will be moving in several new directions this year, which we think will be of interest to a wider audience than just those of us interested in financing clean energy. We've been focusing more on communities in the past year, and on the values and vision that led to our mission, to assist local communities and neighborhoods to become more resilient in the face of the widening impacts of a changing climate. We are [Read more...]

Nudging Things Along

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I've recently gotten interested in Behavioral Economics, and picked up a new book at the library by Richard Thaler, Misbehaving, in which he recounts the history of the field (which is basically that of the rediscovery of common sense, in the face of enormous resistance from conventional economists). Essentially, Behavioral Economics is about observing people's actual economic behavior, and basing economic models and policy recommendations on evidence. His main conclusions: If you [Read more...]

Which is It, Really?

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We've been having a debate recently about whether our initiative should be called "A Possible New Jersey," "A Possible Jersey," or just "Possible Jersey." Each of these appears to have different connotations for different groups of New Jerseyans (and perhaps for others as well). For those familiar with Sustainable Jersey, Possible Jersey sounds like it's a knock-off, and maybe even a rip-off, trading on the name. As it happens, however, we're strong supporters of Sustainable Jersey, and have [Read more...]

Welcome to a new New Jersey

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We're talking about a transformed New Jersey, where all of us begin to recognize that we are the ones creating the state in which we live. Imagine a state that's increasingly prosperous, increasingly sustainable, socially more just, and still affordable. What it takes, first of all, is being willing to create and give voice to a new possibility — a possibility that is designed to work for all — and is the canvas for a new New Jersey, a New Jersey that is "environmentally sustainable, socially [Read more...]

Playing the Game

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It's possible to see our Possible Jersey challenge as a game, using Commons Credits and JerseyBucks™ as tokens. These tokens may eventually be able to be exchanged for conventional currency, or for goods and services within the communities that accept them, or may be donated or invested. Of course, it is more than a game. It's a game that's played in the real world, with other people (including people who may fail to recognize it as a game), and with other living beings on the planet [Read more...]

Commons Credits

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"Commons Credits" refers to various forms of local and public interest currencies that reflect the value added to the commons, the shared background of the ecosphere that sustains all of us. There are many forms of complementary and alternative currencies; we're simply generalizing the principles to recognize the value that is created by contributions to the public good. Usually these are not recognized in conventional economic models. Just as these models leave out "externalities," which are [Read more...]

JerseyBucks™

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JerseyBucks™ are a form of local currency, expanded to the level of a state. The purpose of a local currency is to increase the recirculation of the money spent within the community; when members accept the currency, the same money is typically used more than four times before leaving the community, whereas using conventional currency the local circulation is only about one-and-a-half times. JerseyBucks™ are essentially credits, which we think of as Commons Credits, roughly equivalent to a [Read more...]

Creating a New Kind of Community

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What we're up to is, essentially, creating a new kind and level of community. To begin with, we are talking about building new cohousing communities — an innovation in the region, neighborhoods that are built to engage and to facilitate interaction. This is, in the age of the mass society, a radical concept in itself: eco-communities in which people actually get to know each other and become part of each others' lives. More broadly, however, we're seeking to engage entire existing [Read more...]

Become a Contributor to this Conversation

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We invite you to join us in developing new ideas for New Jersey. We are uniquely positioned to make a difference. We have many challenges, including an agonizingly slow economic recovery, political and economic divisions that are obstructions to achieving sustainability and resiliency in the face of sea level rise and other impacts of climate change, etc. But our opportunities are greater than our challenges. New Jersey is, as everyone knows, the most densely-populated state in the U.S. (an [Read more...]