Here Comes the Island Plan

The Island Plan is complete.

For now.

Four years in the making, this long-term plan for the future of Martha’s Vineyard, initiated by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission,  engaged hundreds of people in the collaborative process of its production.  To quote from the plan:  “ The purpose of the Island Plan is to chart a course to the kind of future the Vineyard community wants, and to outline a series of actions to help us navigate that course.  The Island Plan is both a blueprint and a call to action.”

I served on the Steering Committee and chaired one of the nine work groups – Livelihood & Commerce (the others are Development & Growth, Natural Environment, the Built Environment, Energy & Waste, Affordable Housing, Transportation, Water Resources, and Social Environment).

I spent more time working on the plan than I wished to and less time than I should have.

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• JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
  of South Mountain Company and the author
  of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more

• Reading List

  • THE WATCHMAN'S RATTLE: Thinking our Way out of Extinction by Rebecca Costa | Sociobiologist Costa explores the capacity of the human brain, and how we can use ours to solve our greatest problems.
  • THE GREAT DISRUPTION by Paul Gilding | The former director of Greenpeace and long-time corporate sustainability consultant takes us on a journey to the future of our economy
  • EAARTH: MAKING A LIFE ON A TOUGH NEW PLANET by Bill McKibben. For McKibben, climate change is not about the future – we’ve already changed the planet irrevocably. Now, as we try to minimize the damage, we have to learn how to live in this new place.
  • WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 20 by Tina Seelig | The subtitle is A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World – it’s about innovation, radical collaboration and harnessing the unexpected.
  • PLAN B 4.0 by Lester Brown | For over 30 years Lester Brown has been keeping us abreast of the State of the World, environmentally. His latest, Plan B 4.0, is a road map to real climate change solutions
  • THE REAL WORLD OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP by John Logue and Jacquelyn Yates | The best primer on employee ownership, this useful book comes from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, which has actively and successfully helped Ohio companies for decades
  • WHOLE EARTH DISCIPLINE: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto By Stewart Brand | One of the most provocative thinkers of our times makes a powerful myth-shattering call to arms to save the planet. This book changed the way I think about topics I’ve thought about for a long time.
  • THE MYTH OF PROGRESS: Toward a Sustainable Future by Tom Wessels | In this beautifully written small volume the author makes a compelling statement about why perpetual growth is not – and can’t be – the answer to our economic struggles.
  • COME HOME AMERICA: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country by William Greider | The noted author and National Affairs Correspondent for the Nation helps us understand the profound challenges and opportunities of the great transitions to come.
  • BORN TO RUN by Christopher McDougall | An epic adventure about the reclusive Tarahumara Indians in Mexico which, through remarkable characters and stories, becomes a journey about values, community, and human evolution.
  • DOWN TO THE WIRE: Confronting Climate Collapse By David Orr | Another eloquent – and troubling – call to action for the planet. Orr combines science, history, and public policy to make a compelling case that effective political leadership is the essential missing ingredient standing in our way.
  • CHANGE BY DESIGN by Tim Brown | The CEO of the legendary design firm IDEO proposed that Design Thinking – the idea that every problem is a design problem – wil need to become a part of every successful organization.

• COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
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