Judy Wicks Business For The Common Good Summary

In the article, Business for the Common Good: Building Local Living Economies in the Age of Climate Change, we hear about Judy Wicks’ groundbreaking business implementations. The basis for her talk was about sustainability and how she used her business to implement sustainability practices, while helping the economy and go against big business policy norms (i.e. franchising and not exceeding revenue passed $5 million). One of her main points was the way our economies and communities have been changed by big businesses and urban renewal. Wicks talks about how we are so disconnected to the products and services we buy. “Today, we no longer know who grows our food or who sews our clothes, who builds our houses. We’ve become disconnected from each other and from our places.

Importing from other countries or even other states, creates emissions and pollution, all because businesses are concentrated in the hands of a few and want to save a money by shipping production else where. When businesses are thought of as moneymakers instead of services of good, we lose the personal connection between customers and owners, as opposed to when it’s a locally owned or mom & pop shops. Wicks stated, “The local living economy movement is about maximizing relationships, not maximizing profits” (https://beta.prx.org/stories/146868). Going back to local shops and family farms can reduce our carbon emissions, build better/tight knit communities and gives reliance on local goods. Wicks is trying to work to build an alternative to corporate globalization through the local living economy