Sustainable local development

Overall sustainability is linked to the economic horizon businesses use to make their decisions. This horizon is very much affected by the interest rate. Imagine you could take a mortgage for 1% interest; one could imagine you would choose a house of higher quality, put solar panels on it and organize the water and sewage effectively. However an interest rate of 10% or more tends to shift your choice to cheaper alternatives even if that means higher energy bills or a shorter lifespan for the house.

For this reason, Social TRade focuses on creating market conditions that bring down interest rates to low levels, thus allowing for longer lasting, quality construction and money/credit circulating within a local community such that local resources are optimized, people are employed and sharing their specific specializations, and quality of life issues like sufficient recreation are not shortchanged,

Social TRade projects create many clusters of opportunities in a local community.

In the Gota Verde project for example bio-fuels are forming the base of local means of exchange and local credit; also eco-housing and the introduction of appropriate sustainable technology are creating an environment in which the community can prosper.

Social TRade does not promote autarchy, it support communities in doing the things locally that obviously should be done locally and meeting the rest of the world from that strong position.