Steve Troy

Mexico 1967

It was the summer of 1967. I was working in a Mexican Peace Corp-type community development project (CIASP) and walking down a dirtroad talking to my friend Pablo. His dream was moving to Los Angeles and I couldn't understand why. His small village didn't have any kind of indoor plumbing or telephones and only a minimal amount of electricity but I felt it had so many more important qualities. He lived in a beautiful valley where almost anything would grow. The people had a simple, close relationship with their land and each other – wholesome family values and a sense of genuine goodness and caring.

I don't know if Pablo took my advice and stayed in his village but more likely he followed the trend of the millions worldwide who have left their remote villages and crammed into crowded, squalid cities filled with crime and every imaginable form of degradation.

The cities in developing countries attract villagers with the allure of higher paying jobs, exotic entertainment, and the various excitements of our materialistic world. The cost of these enticements in human and environmental terms is often horrifying.

I realized that appropriate technology offers a choice. It is possible to create higher paying and more meaningful jobs in the most remote region.  It is possible to improve health care and general living conditions on a low budget with locally available materials.  It is possible to inspire exciting projects that benefit the entire community and provide a deep sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency.

This experience and realization became the inspiration and foundation for The Sustainable Village. It began as a natural food store called Evergreen in the small, northern California town of Garberville in 1972, a time when concepts like "alternative energy", "appropriate technology", and "renewable energy" seemed pipe dreams at best. There were, by and large , two types of available energy: nonrenewable and primitive. As for technology, utility companies seemed to have cornered the market: you were either on the meter or out of luck.

Jade Mountain c. 1980

Many of Evergreen's customers lived in remote cabins without electricity. They began to ask us to stock Aladdin kerosene lamps and accessories. It was obviously a service to our customers (who were also our friends and neighbors) to stock what they requested and to offer them products they had difficulty finding (or could find only at prohibitive prices); so we started a shelf of kerosene lamps back among our natural grains. It turned out to be a wise business move. (Listening to the customer always is!) The demand for lighting supplies increased steadily, and led to a demand for other similar products. Eventually we had to open a new store to deal with our new product line: "Open Circle" opened in 1975 with a complete stock of lighting, irrigation, organic fertilizers and general "homesteading" supplies.

The "live off the land" movement was beginning to establish itself. People had finished building their homes, had established gardens, and developed livelihoods. With survival needs secured, they were looking to improve the quality of their lives, starting with better lighting, and sometimes including the occasional TV program. The missing element was - you guessed it - power. How to get it, how to store it, how to make it useful.

The most ready source of power was the car battery. People started bringing their car batteries inside and hooking them up to 12V televisions. Despite the occasional time when people became so engrossed in the TV movie that they let the battery run low - and so couldn't get their cars started the next day! - the 12V revolution was underway. (In those early days, ingenuity was definitely the order of the day: you could alternate one battery in the cabin with one being recharged at the town service station; you could install a second battery in a car, and thus recharge the battery whenever you drove; you could use a gasoline generator. The pioneer spirit prevailed.)

Battery-power brought a measure of independence. If it was inconvenient, it still allowed you to live where you wanted and in the style you chose. The 12V light joined the 12V TV on the Open Circle shelves. In 1977 we started a second Open Circle in Willits, California, fifty miles south. In 1978 we reorganized the Willits store under a new name, "Real Goods Trading Co.". We stocked a 30 watt solar electric module, but at $700 it was beyond the means of most of our customers. It aroused curiosity but few sales. We sold some hydro and wind generators, but these were useful only if you lived on a hilltop or beside a stream. However, things were evolving. The old method of carrying your car battery into the house every night had been replaced by back-country high-tech. Solar panels were becoming more and more reasonably priced.

More and more products were becoming available in 12V. Inverter efficiency increased dramatically. The whole appropriate technology field was burgeoning in response to the number of people who wanted to be off the meter and on the land. It was now possible AND affordable to have all the conveniences of utility power no matter how far you were from power lines.

Jade Mountain began in 1979 and narrowed the focus to appropriate technology products. For the next twenty-two years we supported and assisted people striving to live appropriately on the planet, creating the largest company of our kind in the world. In 2001, I sold Jade Mountain and focused on using renewable energy and appropriate technology to aid developing countries. Thus, The Sustainable Village was born.

The mission of The Sustainable Village is to implement positive, small-scale solutions to global problems. This website describes tools, ideas, and energies that fit E.F. Shumacher's code for problem solving in today's world: small, simple, inexpensive and nonviolent. We are striving to make sustainable development happen in every way possible. Let us know what you're trying to do. We will listen carefully and help you find the most appropriate technology for each individual situation. The vision of The Sustainable Village is the fulfillment of appropriate technology - less is more.

The Sustainable Village donates all profits to non-profit projects, especially to Sustainable Resources.

A lot of people making small changes add up to a more pervasive change. Improving our environment, uplifting our lives and even benefiting mankind - it's not too tall an order if everyone contributes.