It's Time for Meaningful Change
It begins with a vision:
The Same Planet, a Different World.
A world where inequality, poverty, climate crises, pollution, wars, and the destruction of agricultural soils, water resources, and biodiversity no longer exist.
The Same Planet, a Different World
We’ve all got good food, decent housing, and booming local economies.
We live in healthier, more pleasant, and beautiful environments.
We return to who we are, compassionate and happy to help each other.
Today’s crises disappear.
That’s what MAX13 is about.
What’s in Here?
The first part is a road-map for transforming our local communities and solving our crises.
The next part focuses on local economics and how we can deal with poverty of all kinds. There are some simple examples of what we can do, there are many more.
The final part is about today’s children and their future.
Together, we can do it.
Why Does MAX13 Focus on Local Communities?
Because it’s in our communities that each person can make a difference. This is the scale at which we can create change.
Here, you can make decisions tailored to your needs and your community—and put them into action.
Here, you have the power to act, and you and those around you can make a difference.
Part 1
Let’s Change
As a start, I’m personally going to make sure that all my actions will:
Care for our Earth
Care for people
They Will Say We Can’t Do It
Of course they will. Those in power don’t want us to fix things ourselves.
They’ll say it’s a job for politicians or professionals.
They’ll whisper that we’re not smart enough or that we’re naive.
They’ll tell us to wait for the next election.
But decades pass, and millions still live in poverty and poor housing.
In the 21st century, people still have to choose between heating and eating. What’s that all about?
MAX13 Isn’t About Politics
It’s about us, all of us, getting out of the house and transforming our local communities.
Part 2
Setting Some Objectives
The United Nations has established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that cover the key areas we need to address.
Let’s stop waiting and start doing.
After exploring these objectives, we’ll look at concrete ways to achieve them.
It’s my neighbourhood, my village, my town.
I commit to working locally to achieve these goals:
Goal 1: No Poverty
Poverty is unacceptable anywhere in my local community.
Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Nobody in my area should go hungry—ever.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
Everyone deserves good food, quality housing, clean water, access to nature, and a fulfilling social life.
Goal 4: Gender Equality
Let’s be compassionate and care for everyone without exception.
Goal 5: Eliminate Inequalities
Value compassion, mutual aid, and sharing over accumulation and competition.
Goal 6: Peace, Equity, and Justice
Violence is never the solution.
Goal 7: Clean Water
Lakes, rivers, and coasts free from sewage pollution.
Goal 8: Clean and Affordable Energy
Goal 9: Support the Local Economy
Local production to meet local needs.
Goal 10: Sustainable Cities and Urban Communities
Human-friendly cities free from all forms of pollution.
Goal 11: Responsible Consumption and Production
Goal 12: Climate Action
Goal 13: Future Generations
Act now to ensure today’s children grow up in a better world.
Part 3
The Vision
Let’s do it!
Imagine This
Local communities free from poverty and inequality.
Free from pollution.
Everyone thriving in a wonderful local environment.
Today’s crises, gone.
If we can picture this, we can make it real.
If we set aside doubt and fear, we can build a better world.
If we stop waiting for someone else, we can sweep away toxic systems.
If we stop listening to power-hungry individuals, we can get out of this mess.
Now That Our Goals Are Clear, Let’s See How to Achieve Them
Get together with family, friends, and neighbours.
Decide together that poverty, poor housing, pollution, crime, and violence are unacceptable.
Use MAX13 as a foundation to build the community you imagined.
MAX13 Is a Pro-Social Approach
The opposite of today’s world.
Here are the principles of this world of compassion and mutual aid
MAX13 Principles
You are the most important social unit.
People instinctively help others—cooperation is how we’ve survived for 200,000 years.The most important decisions are local.
They concern you, your friends, neighbours, and community.Each local community decides how to govern itself.
One-size-fits-all never works. Governance evolves with each generation.Sustainable local economies are a priority.
Essentials like water, energy, and housing must be managed locally.
Part 4
Step by Step Toward Ethical, Equitable, and Fair Communities
Find allies and form a group to improve your community.
Draft proposals for transformation.
Include everyone in the process.
Choose governance systems that reflect everyone’s wishes.
If an action improves lives and cares for the Earth—it’s worth doing.
Create a Local Food Co-op
With help from Sustain
Benefits:
Lower costs, better food
Build mutual aid with local producers
Support organic transition
Help new food producers get started
We Have Other Needs Too
Housing, energy, tech products—your group can find strategies to provide access to these essentials.
Create a Community Mutual Aid Group (CMAG)
With help from MyCommunity
Build healthy, low-maintenance homes
Get help from Communities Can
Set up a local repair shop with The Restart Project
Share and Support
Set up a community sharing system for tools, goods, and machines
Create a credit cooperative or mutual bank
If needed, launch a complementary currency with help from Value for People
If You’re Tired of Waiting…
If you’re fed up with queues, poor housing, injustice, and climate anxiety.
Seize MAX13. Get going. Sort it out. The solutions are real. The time is now.
Each and every one of us can make it happen. Let’s do it.
MAX13 and our economies
Dealing with Poverty, the ‘Heat or Eat’ Problem, and Food Insecurity
It's time for meaningful change.
It is unacceptable that poverty of any form
exists anywhere in our local community.
When Did It All Get So Shoddy?
Poor products that fail too soon and can’t be repaired, harmful additives in our food, houses that fall apart—the list is long, and it’s time it stopped.
The Problem
The stuff we buy is produced far away by people we don’t know and who don’t care about us. Economists call this "asymmetric information" a situation where one party in a transaction has more or better information than the other.
The Solution: Buying Local
Buying from people we know and trust. When businesses are integrated into the local community, they behave better. They care about their reputation more than some anonymous producer far away. Local producers are also our friends and neighbours—they don’t want to rip us off.
We’ll see later how buying local also makes us all better off.
The other Advantages of Buying Local
Money spent at local businesses is more likely to be reinvested in the community, fostering local economic growth.
Local businesses sponsor events, support community initiatives, and contribute to the unique character of the area.
They offer personalized services and products tailored to local needs.
Local purchasing reduces the need for long-distance transportation.
Local businesses often prioritize sustainable practices.
Farmers' markets offer fresher, more nutritious produce.
A strong local economy is more resilient to downturns and external shocks.
We’re All Better Off
This is something we’re rarely told: spending money with local producers who then spend with other local producers keeps money circulating in the local economy.
It’s called the Local Multiplier Effect.
Spending money locally creates more local economic activity as it circulates through the community.
A Simple Example
You spend €5 on apples from a local farmer.
The farmer spends €2 at a local supply store.
The supply store owner spends €1.50 at a local café.
The café owner spends €1 at a local bike shop.
The bike shop owner spends €0.75 at a local bookstore.
Total local economic activity generated: €10.25.
It’s not magic, it’s maths!
Let’s Get Our Local, Ethical, and Sustainable Economies Booming
We’ll ensure that goods and services in our local economy:
Improve and regenerate the environment
Contribute to better quality of life, health, and mental well-being
Include everyone, no more poverty!
Step by Step
Find allies and start an action group to sort out your local economy.
Stop the Leaks
Imagine trying to pump a tyre with a puncture. That’s what happens when we spend money outside our community, it leaks away. So:
What Goods and Services Are Missing from our local community?
We need food, fun, home repair, healthcare, local manufacturing, and more.
Do a check to see what’s lacking and find someone who wants to take it on.
Or Start with People’s Dreams
Everyone has creativity. Ask: What have you always dreamed of doing?
Then figure out how to make that dream part of the local economy.
Economic Wealth and Balance
Encouraging diversity in businesses ensures a thriving economy.
Equitable distribution of resources and jobs increases stability and reduces vulnerability.
Less Waste = More Money → A Circular Local Economy
Waste isn’t just costly to remove, it’s a lost resource.
Take food waste: it’s about 12–14% of what we buy.
Instead of throwing food waste away, cycle it locally, for example:
A Tried and Tested System
Collect food waste
Feed it to black soldier fly larvae
Feed larvae to fish in local farms
Use nutrient-rich water from fish tanks to fertilize vegetables
Energy Poverty: Another Leak
Too many homes are poorly insulated. We pay to heat them, and it leaks away.
A Tried and Tested System
Local councils spend a fortune cutting grass.
Let sheep do it instead!
Sheep eat grass
Wool insulates homes (fire-resistant, regulates humidity, reduces noise)
Sheep and lambs provide income for locals
Food Poverty
Millions struggle with food insecurity, friends, neighbours, even children. Supermarket spending leaks money from the local economy.
A Tried and Tested Solution
Turn unused land into allotments or community orchards
Partner with local farms to produce for the local market
Train locals in vegetable and fruit growing
Use aquaponics to grow fish and vegetables
Keep hens, bees, and small livestock
Health is wealth—and fresh, local produce is the foundation of good health.
Stop Money Leaking Out: Set Up a Complementary Currency or LETS
These systems keep money circulating locally.
They’re tried and tested.
Results from a Local Currency set up in 2020
25–55% more local wealth created.
48% of users increased local product consumption
37% increased organic product consumption
69% visit supermarkets less often
Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS)
LETS are complete systems for exchanging goods and services.
Members earn credits from anyone and spend them with anyone else in the system.
They’re easier to set up than a complementary currency and work well.
How LETS Work
Local people form an organization to trade
Members list what they offer and need
Transactions are logged via notes, books, online, or checks
LETS overcome the barrier of having no money and unlock abundance
Get some help setting one up from Letslink
Pulling Together
When we work together, we can change things fast.
After some effort, we’ll have:
No more poverty or poor housing
Better health for all
Compassion and mutual aid
A healthier, more beautiful environment
Greater ecological resilience
Today’s crises? Gone
That’s MAX13
The same planet, a different world.
Part 4
At the moment things are looking bleak, one reason being is that we’ve been counting on someone else to sort it all out. They are failing, we won’t.
Children today will grow up facing extreme heat, drought, wildfires, floods and storms , they will be more frequent and more extreme. It’s already started and none of us will remain unaffected, our children will grow up and live their lives in a difficult world.
Unless we roll our sleeves up
and get on with sorting it all out.
Max13 is a strategic approach and, as we’ve seen based around transforming our local communities to make them resilient and robust. One-size-fits-all, top-down policies have failed us which is absurd as we have the solutions and they are neither complicated nor difficult. Despite what we get told
We can act now for ourselves and, most especially, for our kids.
Good food, good housing, clean air and water, a fulfilling life, and support when we need it, they are what we need and what we can give to ourselves and pass on to our kids.
It’s both a vision and something we CAN build.
The world is changing, it’s time for us to guide that change and make it good.