permaculture

[Vint Lawrence <vlawrence@nets.com>]

Sean and others on the list:
You are correct that the Permaculture Credit Union (PCU) is helping to 
form a Permaculture economy by supporting the financial needs of our 
members who, by definition (the field of membership), are committed to 
the ethics of Permaculture.

It is a self-regulating system in that we are only as "green" as our 
membership and their needs.

However, the PCU is open to members from all 50 states (we even have 
some International members) and we can make loans in virtually every 
state, so I don't believe it is accurate to characterize our operations 
as primarily benefiting the Southwestern US. The "community" we serve is 
really the national Permaculture community.

Our current membership is approaching 800 members with almost $3million 
in deposits and over $2 million out in loans. Probably because our 
membership is based upon Earth-care ethics, we have a phenomenally low 
default rate on our loans (less than a tenth of one percent in the past 
5 years). What this means is that of the over $2.6 million we have 
loaned out to individuals in the past four years, only one person has 
failed to pay back their loan - and we are still working with them to 
make that happen.

More information can be found at the web site www.pcuonline.org.
Membership and loan application forms can be downloaded directly from 
the web site.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify the nature of the PCU

Vint Lawrence



Sean Maley wrote:

> You may already be aware of some of this, but for the
> benefit of those who don't:
>
> In terms of Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds, I only
> know of one permaculture sympathetic investment
> manager whom we are no doubt all aware: 
> naturalinvesting.com.
>
> There is also a movement to approach
> economics/investments from a more organic angle.  See
> http://www.solari.com for a good description of how to
> do it.  The down side is that this site is politically
> motivated.  However, the concept itself is good.
>
> By using the PCU, you in effect help form a small
> permaculture ecomony.  The PCU uses the money you
> place in a savings (investment) account and turns
> around to loan it for a permaculture use like PDC
> classes or helping start an ecovillage.  The PCU,
> being more local to south western USA, may not be the
> solution for everyone, as most benefit is local to
> them.  It would be a good idea for a grass roots
> effort to form based upon PCU.
>
> Other sites of note are:
>  http://www.henrygeorge.org
>  http://www.carbohydrateeconomy.org
>  http://www.natcap.org
>  http://www.steadystate.org
>  http://www.newapproachtofreedom.info
>  http://www.openmoney.org
>  http://creditary-economics.org
>  http://open.coop
>  http://www.smalleconomy.com
>  http://tinyurl.com/9c825
>
>
> -Sean.
>
> --- "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net> wrote:
>  
>
> > Can anyone describe what opportunities exist in the
> > realm of Green investments and what role the
> > Permaculture Credit Union is playing in that arena?
> >    
>
>
>
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