A recent article “Using Buy Local Movements As Part of Your Green Marketing Strategy” on the Green Economy post contends that the top three reasons to support local are that it:
1) Improves economy in your local community
2) Adds value to your partners, suppliers and clients, and
3) Creates less carbon emissions.
How much each of these impacts is felt depends on how you define local. The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) defines local as 51% local ownership, not publicly traded, with owners living locally, and having control over purchasing and marketing/finance. Although this definition works for many of BALLE’s networks, LoCo BC is currently working to define who’s local using a principle-based approach. Is a businesses with foreign ownership who work to localize supply chains and widely support local communities a “local” business? Is a locally-owned dollar store stocked with cheap plastic goods from overseas?
Stay tuned when LoCo BC launches a Buy Local campaign later this year.
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