MAX13

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

As a start, I’m personally going to make sure that all my actions will:

Care for our Earth

Care for people

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?

It’s about us, all of us, getting out of the house and transforming our local communities.

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:

Poverty is unacceptable anywhere in my local community.

Nobody in my area should go hungry—ever.

Everyone deserves good food, quality housing, clean water, access to nature, and a fulfilling social life.

Let’s be compassionate and care for everyone without exception.

Value compassion, mutual aid, and sharing over accumulation and competition.

Violence is never the solution.

Lakes, rivers, and coasts free from sewage pollution.

Local production to meet local needs.

Human-friendly cities free from all forms of pollution.

Act now to ensure today’s children grow up in a better world.

Let’s do it!

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.

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.

The opposite of today’s world.
Here are the principles of this world of compassion and mutual aid

• 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.

• 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.

With help from Sustain

Benefits:

• Lower costs, better food

• Build mutual aid with local producers

• Support organic transition

• Help new food producers get started

Housing, energy, tech products—your group can find strategies to provide access to these essentials.

With help from MyCommunity

• Build healthy, low-maintenance homes

• Get help from Communities Can

• Set up a local repair shop with The Restart Project

• 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 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

It's time for meaningful change.

It is unacceptable that poverty of any form

exists anywhere in our local community.

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 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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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!

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!

Find allies and start an action group to sort out your local economy.

Imagine trying to pump a tyre with a puncture. That’s what happens when we spend money outside our community, it leaks away. So:

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.

Everyone has creativity. Ask: What have you always dreamed of doing?
Then figure out how to make that dream part of the local economy.

• Encouraging diversity in businesses ensures a thriving economy.

  Equitable distribution of resources and jobs increases stability and reduces vulnerability.

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:

• 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

Too many homes are poorly insulated. We pay to heat them, and it leaks away.

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

Millions struggle with food insecurity, friends, neighbours, even children. Supermarket spending leaks money from the local economy.

• 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.

These systems keep money circulating locally.
They’re tried and tested.

• 25–55% more local wealth created.

• 48% of users increased local product consumption

• 37% increased organic product consumption

• 69% visit supermarkets less often

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.

1. Local people form an organization to trade

2. Members list what they offer and need

3. Transactions are logged via notes, books, online, or checks

4. LETS overcome the barrier of having no money and unlock abundance

5. Get some help setting one up from Letslink

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.

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.

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.

The world is changing, it’s time for us to guide that change and make it good.