Campagne Indiegogo du Germoir Indiegogo campain

No longer a marginal speech,

Climate change is finally urging
the international community

and communities in general to act now.

While the IPCC experts announce
that the point of no return

will be reached in the next decade
if nothing is done,

NASA warns us that many human civilizations
collapsed under their own weight,

insisting that the elite did nothing
to prevent the disaster.

We must change course, ourselves,
and the sooner, the better.

In solidarity with rising and future generations,

In solidarity with the people currenlty being exploited for our own comfort,

Because the ecosystems we inhabit have limits
and of course possibilities

Let's get organized to live better.

We choose to participate in the inevitable transition by offering a prototype

of technical and social practices
that are bearing resilience.

Resilience designates the capacity
to rebound, to adapt.

This resilience will be supported by Le Germoir,

which will provide infrastructure
and support for initiatives

rooted in the renewable resources
of the immediate area.

Le Germoirs' startup team brings together

a variety of complementary know-hows,

from accounting to collective cooking,
permaculture and more.

But most importantly, our main strength

is a network of enthusiastic allies,
built throughout the years,

sharing experiences within different collectives.

To make real this cooperative project,

building the floors, building the offices,

we sent a big call-out for a great bee,

it warmed our hearts to see that more than 150 people came to help us last summer,

bringing their enthousiam, their curiosity, their know-hows, their experiences,

and it was amazing!

Most of Le Germoir’s members and their allies have met through the CESA, Centre d’écologie solidaire et appliquée.

It includes collective decision making, task sharing,

gardening, conflict resolution, mechanic and building skills

CESA is active since 2007. It's a transitional space.

In fact, Le Germoir was born because some people wanted

to establish themselves more permanently in the region.

The co-op is located in the Saint-Louis area in Carleton-sur-Mer, in the Chaleur Bay.

This area has been home to many villages in the past, the are now closed or so,

offering unused farmland as well as nearby vast forests.

We se an inspiring potential in our locality and in many other Gaspesie communities

who are facing similar vitality challenges.

A majority of these localities possess structures such as barns, churches

and factories that could be beneficial for collective usage.

Here, it is in a barn, la Grange à Pit, that we are building a rural laboratory

to revitalise the collectivity and to promote local resilience.

This way, we will realize experiences that other communities can possibly replicate

The fact that we share these infrastuctures not only allows us savings for everyone

but it generates creativity, a creative synergy

It's more attracting, in the sense that it's what I want to see for my kids

The kids are more and more integrated in the coop

and we want these values and skills to be transmited to the kids

so we can start an other cycle

The Gaspesie region is actually being targeted by the hydrocarbon industry

which is basically hoping to extract oil by drilling and fracking the ground.

Needless to say, this  would seriously compromise chances of local resilience,

among others because of water contamination

The technological choices of the coop are anchored in our analysis of the global context

We want energy efficiency, we don't have lot's of money, and we live in a cold climate

The success of the Germoir as a prototype and its ability to shine

will contribute to feed hopes of sustainable developpement

We will use technologies tested elsewhere.

Our technical contribution is to adapt them to a colder climate

In the 3D sketch shown here, we can see the different systems coming together.

Most imposing of all is without a doubt massive use of passive solar energy

to capture and store the sun’s raw heat.

South oriented windows lets most of the energy needed to heat the place in

Aquaponic bassins, in the greenhouse, act as a thermal battery that

regulates the temperature around the clock and helps avoid overheating in the summer

The bassins, integrated to the foundation, are the key of this innovative greenhouse

which will extract it's heat from the soil and the sun

to tend towards a plant growing environment, year around

By promoting an integrated food production and short circuit distribution

we open food production possibilities like the production of winter greens

a great improvement in the local food supply in northern climate

Whether it'll be aquaponics, vertical gardening, growing mushrooms or sprouts,

different levels of innovation go hand in hand.

We aim for efficiency, multi-purpose of the building, simple technology

We also make durable, understandable choices that can be duplicated.

Our project is part of a collective emancipation approach

Transition is not a personal or individual question, we'll only make it together

We think it's important to free the knowledge

We build a prototype in order to share it

We surround ourselves with allies to document our challenges,

our successes, our experiences

We project to eventually offer an active training and support program

for similar emerging projects

Far from pretending that our project is sufficient to change the course of things

we are convinced it is part of the necessary paths to explore

we need prototypes of collective resilience centers

Together, let us generate new starting points to create an exceptional future

As a first goal and cornerstone, Le Germoir wishes to build its processing kitchen

a basic infrastructure to launch small scale economic projects.

Gathering and growing mushrooms, harvesting and preserving wild edible plants,

lacto fermentation production, growing sprouts and collective cooking activities

And above all:  with this kitchen, Le Germoir will be free to move forward,

grow and share the fruit of its labor.

Right now, we ask you to help finance this prototype

For each step there are inevitable costs, but also tremendous savings

due to the voluntary work being done,

the various skills brought by the allies from our network

and the use of salvaged building materials

Renovations to complete the kitchen will be done with similar savings.

We estimate that it would normally cost 57000-60000$ for this phase of the project

if we would give the job to a contactor

but actual costs will still be of 30 000$.

In this crowdfunding campaign we are hoping to gather half of the total necessary amount

to finish the installations.

Thanks for spreading the word