No longer a marginal speech,
Climate change is finally urging the international community
will be reached in the next decade if nothing is done,
We must change course, ourselves, and the sooner, the better.
insisting that the elite did nothing to prevent the disaster.
While the IPCC experts announce that the point of no return
NASA warns us that many human civilizations collapsed under their own weight,
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.
and communities in general to act now.
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