Run your own thing — making a living in the commons

The commons owns the land and the pipes. You own your home, your business, and every dollar you earn. Here's how people make a living here.

Land capped, your living uncapped

This is the part that surprises people who hear "commons" and picture owning nothing. The trust caps land speculation — full stop, that's all it caps. Your home, your business, your income, your savings are yours, uncapped, forever. The commons isn't where you give up making a living; it's the cheapest, most secure base you'll ever have to build one.

Utilities communal, enterprise private

The line that runs through the whole place: the things that only make sense shared, we share — water, the power backbone, the roads, the internet. Everything that adds value, you own. The commons supplies the substrate — the forest, the cleared ground, the cans, the space — and members build businesses on top of it.

Every waste stream is somebody's livelihood

This is how "zero waste" actually happens — not as a chore rota, but because someone makes a living off each stream:

• The biochar maker turning forest slash into soil and carbon credits.
• The foundry operator melting cans into ingots.
• The mushroom grower on logging waste; the beekeeper and the fireweed honey; the miller and the firewood cutter; the market grower selling greenhouse surplus.
• And yes — a neighbourhood recycling round: someone with an e-bike and a trailer collecting cans and sortables across the commons and feeding the foundry. Local, low-carbon, and it's their business.

That's the off-season income a planter actually needs — earned on-site, between seasons.

How the commons and the businesses fit

Where a business draws on common substrate (the foundry, the slash, the forest), the commons grants the right to run it — lightly: don't degrade the commons, fellow members first. How the shared utilities get funded — membership dues alone, or a small contribution from enterprises that lean on common resources — is a fair question we're still settling, in the open, together. (Skills are the real currency, by the way: we'd rather have your trade than your savings, and verified credentials travel with you.)

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