In 2022, Minnesota’s Public Utility Commission approved an Integrated Resource Plan requiring Xcel to model distributed ...

You’d think a company with as many resources, employees, and facilities as AT&T or Comcast would have good customer service. Surely, with all the billions of dollars flowing through these businesses, ...

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is launching year two of the Composting for Community Mini-Grant Program to support new or existing local community composters in New England coastal ...

One way to build local power is to catalyze change directly in your community. Another, equally important method is to catalyze the catalysts. To really make change and build sustainable local ...

In late 2024, Rachel Hernandez ran a successful campaign to become mayor of Riverbank, California. A small town at the top of the state’s central valley, Riverbank may not fit into what you imagine as ...

Most U.S. states could do far more to provide their residents with affordable, reliable, clean energy and to capture its economic windfall. In the 2025 Community Power Scorecard from the Institute for ...

It’s no secret that cities with multiple locations of the same chain often have “a good one” and “a bad one.” Characteristics of “The Bad Target” include longer lines, dirtier facilities, fewer ...

AI technology and large language models are growing in popularity. Also growing is the technology’s detrimental effect on the environment. Each query into ChatGPT, to use one example, requires ...

For decades — from the 1930s until the 1980s — the U.S. grocery industry was remarkably competitive, with independent grocers thriving alongside large chains like Kroger and Safeway. Independent ...

David Morris reflects on 50 years of fostering local self-reliance and ILSR. Those of us who were lucky to have worked with ILSR’s co-founder David Morris over many decades invite you to join us in ...

When the Washington Post, at Jeff Bezos’s command, declined to endorse a presidential candidate, people instantly reacted by cancelling their Post subscriptions en masse. But soon the mood shifted as ...

Food deserts are an entrenched problem across the country, including in Virginia. The cause is clear: price discrimination by big grocery chains is forcing independent grocers to close their doors. In ...