Be the change you want to see in the world.  

 —   Gandhi

May God give you grace never to sell yourself short, grace to risk something big for something good, and grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love. 

—   William Sloane Coffin

Our mission is to invite and participate in the creation of a network of people, organizations, and businesses committed to the idea that we must be the change we want to see in the world. That change is for people everywhere to live within their means. 

In this simple notion, you can sum up everything we associate with the best of the environmental movement. But just as importantly, it sums up everything we associate with the prudent, resourceful and self-reliant living that has always characterized those families, towns and nations that have staying power, “stickers” as Wallace Stegner called them. This was the way our ancestors lived by necessity without the easy credit that fuels our debt-burdened consumer economy and our profligate use of the natural world alike. Be the Difference is a statement and commitment to responsible living in our homes and communities, our nation, and the world.

Be the Difference is the story of what ordinary people are doing today to bring their own lives into harmony with what is sustainable. It is as much a story about bringing responsibility to our spending and consumption as it is about limiting our environmental impact. In truth, the two problems are inseparably connected, and not the least of the effects one sees in “being the difference” is that what is good for the earth is in the long run, and often too in the short term, good for your pocketbook as well.

Be the Difference is not an organization in the traditional sense. It is not a corporate structure, but a network of people, each of whom in his or her own life is working to be the change toward responsible living we want to see in the world. All of those who are being the difference are doing things now to effect change at home in the hope that others will be inspired to do the same and that through our collective efforts we can truly make a difference. All of those who are being the difference are committed to such a change as a life’s work. This is not a cause for this week or this year only, but a mode of living 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for life. It is a mode of living mindfully, and, being mindful, of living lightly.

Being the Difference is not about giving up a bad way of life, but of learning to live more richly even as we consume less, drawing on and acquiring a new inner strength instead of depending on possessing and consuming things to make up for inner weakness. Being the Difference is about taking pleasure in being able to do things for oneself, in being able to meet more and more of one’s own needs, and in doing so, of being capable of more meaningful relationships to others--other people and other living things generally--who are now no longer conceived simply as resources for our benefit, but companions, friends and teachers whose right to life and self-determination is as sacred as our own. Being the Difference is as much a commitment to social justice as it is to being “green,” for, as C. S. Lewis said, “What we call our power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as an instrument.”¹

Being the Difference is not about collecting environmental brownie points or “greenwashing” things to make them or us look better in a green marketplace. It’s about real change. Facing the many growing problems, even crises, that we do, problems that include rapidly escalating fuel and food costs, food shortages, economic instability brought about by abuse of the environment and the collapse of unsustainable “bubbles,” and the consequences of global warming, half-measures and half-truths only make our situations worse. Nature doesn’t care about brownie points and isn’t fooled by greenwashing. Neither, ultimately, are markets. In the end, we will either learn to live within our means, or we will suffer the consequences. This is the challenge of our time, and, to the extent that global warming is involved, perhaps of all time. The future of our civilization and of much of life on earth is at issue.

But Being the Difference is not primarily about avoiding catastrophe. More than anything, it’s about learning to be a community of thoughtful, capable, independent, and happy people. Being the Difference is as much about inner transformation as it as about the things we do. The things we do are in fact the expression of inner transformation. Our web site tells about this transformation as well as its practical consequences.We invite you to join our community. There’s no commitment other than the one you make to yourself. We invite you to share your stories of Being the Difference and to share your suggestions. Be the Difference is an organic network. It is what we collectively will choose to make it.