by Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone (Green Books, 2003)

BioRegional may just be the single coolest environmental group on the planet. It's the group's recent work -- like the BedZED development and their greening of London's 2012 Olympics -- that is particularly exciting, but they got their start by asking how local sustainable-development efforts can thrive in a global economy.

Much of their early work explored ways of meeting resource needs through local economies: creating local paper cycles, promoting hemp clothing, connecting local farmers to local households, finding markets for locally grown lavender. These and many other of the group's projects are featured in BioRegional Solutions: "We have been keen to engage with the market on its own terms and to link ourselves back to the local environment and the earth's natural nutrient and energy cycles. We value technology and the marketplace, but recognize that these can only bring long-term benefits when they are linked to natural cycles -- i.e., when we work with, rather than against, nature."