History and Vision

Steve Troy

Mexico 1967

Steve is a founding pioneer of our sustainable living/ appropriate technology/ renewable energy culture.

Since 1966, he's worked to shift our ways of living toward systems that protect rather than degrade the environment; sustain rather than deplete our natural resources; and create meaningful and fulfilling lifestyles rather than empty, materialistic, self-defeating searches for happiness.

In his own words, here's a description of one of his formative experiences in a remote Mexican village, 1967:

"It was the summer of 1967. I was working in a Mexican Peace Corp-type community development project (CIASP) and walking down a dirt road talking to my friend Pablo. His dream was moving to Los Angeles and I couldn't understand why. His small village didn't have any kind of indoor plumbing or telephones and only a minimal amount of electricity but I felt it had so many more important qualities. He lived in a beautiful valley where almost anything would grow. The people had a simple, close relationship with their land and each other – wholesome family values and a sense of genuine goodness and caring.

I don't know if Pablo took my advice and stayed in his village but more likely he followed the trend of the millions worldwide who have left their remote villages and crammed into crowded, squalid cities filled with crime and every imaginable form of degradation.

The cities in developing countries attract villagers with the allure of higher paying jobs, exotic entertainment, and the various excitements of our materialistic world. The cost of these enticements in human and environmental terms is often horrifying.

I realized that appropriate technology offers a choice. It is possible to create higher paying and more meaningful jobs in the most remote region.  It is possible to improve health care and general living conditions on a low budget with locally available materials.  It is possible to inspire exciting projects that benefit the entire community and provide a deep sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency."

History

This experience and realization became the inspiration and foundation for The Sustainable Village. It began as a natural food store called Evergreen in the small, northern California town of Garberville in 1972, a time when concepts like "alternative energy", "appropriate technology", and "renewable energy" seemed pipe dreams at best. There were, by and large , two types of available energy: nonrenewable and primitive. As for technology, utility companies seemed to have cornered the market: you were either on the meter or out of luck.

Real Goods, Santa Rosa 1980

Many of Evergreen's customers lived in remote cabins without electricity. They began to ask us to stock Aladdin kerosene lamps and accessories. It was obviously a service to our customers (who were also our friends and neighbors) to stock what they requested and to offer them products they had difficulty finding (or could find only at prohibitive prices); so we started a shelf of kerosene lamps back among our natural grains. It turned out to be a wise business move. (Listening to the customer always is!) The demand for lighting supplies increased steadily, and led to a demand for other similar products. Eventually we had to open a new store to deal with our new product line: "Open Circle" opened in 1975 with a complete stock of lighting, irrigation, organic fertilizers and general "homesteading" supplies.

The "live off the land" movement was beginning to establish itself. People had finished building their homes, had established gardens, and developed livelihoods. With survival needs secured, they were looking to improve the quality of their lives, starting with better lighting, and sometimes including the occasional TV program. The missing element was - you guessed it - power. How to get it, how to store it, how to make it useful.

The most ready source of power was the car battery. People started bringing their car batteries inside and hooking them up to 12V televisions. Despite the occasional time when people became so engrossed in the TV movie that they let the battery run low - and so couldn't get their cars started the next day! - the 12V revolution was underway. (In those early days, ingenuity was definitely the order of the day: you could alternate one battery in the cabin with one being recharged at the town service station; you could install a second battery in a car, and thus recharge the battery whenever you drove; you coulduse a gasoline generator. The pioneer spirit prevailed.)

Battery-power brought a measure of

Jade Mountain 1983

independence. If it was inconvenient, it still allowed you to live where you wanted and in the style you chose. The 12V light joined the 12V TV on the Open Circle shelves. In 1977 we started a second Open Circle in Willits, California, fifty miles south. In 1978 we reorganized the Willits store under a new name, "Real Goods Trading Co.". We stocked a 30 watt solar electric module, but at $700 it was beyond the means of most of our customers. It aroused curiosity but few sales. We sold some hydro and wind generators, but these were useful only if you lived on a hilltop or beside a stream. However, things were evolving. The old method of carrying your car battery into the house every night had been

replaced by back-country high-tech. Solar panels were becoming more and more reasonably priced.

More and more products were becoming available in 12V. Inverter efficiency increased dramatically. The whole appropriate technology field was burgeoning in response to the number of people who wanted to be off the meter and on the land. It was now possible AND affordable to have all the conveniences of utility power no matter how far you were from power lines.

Jade Mountain began in 1979 as an import-export company mainly working in China. Steve began learning Chinese and started importing and developing better appropriate technology tools for Real Goods and similar environmental and renewable energy businesses. Later Jade Mountain narrowed its focus to appropriate technology products. For the next twenty-two years it supported and assisted people striving to live appropriately on the planet, creating the largest company of its kind in the world. In 1999, Steve sold half of Jade Mountain to Gaiam in an attempt to scale up and have a larger impact on the world. In 2000 Gaiam bought Real Goods and Steve helped forge a larger alliance and way to increase the number of renewable energy systems in the world. In 2001 he sold his part of this business to Gaiam and focused on using renewable energy and appropriate technology to aid developing countries. The Sustainable Village was born.

The mission of The Sustainable Village is to implement positive, small-scale solutions to global problems. This website describes tools, ideas, and energies that fit E.F. Shumacher's code for problem solving in today's world: small, simple, inexpensive and nonviolent. We are striving to make sustainable development happen in every way possible. Let us know what you're trying to do. We will listen carefully and help you find the most appropriate technology for each individual situation. The vision of The Sustainable Village is the fulfillment of appropriate technology - less is more.

Between 2002 and 2006, most of Steve's attention was focused on non-profit projects. He worked extensively planning redevelopment in Afghanistan (see CareBridge). This work evolved into the Sustainable Resources conferences. Steve was the executive director of these events with a full time staff of 15 people and over 300 volunteers. In 2004 over 3000 people from almost every country in the world attended this event. Numerous new partnerships and high impact philanthropic and environmental projects developed from this work.

Guilin, China 2007

In 2007, Steve returned to his early roots in China. China was developing at an incredible pace, tens of millions of people were moving out of poverty; but, the environmental and social impact was often catastrophic. Steve felt that helping to make even a small shift in China was equivalent in planetary terms as a huge shift in America. You can see some of the products that came out of this process in our wholesale section.