Start small but regularly.

“First friday of the month, we meet up to talk about the projectand see what we can do. Bring your friends.”

That’s how we started a hackerspace, at a pizzeria once in a month, showing off arduino project, discussing about possibilities. One day, we filled half the restaurant and knew we were ready to find a more permanent home". It took about a year to grow to that point.

“Think globally, act locally” - or, how do you eat an elephant? Answer; one bite at a time. You pick something you can get your hands around and get to work. You do what you can when you can and don’t second-guess yourself.

Not to speak solely in aphorisms, but Confucius said “If your plan is for a year, plant rice; if your plan is for a decade, plant trees; if your plan is for a century, educate children.” So educate others about your activities when you can and lead by example the rest of the time.

I’ve found that town-level organizing is satisfying, and a scale where a small group of individuals can help make bigger change.

My town government agreed a few years ago to adopt the sustainablect.org framework, which has a bunch of green/sustainable elements I am really excited about.

Once the town agrees in principle to a framework, you can advocate for policies based on that framework, and mobilize people who are particularly interested in one issue (say, composting!) or another (sidewalk networks! green energy!)

The trick, I think, is to find a framework the town government is willing to support (in principle) with specific changes. The fact that there’s a certification program to go along with the framework that has prestige is really helpful. But really, the core of it all is to find a bunch of folks in your community that want to push things forward towards a goal with a shared vision. Which means that ultimately community organizing is what makes it possible, in my experience.