174 [S3E21]: Sura Gail Tala, on How the Center for Sustainable Living Fosters and Incubates Nonprofits

Our topic today is the Center for Sustainable Living, a peculiarly Bloomington institution. Since the 1990s, it has been a kind of not-for-profit co-op, foster projects that help the environment or allow people to live more sustainably. Their projects include Discardia which puts on the annual Trashion/Refashion show at the Buskirk Chumley; the Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network which advises homeowners on how to solarize their homes; and the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

The Center manages the overhead for a typical nonprofit -- insurance, taxes, governance, and the start-up costs associated with organizing a business however modest. Each project it sponsors pays a small part of its proceeds to sustain the Center. Some projects complete their missions or fade out; others grow big enough to graduate and become their own separate nonprofits. The Center has applied for and received many a grant, including from the city of Bloomington, on behalf of its many constituent projects. 

Our guest is Sura Gail Tala. She's been associated on and off with the CSL for decades, and is a member of their board of directors. We get from her the scope of their work, how they manage all those projects, and we dig into her own history as an environmental activist -- which includes her story about attending the first Earth Day in 1970.