I’m Steve Peak and I’m a bit of a “jack-of-all-trades”. But most importantly for this campaign, I’m an artist (check out some of my art here) and a permaculture teacher/enthusiast and I want to inspire people to take action towards more sustainable systems together.

I have a background in software engineering and I’ve been looking at NFTs… but the deeper I got into it, the more I just didn’t see it as a viable, fair, or sustainable way to make money. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely see the value in blockchain tech, but I believe that all the abundance and value we need is right in front of us already. I’d much rather invest in things that help my community and create abundance for everyone, not just myself. So I decided to try and turn what I had into something for everyone in a project that is intended to… well… (let’s get real) fly entirely in the stupid face of NFTs. Many have already been shown to be a scam … and we can do better if we share value, rather than scramble for scraps stepping over one another like it’s black friday.

So let’s try something else. I call it an…

F.N.T.

(Fungible Non-Token)

It’s the opposite of an NFT.

I want to give value back to community, rather than coveting large sums of money around JPG images with no value to make a small percentage of people rich while massively consuming energy. Yeah. The idea is to do exactly the opposite of that. Crowdfund art and community abundance!

(That’s some of my art. See more samples on my website here: stevepeak.com)

Art is a powerful force that can bring people together and help us to spark the most necessary conversations. And what we need most right now, is to harness the unifying potential of art to shine lights on sustainable projects for our communities and our environment. Art is a valuable aspect of sustainable ideology and ties in beautifully with Permaculture.
 

Wait, what’s permaculture, again?

Broadly speaking, permaculture is a school of thought that help us to create integrated systems and communities. We create designs to reuse and control waste products, grow more nutritious food, resolve conflict, protect wildlife, and so much more. Put more bluntly, working with permaculture or regenerative design is the way to an abundant and sustainable future for us all. Even from a business perspective. Thinking sustainably IS the way to move forward.

So… What’s the plan?

I want to release all the rights to my entire art catalog (including unfinished pieces, current sketchbook pages and more, usually in layered, high res PSD format for Photoshop) to the public under the MIT license and use the proceeds to fund projects that create abundance for many, not just one. You can see our project roadmap and/or vote on projects that we will implement! If you donate enough you’ll even get to stay at Kumukahi Village on the big island of Hawaii and watch as we expand our projects out into the greater community. You can help fund this project for the art, or you can do it to help realize real change and fund an organized, off-grid community farming initiative… OR you can do it for a trip to Hawaii where you can pick fresh fruit and chill in a hammock. Those are all good reasons.

What is Kumukahi Village?

From Kumukahi’s website: “Kumukahi Village is an intentional community set up on the beautiful big island of Hawaii. We are fully off-grid and offer educational programs, yoga, farm fresh food and so much more. We are focused on integrating with the culture of the big island and honoring the aina. We are co-creating a regenerative, healing, communicative, and playful space for community.”

They are an up-and-coming, well-organized community on roughly 20 acres on the big island of Hawaii, and they need our help. The founders of Kumukahi Village are a diverse group of young, savvy people, who want to invest and work together to build regenerative communities and ecosystems. The group intends to implement  (or has already implemented) agroforestry programs, native species protection, food-sharing, free educational events, farming organic food for farmers markets, while connecting and sharing these tools and abundance with communities in Hawaii and elsewhere. Their goal is to create and spread sustainable community and food systems as far as possible and to have fun while doing it. Check out their website, and some pictures below:​

Thriving orchards of mature fruit trees!

A big beautiful event space!

Little cabins!

The Deets

So let’s get into the numbers. Where does the money go? Who’s taking care of things?
All of the proceeds go to a central Kumukahi Village account where funds will be allocated for projects by the team at Kumukahi Village. These projects will include outreach to other communities, towns on the Big Island of Hawaii, state run conservation programs and more. The specifics of these programs are still being developed and the extent of them depends entirely on the amount of funding received through this campaign. Here are the currently planned projects:

1. Build and expand natural and organic (not certified yet) farm program at Kumukahi to be rolled into food sharing initiatives and farmers markets programs.
2. Create protected areas of land for threatened species of plants on the island of Hawaii.
3. Host free educational programs and initiatives at Kumukahi
4. Host free weekly event offerings
5. Host cultural events, working with locals to preserve Hawaiian culture.

Extended or proposed goals:

1. Build an on-site agroforestry program for sustainable production of materials and protection of native species.
2. Implement food sharing and sovereignty initiatives to help farmers
3. Host networking systems or events for community programs on Hawaii and beyond
4. Share and open-source free digital management tools for communities

AND MORE TO BE ADDED.

As this project gets traction and we set up more plans with farmers and communities throughout Hawaii we will update this campaign and the details on our project tracker system. The extend of projects we can do is based on how much funding we get.

We will be using a customized project management system online that is already built and designed to manage community creation. This system displays a project roadmap, task manager, has a voting and comment system (and much more) and will let donors get involved in the creation and implementation process for running these community/permaculture initiatives. It’s designed to be a fun and interactive process! Only donors will have access to this system. Once this project is funded, the system will be opened up to donors within 30 days with the fully fleshed out projects and proposals.
 

Okay. Get to the perks!

While the perks of this project are intended to be rooted primarily in community action and art, we have already got a some confirmed perks for larger donors. All donors and NON-donors get access to Steve Peak’s entire art catalog if the project reaches a minimum funding goal. All dates for stays at Kumukahi will have to be properly planned out, as space is limited. We’ll try to get you in for dates/accommodations that work best for you. Check out Kumukahi’s website for more about accomodations. You can choose to be involved in projects as they develop (if they are happening during your stay), or you can just kick back and enjoy your stay.

$1,000+ donors get to join in the conversation about what projects they’d like to see implemented and join the team in implementing them using our project management system online! (This won’t require being in Hawaii)

$10,000+ donors will get a 1 week stay at Kumukahi with tours around the island and permaculture integration. Plus have your voice heard in our project manager system.

$25,000+ donors will get a 2 week stay at Kumukahi with tours around the island and permaculture integration. Plus have your voice heard in our project manager system.

$50,000+ donors can stay up to one month at Kumukahi with guided tours, free access to events, and more. This tier comes with a special potential option for investing long-term AND choosing a project that you would like to see implemented.

…A step further

Hawaii is a unique and fragile ecosystem. The islands do not produce nearly enough food to support the people living there, and the biome is prone to extensive damage from imports. For instance, In recent years, a new species of ant have taken hold and are doing significant damage. Wild board brought by humans long ago have caused the extinction of many plant species. The Native and sacred Ohia tree is suffering heavy losses to a new disease and needs protection. Since the habitat in Hawaii is unique it is particularly prone to damage from alien species, disease and humans. It’s ability to recover and thrive requires help from humans. This is not untrue in other areas of the world. The projects implemented here are ultimately seeds for expanding these regenerative efforts onto a larger scale into other countries.

We are partnered with several permaculture experts and are working to extend this network as far as we can to create working examples of permaculture and regenerative systems that can be implemented worldwide.

Thank you

… for funding a real project centered around community and helping prove that working together to build community oriented projects that pay us all back can create more wealth, more abundance and more unity!