There are two challenges with this concept. The first is that your asking a business to trade something of tangible strategic value - a lower cost position - for something of ambiguous strategic value. How are you going to show the business owner the money? What's his/her ROI on re-engineering his/her supply chain.

The second issue it is not clear how this attracts new investment into the community, or how it creates value since no new product or service is being developed. I can see how this might reduce capital outflows, but that's not the same as growth.

Sorry to be so negative. I appreciate the spirit of the concept.

Encouraging people to "look locally first" rather than defaulting to "whatever was cheap" is a strong point of this proposal. It also has a lot of potential to promote interaction and camaraderie.

In order to make the concept globally relevant, it would be important to consider some inherent political paradoxes of commerce. For example, is it "better" to buy from a national chain that sells local products or from a local enterprise that sells globally-sourced products? People are naturally more informed and invested in the location where they spend most of their time. But our contemporary reality is that of a global network that needs to be supported holistically. Maybe there could be a forum on the website for different communities to interact and share information, successes, etc....even to share local products with a larger global network.

On an industrial scale there is a great example of a community and the local industries exemplifying symbiosis. Kalundborg, Denmark has developed a really good system, but it took decades to mature. There is a lot to be learned by studying its formation and the success of the linkages. check out the link below.

http://www.symbiosis.dk/en

Using social apps as an avenue for awareness could potentially really expedite the development.

Welcome to the Refinement phase Erica! The advisory panel loved that this idea is focused on the actions and behaviors of small businesses. During Refinement, let's try to describe in more detail how this pledge might foster a community spirit and collegiality among small business owners. Also, we might think about reaching out to some local business owners in our communities to see if this is something they'd like to participate in and why?

Hi Erica, interesting post! Any chance you could find an image to go along with it? Images help grab attention and tell a story with higher impact. We know occasionally people have issues uploading images so let us know if you face any problems. You should be able to use the 'Update entry' button on the right of your post and follow the instructions to add images from there. Looking forward to seeing more of your inspiring ideas on OpenIDEO.

hi erica! i like your idea, it's kinda similar to what i had in mind... wanna be partners? :)

For me, this is key to the success of your idea:

"The B2B Buy Local Pledge will encourage businesses and community organizations to... win recognition for their role in supporting their community's revival. It will also provide publicity and connections to smaller and newer businesses working to attract customers."

It's important to remember that what you're asking organizations and businesses to do isn't necessarily easy. It will take work to change routine, to figure out what to order and where from, and to do it in a systemic way. So you'll definitely want to make it worth their while to not just take the pledge, but to actually stick with it.

One possibility might be to give regular customers incentives to patronize businesses that take the pledge. A quick way is to piggy back on incentives that are already out there. What if FourSquare created a special series of "local pride" badges for people who check into Buy Local Pledge businesses? Or what if Yelp reviews from customers who checked into Buy Local Pledge businesses were given a better chance to be featured on the site? You could come up with a template for how to pitch these sorts of creative partnerships no matter what city it is. If there's no Yelp or FourSquare, there might be a local sports team that could be convinced to let Buy Local Pledge businesses set up sales tables before the game. Lots of ideas.

With the website, it makes sense to start simple. But if the idea catches on you could add more features. What if businesses weren't just listed, but also mapped? Or what if businesses could log into the site and show what other local businesses they purchased from? You could eventually lead to something like the OpenIdeo Collaboration Map, which does a really good job of showing the connections between all the inspirations, concepts and ideas that have been contributed to a challenge. What a cool way that would be to explore your town!

another important link to check out is www.Carrotmob.org (collaborative purchasing to support local small businesses)

watch the videos! they explain it all in very vibrant ways!

http://www.openideo.com/open/impact/inspiration/carrotmob-empowering-consumers-with-a-purpose/

Great thinking, Erica – am loving the simplicity of this idea and also the way that you've given some examples of who might use it.

There's a thing called "Fiver Friday" in Ireland to encourage people to spend an extra five Euros in the local economy. Businesses offer special deals for a fiver.

http://www.fiverfriday.com/

https://www.facebook.com/fiverfriday