Dane County, Wisconsin likely has more organizations focused on environmental improvement per square foot of geography than any other county in the USA. An early member of the “green community” was Sustain Dane. Like many non-profits, Sustain Dane grew out of the values of founders who shared a drive to make the world a better place. In 1998, attendees from a half-day session on The Natural Step with Torbjorn Lahti, the father of the Swedish eco-municipality movement, began meeting regularly. They established Sustain Dane to move Lahti’s eco-municipality concept forward locally. Like many new non-profits, Sustain Dane’s business model was defined by projects a working board and single staff member wanted to take on. One notable project was development of the rain barrel, RainReserve™, used to divert rainwater from gutters into a water reserve for grass and garden. Over 2000 rain barrels were…