Our modern society shows multiple signs of deep biological and social stress.
Could studying the new crop of Eco Living Communities, which are springing up everywhere in diverse places such as the US, UK, Germany, India, Brazil and Africa, show us the path to sustanability for mainstream society?
Eco villages seek to unite two emerging truths: human life thrives best in small, supportive, healthy communities, and that the only sutainable path for humanity to adapt and reinvent concepts from traditional community life to our modern economic and social realities.
The eco village movement was born when the traditional concept of intentional communal living met the international green movement.
The search for a communial utopia, by definition, never stops. The challenge, of course, is to move eco villages as models for sustainble living from the fringes to the mainstream. With the increasing degradation of our planet learning how we might be able to adopt a model for sustainable, healthful and equitable communities, as these Eco Living Villages aspire, may prove mankind's only real chance of human survival beyond the 21st Century.
Naturalpath editors researched and distilled a variety of useful resource links on Eco villages -- including background information and articles, databases, videos, blogs and books. We hope this guide to Eco Living Communities will peak interest and exchange of ideas on how to port intentional and sustainable community principles and practices from green fringe to the mainstream.
Eco Living Communities: Intellectual Foundations
What's an Eco Village or Eco Living Community?
Eco Villages vary widesly from well-established settlements like Solheimer in Iceland, Findhorn in Scotland, Crystal Waters in Australia, Lebensgarten in Germany (see below) to places like The Farm in Tennessee and the loosely knit inner-city Los Angeles Ecovillage project. Different definitions of Eco Village and Eco Living Comunities have been suggested including in these useful background papers:
- Hildur Jackson's working paper, "What is an Ecovillage?" which discusses a number of the historical attempts to define the concept.
- A more recent paper by Ross Jackson, "The Ecovillage Movement," puts the whole phenomenon into a broader, political perspective.
- A deeper appreciation of the progression of the movement and the issues involved can be obtained by reading about the Global Ecovillage Network History 1990-2004 and also the history of the oldest national network, going back to 1993 - the Danish Ecovillage Network .
- Finally, see Jonathan Dawns "The Ecovillage Dream" and other material on the Resources section.
What's common to all eco villages is their value system rather than physical structures. All of these projects had a similar vision of living in small communities that are closely connected to nature and spirit and exemplified the need to live more lightly on the Earth.
Eco Living Communities: Diverse Models
- Beddlington Zero Energy Development - London, UK. The Beddington Zero Energy Development—BedZED—is a full eco-community, with 100 homes and as many workspaces in South London. Click here for background on BedZED.
- EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), New York, United States. EVI designers were concerned with ease of repliction by middle class Americans: Our systems are "not only practical in themselves but replciable by others>" (EVI Mission Statement").
- Ecovila, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Ecoovila's core aim is to develop and demonstrate affordable, socially inclosive and eco-friendly building methods for the urban context. See Brazilian White Paper.
- Berg-en-Dal Ecovillage. This Eco village in Africa was founded in 1999 runs courses on Permaculture design and development.
- Auroville, India. This is one of the best known and most successful ecovillages, located near Pondicherry in the state of Tamil Nadu, south India. Aurovillians come from 35 countries.
- Sieben Linden, Germany.
- Cohousing Communities Around the U.S.
Blogs on Eco Living Communities
- Rethinking Green Design Elements to Enhance Living Communities, by The Green Pasture
- Where in the world? 10 eco-friendly vacations, by that'sfit
- Like the Earth? Join the Eco-hood!, by Social Action Leadershiop Team
- Five Great Ways To Recycle Or Reuse Old Tires, by The Good Human
- Eco-living in Austin, Texas, by Keetsa
View more blogs on Eco Living Communities
Videos on Eco Living Communities
View more videos on Eco Living Communities
Websites on Eco Living Communities
- Gaia Trust
- Cohousing.org
- Urbanecology.org
- Carbusters.org
- eco-resorts.com: Eco-communities
- sustainableabc: Eco Villages and Community
- postcarbon.org: Shared Living and Eco Communities
- ecobusinesslinks.com: Sustainable Communities: Eco Villages, Intentional Communities, Training, Networks
View more websites on Eco Living Communities
Books on Eco Living Communities
- Sustainable Communities: The Potential for Eco-neighbourhood, by Hugh Barton
- Ecovillages: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Communities
by Jan Martin Bang - The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices, by Sarah James
- Eco-Efficiency: The Business Link to Sustainable Development, by Livio D. DeSimone and Frank Popoff
View more books on Eco Living Communities
All of us can do our part to help the environment -- even if it doesn't mean joining an eco-community. Here are some tips from Natualpath's most popular green experts and bloggers:
Eco Living Tips on Naturalpath
- Reduce Household Toxics With 10 Easy Steps, by Naturalpath Expert Debra Lynn Dadd
- Simple Ways to Save on Heating Bills, by Naturalpath Expert Debra Lynn Dadd
- Clean the Air With a Plug-In Hybrid, by Naturalpath Expert Sherry Boschert
- Instead of Ajax to clean, use the Mrs Meyer's Day Cleaner, by dharmagypsy7
- My New Solar Cellphone And iPod Charger From Solar Style, by The Good Human
View more eco living information on Naturalpath
Comments
great resources, but...