Archive for April, 2008
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
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Colleges and Universities around the country are wanting to improve their ecological impact while also providing students opportunities to learn about sustainable living. Some are taking the ecovillage model and integrating it into their campus planning and student residences.
The University of Maine is exploring ecovillages with the notion of turning some of its less attractive dorms into an ecological demonstration project:
An energetic group of students and faculty have been developing plans to convert these former apartment-style dorm rooms on the fringe of campus into an "ecovillage."
Organizers envision the so-called "York Ecovillage" as a model of sustainable living where students will eat food from local greenhouses and gardens, recycle almost all waste and live in rooms powered by the sun and heated by the Earth.
Berea College Ecovillage in Kentucky has been providing ecological living for students since 2003.
Guided by intertwined educational, environmental, and social goals, the Ecovillage is an ecologically-sustainable residential and learning complex designed to meet housing needs for student families, childcare for campus children, and provide a living/labor opportunity for students interested in sustainability.
Rigorous performance goals for the Ecovillage include: reduction of energy use by 75%; reduction of per capita water use by 75%; treatment of sewage and wastewater on-site to swimmable quality, and recycling, reusing or composting at least 50% of waste.
Giving students an opportunity for community living is not new. There are hundreds of student co-ops at colleges and universities around the country and many of them have a simple living or ecological focus.
The Homestead at Denison University in Ohio has been offering community and simple living experience for students since 1977.
We are off the grid, utilizing solar energy to pump water and to power some appliances. Cooking and heating are accomplished with wood-burning stoves.
At Stanford University they have plans in the works for a Green Dorm which would house students ecologically. Unfortunately Stanford's plans do not incorporate cooperative living into the dorm, despite the fact that their feasibility study shows that some campus co-ops such as Synergy already use 30% less energy than the average.
Hopefully colleges and universities will include the aspects of the ecovillage model which incorporates both sustainable technology and principles of cooperation in their efforts to green their campuses.
Sources
University of Maine Campus article on York Ecovillage
Bangor News article on York Ecovillage
Richmond, KY Register article mentioning Berea College Ecovillage
NASCO Student Co-op Directory
Stanford Green Dorm Feasibility Study
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Related Posts Tags: Berea College Ecovillage, ecovillage, Homestead at Denison, Stanford, Student Co-ops, Synergy Co-op, University of Maine
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
 The Yale Daily News has an article on how study-abroad programs are beginning to focus on sustainability and highlights Living Routes which takes students to ecovillages around the world.
The sudden interest at Yale in trying to make study-abroad activities sustainable - both environmentally and culturally - mirrors a similar move within the study-abroad field as a whole. As increasing numbers of American students hop on carbon-spewing planes to exotic destinations, college administrators and study-abroad programs alike have started to focus on what impact these students may be having, both on the environment and on the local cultures themselves.
As a result, some organizations - like Living Routes - encourage students to offset the impact of their flights by making their lifestyles more environment-friendly or by purchasing "carbon credits," which pay for a tree to be planted or for part of a solar power project in a developing country.
But even at Living Routes, which offers programs designed to encourage students to develop more environmentally sustainable lifestyles through these types of opportunities, doubts remain about whether the results justify the flights.
"We would like to believe that [the programs] change students and that they are therefore worth the environmental impacts," Greenberg said. "But if over the years that doesn't pan out, we're going to be hard-pressed to justify the flights and the travel."
Read the article on Sustainable study-abroad programs in the Yale Daily
More info on Living Routes
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Related Posts Tags: ecovillage, living routes, study abroad, yale
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Saturday, April 26th, 2008
By now, most have heard about the raid by Texas Rangers on the Fundamentalist Mormon community in west Texas. During the raid, 437 children were removed from the community compound based on concerns of child abuse and neglect, primarily based on the concern that underage girls were being forced to marry older men against their will.
We couldn't possibly keep up on all the coverage of the story here but it seemed incongruous to never mention this major media event in this blog about communities in the news.
Below is a small sampling of news and blog coverage on the story. We invite comments if people are interested in sharing.
New York Times Coverage of the story
NPR Coverage
CNN story on how the call precipitating the raid was a hoax
Civil Rights questions raised and ACLU questions threat to constitutional rights
An interesting Blog post comparing the historic Oneida Community to the current events
Blog post from Laird Schaub on the Texas Raid
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Related Posts Tags: Mormon, Texas
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
Israel's Kibbutzim have a media campaign in the works that highlights the ecological benefits of their communal groups according to the Guardian.
The campaign, focusing on 140 sites in the north and south of the country, aims to tout the benefits of kibbutz living for a hip, new eco-aware generation. Re-branded for the 21st century, socialist ideals are downgraded in favour of environmental ethics and organic farming replaces conventional agriculture.
Others describe the development of the new kibbutzim as a confirmation of a changing world. Their reinvention will concentrate mainly on the communes' eco-credentials in an attempt to add ballast to Israel's environmental reputation. All new construction will be energy-efficient, using solar power and recycling water where possible. Plans to phase out conventional agriculture and replace it with organic farming are advanced, a move welcomed by the Negev Desert kibbutz, which is suffering from the effects of climate change. Another nod to the modern age includes the installation of wi-fi internet access.
It sounds like the Green Kibbutz Movement, which has been encouraging a movement towards ecology within Kibbutzim, has fully taken root.
Read the Guardian article on Green Kibbutz.
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Related Posts Tags: ecovillage, green, kibbutz
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Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Some of the followers of presidential candidate Ron Paul are planning to start a libertarian community in West Texas according to the Lone Star Times.
This month has seen the first meeting of the shareholders in a fledgling community development planned in rural Texas, to be comprised exclusively of Paul's supporters. It is to be called Paulville.
The gated settlement will house freedom-loving folk, living unbound by the shackles of planning regulations. Its founders hope that when complete, it will inspire further Paulvilles around America and, in their own words, "literally change the world, one community at a time".
Necessity dictates that the community will function on a cooperative basis, albeit with the ability for households to opt out. The idea is that the option not to access communal utilities, such as electricity, will ensure that its founding individualist principles remain unsullied.
We wish them luck and hope they continue to get positive press for their endeavors.
Read the Lone Star Times article on Paulville
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Related Posts Tags: Libertarian, Paulville, Texas
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
NPR recently did a three part series on a spiritual community from the 60s called The Source. The Source originated as one of the first natural foods restaurant and grew into a spiritual commune with an ex-marine turned charismatic leader called Father Yod.
Founded by ex-Marine Jim Baker nearly four decades ago, the restaurant quickly drew Hollywood's creative elite; John Lennon, Warren Beatty and Paul Mazursky were regulars. Other young men and women from across the country flocked there in search of something "cosmic," and many never left.
Before and after hours, in meditation classes, Source employees were becoming a spiritual family.
Eventually, around 30 staff members and regulars moved into a mansion together in Griffith Park. In their first year at the "Mother House," the family expanded to nearly 200.
Baker, too, was transforming, from his old self to spiritual leader Father Yod. It was the dawn of a new way of life.
The three part series includes over 20 minutes of audio as well as a slideshow and some interesting notes from the reporter who got swept up in the Source reunion:
Even after the Source reunion I'd attended was over, I couldn't wake up after sunrise. Alone at home, I took up the predawn meditation routine Father Yod developed in the '70s: breathing exercises, followed by chanting and a carefully brewed cup of coffee. After a few weeks, I started noticing a shift in my mental state. Father Yod's teachings unexpectedly began to resonate. Suddenly, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to stop eating meat. So I did.
All in all a fascinating look at communal history.
Listen and read the NPR story on the historic commune The Source.
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Related Posts Tags: California, communes, NPR, The Source
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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
A recent article in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix highlights a study claiming the best climate change solution is to invest in green building. The article sites the Rivergreen Ecovillage in Saskatoon as an example of such green building design put into practice.
The most cost-effective climate change solution
The article sites a study by Architecture2030 that focuses on how green building can both reduce carbon emissions, create more jobs, and save consumers money. The study says:
Investment in building energy efficiency is surprisingly effective. A single investment of $21.6 billion would replace 22.3 conventional 500 MW coal-fired power plants, reduce annual CO2 emissions by 86.7 million metric tons, save 204 billion cu. ft. of natural gas and 10.7 million barrels of oil each year8, save consumers $8.46 billion in energy bills annually9 (less than a 3-year simple payback) and create 216,000 permanent new jobs.
The article notes:
Improving the energy performance of existing and new buildings can begin to reduce emissions almost immediately. The required technologies are already available off the shelf. In contrast, clean coal is still experimental. Even its proponents don't know how well it will work or what the final costs will be. In any case, actual reductions of GHGs from investing in clean coal or nuclear power will not commence for 10 years or so, as the technology is developed and the plants can be built.
Ecovilages are pioneers in green building
Rivergreen Ecovillage is just one example of ecovillages pioneering green building. The Communities Directory lists hundreds of ecovillages worldwide, almost all of which incorporate some forms of green building and focus on solutions to climate change.
Sources
Star Phoenix story on Green Building as a solution for global climate change
Study from Arhcitecture2030 on comparing climate change solutions
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Related Posts Tags: carbon footprint, climate change, ecovillage, global warming, green building, RiverGreen Ecovillage, Sakatchewan
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Monday, April 21st, 2008
In honor of Earth Day, the Washington Post ran an article on Arcosanti with a sidebar on ecovillages as a green vacation destination.
Arcosanti was started in the 1970s by Italian architect Paolo Soleri, a spitfire who seeks an alternative to a car-dominant, hyper-consumerist society. With his so-called urban laboratory, Soleri, 88, hopes to eliminate the automobile, promote frugality and create a functional metro center run on the Earth's resources: food from organic gardens, power from the sun, air conditioning from the shade, building materials from the natural surroundings. Though still a work in progress, Arcosanti in theory offers residents the same amenities as, say, a Manhattanite: housing, commerce, culture and dining.
Some have lobbed the word "commune" at Arcosanti; "tightknit community" is a better description.
The article includes a short slideshow and focuses on Arcosanti as a green tourist destination. The side bar lists a handful of ecovillages and other communities including: Findhorn, LA Ecovillage, EarthArt Village, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Ecovillage at Ithaca, and Huehuecoyotl Eco-Village.
I hope those communties are ready for a flood of visitors!
Washington Post article on Arcosanti
Sidebar on Green Tourism at Ecovillages
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Related Posts Tags: Arcosanti, Dancing Rabbit, EarthArt Village, ecovillage, Ecovillage at Ithaca, Findhorn, Huehuecoyotl, LA Ecovillage, washington post
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Baby boomers are looking at moving into shared living and communal living according to the article Boomers go back to the commune in retirement on BankRate.com. Normally when a headline has the words 'commune' and 'boomers' in it they usually mean cohousing but this article is really about income-sharing communal groups.
FIC's directory lists about 100,000 people around the nation living in some form of purposely organized community, of which, Laird Schaub says, about 1-in-7 to as many as 1-in-6 fulfill the income-sharing requirement that technically defines them as communes. Two-thirds of these communities, he says, are in rural settings.
The article goes on to discuss a forming community, Heliotrope, being started in Oregon by a couple that used to live at Church of the Golden Rule community in northern California.
A grandfather of six whose resume includes stints as an artist, cook, greenhouse constructor, organic farmer and teacher, Burns says he envisions fellow Heliotrope residents as "average middle-class working people whose lives won't be a whole lot different than the way they live now, except that everything will be shared."
The article also discusses non-income-sharing options and highlights the efforts of the National Shared Housing Resource Center and the efforts of a real eastate broker who helps seniors find compatible cooperative arrangments.
Jim Parker, broker-owner of Access Brokerage Real Estate Services, has been looking into types of communal living at the request of a number of people in their mid-50s who have come to him with questions about the possibility of trying this kind of living arrangement as they age.
"A lot of people end up single in retirement," he says. "They may not be well off enough to just go out and buy a house, and they're looking for other choices besides renting."
For these folks, Parker says, some kind of communal arrangement is a practical alternative.
Read the Commune article at BankRate.com
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Related Posts Tags: aging, communes, Income Sharing, seniors
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
 Cohousing can help residents reduce their carbon footprint and help prevent global warming according to a paper from the University College London.
Those living in cohousing consume nearly 60 per cent less energy in the home, and operate car-sharing and recycling schemes that greatly reduce the pollution from travel and landfill. Having facilities such as office space, workshops and gym within the community also reduces travel and associated emissions. Residents' direct involvement in the management and maintenance of these communities has also led to the adoption of more energy-efficient systems and renewable sources of energy.
The paper highlights new development models for cohousing which could help it reach a much wider market and increase its impact.
In a paper published in Futures Journal, Dr Jo Williams of the UCL Bartlett School of Planning says that until recently, cohousing has occupied a niche market in the US, largely because the development model adopted has been resident-led. The time, money and effort required to invest in such a project, along with the associated risks, has very much restricted market interest. It takes a minimum of five years to develop a cohousing project, the drop-out rate is high and projects can be expensive.
However, new development models have emerged in the US that reduce resident involvement, risk and cost - namely, partnership, speculative and retrofit models. Developers are beginning to finance and build cohousing both in partnership with prospective residents and speculatively. Residents are also forming their own cohousing communities in existing neighbourhoods, by taking down fences, creating communal facilities and taking on the responsibility for general management and maintenance.
Besides reducing carbon footprint Cohousing could help meet other social goals.
"With concerns about carbon emissions and energy savings, there has never been greater impetus for housing that offers low-carbon lifestyles. If the development models emerging in the US were adopted in the UK, the market for cohousing could be substantially expanded here. This could add to our options for shrinking our carbon footprint as well as meeting social needs, such as safe homes for an ageing population and local childcare facilities for parents who work."
Cohousing press release from UCL
Original paper 'Predicting an American future for cohousing' by Jo Williams is published in the April issue of Futures Journal.
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Related Posts Tags: carbon footprint, cohousing, global warming
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