Posts Tagged ‘ecovillage’
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Short videos of Dyssekilde Ecovillage were created by participants in THINK2 Climate Change, a 3-month international blogging competition organized by the European Journalism Centre, focused on the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
To launch the competition, bloggers were brought to Denmark and toured the 25 year old ecovillage, a pioneering example of sustainable community in Europe.
VIew two short videos below:
Dyssekilde Ecovillage in Denmark - Impressions
Dyssekilde Ecovillage: Interview with Birgitta Steen
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Related Posts Tags: climate change, Community Blogs, Dyssekilde Ecovillage, ecovillage
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Written by:
molly
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
An article by Helen McArdle in Scotland's Sunday Herald describes plans for Owenstown, the first new town founded in Scotland for several decades. The community, based on cooperative principles, is named for Robert Owen, a visionary 19th century socialist who established the New Lanark Community in Scotland and New Harmony in the United States.
Dubbed a "model village for the 21st century", Owenstown is the first attempt by the Scottish charity, the Hometown Foundation, to set up a sustainable community built on the twin pillars of cooperative governance and ecological sensitivity.
The 2000-acre greenfield site purchased by Robert Durward, one of the foundation's four trustees, is expected eventually to support an "optimum" population of around 20,000, generating some 8000 jobs as it grows.
Read the full article here.
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Written by:
molly
Monday, August 24th, 2009
The Star, a major Malaysian newspaper, profiled EcoVillage at Ithaca in an online article this week, introducing readers to the ecovillage model and interviewing several community residents.
A 'village' in upstate New York shows that you can nurture community values and tread lightly on the planet without forgoing modern living.
Read full article here.
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Related Posts Tags: ecovillage, Ecovillage at Ithaca, intentional communities
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Written by:
molly
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
With oil prices on the rise, conserving energy is once again a hot topic in the news. Several articles have appeared recently on "green" living at intentional communities.
Boston.com, WFAA-8 (the ABC affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth), and the Baltimore Sun are among the news outlets running an Associated Press article highlighting market trends toward "green" building. Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, a co-housing development that just began construction in New Hampshire, is used as an example of what to expect in the future. They report:
Recent market research by McGraw-Hill Construction projects that the green building market could account for $20 billion in sales, or 10 percent of the overall homebuilding market, this year. Those figures are expected to double within five years.
Starting next year, the U.S. Green Building Council will begin applying a version of its Leadership in Energy Environmental Design rating system to entire neighborhoods rather than single buildings. A pilot program launched early last year attracted so much interest that officials accepted more than 200 proposals, twice the number they sought.
Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm is not part of the pilot program, but its 29 homes are being built to the council's highest certification standards.
Read more here [boston.com], here [WFAA-8], or here [Baltimore Sun].
Another green community is generating attention in Israel. The Jerusalem Post featured an article on Kibbutz Lotan's green environmental strategies, and communal social ethic. The eco-friendly policies are highlighted as a central feature of this kibbutz:
Everyone seems to share a commitment to the creative ecology that's become Lotan's hallmark. Its famous Center for Creative Ecology, with its recycled water-wetlands, the bird reserve, straw-bale building construction technology and a host of other recycling projects have attracted favorable attention the world over. Even the UN recognized Lotan's Ecovillage Design Education curriculum, a part of its Green Apprenticeship Program that attracts students for 10-week stints, housing them in straw-bale geodesic domes.
The article delves into some of the specific eco-friendly techniques implemented at Kibbutz Lotan.
In 1986, Lotan made the critical decision to go green. "I was a big recycler from the beginning," Alex says. "The kibbutz itself didn't start until later. Our first effort was to separate out organic waste for composting - and we immediately got into trouble. The regional authority came to empty our garbage cans, and they were empty. 'We're not coming in!' they warned us. They learned to love us - we reduced our waste by 70 percent. After that, we started getting more creative, recycling all kinds of things."
Water is among the things they recycle, not just once, but over and over. "For drinking water, recycled filters from the Eilat desalination plant are used in a reverse osmosis desalination plant that Mekorot - the national water company - maintains. Every house has two faucets: one for RO drinking water; the other for salty water, pumped from the aquifer. Everything that grows is watered with salty or recycled water. When water is short, you have to be creative."
In terms of building materials, creative doesn't begin to describe it. Here, buildings, benches and artistic flourishes of all kinds are constructed from recycled waste. Old tires packed tight with non-degradable plastic containers form the base, which is then covered with rock-hard "cement," local mud mixed with straw. It dries, and then several coats of Lotan's secret ingredient - used falafel oil - are painted on as a sealer. The result is incredibly beautiful. If it weren't for an occasional "truth window" - exposed parts showing the inside - it would be hard to believe what's underneath.
I imagine that a geodesic dome built from straw bales is a sight to behold! Read the entire article here.
On the other hand, not every community labeled as "eco-friendly" is actually such. Buzz Blog reported on the UK's plan to build carbon-neutral "ecotowns" in February. The UK government's plan is to build town centers around sources of renewable energy, so that they have less of a carbon footprint. Opposition to this plan has cropped up from rural residents, who are upset that their rolling countryside and views of farms will be ruined by these new towns, and that they will have many new neighbors. Further, they argue that towns remote from work sites will increase commuter miles driven in cars.
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
... the innovative plan is pitting urbanites' vision of green utopia against the ire of rural England, whose residents are loath to let their pristine environs be despoiled.
"This is completely the wrong site," says Pete Seaward of Weston, a village in Oxfordshire shortlisted as an ecotown. He holds up a scenic picture of a local lake. "If they're saying that it is 'eco' to build on and fill in a lake like that, they are dreaming."
Ron Field, chairman of the parish council at Ford, another site on the eco-village shortlist, adds that there is huge local concern that this is just another ruse to allow developers to make money.
"We don't want it because it's plunked in the middle of a small hamlet in between two coastal towns which they spent millions and millions of pounds trying to regenerate," he says.
"They're building it on 600 acres of green field land which is used for growing food crops to feed the people that live in our area, and it's all done as far as we can see for money."
I find it hard to believe a lake would be drained to build an ecovillage, and wonder whether these are exaggerations on the part of villagers irate about something else. I wonder whether there is any other analysis of these "eco-towns".
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, ecotown, ecovillage, green, Israel, Kibbutz Lotan, market research, New Hampshire, Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, UK
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Written by:
erika
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
The Valley Advocate out of Northampton, MA has an extensive article on intentional communities in western Massachusetts. The author starts her exploration in a book about Total Loss Farm, a community formed in the late sixties out of the peace movement. Amid concerns for peak oil and sustainability she heads off to explore a smattering of the current communities in her area.
Intentional communities, groups living in consciously designed and structured dwellings, roles and relationships, are on the rise in the U.S., according to statistics published on the website of the Federation of Intentional Communities. There are, at this writing, 50 intentional communities (14 of these "forming") in Massachusetts. Over a dozen of these are within a 45-minute drive of Northampton.
One stop is Laughing Dog Farm a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm on the site of the former Renaissance Community.
Laughing Dog Farm sits on a steep hillside with a view of the massive, 1970s shingle-style mansion of a dorm that housed many in the Renaissance Community from the mid-'70s to 1988. Daniel and Divya's house, another Renaissance Community relic of '70s architectural optimism and grooviness, is ample and was also built as a dormitory.
Daniel learned organic micro-agriculture farming techniques that produce a wide variety of crops: the integration of multi-use beds that are heavily mulched to retain moisture. He has a 65-foot long hoop-house, an arched tunnel of translucent plastic. The hoop-house produces tomatoes in November. Daniel and his wife Divya grow food for 10 families, who purchase shares of the yearly harvest and collect vegetables all growing season. The operation doesn't pay for itself yet.
They're making it work with sacrifice, and they've learned to grow enough food to live on—in case they need to one day. At one point during my tour I burst out, "But it all seems so hard." Daniel smiled.
Another stop is Sirius Community "a 30-year-old ecovillage in Shutesbury." She describes their community center and wind generator and their activities in the town of Shuttesbury where they are actively working through local political channels to get a windmill installed at the Town Hall.
Living in an intentional community does not necessitate giving up on civic participation and the local governmental structure. Rather, the community living ethic is well suited to the collaborative solution of pressing practical problems.
Next the author visits with miyaca (pronounced "me-yah-cha") dawn coyote who is founding a comunity called Healing Grace Sanctuary:
She hopes one day to live on her Shelburne Falls land in an intentional community that is "sacred, sane, and humane." The community of her dreams will adhere to her creed: "We need to become outdoor creatures that occasionally go in, and stop being indoor creatures who occasionally go out." Her ardent description of the future "Healing Grace Sanctuary" on the Intentional Communities web directory led me to her - the first person I met on this journey.
Her next stop is an urban Chirstian community, Nehemiah Community, a community focused on service and social justice:
Members of Nehemiah go out at night, looking for the homeless people that they know. They make sure they have blankets and food if there are no beds in the city's overflow shelters. They are aware of who dies. A new project they are organizing is a quadruplex in Springfield called The Village for single mothers and their children. Jonathan organizes Mission Phoenix, twice-weekly designated art space at Christ Church Cathedral in the Loaves and Fishes kitchen. The program provides free materials and art classes for low-income and homeless people. In 2006 they held the first holiday sale of their art.
She stops in next at Rocky Hill Cohousing:
At the more familiar and bourgeois end of the spectrum of intentional communities is Rocky Hill Cohousing in Florence. A condominium association, the development comprises 28 homes in 15 buildings (mostly handsome duplexes) on 28 acres....
The sequestering of all cars to a parking lot (homes face each other and share common land; residents use carts to bring groceries to their houses) encourages greater freedom for children, who are more apt to play together spontaneously when they see each other outdoors. Arranged play dates are no longer required for kids to play together. One oft-traded commodity there is childcare. Kids my son's age had roamed freely in the woods of the Sirius Community, too.
The article is a very positive portrayal of the variety of communities in the area and in the movement. I like this concluding quote:
Friends living with friends - it just may be the heart of the revolution.
Read the Valley Advocate article on intentional communities in western Massachusetts.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, ecovillage, Healing Grace Sanctuary, Laughing Dog Farm, Massachusettes, Nehemiah Community, Rocky Hill Cohousing, Sirius, Total Loss Farm
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
The environmental news site, Grist, has a great article about how Cleveland is going green. The article highlights the Cleveland Ecovillage a "pedestrian-friendly neighborhood linked to mass transit".
The project is the brainchild of five local nonprofits, the city, the regional transit authority, private developers, and neighborhood residents. They aim to bring residents back to the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, and to serve as an example to other cities of how to redevelop the inner city in a green fashion.
Near the newly renovated West 65th Street rapid transit station, Cuyahoga Community Land Trust is in the process of building five two- and three-bedroom homes, between 1,226 and 1,350 square feet each, called the Green Cottages. They're designed to be LEED-certified and models of energy efficiency, with projected heating costs of just $36 a month thanks to energy-saving appliances and heavy insulation.
Because mixed-income housing is a key to sustainability, EcoVillage designers wanted to coax both lower- and upper-middle-class residents to return to the inner city. The cottages are surrounded by Craftsman-era homes, many of them carefully restored, painted the colors of Easter eggs and with wide front porches. Down the street, within walking distance to the rapid-transit station that links to downtown, are 20 1,600-square-foot EcoVillage townhouses constructed by GreenBuilt Homes, an eco-friendly Cleveland builder.
"We had a few folks who moved in from the suburbs, some who moved from within the local neighborhood, and some that came from other cities and other states," said Metcalf. At this point, the people behind EcoVillage feel pretty safe claiming the project a success.
The article goes on to describe a number of other ecological projects in and around Cleveland.
Read the Eco-city Cleveland article at Grist
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
A lot of news about communities comes my way and its hard to pick and choose what to highlight on Community Buzz. Today, nothing stood out so I figured I'd do a round up of some news thats been languishing on my list but didn't seem quite enough for its own story.
Ithaca has a new community in the works, Farm Pond Circle, and they are already getting press in the Ithaca Journal for planting trees on their new community land. Obviously folks in Ithaca know about community and must be interested in whats new in their area.
The AP Wire put out a story on how many people are choosing to have only one child and they have quotes from folks at Tryon Life Farm community in Portland.
The local paper in Worcester, MA has an article highlighting the new cohousing communities in the Worchester area. They highlight Mosaic Commons and Camelot Cohousing but also have a nice map of cohousing throughout Massachusettes.
Champlain Valley Cohousing was in the Burlington Free Press in an article about the farm they have on site. The 22 unit cohousing community has a 25 acre farm on its land that works as a CSA and sells to wholesalers.
The Portland Oregonian had an article about Columbia Ecovillage, a community developing in Portland that started as a farm and sustainability education center and just bought the adjacent apartment complex with plans to convert them to green living cohousing. See photos on the Oregonian blog.
Then there's all the reviews of the movie Mister Lonely that is about impersonators (look-a-likes of Michael Jackson , Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, etc.) who come together in a commune in Scotland. The kicker is that according to some reviews filmmaker Harmony Korine spent some time as a child "on a commune near Nashville, TN". Most likely The Farm but there are many communes in the Nashville area.
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Related Posts Tags: Camelot Cohousing, Champlain Valley, cohousing, Columbia Ecovillage, ecovillage, Ithaca, Massachusettes, Mister Lonely, Mosaic Commons, Oregon, Portland, Tennessee, The Farm, Tryon Farm, vermont
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
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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Written by:
Tony Sirna
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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Written by:
Tony Sirna
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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Written by:
Tony Sirna
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