Gaia Trust

Gaia Trust is a Danish charitable entity founded in 1987 with the objective of promoting a global consciousness that experiences the whole planet as a living organism and Mankind as part of that whole.

The initiative to found Gaia trust was taken in 1987 by chairman Ross Jackson, PhD., a Danish/Canadian economist and operations researcher who has resided in Denmark since 1964, and his Danish wife, Hildur Jackson, BLL.

In practice this has been done primarily through a proactive strategy of defining and carrying out several green initiatives. The two major ones to date have been the Global Ecovillage Network and Gaia Technologies A/S. In addition, grants have been given over the years to over 80 projects in 20 countries. Grantgiving activities have now been terminated due to the administrative overload, and the complete focus is on proactive projects.

Gaia Villages, a division of Gaia Trust, for many years acted as International Secretariat for GEN - The Global Ecovillage Network, a network of small ecovillage projects around the world. Gaia Trust sees the promotion of the ecovillage movement as an important part of contributing to a more sustainable way of life based on a value system that places human values above commercial values, departing from the dominant paradigm, which is seen as unsustainable. While still embryonic, this movement offers a positive, sustainable vision for the future.

Sociologist Ted Trainer of the University of New South Wales, Australia, wrote: "Would it be an exaggeration to claim that the emergence of the eco-village movement is the most significant event in the twentieth century? I don't think so."

Gaia Technologies is a venture capital firm that invests in small Danish companies, whose products and production methods are ecologically sustainable. The portfolio includes companies in dry goods, organic cereals, alternative banking, organic meats, solar cell panels, and small wind mills.

Ross Jackson's vision was based to a great extent on his personal experience, which is described in his two recent books "Kali Yuga Odyssey" and "And we ARE doing it: Building an Ecovillage Future". In this second book, Ross describes how and why he got involved in the ecovillage movement. It includes a study of commercial globalisation as well as a vision of what a radically different society might look like.

See Ross Jackson's website at www.ross-jackson.com for excerpts, reviews and ordering information. The book's title comes from the GEN motto:

We CAN do it!
We WILL do it!
And we ARE doing it!