Articles

Ecovillage articles available for download: Articles are reprinted with permission from the following sources: Permaculture Magazine, Resurgence, Cohousing and Communities Magazine, The Worldwatch Institute, The Ecologist, Abroad View magazine. (In order of first publishing contact with this site). We thank the authors and Editors for publishing rights. Copyright might apply. Click here for further information on these magazines. "Eco-Villages - Studying in sustainable communities" By Sarah Kessler (116kb pdf) Abroad View Magazine Spring 2008. Eco-villages don’t look like most people’s idea of college classrooms. Instead of only blackboards and books, there might be windmills, a waste management system, or an organic farm to study. At one site students participate in a 50-year water plan so intricate it takes into account bird migration patterns and an entire zone of reforestation. In another, students are guided to a personal cave where they engage in a 40-hour process of self-introspection. "Ecovillages: A Model Life?" by Laura Sevier (548kb pdf) The Ecologist May 2008. More people are turning to eco communities as a viable alternative to urban life. Are you nature-starved, lonely, and fed up with the materialism, stress, waste and pollution of modern urban life? If so, rest assured that the craving to live a greener life in a community, more connected to each other – and to the Earth – is entirely natural. It has a primal appeal. "Worldwatch Institute - Engaging Communities for a Sustainable World" By Erik Assadourian (480 kb pdf) Worldwatch Institute 2008 Annual report. ...In the middle of this car-centric infrastructure—what some might call “sprawl”— lies a little green oasis: the Los Angeles Ecovillage (LAEV). This community, two small apartment buildings with about 55 residents, was started in 1993 as a demonstration project on how a community can transform its surroundings, helping to create a sustainable society. "From Eco-Kooks to Eco-Consultants" By Jonathan Dawson CM 137 (384kb pdf) Communities Magazine Fall 2007. After decades of being more or less off the radar—dismissed as kooks and freaks—ecovillage initiatives around the world are now increasingly affecting mainstream culture, and in fact, ecovillages are being sought out as partners by conventional, mainstream organisations. "The Power of Community - the path to surviving Peak Oil" By Jonathan Dawson PM54 (940kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Winter 2007. Jonathan Dawson investigates how green ecovillagers really are. - Footprints are suddenly all the rage. As recently as four or five years ago, mention of the term evoked blank stares – now carbon calculators abound and even the proverbial ‘man in the street’ seems to have a fair idea of how many planets we would need if everyone in the world enjoyed the average West European lifestyle. (The answer is about three and nearer five and a half were North American lifestyles to become the global norm.) "Children and Cohousing - The Birth of an International Social Movement" By Hildur Jackson PM 52 (636kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Summer 2007. Pioneer of the cohousing movement, Hildur Jackson, describes the positive implications of this 40 year experiment and how it all began. Do women have a choice? In 1969 I was sitting in my new house in Copenhagen with my two bouncing baby boys of six and 18 months. I had just finished my law degree and was speculating over what my life would be like. Should I seek a career as a lawyer or civil servant, and leave the children in daycare with strangers for many hours every day? Or should I give up my career and stay at home caring for the children? There was no apparent third option. "COHOUSING - Alan Heeks explores why cohousing can radically reduce your carbon footprint – and make you happy." By Alan Heeks PM52 (996kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Summer 2007. Imagine a lifestyle that is really sustainable for people and the planet. What would it look like? Low environmental impact of course, but what about human needs? Many of us want some sense of neighbour-hood, and our independence. We want comfort, fun, affordability – and a clear conscience. Cohousing is a form of housing provision which can enable all this. It’s little known in the UK, but well proven in Scandinavia where it started, and now in North America. Whereas communes and bender settlements may be low impact but only suit the dedicated few, co-housing is a form of sustainable living with much wider appeal. In Denmark, where it started, 5% of all households are in cohousing communities. "How Ecovillages Can Grow Sustainable Local Economies" By Jonathan Dawson CM133 (200kb pdf) Winter 2006. In contrast with most local economies around the world, ecovillages tend to display a distinctive and uncommon level of vitality. One sees bakeries, theatres, shops, and cafés that draw in visitors from far and wide. Local organic cheeses, wines, fruit, and vegetables combine great quality with low food mileage (meaning the food was sold to customers a relatively short distance from where it was grown). Crafts studios turn out beautiful ceramics, textiles, carvings, and candles. Schools and training centres for both children and adults flourish. Publishing houses, printing presses, manufacturers of solar panels, waste-water system designers, consulting companies… "A Tale of Two Therapeutic Ecovillages" By Jonathan Dawson (556kb pdf) Why create an ecovillage? It entails a huge amount of work and, anyway, isn’t the creation of new settlements the responsibility of the state and the private sector? Perhaps – but sometimes, an idea comes along that is so big and so inspired that it takes a new, self-built community to hold it. Such ideas tend to centre on the concept of service. "Permaculture and Peace in the Middle East" by Sarah Irving PM 49 (320kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2006. Sarah Irving describes a new programme which brings together British and Palestinian Fair Trade organisations to highlight the role of sustainable agriculture in supporting livelihoods in the West Bank. "BeDZED and Findhorn, how do they compare?" By Jonathan Dawson BeDZED and Findhorn, UK PM49 (1,7mb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2006. Jonathan Dawson, a resident of the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, takes a tour of Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) in south London and compares the ecological strengths and weakness of both communities. "Let the waters flow & the fruits grow." By Thomas Lüdert Portugal PM49 (1,6mb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2006. Earth Restoration In Arid Portugal Thomas Lüdert describes how an arid, barren landscape is being restored in southwest Portugal, practically demonstrating that large-scale tree planting can transform the land and local climate. Ecovillage Tamera. "“Ecotopia” in Japan?" by Ernest Callenbach CM131 (112 kb pdf) Summer 2006 My wife Christine and I visited Toyosato, an agricultural intentional community in Japan, because an ecology-minded professor friend told us it seemed to him reminiscent of the sustainable future society I had described in my novel Ecotopia. Ecotopia’s citizens conducted their agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy production, land use, transportation, and much else on principles that would ensure the long-term survival of their society. "Prescott’s Sustainable “EcoHood”" by Susan De Freitas CM131 (92 kb pdf) Summer 2006 I remember how much I enjoyed coming home to the Lincoln-Dameron neighborhood as a college student, riding a bike beneath the huge cottonwoods and splashing through the creek that floods the main access to this part of Prescott, Arizona, during monsoon season and winter storms. This mid- to low-income neighborhood encompasses roughly two blocks, two apartment buildings, and 30 houses. Walking down the street on a summer day, you’ll see residents living in small wood-frame, stucco houses, most built in the 1930s, their large yards shaded by cottonwoods, along with fruit trees, and flowers. "Stepping stones to sustainability" What cohousing communities can learn from ecovillages" By Liz Walker Ecovillage at Ithaca, USA COH (324kb pdf) June 2006 This is a historic moment on Planet Earth. Life as we know it is about to change dramatically as global climate change accelerates, and as we reach “Peak Oil,” when demand outstrips supply for fossil fuels that are increasingly hard to extract. As we look toward a future in which our traditional energy sources are severely depleted, cohousing neighborhoods have an increasingly important role to play in modeling a greener lifestyle. "Living in Intentional Community" by K. McEvoy Brithdir Mawr, Wales PM 48 (372kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Summer 2006. Kate McEvoy describes life in the Brithdir Mawr community in Wales. "I moved into Brithdir Mawr community with my partner Ben and daughter Josie in early 2004. Before coming to Brithdir, we lived in a small village in the south of Spain with a very communal feel. We didn’t like the idea of being an isolated nuclear family, so when we decided to move back to the UK we also decided to look at the possibilities of living in an intentional community. So what is it like to live in a recently established community? "Ecovillages Solution for the coming energy famine?" by J. Dawson Findhorn, Scotland PM47 (380kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Spring 2006. The truest thing to say about the looming Peak Oil crisis is that, at its heart, it is not primarily about oil at all. If it were that simple, there might just be some grounds for optimism in the search for the magic elixir of an alternative source of fuel. The real problem, of course – the great body of the iceberg whose mere visible tip is our reaching the mid-way point in the exhaustion of oil global supplies – is the scale and nature of global human society, which easy access to oil has made possible. "Seed of hope in a civil war" by L. Dregger San Jose, Columbia PM47 (776kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Spring 2006. People came from many parts of Europe to the Summer University 2005 in Tamera Ecovillage, Portugal – most of them with the goal of finding inspiration for a different way of living... Inspiration about ecology, solar technology, architecture, about future perspectives and cohabitation. But two of the guests were different. "Permaculture of Pensions" by J. Dawson, Findhorn, PM47 (464kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Spring 2006. Jonathan Dawson takes a creative look at pensions and how we could revolutionise community investment for the good of ourselves and the planet. "Walking your talk" by R. Laughton Tinkers Bubble UK, a.o. PM47 (1Mb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Spring 2006. Rebecca Laughton explores the challenges of balancing your ecological principles with the realities of hard work and its impact on your personal health. "An Urban Ecovillage of the Near-Future" by Lois Arkin LA Ecovillage USA CM129 (76 kb pdf) Winter 2005. As you stroll down this former city street, now a long, narrow mini-park, you spot a small boy on a ladder harvesting guavas from a guava tree. He carries the guavas a hundred feet away to a beautifully designed wooden kiosk that serves as a fruit stand. An elderly woman in the kiosk enthusiastically greets him as she takes the basket and starts displaying the guavas. A young mother helps her sell these and other locally harvested fruit to the many people passing through the neighborhood, who often pay in a colorful local currency. Nearby you spot a long “grape-arbor/electric vehicle shed” with rooftop solar panels in the former parking lane outside a co-op apartment building. "Our Sustainable Acre in the City" by Melanie G. Rios Maitreya EcoVillage USA CM129 (108 kb pdf) Winter 2005. “If we don’t change how money works, then nothing’s going to change,” says Mike Ruppert, one of many voices warning about the effects of Peak Oil, impending economic collapse, and global warming. They argue that there is no source of energy on the horizon that will keep our growth-addicted economy afloat, nor would we even wish another inexpensive source of energy to appear given the destructive effects of material consumption on our planet. "A Home-Grown Ecovillage on Our Street" by Jim Schenk Enright Ridge Eco-Village USA CM129 (96 kb pdf) Winter 2005. The seeds of Enright Ridge Eco-Village actually began 31 years ago as a compromise between my wife Eileen, who was city born, and myself, a native of a small rural town. We struggled to find a home that would nourish both of our souls. I wanted a neighborhood that valued green living, with protected land, organic food, resource conservation, alternative energy, and cooperative relationships with happy children and older people. Eileen supported these same values, but insisted that the urban neighborhood she lived in was the perfect location. "Lessons from the Edge" by J. Evelight Alentejo PM45 (1Mb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2005. "Creating an EcoCommunity" by R. Alcock Zorrozaurre PM45 (960kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2005. "From Dust to Dawn" by R. LeFay Auroville PM45 (812kb pdf) Permaculture Magazine Autumn 2005. "Peak Oil as “Opportunity”?" by J. Dawson CM127 (76 kb pdf) Summer 2005. Overestimating the Preparedness of the Ecovillage and Permaculture Movements Within the permaculture and ecovillage communities, the dominant response to Peak Oil is one of jubilation. Finally, the juice that powers the juggernaut of monopoly capitalism, crushing all in its path, is drying up. The flowers of biodiversity, so the story goes, will once again bloom and small-scale community economies will thrive. Permaculture will move centre-stage as the philosophical foundation of the new decentralised societies and ecovillages will be their principal laboratories for social and technological innovation. "Living at the Ecovillage Crossroads" by T. Brunk ENA CM127 (60 kb pdf) Summer 2005. I can’t say I wasn’t warned. “The world will arrive at your doorstep,” I was told when I told her I’d taken a five-month job as Innkeeper at the Ecovillage Training Center (ETC) at The Farm in Tennessee. Two months have passed since my arrival. I feel at times as I’ve landed at the apex of a universal shift in consciousness. I get to open the door, fix breakfast, and make the beds for change-agents from all corners of the world who teach and learn about natural building, ecovillage design, permaculture, and solar energy systems. When the dust clears after a workshop, I’m focused once more on the basics: feeding the ducks and chickens, watering the greenhouse, turning the 17 duck eggs in the incubator. "Community Survival During the Coming Energy Decline" by J. Steinman and D. L. Christian CM127 (120 kb pdf) Summer 2005. Imagine community life in a world with increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuel—oil, coal, and natural gas. Imagine ever-scarce and expensive prices for everything—from food to manufactured goods to services—and imagine that we’re entering this period right now. “Well, we’ve got off-grid power from solar panels and wind power,” a community might say, “and we’ve got wood stoves, too. No matter how high the price of gas goes, we’ll be fine.” ... "Ecoliving in Iceland" by H. Jackson Solheimar PM44 (376kb pdf) Summer 2005. "Escaping from the command & control prison" by J. Joplin The Village, Ireland PM44 (180kb pdf) Summer 2005. "Planet of peace or planet of war?" by L. Dregger & B. von Mendelssohn Tamera Portugal PM43 (780kb pdf) Spring 2005. "Camphill's bright future" by J.M. Bang Camphill PM43 (708kb pdf) Spring 2005. "Tale of two ecovillages" by J. Dawson Damanhur & Findhorn Italy/Scotland RES227 (256kb pdf), November/December 2004. "Wholesome living" by J. Dawson Ecovillage Movement RES225 (224kb pdf) July/August 2004. - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 1" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 464kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 2" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 420kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 3" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 520kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 4" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 490kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 5" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 616kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 6" (pdf 360kb) by Jonathan Dawson - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 7" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 364kb) - "West Africa Ecovillage Tour 2004/05 – Letter 8" by Jonathan Dawson (pdf 388kb) "Singing a more natural song" by H. Jackson Ithaca, USA PM42 (2,4Mb pdf) Winter 2004. "Grassroots solar solutions" by L. Dregger Tamera, Portugal PM42 (780kb pdf) Winter 2004. "Many hands" by P. Whitefield Laurieston Hall PM42 (1,9Mb pdf) Winter 2004. "Dip in a natural swimmimg pool" by M. Harland ZEGG, PM42 (1,8Mb pdf) Winter 2004. "La Caravana Arcoiris por La Paz" by A. Ruz CM117 (104 kb pdf) Autumn 2004. La Caravana is an international mobile ecovillage. For the past eight years they have traveled in buses and trucks through Central and South America sharing grassroots ecological awareness and education through music, theater, and art. Now in Iquique, Chile, La Caravana is currently home to 20 people of all ages and backgrounds, and eight different nationalities, from South America, North America, and Europe. "How To Really Support Ecovillages (Not Just Hugs and Theories)" by E. Hidalgo CM117 (96 kb pdf) Autumn 2004. Our three-year-old El Poncho Eco Center and Quilla Tunari Ecovillage project is located in Marquina, an indigenous village at the foot of the Cochabamba Valley in central Bolivia. No loans of any kind are funding this special economic, sociocultural, spiritual, and ecological venture. - "Passages of time", by L. Borio, Torri-Superiore, PM41 (1,7Mb pdf), Autumn 2004. - "The Ecovillage movement", by R. Jackson, PM40 (1,5Mb pdf), Summer 2004. - "Forum", by D. Richter & A. Ecker, ZEGG, PM 40 (596kb pdf), Summer 2004. - "Preparations for a new world", by D. Richter & A. Ecker, ZEGG, PM39 (1,4Mb pdf), Spring 2004. - "Pooling your resources", by M. Jensen, Permalot, PM38 (1,4Mb pdf), Winter 2003. - "Taking the bull by the horns", by H. Jackson, PM38 (1,0Mb pdf), Winter 2003. - "Crystal Waters 15 years on", by M.Lindegger, PM38 (1,1Mb pdf), Winter 2003. - "Ecoliving in Spanish mountains", by T. Wrench, Matavenero, PM37 (1,1Mb pdf), Autumn 2003. - "The sun rises", by H. Jackson, Japan, PM36 (764kb pdf), Summer 2003. "What Is an “Ecovillage”?" by L. Joseph and A. Bates ENA, CM117 (96kb pdf) Spring 2003. Among the most frequently asked questions of the offices of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA) are: “What is an ecovillage?” “How do I create an ecovillage?” Or, “What does my community need to do to qualify as an ecovillage? “ Sometimes we get questions about whether a particular community can or should be entitled to call itself an ecovillage at all. "Ecovillage Roots (and Branches)" by A. Bates ENA CM117 (120kb pdf) Spring 2003. Ecovillages came into being through apparently simultaneous ideas arising in different locations at about the same time. In 1975 the magazine Mother Earth News began constructing experimental energy systems, novel buildings, and organic gardens near its business office in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and in 1979, began calling this educational center an “eco-village.” "Not Just Eco-Technology" by L. Samuelsson Munksoegaard, Denmark CM117 (88kb pdf) Spring 2003. The physical layout of our two-year-old cohousing-style ecovillage Munksoegaard (pronounced roughly “Monks-sa-GIRD”), consists of 100 housing units: five two-story cohousing clusters of 20 residential units, each with a common house, on 25 hectares of former farmland. Here 250 people (150 adults and 100 children) live together in a project based on environmental sustainability and the spirit of community. In 2000, when Munksoegaard was still in the design stage, we won first prize in a Danish competition for the best sustainable design for the 21st century. By 2001 when we moved in, 500 people were on the waiting list. "A 73-Year-Old Ecovillage in the Land of Ice and Fire" by A. Bates Solheimar, Iceland CM117 (96kb pdf) Spring 2003. A little over an hour from the airport the roads narrow down to two lanes, and our tour group comes upon a crossroads and a community building with large blue letters: “Borg.” No relation to Star Trek, just an Icelandic town hall and post office. Turning off on the dirt road we pass lush fields of grass and frolicking Icelandic ponies, their long manes and tails catching the wind. A little ways up the road a sign marks the driveway to Sólheimer by announcing the availability of food and lodging. We descend down the drive and pull up to the parking area beside the large glass building, once a greenhouse, now a restaurant and coffee shop, in the world’s oldest ecovillage. - "Just deserts", by M. Frank, Spain, PM35 (1,1Mb pdf), Spring 2003. - "Caring Communities", by J.Evelight, Tamera, PM34 (1,1Mb pdf), Winter 2002. - "California Greening", by A. Asham, Eco-town Davis, PM33 (900kb pdf), Autumn 2002. - "Ecovillage Enterprise", by A. Komoch, Lebensgarten, PM32 (796kb pdf), Summer 2002. - "Ecocentricity", by M. Lindegger, Crystal Waters, PM31 (1,0Mb pdf), Spring 2002.

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