Ecovillages & Intentional Communities Energy and Climate Action Research Project

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Multiple studies report that ecovillages, appropriate technology villages, and other intentional communities provide high-quality lifestyles while residents use anywhere from half to a quarter as much fossil fuel energy as their counterparts who are not living in ecovillages.^[1] Researchers sometimes refer to reducing fossil fuel energy use to one-quarter as much, as making a "Factor Four" improvement.^[2]

Although definitions vary widely and there is no specific set of defining standards, ecovillages are typically identified as communities working intentionally to achieve "ecological, economic, and cultural dimensions of sustainability . . . integrated into a holistic sustainable development model that is adapted to local contexts . . ., consiously designed through locally owned participatory processes."^[3]

The Post Carbon Institute concludes, "[C]onventional forms of urban planning, design, and governance are poorly suited to our current reality or our collective future."^[4] As one ecovillage founder notes, there is growing evidence that "conventional systems are failing" under the ecological pressures of the increasingly unstable global climate and rapidly increasing human populations. Such factors are leading more and more communities to consider and implement plans for sharply reducing greenhouse gas emissions.^[5] Imminent needs include: learning how to best manage energy use while rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, documenting and cataloging best practices, and sharing successful approaches with many more (eventually all) less than fully-intentional communities.

This ongoing open-source research project aims to collect, categorize, and catalog the best eco-village tools, techniques, and practices for achieving net-zero carbon emissions and long-term environmental and ecological stewardship. The project goal is to identify and report on as many practical ideas and case studies as we can, about energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in ecovillages and other intentional communities around the world. Information is welcome about any and all ecovillage and intentional community practices, describing tools and techniques that are proving successful in reducing fossil fuel energy use.

The project welcomes your input! Please use the links here to visit the Appropedia web pages and make your successes known and ready to share. You are also invited to leave comments to tell us what problems you are facing and list topics that we can help research for you.

Preliminary ideas about categories for practices that enable significantly reduced fossil fuel energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions include:

• BUILDING MATERIALS AND METHODS
• ENERGY
• FINANCING
• FOOD SYSTEMS
• GOVERNANCE, DECISION-MAKING, AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
• HOUSING
• LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
• RESOURCE SHARING
• TRANSPORTATION
• WASTE MANAGEMENT
• WATER

Concepts and case studies will be peer reviewed and categorized, with as many ideas as practical incorporated into or referencing preexisting, comprehensive design guides. Here is a preliminary list of such guides and frameworks that are intended to help users identify existing or potential problems, and avoid problems by applying smart designs, whole systems thinking, and solutions that are understood to help avoid potential problems.

• Architecture 2030 design palette -- Architecture 2030 and 2030 Districts
• AARP Livable Community Resources
• Biomimicry
• Circular Economy
• Cradle-to-Cradle Practices
• Domicology
• Donut Economics
• Foundation for Intentional Communities
• Global Ecovillage Network
  • Global Ecovillage Network, The Ecovillage Impact Assessment
  • Global Ecovillage Network, Solution Library -- The Solution Library already includes major topics of Ecology, Economy, and Integral Design. Guidelines^[6]
  • Global Ecovillage Network, Ecovillage Design Cards -- available in multiple different languages. GEN’s 32 Ecovillage Principles translate into 32 Ecovillage Design Cards. The cards are divided into five groups – four Areas of Regeneration (culture, economy,  ecology and social) arranged around one central path of transformation: integral design. [E]ach Ecovillage Design Card is composed of the Ecovillage Principle, the corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and questions of the Ecovillage Impact Assessment (Level 1). [An online] video introduces and presents the SDG Edition of the Ecovillage Design Cards on the Map of Regeneration."
• LivingFuture.org (Resources include the Living Building Challenge, Living Product Challenge, and Living Community Challenge).
• Natural Capital
  • https://www.naturalcapital.global/
  • https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/
  • https://www.naturalcapital.global/join
  • https://www.ceh.ac.uk/natural-capital-initiative
• The Natural Step
• PatternLanguage.com
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_language
  • Pattern Language for a Conservation Economy (also known as Reliable Prosperity) ConservationEconomy.net
• Regeneration, Resilience, and Restoration
  • GEN resilience resources. https://ecovillage.org/resilience/.
  • Resilience enewsletter, from Post Carbon Institute.
    • https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-10-30/how-to-build-an-ecological-economy-begin-in-the-communities-where-we-live/
  • Regeneration education course. https://www.regenintel.earth/
• United Nations Goals for the Future:
  • Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
  • Summit of the Future (September 2024) and Pact for the Future (proposed for adopting at the September 2024 Summit). https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/pact-for-the-future-revisions

• Towards sustainable economies
• American Public Media. This Old House Radio Hour. 2026. Building Tomorrow: A Special Look at the Future of Housing [Radio broadcast]. Available at: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/radiohour Topics include:
  • A massive prefab factory where homes are built like cars on an assembly line
  • A disaster research campus where engineers crash-test houses against hurricanes, hail, and wildfire
  • A cutting-edge microfactory using software and small factories to build homes faster, locally, and at scale
  • Touring a pioneering cross-laminated timber home built as a living case study in low-carbon construction
  • How a 100-year-old house is transformed into a net-zero, future-ready home
  • A tiny-house community redefining retirement, aging, and what “home” really means.

• GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES AND OPTIONS
  • Condominium Associations
  • Homeowner Associations (HOAs)
  • Land Trusts
  • Permaculture Communities
  • Regenerative Communities
• TYPES AND VARIATIONS ON THE THEME OF ECOVILLAGES
  • Appropriate Technology Communities
  • Cohousing
  • Energy Communities
  • Intentional Communities
• EcoVillage Design & Development (Facebook Group). https://www.facebook.com/groups/localearth
• Ecovillage & Intentional Community Solutions: Design Patterns
• Ecovillage & Intentional Community Solutions: Research Questions and Needs
• Ecovillages as Incubators for Sustainability Transitions (EVIST), Swiss National Science Foundation Research Project, University of Basel. https://ecovillages.theologie.unibas.ch/de/evist/
• Ecovillages map/data
• Lesley Lokko, brilliant architect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Lokko
• Low-Tech Lab. Languages include French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portugese. https://wiki.lowtechlab.org/wiki/Accueil#
  • Low-Tech Tutorials. https://wiki.lowtechlab.org/wiki/Group:Low-tech_Lab#Tutoriels
• Helena Norberg-Hodge, 2019, Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness, Chelsea Green Press, ISBN 978-1-7329804-0-2. https://www.localfutures.org/publications/local-is-our-future-book-helena-norberg-hodge/
• Penha-Lopes, G. & T. Henfrey (eds.), 2019. Reshaping the Future: how communities are catalysing social, economic and ecological transformation in Europe. The First Status Report on Community-led Action on Sustainability and Climate Change. Brussels: ECOLISE (European Network for Community-led Initiatives on Sustainability and Climate Change). https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.26086.47689.
• ReGen Villages, https://www.regenvillages.com/# and https://except.eco/projects/regen-villages-oosterwold/
• Solutions Highlighted in Audio, Video, and Print Media
• Syntropic world principles. https://syntropic.world/syntropic-world-what-we-stand-for/
• Topical Collection on Ecovillages and other Community-led Initiatives as Experiences of Climate Action, NPJ Climate Action (Open Access), https://www.nature.com/collections/cededfjcfb
• Universities specializing in Appropriate Technology education
  • Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, USA: https://www.appstate.edu/academics/majors/id/sustainable-technology
  • Berea College, Berea, Kentucky. Berea has extensive curricula about appropriate technologies, sustainability, and environmental sciences. Berea also hosts its own eco-village for students. https://www.berea.edu/life-at-berea/housing-dining/ecovillage

READERS: Please suggest any and all ideas for additions to this list of Research Questions and Needs. If implementing particular techniques or practices might require changes in laws, rules, and regulations, please help identify and describe those changes. Where possible, please include examples of governing bodies making the necessary changes.

I would like to find a way to list and properly acknowledge the many collaborators and contributors to this work, to give thanks for those who are actively helping with this project. It is a growing list of fabulous people, each bringing their own special talents and interests to this work. Please help me to figure out a mechanism for making it easy for everyone to share basic information about themselves here.

I am Tom Stanton, from Michigan, USA. Until I learn better, I might consider myself to be the founder or initiator of this project. Here is some basic information about myself: User:TomStanton

• Anonymous, Cotati, California, USA
• Francesco Godano, Italy
• Cassandre Torres, Virginia, USA

See below a list of Appropedia Category:Ecovillages and their corresponding SDGs. Please help fill out missing information on the corresponding page.