The Cultivate Center, located in Dublin, is Ireland's center for sustainable living and renewable energy. Cultivate was started in 2000, and has been a major factor in promoting sustainable living by publishing online resources and research, to networking various events with other organizations. To further the idea of sustainability, Cultivate offers several workshop that anyone can participate in.
The Green Building workshop explores modern techniques to sustainable living that can be applied to Ireland's construction industry today. One such technique is called Cob, which is a traditional building method using mud and straw. The Green Building also includes lectures from climate change and sustainable living experts annually.
Cob construction method in mid-process
A fully constructed, cob-built house from eartharchitecture.org
The Community Resilience workshop focuses on building inter-community relations that help
communities adapt to lifestyle changes.
Permaculture workshops take place at least once a month, and cover lifestyle techniques that will help communities be completely self sustainable in the future. One such project that has occurred is called
The Village, in county Cloughjordan,is an ecovillge who's buildings are constructed using sustainable resources and construction techniques, such as cob building. Cultivate introduced The School of Natural Building in Cloughjordan, where most of the workshops take place, including a recent workshop on how to build your own earth oven. The Cloughjordan community encourages people from all over Ireland to stop by and visit, with the hopes of spreading sustainable living practices to the rest of the country.
An Earth oven in action
The Convergence Festival has been held 17 times by Cultivate, where a collaboration of groups and individuals come together in various Counties to assess the Irish perception of sustainability. The week-long festival includes speakers, exhibits, and a major film.
Cultivate Ireland also supports a number of other environmentally based projects within communities and other organizations. This includes Ireland's only EcoVillage, located in town of Cloughjordan. EcoVillages are communities of people who seek to live in environmentally sustainable fashions, by integrating various aspects of life including ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, and alternative energy practices are only a few aspects considered when living in an EcoVillage. According to [1], the town of Cloughjordan was voted one of Ireland's top 10 places to live by The Irish Times.
Sources: www.Cultivate.ie, www.thevillage.ie.
Images from: www.eartharchitecture.org, www.banyanshelter.com, www.Cultivate.ie
Category:JMC330 International Mass Communication