Sustainable community

Topic
Materials

A sustainable community manages its human, natural, and financial capital to meet current needs while ensuring that adequate resources are available for future generations.” Institute for Sustainable Communities

Communities can be planned, built, or modified to promote sustainable living.

people falling

Transition towns

“Transition is a movement about communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by starting local.  By coming together, they are able to crowd-source solutions. They seek to nurture a caring culture, one focused on supporting each other, both as groups or as wider communities.” (Transition Network)

Transition towns provide one of many alternative approaches. Activities cover community breweries, community bakeries, community energy projects, food growing groups and enterprises, building relationships in community by mobilizing your neighbours (‘transition streets’) and using art to promote alternatives. All of the above are making real difference in the communities. Increasingly, Transition groups are creating new jobs and livelihoods and vibrant, viable new enterprises that keep money local and boost resilience.

Ecovillages

Ecovillages offer a concrete and fully sustainable, holistic solution to the problems of our current societies. An ecovillage is an intentional or traditional community using local and participatory processes to regenerate their social and natural environment.

Video credits: Conscious Thought Revolution, published on Feb 22, 2019

Do!

Find out about a transition town or an  eco village close to your place, learn more about them or pay them a visit. What are the values and guiding principles in the community? What is the structure? Who are the people involved? Where is the place? Which of their values and concepts would you like to bring and apply in your life?

Educate! 

Organize an informal event for friends / your students and experience all together what living in an eco village looks like. Invite representatives from eco-villages (https://ecovillage.org/) to join online and share more about their experience and inspiration.

Transition Network

https://transitionnetwork.org/

Sustainable Community

https://sustain.org/about/what-is-a-sustainable-community/

Eco-villages

Ecovillage living - a new source of hope - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmWa3mFKM84