Download or read book Creating an Urban Ecovillage written by Schenk Jim and published by . This book was released on 2023-08-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating an Urban Ecovillage, a Model for Revitalizing Our Cities is a "how-to" book that presents ideas of ways others can develop an ecovillage in their existing urban neighborhood. Each chapter presents a particular aspect of Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage and is concluded with a story that exemplifies how it is being carried out by an individual or family in the ecovillage. The final chapter gives specifics for setting up an ecovillage in an urban neighborhood.The ecovillage provides not only a valuable and essential resource, but an exciting and fun way for people to live their everyday lives together in community. And the urban ecovillage provides people with the support they need, right in our cities, to go out into nature and stay a while. The urban ecovillage combines community and ecological sustainability in our cities. While it may not be the only way, the urban "retrofit" ecovillage is one very plausible way of achieving this. It is no wonder that our own Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage has experienced a large influx of families moving into our community. However, families of all kinds can start an ecovillage in their own urban neighborhood. This book gives them a guide for doing so.
Download or read book Ecovillages as Models for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods written by Samantha Rebecca Cohen and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecovillages, which are grassroots intentional communities focused on the shared values of environmental sustainability and community-building, offer an alternative to traditional development primarily focused on developer profit, which creates incentives to build cheaply with little consideration for sustainability, reducing operating costs, creation of community or innovation in building techniques. The problem with modem development practices is that there is an absence of truly sustainable, community-oriented housing options on the market that are economically empowering, socially just, and which enhance the ecology of place by building all forms of capital-- economic capital, social capital, and environmental capital. Ecovillages provide a solution to this, as well as many other 'wicked' problems our society faces-they are blueprints for how communities can live sustainably. This thesis explores the best practices in ecovillage urban design in urbanized and rural settings to improve the design of current and future ecovillages and to use as a design model communities or designers in building sustainable communities, as urban design is inherently linked to sustainability. Through the creation of a matrix of sustainable urban design strategies, this can be used to compare various ecovillages and sustainable communities to understand and analyze how values are embodied in the physical site design or constrained by urban site conditions, and give a process and design guidelines to designers and communities looking to create sustainable neighborhoods or ecovillages.
Download or read book Ecovillage written by Kosha Anja Joubert and published by Triarchy Press Limited. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Your heart will soar as you revel in this treasure trove of evidence that a new and better future is not only possible but happening NOW all over the world where ordinary people have taken matters into their own hands, building vibrant, loving, sustainable communities...even national governments are beginning to take them seriously enough to support their growth...You will be filled with new inspiration and implementable ideas, so spread the book itself as far and wide as you can!" -- Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD, evolution biologist, futurist, and author
Download or read book Sustainable Revolution written by Juliana Birnbaum and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban gardeners. Native seed-saving collectives. Ecovillage developments. What is the connection between these seemingly disparate groups? The ecological design system of permaculture is the common thread that weaves them into a powerful, potentially revolutionary—or reevolutionary—movement. Permaculture is a philosophy based on common ethics of sustainable cultures throughout history that have designed settlements according to nature's patterns and lived within its bounds. As a movement that has been building momentum for the past 40 years, it now is taking form as a growing network of sites developed with the intention of regenerating local ecologies and economies. Permaculture strategies can be used by individuals, groups, or nations to address basic human needs such as food, water, energy, and housing. As a species, humans are being called forth to evolve, using our collective intelligence to meet the challenges of the future. Yet if we are to survive our collective planetary crisis, we need to revisit history, integrating successful systems from sustainable cultures. To boldly confront our position on the brink of the earth's carrying capacity and make changes that incorporate the wisdom of the past is truly revolutionary. Sustainable Revolution features the work of a worldwide network of visionaries, including journalists, activists, indigenous leaders and permaculturists such as David Holmgren, Vandana Shiva, Charles Eisenstein, Starhawk, Erik Assadourian, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Albert Bates, and Geoff Lawton. This beautifully photographed collection of profiles, interviews, and essays features 60 innovative community-based projects in diverse climates across the planet. Edited by anthropologist Juliana Birnbaum Fox and award-winning activist filmmaker Louis Fox, it can be read as an informal ethnography of an international culture that is modeling solutions on the cutting edge of social and environmental change. The research presented in the book frames the permaculture movement as a significant ally to marginalized groups, such as the urban poor and native communities resisting the pressures of globalization. Sustainable Revolution uplifts and inspires with its amazing array of dynamic activists and thriving, vibrant communities.
Download or read book Creating a Life Together written by Diana Leafe Christian and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intentional community is a group of people who have chosen to live or work together in pursuit of a common ideal or vision. An ecovillage is a village-scale intentional community that intends to create, ecological, social, economic, and spiritual sustainability over several generations. The 90s saw a revitalized surge of interest in intentional communities and ecovillages in North America: the number of intentional communities listed in the Communities Directory increased 60 percent between 1990 and 1995. But only 10 percent of the actual number of forming-community groups actually succeeded. Ninety percent failed, often in conflict and heartbreak. After visiting and interviewing founders of dozens of successful and failed communities, along with her own forming-community experiences, the author concluded that "the successful 10 percent" had all done the same five or six things right, and "the unsuccessful 90 percent" had made the same handful of mistakes. Recognizing that a wealth of wisdom were contained in these experiences, she set out to distill and capture them in one place. Creating a Life Together is the only resource available that provides step-by-step, practical "how-to" information on how to launch and sustain a successful ecovillage or intentional community. Through anecdotes, stories, and cautionary tales about real communities, and by profiling seven successful communities in depth, the book examines "the successful 10 percent" and why 90 percent fail; the role of community founders; getting a group off to a good start; vision and vision documents; decision-making and governance; agreements; legal options; finding, financing, and developing land; structuring a community economy; selecting new members; and communication, process, and dealing well with conflict. Sample vision documents, community agreements, and visioning exercises are included, along with abundant resources for learning more.
Download or read book Ecovillage Living written by Hildur Jackson and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecovillage Living is a guide to everything you've always wanted to know about ecovillages, from the tools to make them happen to the people behind them. If you have ever dreamed of natural housing, water treatment systems, solar panels, composting toilets . . . If you have wanted to work close to home, have neighbours whom you know, live in a safe place for your children, or have a more harmonious lifestyle . . . If you're building a community, and want to learn from others' experiences . . . then this is the book for you. It is an unprecedented how-to, and why account of ecovillage living, and a vibrant story of people spearheading a lifestyle which is rapidly growing into a new global culture.
Download or read book Enabling Eco Cities written by Dominique Hes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-02-27 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities are striving to become more resilient, adaptive and sustainable; this requires new ways of governing and developing the city. This book features chapters by researchers using regenerative development and transitions theories to envisage how Eco-Cities could be planned, designed and created, and concludes with practical tools and an outline of how this evolution could be facilitated. It examines two major questions: How can we use understandings of Eco-Cities to address the legacy of urban built form and existing practices which often make it difficult to create the systemic changes needed? And what are the elements of complex urban places and spaces that will enable the planning, creation and evolution of thriving cities? The book will appeal to planners, city makers, urban researchers, students and practitioners, including planners, designers, architects and sustainability managers, and all those seeking to envisage the steps along the path to thriving cities of the future.
Download or read book Ecovillages written by Karen T. Litfin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference? To answer these fundamental questions, Professor Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to many of the world’s ecovillagesÑintentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From rural to urban, high tech to low tech, spiritual to secular, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes from the ground up. In this inspiring and insightful book, Karen Litfin shares her unique experience of these experiments in sustainable living through four broad windows - ecology, economics, community, and consciousness - or E2C2. Whether we live in an ecovillage or a city, she contends, we must incorporate these four key elements if we wish to harmonize our lives with our home planet. Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over. These micro-societies, however, are small and time is short. Fortunately - as Litfin persuasively argues - their successes can be applied to existing social structures, from the local to the global scale, providing sustainable ways of living for generations to come. You can learn more about Karen's experiences on the Ecovillages website: http://ecovillagebook.org/
Download or read book Finding Community written by Diana Leafe Christian and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2007-05-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to research, visit, evaluate, and join the ecovillage or sustainable community of your dreams. Finding community is as critical as obtaining food and shelter, since the need to belong is what makes us human. The isolation and loneliness of modern life have led many people to search for deeper connection, which has resulted in a renewed interest in intentional communities. These intentional communities or ecovillages are an appealing choice for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle—a lifestyle they are unlikely to find anywhere else. However, the notion of an intentional community can still be a tremendous leap for some—deterred perhaps by a misguided vision of eking out a hardscrabble existence with little reward. In fact, successful ecovillages thrive because of the combined skills and resources of their members. Finding Community presents a thorough overview of ecovillages and intentional communities and offers solid advice on how to research thoroughly, visit thoughtfully, evaluate intelligently, and join gracefully. Useful considerations include: Important questions to ask (of members and of yourself) Signs of a healthy (and not-so-healthy) community Cost of joining (and staying) Common blunders to avoid Finding Community provides intriguing possibilities to readers who are seeking a more cooperative, sustainable, and meaningful life. Diana Leafe Christian is the author of Creating a Life Together and editor of Communities magazine. She lives at Earthhaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.
Download or read book Sustainable Communities written by Hugh Barton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-02 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This book re-addresses the concepts of neighbourhood and community in a refreshing and challenging way. It will be of immense benefit, not only to town planners but also to al those professional and voluntary groups and politicians who seek to create the new communities of tomorrow' From the Foreword by Jed Griffiths, Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. There is widespread support for the principle of creating more sustainable communities, but much hazy, wishful-thinking about what this might mean in practice. In reality, we witness more the death of local neighbourhoods than their creation or rejuvenation, reflecting an increasingly mobile, privatized and commodified society. Sustainable Communities examines the practicalities of re-inventing neighbourhoods. It is neither an idealistic, utopian tract nor a designer's manual, but is, rather, a serious attempt to address the real issues. This collection of expert contributions: * examines the nature of local community and methods of building social capital * presents the findings of a world-wide survey of eco-neighbourhoods and eco-villages with case studies from the United Kingdom, Europe, America and Australia * develops a fresh perspective on the planning and design of neighbourhoods in urban areas, based on the eco-system approach * explores practical programmes for local resource management and the implications for community-based decision-making * provides a detailed appendix listing current eco-village and eco-neighbourhood schemes by country Written by an interdisciplinary team of social and environmental scientists, town planners and urban designers, this is a thought-provoking and important contribution to both the theory and practice of the development of sustainable communities.
Download or read book EcoVillage at Ithaca written by Liz Walker and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2005-05-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The compelling story of an internationally recognized example of sustainable development.
Download or read book Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia written by Joshua Lockyer and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to move global society towards a sustainable “ecotopia,” solutions must be engaged in specific places and communities, and the authors here argue for re-orienting environmental anthropology from a problem-oriented towards a solutions-focused endeavor. Using case studies from around the world, the contributors—scholar-activists and activist-practitioners— examine the interrelationships between three prominent environmental social movements: bioregionalism, a worldview and political ecology that grounds environmental action and experience; permaculture, a design science for putting the bioregional vision into action; and ecovillages, the ever-dynamic settings for creating sustainable local cultures.
Download or read book Sustainable Cities written by Bob Walter and published by Eco-Home Media. This book was released on 1992 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Sustainable Cities, leading experts from their respective fields present concepts and strategies for ecological city design that include: ecological design principles, planning techniques, resource management, community relations, sustainable technologies, construction techniques, economic strategies and much more... Sustainable Cities shows how urban development and the environment can coexist in a successful partnership that will result in better air quality, cleaner water, more nutritious food, less commuting time, quieter and more nature-oriented surroundings, a richer community life, less urban stress, and improved health for the people who live and work in cities. Whether you are a professional involved in shaping our cities, or a concerned citizen seeking the best for your neighborhood, this book contains the range of information you need to be effective in creating sustainable cities." --
Download or read book Creating Low Carbon Cities written by Shobhakar Dhakal and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-10 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses key topics in the current deliberations and debates on low carbon cities that are underway globally. Contributions by experts from around the world focus on the key factors required for creating low carbon cities. These include appropriate infrastructure, ensuring co-benefits of climate actions, making best use of knowledge and information, proper accounting of emissions, and social factors such as behavioral change. Readers will gain a better understanding of these drivers and explore potential transformation pathways for cities. Particular emphasis is given to the current situation of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the urban level, stressing the complexity of measuring GHG emissions from cities. Chapters also shed new light on the long-term transformation pathways towards low carbon. This book discusses key challenges and opportunities in all these domains to aid in creating low carbon cities, making it of value to policy makers, researchers in academia and consultants working on climate change and energy issues. “The low carbon cities agenda is of bold ambition and demands rapid societal transformation. This book provides invaluable information and analysis on how the goals of this agenda can be achieved and what will be the significant obstacles in the way. The content in the book goes below the surface to reveal on-the-ground economic, engineering and equity issues that are at the heart of the Paris Climate Agreement and the ensuing policy debates. In this way, Creating Low Carbon Cities serves as a critical scholarly benchmark and as a toolkit for further action." William Solecki, Professor, Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York "Creating Low Carbon Cities provides a refreshingly critical approach to low-carbon urban development, what has been achieved so far and the challenges ahead. It will be an important data-driven resource for local leaders, sustainability practitioners and urban planners.” Ms. Monika Zimmermann, Deputy Secretary General, ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability
Download or read book Eco Homes written by Doctor Jenny Pickerill and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2016-01-15 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is widely understood that good, affordable eco-housing needs to be at the heart of any attempt to mitigate or adapt to climate change. This is the first book to comprehensively explore eco-housing from a geographical, social and political perspective. It starts from the premise that we already know how to build good eco-houses and we already have the technology to retrofit existing housing. Despite this, relatively few eco-houses are being built. Featuring over thirty case studies of eco-housing in Britain, Spain, Thailand, Argentina and the United States, Eco-Homes examines the ways in which radical changes to our houses – such as making them more temporary, using natural materials, or relying on manual heating and ventilation systems – require changes in how we live. As such, it argues, it is not lack of technology or political will that is holding us back from responding to climate change, but deep-rooted cultural and social understandings of our way of life and what we expect our houses to do for us.
Download or read book Creating Regenerative Cities written by Herbert Girardet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large, modern cities have effectively declared their independence from nature. But while they take up only three percent of the world’s land surface, their ecological footprints actually cover the entire globe. Humanity is building an urban future, yet urban resource use is threatening the future of humanity and the natural world. To meet the aspirations of city people in both developing and developed countries, bold new initiatives are needed. Modern cities are an astonishing human achievement. As centres of innovation they are humanity’s cultural playgrounds. Their communication and transport systems have developed a global reach. They are attractive to investors because they can offer a vast variety of services at comparatively low per-capita costs. But are they viable as ecological systems? The planning of new cities, as well as the retrofit of existing cities, needs to undergo a profound paradigm shift. Mere 'sustainable development' is not enough. To be compatible with natural systems, cities need to move away from linear systems of resource use and learn to operate as closed-loop, circular systems. To ensure their long-term future, they need to develop an environmentally enhancing, restorative relationship between themselves and the natural systems on which they still depend. Creating Regenerative Cities is a concise, solution-oriented manual for creating regenerative urbanisation. A wide range of technical, management and policy solutions already exist, but implementation has been too slow and too little, in large part because the kinds of holistic approaches needed are still unfamiliar to fragmented and process-driven urban policy making and governance. Herbert Girardet's 30 years’ experience as an ecologist, thinker, film maker and consultant working around the world has created this unique combination of tried and tested best practices and policies, which outlines the fundamental shifts needed in the way we think about our cities.
Download or read book Degrowth in the Suburbs written by Samuel Alexander and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses a central dilemma of the urban age: how to make the vast suburban landscapes that ring the globe safe and sustainable in the face of planetary ecological crisis. The authors argue that degrowth, a planned contraction of economic overshoot, is the only feasible principle for suburban renewal. They depart from the anti-suburban sentiment of much environmentalism to show that existing suburbia can be the centre-ground of transition to a new social dispensation based on the principle of self-limitation. The book offers a radical new urban imaginary, that of degrowth suburbia, which can arise Phoenix like from the increasingly stressed cities of the affluent Global North and guide urbanisation in a world at risk. This means dispensing with much contemporary green thinking, including blind faith in electric vehicles and high-density urbanism, and accepting the inevitability and the benefits of planned energy descent. A radical but necessary vision for the times.
