A change is possible - Findhorn Eco Village

Monday, 17 May 2010

A sustainable community, harmlessly integrated into the natural environment.

Findhorn Eco Village combines local organic food production, ecological building, energy systems, and cooperative, social economies to create a fully sustainable community: it is an ecologically respectful built environment, providing a good example to local rural communities. It provides a sustainable way of life for residents, demonstrates co-creation with nature, and supplies a place to educate in living sustainability. The Findhorn Community, which began in 1962 in a caravan park in northeast Scotland, is known internationally for its experiments with new models of holistic and sustainable living. Cooperation and co-creation with nature have always been tenets of the community’s work, ever since it became famous in the late 1960s for its remarkable and beautiful gardens grown in adverse conditions on the sand dunes of the Findhorn peninsula.

There is an increasingly urgent need for positive models that demonstrate a viable, sustainable future for humans and the planet. The Findhorn Foundation, established by the community in 1972, is a major centre of holistic education, conducting programmes for more than 4,500 residential visitors a year from more than 50 countries. Today it is the heart of what has become one of largest holistic communities in the world and is the centre of this rapidly developing eco village. Since 1981 the foundation has been involved in the development of the Ecovillage Project as a natural continuation of the community’s work with nature. A number of other organisations within the community work in partnership with the foundation to help create and develop the Findhorn Ecovillage Project.

The benefits

Society

Holistic living means establishing a direct, harmonic relation between nature and man and promotes tolerance and respect in the society

Environment

Findhorn integrates local organic food production, ecological building, and energy systems in a fully sustainable community.

Economy

New tools for low-energy living have emrged, as have new business models that enable technical innovations to be disseminated.