28 May 2012
SLF Potluck June 16: Sustainable Living Communities
Posted by Admin under: Community Development; Ecology; Economy; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Events; Future; Green Building; Organization; People; Permaculture; Policy; Resiliency; Sustainability .
There’s a growing interest in ecovillages, cohousing, and other intentionally sustainable communities, both as experiments in living and working together, and as models for the wider society.
Please join us for our next SLF potluck on Sustainable Living Environments and Communities, Saturday, June 16, 4 p.m. onward. Bring whatever healthful dish you’d like to share, and RSVP to rsvp@slforum.org.
As a couple at the leading edge of the Baby Boom retirement generation but nowhere near “retiring,” we’ve started thinking about where we’d ke to end up, and with whom. The Ecovillage at Ithaca? Findhorn? Southern California? Costa Rica? or an “eco-ville” in the south of France?
We thought others might be interested also — after all, 10,000 Americans are reaching “retirement age” and being added to the Social Security and Medicare rolls every day — so we’ve begun our own little study of “sustainable living environments,” which for the most part means communities.
No doubt a few people would prefer a life entirely “off the grid,” and out of sight or earshot of others, and if they can afford it might find a private island where they can go “Crusoe” in their declining years, but for most of us living in communities, however pleasant or unpleasant, is the only way to go. But what sort of fellowship or interaction are we looking for? A retirement community? An urban kibbutz? Or a multi-generational rural village with its own farms and windmills and perhaps some form of cohousing?
Whatever your lifestyle preferences, intentional communities planned around sustainability principles seem likely to be the most satisfying and most ethical way to live. A community designed along guiding ethical and ecological principles is also one that is likely to provide the most resilient, cohesive, and convivial way of life.
As we’ve started to look into this, we’ve also begun to realize that there’s a new and open-ended project for the SLF here: a research project, an online database of possible community examples and potential destinations, a book, and perhaps even the impetus to create one or more such communities of our own. And everything else that we’ve been discussing — renewable energy, green building, the alternative economy, ecological regeneration, spiritual renewal — can all fit inside of this.
We invite you, therefore, to a casual discussion of whatever might emerge from these speculations. And stay tuned as we begin to define and refine this initiative, and turn it into an ongoing enterprise from which we can all benefit or profit.
RSVP to rsvp@slforum.org if you can attend, or just drop us a line if you want to stay involved. We plan to create a more formal opportunity for people to join this initiative, or you can just keep tabs on our progress through this site and perhaps others as new “appropriate solutions” begin to emerge.
If you can’t make it, you can still participate in the research project; just send us an email (jcloud@slforum.org and/or vzelin@slforum.org) and we’ll add you to the study group.
4 Comments so far...
isabel rimanoczy Says:
28 May 2012 at 11:41 am.
I love your initiative! I’ve been asking myself that question “where would I like to live next?” and knowing the growing number of intentional communities, wondering if I should help start one, gather with family and friends, find one that is already developed, or what.
So i LOVE your initiative 🙂
I like the idea of self-sustaining, growing local food, close community bonds, children to take care of, different skills contributing to entertainment, maintenance, personal development and growth…
What comes next in your research? Count on me. (although cannot attend the potlucks, i’m in Fort Lauderdale…. )
Admin Says:
28 May 2012 at 1:56 pm.
Hi Isabel: Loved that you picked up on this, and great to reconnect. Of course we will need such a place in Fort Lauderdale, or wherever you want to be — indeed all over — that we can each visit in person (or remotely) from time to time and exchange places… What I foresee is growing networks of such communities around the world, each developing a culture of its own, nodes in the awakening global brain… and a way to be both cosmopolitan and communitarian at the same time.
How are your projects? I get your daily quote, and liked today’s especially: “Like it or not, someday our collective global wisdom will force us to live in peace.” (Chris Dennis). I suspect we can collaborate across space and time with everyone everywhere to bring about a better world, and realizing this possibility is part of “the great work.” But inside of that we can also craft specific agreements. I wonder if you have visited Jacque Fresco’s utopia, or have information to contribute about other visionary local communities? Thanks, Jonathan
isabel rimanoczy Says:
28 May 2012 at 2:08 pm.
I don’t know about Fresco – what is it??
Do you know the website of Intentional Communities? http://www.ic.org/
Also there is the Federation of equalitarian communities http://thefec.org/
Twin oaks in Virginia http://www.twinoaks.org and http://www.dancingrabbit.org/
🙂
Admin Says:
29 May 2012 at 8:43 am.
Thanks for these references. See http://thevenusproject.com/en/jacque-fresco for information on Jacque Fresco and his futuristic project in Venus, FL (which is about 2 1/2 hours NW of you).