Sustainability


Missed Opportunity at the Goat Ranch

Posted on October 29, 2019 by
1 Comment

Ted and Sally were truthful when they said they had no idea what they were doing, either running the business or establishing a community. They didn’t, much to the dismay of their departing managers and volunteers.


Founder’s Syndrome

Posted on October 22, 2019 by

The original founder, visionary, and main public point person for Bellyacres for over a quarter of a century laments that some members came to consider him “the root of all present, past, and future problems in the organization.”


Village-Building Stumbles: A few of the things Earthaven Ecovillage has gotten wrong

Posted on October 1, 2019 by

Those of us privileged enough to find ourselves in an intentional community often imagine that our environment will be free of the horrors and evils of the world. But alas, we bring it all with us.


How to Stop Climate Change and Never Be Lonely Again

Posted on July 30, 2019 by

Empowered, sustainable communities are the antidote to isolation. And they are the pivotal technology that makes renewable energy, essential for reversing climate change, actually renewable.


Craft Weaves Together a Community

Posted on June 20, 2019 by

A story by Thumbs Cassidy, a person with a mission (in his case the promotion and construction of yurts) who travels from community to community educating and demonstrating. Excerpt from an… Read More


Your Community and the Law

Posted on April 30, 2019 by

Earthaven Ecovillage learns the hard way that it’s important for a community to choose its legal entities carefully, and to consult and listen to lawyers. A member shares some lessons from their ordeal.


Gain the 🦉Wisdom of Communities 🦉

Posted on April 24, 2019 by

Have you ordered your copies of the Wisdom of Communities 4 volume set? Each volume can be purchased individually👇🏽 or buy the entire set at a discounted price. Also available as… Read More


What Can We Learn from the Amish?

Posted on April 23, 2019 by

Touch the soil, live simply, and be satisfied with “enough”: it’s worked for the Amish for almost 300 years and it can work for us as well.


Community, Land, Self: We’re Part of the Same Elephant

Posted on April 16, 2019 by

Escaping to an ecotopian or intact natural world proves neither possible nor effective as a way to avoid the realities of human and planetary suffering. Instead, a communitarian receives lessons in interconnectedness that he will never forget.


Your Monthly Freebie: Permaville Handbook

Posted on April 9, 2019 by

The Permaville Handbook: Strategies of Permaculture Design By Brian Newhouse of Permaville.com This nearly 200-paged handbook provides an overview of permaculture’s principles, teaches some core permaculture techniques and practices, and provides… Read More


Growing Together through Trauma, with the Land

Posted on April 9, 2019 by

When La’akea Community’s stability is disrupted and its existence threatened by the aftermath of an earthquake, members discover that their land is a much larger source of “glue” to keep them together than they had thought.


How We Came to Inherit a Salmon Stream

Posted on March 30, 2019 by

The residents of Sahale Learning Center and EcoVillage welcome the salmon who swim from the Hood Canal up the Tahuya River each year to spawn.


Cross-Class Cooperation and Land Access

Posted on March 23, 2019 by
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It is important to not only talk about the role class privilege plays in our movement, but also celebrate the ways that cross-class cooperation can be a form of much-needed solidarity.


The Dilemmas of Being a Benefactor: Creating a Community Land Trust

Posted on March 16, 2019 by
1 Comment

CommonSpace CLT fulfills its founder’s dream of using her inheritance to create an affordable, not-for-profit example of diverse community on protected land in perpetuity.


Land Speaking through the People: The Great Work of Our Times

Posted on March 9, 2019 by

Through Community Land Trusts, we can reimagine and experience anew our relationship with the land as communities of place-based people.


Review: Farming While Black

Posted on February 26, 2019 by

This book is written for young Black, Brown, and Latinx people with dreams of farming, but it is also a gift to all of us who care about farming, equality, and justice.


4 Building Blocks of Community

Posted on February 25, 2019 by

Start a Village “If you don’t like the way things are, Start a Village!” This was the essential message that Stephen Brooks delivered at his enthusiastic TEDx talk at Black… Read More


Black Land Matters: An Interview with Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm

Posted on February 24, 2019 by

Headquartered on a community farm, a nonprofit, people-of-color-led organization works to dismantle racism in the food system by increasing farmland stewardship by people of color, promoting equity in food access, and training the next generation of activist farmers.


Connecting Land and Community

Posted on February 21, 2019 by

Through collective, organized efforts, groups that have lost access to land can regain it, while building community as well.


Starhawk Recognized for 2019 Kozeny Communitarian Award

Posted on February 6, 2019 by

The Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC) recognizes Starhawk as the 2019 recipient of the Kozeny Communitarian Award, honoring of the indomitable spirit of Geoph Kozeny (1949-2007), who devoted his adult life… Read More


Your Monthly Freebie: Essence of Permaculture

Posted on January 23, 2019 by

Essence of Permaculture Did you know we are continually adding new free resources to our catalog of offerings? Toolkits, epubs, organizers’ handbooks, and workshop guides are just a few examples,… Read More


Climate Change Activists’ Community

Posted on January 21, 2019 by

Richmond Vale Academy provides an immersion in collective living and activist education for those who want to not only understand climate change, but respond to it in their own lives.


Planet Community – Episode 3 – Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage

Posted on December 31, 2018 by

We have to transform our cities! Over 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and it’s only increasing. Models for sustainable, equitable, urban community must be developed. In… Read More


About That Clothesline…

Posted on December 28, 2018 by

After a communitarian’s love affair with line drying starts to wane, and eventually withers, she leaves community—partly to pursue an evolving relationship with a clothes dryer.


What Keeps Living Community Thriving?

Posted on November 12, 2018 by

What keeps living community thriving? Foundations: Mission, Vision, Values Being among young communards, elders in the movement, and aspiring community builders I have witnessed what can make community living thrive… Read More


Top 5 Questions – Building an Ecovillage

Posted on November 10, 2018 by

Top 5 Questions to Ask When Building an Ecovillage A Look Inside Wisdom of Communities Volume 4 by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore manager Finally! Our fourth and final volume of… Read More


Regenerative Victory Gardens

Posted on October 15, 2018 by

Stacking Benefits of Gardens When you plant a garden, you are doing more than practicing a resilient skill, and cultivating mouth watering beefsteak tomatoes. You are reducing food miles by… Read More


Connect: Now More Than Ever

Posted on September 7, 2018 by

Time spent at Lost Valley and La’akea inspires a passion not just for community and its heart-opening, communication-deepening, earth-connecting effects, but also for communal networking and the difference it can make in the world.


What does it mean to live like a village?

Posted on August 13, 2018 by
1 Comment

What is a Village? “In the simplest terms, it is the intersection and interconnection of people and place” explains Jamaica Stevens, author, event producer, and community activist. “How do we… Read More


Arizona Ecovillages in the News

Posted on August 6, 2018 by
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“If life is about something, it’s about getting along with people.” Don Clark reports from his Arizona ecovillage. “Since last year, the volume of people inquiring has doubled,” “A lot… Read More