What are sustainable communities?

What the heck is a sustainable community? Maybe you've heard of it by another name: Ecovillage, Cohousing, Transitional town.. What are they? How are they different? And how are they the same? Perhaps most importantly, what would it be like to live in one?

Let's find out! On this page you'll get a feel for what it's like to come home to a cohousing neighborhood at the end of the day. Then we'll get into the nitty gritty and explore typical questions people ask about the different types of community, and living in community in general.

Plus, I've uncovered some of the best, most informative web sites on sustainable communities, and discovered the one tool you cannot live without if you're seriously considering living in or creating a sustainable community: The Intentional Communities Directory--a catalog and compendium of more than 2500 communities around the world.

Imagine coming home from a long day at work ...

You pull into your slot in the community carport, grab your gear, walk past the tennis court and through a well-tended garden.

A butterfly flits to the ancient apple tree you and your neighbors saved from the ax when you bought this old homestead and began planning to build your homes.

You smile, tensions of the day forgotten, recalling the first time you and your son sat under this tree. He listened spellbound as you told him of the legend of Johnny Appleseed, said to have planted this very tree.

As you round the corner, the sound of children laughing and playing makes you smile.

They've built a giant castle in the sandlot, complete with fire-breathing dragons. Your eight-year-old, acting out the fantasy with his mates in joyful detail, sees you and, without breaking character, surreptitiously returns your wave.

Meandering up the walk, you drop your satchel on your front porch, knowing it will be there untouched when you return, and stroll to the common building where today's kitchen detail is preparing dinner. Mmmmmm. Someone baked pies.

Other folks are gathering too. You spy your sweetheart, peck him on the cheek, and help him set the table.

Sure, you could eat at home tonight, if you felt like hunkering in, but you're in the mood for company, and the conversations are always lively in the dining hall.

This is a glimpse of what life can be for folks who live in an intentional community, bonded by a desire to create a lifestyle full of family, friends and neighbors.

Whatever you call it--Sustainable Community, Eco-Village, Cohousing--all intentional communities have a few things in common:

1. Individual homes clustered in a village-like setting
2. A common building, typically housing dining, recreation and meeting facilities
3. Structures and grounds built and maintained sustainably with "green" materials
4. Energy, water, soil and other resources conserved through composting, reusing and recycling
5. Safe, nurturing environment where children can play close to nature
6. Decision-making by consensus, typically, but not in all communities
7. Shared responsibility for maintaining the community
8. Respect for individual needs and space
9. Commitment to growing healthy, harmonious community relationships

Short answer: No. Longer answer, while most intentional communities intend to foster a lifestyle that is economically and environmentally sustainable, those may be of secondary or no consideration for some. Groups of people come together for many reasons--religious, political, familial.

This page focuses on those groups whose primary focus is growing a sustainable lifestyle within the context of a close-knit community, no matter what their political, religious, ethnic or other orientations may be.

Sustainable communities strive to take no more from the Earth and each other than they give. Their members seek to engender and maintain a high quality of life while reducing consumption to levels that do not overtax the Earth's resources or exploit the workers who grow their food, manufacture their goods and provide their services.

If you think cohousing and ecovillage = hippie/radical/commune, take a look at this vid. It shows more compellingly than paragraphs of text why sustainable community is the cutting edge for quality of life today. The nine minutes fifty seconds you spend watching this video just may change your life. For more on Oshara and the makers of this vid, visit New Village Institute.

Sustainable communities are neighborhoods, sometimes whole towns, designed and built with a small village feel.They're the kind of places you'd like to raise your children. They're the sort of place you might like to grow old. They may be a group of homes on Staten Island, an experimental eco-village in Brazil (If you don't read Portuguese, Google Translate will convert it quickly) or a commune in Russia.

Wherever you find them, the people who live in them come together because they seek a community with whom they share core values and goals. These may vary from community to community, but one thing all sustainable communities have in common is their commitment to care for the Earth, as well as for each other.

Ecovillages, cohousing communities, transitional towns? The two most well-known sustainability models are ecovillages and cohousing communities. Examples of both models abound, many long-established, others more recent.

With millions of people concerned about quality of life for their children and generations to come, more and more people are coming together to buy land and plan the communities in which they wish to live. But for many of us, pulling up roots is not an option. Enter the transitional town, where folks join together to create sustainability at the civic level.

Each model offers something different. Immediately below, you'll find a brief description of each, and learn--in broad terms--how they differ and how they are the same. Watch for links to web sites of some well-established communities and other helpful resources.

Cohousing is a neighborhood, much like any urban or suburban neighborhood. Typically, residents own their own homes or condominiums, and share some space in common. Shared space may include a community building where folks gather for seasonal parties, to share meals, play ping pong, or for planning meetings or quilting bees. Sometimes laundry facilities and day care are shared in this space as well. Frequently there is a common plaza, undeveloped land, or playground which the community maintains together.

An ecovillage has all these things, plus commerce and a deep commitment to give back to the earth more than they take from it. Some or all of the residents may earn their living in the village, just as in times before industrialization, when village life was more common. So you might take your morning coffee in the local cafe, drop by the general store for today's pick of locally-grown, organic fruits and vegetables, and purchase a hot-from-the-oven loaf from the local bakery.

For a deeper look at the differences between intentional community models, see the Planet Friendly Community Page.

Ecovillages are also sometimes known as permaculture villages. While the religious and political beliefs of village members may vary, invariably, ecovillages are concerned with living lightly on the Earth and working with Nature to meet their needs. Many ecovillages have been in existence for decades and have become go-to models for living a low-impact life to the fullest. Best resource site for more information: Global Ecovillage Network.

How it works

• Members usually own their homes
• Members co-own common buildings and several, up to thousands, of acres of common land
• Some or all members contribute time to village enterprises, the revenues from which are shared by the community
• Members may own cottage industries
• The community typically grows much of its own food and members participate in community-owned, organic and/or permaculture gardens and farms
• Decision making is usually by consensus

Findhorn Ecovillage, in Scotland, is the site of dozens of firsts. They show just how possible it is to live in community and to enjoy an enviable quality of life while using less energy and consuming fewer natural resources. People travel to Findhorn from every corner of the world to study and learn how to live well with Nature and with each other.

Ecovillage at Ithaca blends two thirty-home cohousing communities with the ecovillage concept. Now more than ten years old, the village story is one of the most compelling. Learn about village life, then dig deeper with this book, EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture, which tells their story.

For an in-depth view of ecovillage life, watch and listen to this 27 minute slide show by Tony Sirna of Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage in rural Missouri.

This video is Part 1 of 2. In Part 2 of Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage Tony Sirna continues his discussion of their community currency and answers audience questions, many of which were my own. Perhaps he will answer some of yours as well.

In "A new We," Wolf documents the architecture--social as well as brick and mortar--and lifestyles of eight communities in ten European countries.

Each of these communities has a different focus, but all are engaged in people learning to live in harmony with the Earth and with each other. This video is the official trailer. "A new We" is also available on DVD for $30 from the Fellowship for International Community (FIC).*

You may also enjoy Chris Roth's enthusiastic and thoughtful review in Community Magazine: Hopeful new stories from the Old World: A new We.

*Btw, I receive no compensation in any form for promoting this video. I make this link available to you because the FIC is the sole North American distributor of the film.

Christian is one of the foremost advocates and sought-after speakers on living in intentional community. She has reason to be. She has lived, taught and worked in Earthaven EcoVillage for many years.

If you are thinking about starting an intentional community, read this first. Diana Leafe Christian knows the pitfalls and successes better, perhaps, than anyone, and she's outlined and detailed a clear road map to building community.

Perhaps the most helpful are the stories of failed communities. Christian interviewed the people involved and dissects their case histories so you can avoid making the same mistakes.

Christian's other book, Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community is also a must-read for the serious sustainable community hopeful.

This book, too, helps us navigate the often terrifying, equally often exhilarating waters of finding and building the right community.

Cohousing neighborhoods usually comprise a cluster of single-family, fully equipped homes or apartments and one or more community buildings, courtyards and playgrounds. Residents pay dues for the upkeep of the common buildings and grounds, and may participate in work days throughout the year. Usually they share meals a few times a week.

Cohousing ranges from single shared dwellings to large tracts of homes. Neighborhoods, too, vary from inner city to isolated rural. These are just a few examples.

• Eastern Village in Silver Spring, MD, is an inner city venture
• Wild Sage Cohousing in Boulder, CO is a surburban housing development
• Higher Ground Cohousing outside Bend, OR, is in a rugged rural area.

Best online resource for finding a community that meets your dreams: Cohousing Association of the United States.

How Cohousing works

• Members usually own their own homes
• Members share financial and upkeep responsibility for common grounds and buildings
• Communities typically consist of a group of homes or apartments and one or more commonly owned buildings, courtyards, gardens and playgrounds
• Structures range from single Victorians divided into apartments, to rebuilt-refurbished apartment complexes or condominiums, to a cluster of homes in a suburb
• Members typically grow some of their own food in a community garden
• Community-owned businesses are rare, though some cohousing communities provide live-work space and encourage cottage industry
• Governance is typically by consensus, though community charters differ widely

Transition towns are municipalities whose citizens have made a collective decision to promote quality of life over quantity, as well as creating an environment that reduces or eliminates the need to use fossil fuels for transportation.

Our vision is that every community in the United States has engaged its collective creativity to unleash an extraordinary and historic transition to a future beyond fossil fuels; a future that is more vibrant, abundant and resilient; one that is ultimately preferable to the present.

Transition Towns United States

The name is almost a misnomer, because the transition movement encompasses tiny villages and some of the world's largest cities.

Large or small, transition towns are municipalities whose citizenry has come together to address the three most serious issues having an impact on their everyday lives: Peak oil, climate change and financial instability.

Their shared purpose is to meet these challenges through short- and long-term strategies that will increase their community's capacity for energy resilience, reduce their carbon footprint community wide, and stabilize their economy for the long haul.

Founded in Ireland in 2006 by permaculture guru Rob Hopkins, Transition Towns, or Transition Town Totnes, as it is known there, quickly spread worldwide. For a comprehensive look, follow the link imbedded in the logo here, which they have kindly given me permission to use.

In a transition town, ordinary citizens and civic leaders work together to develop a long-term plan with measured steps along the way. Their objectives are to ensure their town can meet--and beat--the challenges of the twenty-first century while developing communities that thrive despite global uncertainties. Participation requires getting involved in your existing community. Now.

Best online resource: The transition town movement.

• Citizens and civic leaders meet and begin planning how their town can become--and remain--resilient in the face of diminishing oil reserves, skyrocketing energy costs, climate change, and a turbulent economy in the decades to come
• Planners initiate a series of campaigns to engage business leaders and ordinary citizens in a comprehensive effort to reduce the city's carbon footprint
• Planners simultaneously initiate a series of campaigns to encourage the community to source food, goods and services locally, thereby stabilizing their economic base

One person can make a difference. See how Joanne Poyurow, an ordinary citizen, helped the City of Angels become a transition town

Some might be daunted at the thought of helping a metropolis like Los Angeles adopt the concepts and purpose of transitioning to a low-fossil-fuel, high-community-bonded city. Joanne began small, meeting with other concerned citizens.

Together, they set goals and objectives to begin the Herculean task of becoming Environmental Changemakers. That was in 2005. They've been working and growing and making waves ever since, and their reach is amazing.

Perhaps Joanne's story will inspire you to make changes in your area, doing what you can. Stay inspired by following her blog on the Transition US site.

With chapter titles like How peak oil and climate change affect us: Post petroleum stress disorder, and Why rebuilding resilience is as important as cutting carbon emissions, you know this is more than a how-to handbook: It's a good read too. Better still, the authors wrote what they knew: They've been helping communities become transition towns since 2005. They've studied the process, implemented it, tweaked it, tested it and retested it. They know what works--and what doesn't.

If you are interested in helping your city become a transition town, start with the Transition Handbook.

Would you like to live in an ecovillage, or a cohousing community?

What do you think of the idea of transitioning your entire city from a heavily oil-dependent town to one that provides neighborhoods with parks and safe paths to grocery stores, restaurants, libraries, dry cleaners, and just about anything else we might need?

Take this poll, and after you vote, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comment section below.