The Path To
Surviving Peak Oil
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
Jonathan Dawson investigates how green eco-villagers really are.
F
ootprints are suddenly your footprint’ guides, there
all the rage. As recently is no apparent sign of any
as four or five years ago, drop in general consumption.
mention of the term evoked What can be happening?
blank stares – now carbon How can it be that the tidal
calculators abound and even wave of messages – about
the proverbial ‘man in the the importance of turning
street’ seems to have a fair idea off the standby function on
of how many planets we devices, using energy-efficient
would need if everyone in the lightbulbs and travelling by
world enjoyed the average mass public transport rather
West European lifestyle. (The than private motorcar – are
answer is about three and not translating into significant
nearer five and a half were reductions in resource and
North American lifestyles to energy use?
become the global norm.) Some interesting clues
Yet despite the increase in emerge from the findings of
eco-literacy and the prol- recent research into eco-
iferation of ‘How to reduce villages. Studies undertaken
in association with universities
in Scotland, Germany and
the United States have found
that ecovillages have succeeded
in achieving footprint results
far below the national average.
Moreover, the study results
come packaged in two further
significant wrappings of
good news. First, they have
© J Horne/Shutterstock
succeeded in reducing their
footprints while retaining a
high quality of life; small
42 Permaculture Magazine No. 54
© M Damkier/Shutterstock
footprints, in short, do not Above:
need to mean pinched feet. Flying is one of the main
Second, while ecovillages problems that eco-villagers
tend to be highly distinctive need to address.
initiatives, there are good
grounds for believing that at Bottom left:
least some of the core factors Low-energy lightbulbs are
explaining the low footprints most people’s introduction
can be replicated – easily to energy saving.
and with pleasure – into
more mainstream contexts. Below:
By far the most important Footprints are suddenly all
factor accounting for the low the rage.
footprints in the ecovillages
under study was communality.
That is, by working together
and co-operating, far more
options are open to people
than if they try to work alone
or in nuclear units. (Really,
this should be a surprise to
no-one: we have, for almost
the entire existence of our
species, lived in relatively small,
co-operative communities
and only the historical blip
Footprints a
of plentiful fossil fuel energy
has given us the illusion that
all the
we can live well outside of a
community context.)
Yet, it seems to be a truth
that is hard to swallow. After
www.permaculture.co.uk

Community residents have a footprint a fraction over half of the national average.
Above: enjoying the bulk of Al Gore’s
Saving energy in more ways film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’,
than one at the Findhorn I winced through the final
Foundation Community, rolling credits with their mult-
Scotland. iple messages about what the
individual could do to address
Bottom right: climate change. What a missed
Eco-villagers’ decisions are opportunity I thought, when
rarely black & white but they the message could have been
do aim to be green. framed in terms of simul-
taneously reducing resource
use and reweaving the fabric
of our communities.
The truth is that the grav-
itational pull of the global
economy and the structures
and ideology that support it
are so strong that individuals
have little chance of sign-
ificantly breaking its orbit.
As a group of cotton workers
in Rochdale first demon-
strated in the 1830s, co-
operative action is necessary.
are suddenly So, let’s take a look at
several specific recent studies.
e rage. The first was an emissions
study undertaken by the
University of Kassel in 2003,
© R Griffin/Shutterstock
that compared two eco-
villages with two ‘ecofriendly’
households and the German
www.permaculture.co.uk
© Findhorn Foundation
average household. Per capita, study of the Findhorn Found-
CO2 emissions in the Ökodorf ation community in Scotland
Sieben Linden and the Kom- reveals that the community’s
mune Niederkaufungen – residents have a footprint a
two members of the Global fraction over half of the
Ecovillage Network – were national average – 2.71
respectively 72 per cent and hectares per capita compared
58 per cent lower than those to a UK national average of
of an average German house- 5.40 hectares. The community
hold. Tellingly, both were achieved an especially low
also significantly lower than footprint in the areas of home
the green households. Sieben heating and food – 21.5 per
Linden scored especially well cent and 37 per cent of the
in the fields of heating and national average, respectively.
housing, where the com-
munity recorded reductions EARTH CARE, PEOPLE SHARE
of CO2 emissions by 90 and The communal nature of the
94 per cent respectively of ecovillages emerged in each
the national average. of the studies as the most
Then, Ecovillage at Ithaca
in upstate New York, had
several ecological footprint
studies done, one by Cornell
University, another by the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). These both
found that the community’s
© Miller Images/Shutterstock
footprint was more than
40 per cent lower than the
national average.
Finally, the recently pub-
lished ecological footprint
No. 54 Permaculture Magazine 43

important factor. Many meals
are cooked and eaten com-
munally: up to 300 people
eat in Findhorn’s two main
dining rooms. This involves
a substantial saving in terms
both of energy consumption
and in the equipment needed
for a small number of large
kitchens as opposed to many
small ones.
Ecovillage residents also
tend to have more communal
residential arrangements than
conventional communities.
This permits a significant
sharing of energy, with num-
erous ecovillage buildings
designed around heating
systems, often based on the use
© Jim Bosjolie
44 Permaculture Magazine
© Jim Bosjolie
© Findhorn Foundation
of recycled woodchip as fuel, feed the communities with Top left:
that heat entire residential predominantly local, organic, Community food
districts. Sieben Linden’s seasonal and vegetarian food. preparation, Findhorn.
combined heat and power Similarly, Findhorn has been
district heating system was a able to build on strong ties Above:
key factor in its historically of social solidarity to create Communal dining at Ithaca
low footprint score. a community wind park, in the USA.
The benefits of commun- comprising four wind turbines
ality are also reflected in a that make the community a Bottom left:
relatively low ownership of net exporter of energy. Shared white goods leads to
‘consumables’ – that is, wash- Most ecovillages – and each low personal ownership.
ing machines, lawn-mowers, of those examined by these
television sets and the like. studies – also generate subs- LOVE MILES
Rather than everyone owning tantial employment on-site, Before we get too carried
each of these, people share. reducing the need for com- away, these ecovillages are
There are community laundries. muting to a minimum. There some distance short of being
People gather in private homes are also formal and informal perfect models. None has a
for showings of DVDs and car sharing schemes. Car footprint below the permissible
videos. Car pools or less formal mileage per capita in Findhorn level for global per capita
car-sharing arrangements are was found to be six per cent sustainability. To a significant
common. Moreover, the of the national average. extent, this demonstrates
vibrant arts scene within many Together, these various the difficulty that even eco-
ecovillages – choirs, dance factors have permitted the villages have in escaping the
classes and community organ- ecovillages studied to dramat- wider trends and behaviours
ised concerts are common – ically shrink their footprints. of the societies in which they
reduce the demand for tele- Yet, there is no indication that are located.
visions and other toys and the average ecovillage resident In addition, many eco-
tools of distraction. would consider him or herself villages are to greater or lesser
The advantages of com- to be especially poor. No degrees dependent econom-
munality also emerge in more sign here of the deprivation ically on course participants
subtle forms. Both Findhorn that seems, in the popular jetting in from far and wide.
and Ithaca have organised media, to be the necessary International communities
community supported agri- price to be paid for reducing like Findhorn have the
culture (CSA) schemes that resource consumption. additional problem of com-
No. 54 www.permaculture.co.uk

Above:
Self-made entertainment is a
feature of community life as
here at Ithaca.
Top right:
All benefit from community
growing as here at Findhorn.
Bottom right:
Beyond You & Me, book.
munity residents feeling the
need to return occasionally to
visit friends and family in their
country of origin (what George
Monbiot has so memorably
called ‘love miles’): Findhorn
residents typically fly around
two and a half times the UK
per capita air miles.
Having said this, most eco-
villages today are seeking to
develop more local sources of
income and to be less depen-
dent on visitors coming from
afar. ZEGG and Sieben Linden,
in Germany, are both working
hard bioregionally to build
up networks of social and
economic solidarity through,
for example, strengthening
networks of local, organic,
food producers. Findhorn,
www.permaculture.co.uk
© Findhorn Foundation
© Jim Bosjolie
meanwhile, now focuses the Jonathan Dawson is a It is for anyone seeking the
great bulk of its promotional sustainability educator and elusive goal of social sustain-
activities on the UK and is consultant based at the ability: the art of living in peace
developing strong partnerships Findhorn Foundation. He with all our fellow creatures,
with Scottish universities and is President of the Global especially human beings.
local government organisations Ecovillage Network. He is The 4 Keys series is born
through, for example, its CIFAL organising a conference at out of the Gaia Education Eco-
UN training programme.1 Findhorn next Easter called village Design Curriculum,
The moral of the story is ‘Positive Energy: Positive which has the endorsement
not – or, rather, not necessarily Community Responses to of the United Nations Institute
– that a sustainable world will Peak Oil and Climate Change’. for Training and Research
be comprised of places looking See: www.findhorn.org/ (UNITAR) and is an official
like ecovillages. The point, positiveenergy contribution to the UN Decade
rather, is that ecovillages are of Education for Sustainable
developing models and lessons 1 www.cifalfindhorn.org/ Development (UNDESD).
that can be applied elsewhere
in more mainstream contexts. USEFUL WEBSITES Beyond You & Me,
The principle of these is http://gen.ecovillage.org Permanent Publications,
that as long as our worldviews www.siebenlinden.de/ 304pp, £19.95, is available
and behaviour patterns remain english2035.html from the Green Shopping
dominated by the notion of www.kommune- Catalogue. See also page 33.
individuals and nuclear units niederkaufungen.de/
operating largely independently kommune/english.htm
of each other, the gravitational
pull of the global economy NEW ECOVILLAGE BOOK
will keep us in its orbit. The Beyond You & Me –
power of community lies both Inspiration and Wisdom for
in weaving us back into human- Building Communities is
scale settlements and in giving the first of four books that
us the tools to significantly provide the 4 Keys to Sustain-
reduce our footprints. able Communities.
It will, in the end, be the It is a practical anthology
power of community that will from social and ecovillage
help us all survive peak oil pioneers the world over.
No. 54 Permaculture Magazine 45