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October 16, 2014 | Vol 1, No. 5
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Early Conference Registration Ends Tomorrow!
Sixth Community Solutions Conference Climate Crisis - Curtailment and Community November 7-9, Yellow Springs, OH
Register online or by fax or mail by the end of day, Friday, October 17th, and save on the regular registration fee. Registration increases by $20 on Saturday, the 18th.
The conference brochure and registration information are available here.
You can register online here. The full schedule is posted here.
Challenge Gift for Conference Scholarships
Susan Schaller, author of A Man Without Words, has offered a challenge grant. She will match $500 of donations to provide scholarships for up to six (6) attendees. We have a growing list of people who would like to come to the conference on scholarship and really appreciate your support in getting them here.
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Speaker Spotlight: Liz Walker
Stepping Stones to Sustainability: What Cohousing Communities Can Learn from Ecovillages
You may already know that cohousing represents a huge step forward in quality of life and sense of community compared to the typical American lifestyle. You also may know that most cohousing communities are environmentally friendly - they often have densely clustered buildings (using less land), shared common facilities (using fewer resources) and smaller homes (using less heat and building materials). Some cohousing groups (such as Westwood in Asheville, NC) have innovative shared heating systems and use renewable energy for heat and hot water. Others use photovoltaic panels for generating electricity.
If many cohousing groups are already doing all this, what can they possibly learn from ecovillages? In my view, ecovillages carry ecological design to the next step. An ecovillage attempts to create well-integrated systems of housing, food, work and play that enhance, rather than degrade the natural environment. Ecovillages around the world are living experiments that vary tremendously in size, primary focus and style. They are on every continent, and include traditional Italian hill towns to Senegalese fishing villages to permaculture communities in Australia and high-tech cohousing communities in Denmark.
 Cohousing may be used as the social building block of an ecovillage. But an ecovillage also includes economic activity, education and organic farming, as well as housing. I live in a cohousing ecovillage in Upstate New York - EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI). In my experience, ecovillages are distinguished from typical cohousing communities by emphasizing a holistic approach to ecological, social, economic and spiritual design. Ecovillages typically incorporate green building, organic food production and on-site businesses. They are oriented toward learning from experimental systems and teaching the lessons learned.
Some cohousing communities integrate many but not all of these features. I offer a challenge to other cohousing communities to consider not only adding on some of these eco-features, but also serving as a catalyst to learning, teaching and organizing local sustainability initiatives. The world needs your inspiration.
Read the entire article here,.
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Community Solutions Events
Report on "Climate Conversations"
Last week Community Solutions hosted an evening event to initiate the development of a climate action plan in Yellow Springs, OH. Over sixty concerned citizens attended this "Climate Conversation." It was planned to harness the momentum of the recent People's Climate March in NYC, which many Yellow Springs citizens and Antioch College students attended.
The evening began with a short documentary of locals' experiences during the march, made by filmmaker Eric Johnson and Community Solutions staff. Bob Brecha, who is a speaker at our upcoming Climate Crisis Conference, updated the group on the findings of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. His talk set a tone of urgency for the evening. During the remainder of the evening people discussed the local efforts already being made to address climate change, including Village energy efforts, a proposed community solar project, reading groups, and a pollinator project. This allowed the group to move toward a conversation of what other actions can be taken, and how everyone can support one another's efforts.
Moving forward, the group has a unified interest in creating a diverse action plan, including efforts on renewable energy, lobbying, education, zero-waste. Attendees from the event are ready to begin meeting regularly to implement this plan. It was noted that inspiration and insights can be taken from existing climate action plans, such as those in Seattle, WA and Oberlin, OH. However, we are looking forward to helping create a plan suited to the needs and interests of our local Yellow Springs community.
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