With the aim of creating and presenting to the world outstanding examples of what it means in live in harmony with nature in a sustainable way, GEN promotes and facilitates communities--whether rural or urban--which develop and implement technologies and practices such that human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world.

The Global Ecovillage Network is developing the concept of sustainability auditing to provide measuring rods for individuals and for existing villages and communities to compare their current status with ideal goals for ecological, social, and spiritual sustainability. In addition, these tools are learning instruments - pointing out actions aspiring individuals and communities can take to become more sustainable.
Global Ecovillage Network

Announcing the NEW Ecovillage Store on ENA's web pages. The EV Store will be offering a variety of books and videos in the future. Our first item is an inspiring new book, Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and Her People, edited by Hildur Jackson, Karen Svensson. Go to: http://ena.ecovillage.org/store/index.html
or http://ena.ecovillage.org/Espanol

With the large and growing interest in urban sustainability, an URBAN ECOVILLAGE NETWORK is now forming! See - http://urban.ecovillage.org/

Ecovillage Network of the Americas

Creating a Life Together:
Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
by Diana Leafe Christian previously editor of Communities Magazine
foreword by Patch Adams.

2003 New Society Publishers, 272 pp. $23 $19.

Creating a Life Together is an overview of the process of forming new ecovillages and intentional communities, gleaned from founders of dozens of successful communities in North America formed since the early '90s. This is what they did, and what you can do, to create your community dream. It attempts to distill their hard experience into solid advice on getting started as a group, creating vision documents, decision-making and governance, agreements and policies, buying and financing land, communication and process, and selecting people to join you. It's what works, what doesn't work, and how not to reinvent the wheel. This information is not only for people forming new communities - whether or not you already own your land. It can also be valuable for those of you thinking about joining community one day - since you, too, will need to know what works. And it's also for those of you already living in community, since you can only benefit from knowing what others have done in similar circumstances.

"Wow! The newest, most comprehensive bible for builders of intentional communities. Covers every aspect with vital information and hundreds of examples of how successful communities faced the challenges and created their shared lives out of their visions. The cautionary tales of sadder experiences and how communities fail, will help in avoiding the pitfalls. Not since I wrote the Foreword to Ingrid Komar's Living the Dream (1983), which documented the Twin Oaks community, have I seen a more useful and inspiring book." --Hazel Henderson, author, Creating Alternative Futures, and Politics of the Solar Age.

"A great deal of research and trial-and-error has been assembled here, and every potential ecovillager should read it. This book will be an essential guide and msanual for the many Permaculture graduates who live in communities or design for them." --Bill Mollison, co-originator of the Permaculture concept, author of The Permaculture Designers Manual, Ferment and Human Nutrition.

"A really valuable resource for anyone thinking about intentional community. I wish I had it years ago." -- Starhawk, author of Webs of Power, The Spiral Dance, and The Fifth Sacred Thing -- and committed communitarian.

Permaculture Credit Union
Savings accounts, loans, credit card, more.
http://www.pcuonline.org/
4250 Cerrillos Road
P.O. Box 29300
Santa Fe, NM 87592-9300, USA
Ph:(505) 954-3479; Toll Free: (866) 954-3479
Fax: (505) 424-1624
Email:
Apply for a PCU Visa Card MyCUcard.com

Ecovillage Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture
by Liz Walker
$18 $16, 2005, 236pp

In a world filled with stories of environmental devastation and social dysfunction , EcoVillage at Ithaca is a refreshing and hopeful look at a modern-day village that is taking an integrated approach to addressing these problems.

This book tells the story of life at EcoVillage at Ithaca, an internationally recognized example of sustainable development. It transports the reader into the midst of a vibrant community that includes cohousing neighborhoods, small-scale organic farming, land preservation, green building, energy alternatives and hands-on education. By integrating proven social and environmental alternatives into a living model, EcoVillage at Ithaca provides a rare glimpse into one possible - and positive - future for the planet.

EcoVillage at Ithaca delves into the heart of the lived experience at this innovative community. It provides a warm, personal and reflective look at what it is like to create a sustainable culture.

The book tells in-depth stories about an integrated way of life: running a family farm; creating "invented celebrations"; the poignancy of a home birth, as well as a conscious death; community work parties, and; dramatic examples of personal transformation.
At the same time, as one chapter states, "This is not Utopia," and the struggles and conflicts inherent in any community endeavor are not glossed over.

Human scale, accessible and inspiring, the example of EcoVillage at Ithaca will help readers imagine fresh alternatives to "life as usual." It will appeal to all who are hungry to learn about successful working models of a more sustainable approach to living with each other and the Earth.

Liz Walker co-founded and has directed EcoVillage at Ithaca since its inception in1991, and has lived there with her family since the first buildings were completed. She has worked on all aspects of the community's development, and has written and lectured widely on the topic.