Beginnings
The October 1982 Conference ‘Building a Planetary Village’ hosted by the Findhorn Foundation marked the beginning of serious attempts by the intentional community, which had existed at Findhorn since 1962 to demonstrate a human settlement that could be considered sustainable in environmental, social, and economic terms.
The term ‘ecovillage’ later came to be used to describe such experiments and in 1995 the first international conference of ecovillages, Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century, was held in Findhorn.
At first almost all of the activities this involved, such as eco-house construction, a 75 kW Vestas wind turbine and an ecological waste water treatment system were undertaken by the Findhorn Foundation itself, or its trading company New Findhorn Directions Ltd. However, from 1990 onwards a growing number of independent charities, businesses, small sister communities, independent practitioners and community bodies have grown up and significantly extended the size and diversity of ecological projects, some of which are listed below. As of 2005 the Ecovillage has around 450 members centred around The Park (the main campus on the southern edge of Findhorn), but also based at numerous locations in the nearby town of Forres and elsewhere in Moray. The project supports approximately 300 jobs in the Findhorn/Forres area and provides a total aggregate economic impact in excess of £5 million per annum in the Highlands of Scotland as a whole.
Read more about this topic: Findhorn Ecovillage
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The beginnings of altruism can be seen in children as early as the age of two. How then can we be so concerned that they count by the age of three, read by four, and walk with their hands across the overhead parallel bars by five, and not be concerned that they act with kindness to others?”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)