Tag Archives: ecovillage

Top 6 lessons learned living in cohousing: A psychologist’s view

Top 6 Lessons for Village Living: (1) Without interaction between people, there is no village: (a) Allocate time for relationships. (b) Live in physical structures that encourages interaction and get the right balance between public and private space. (2) Invite those who can (a) skillfully hear and express their truth even when there is unpleasant emotion and (b) are willing to continually improve at this. Best way to know: you’ve had disagreements and come out the others side. (3) Be free! Learn from failure and communicate instead of creating too many rules. (4) Small is beautiful. Empower the smallest decision-making group possible for the decision at hand. (5) Welcome people, build goodwill, and be clear about a coherent vision and process. (6) Realistic expectations

Tamera: Peace Village Integrating Physical & Social Technology

Tamera, a peace-oriented ecovillage in Portugal, garnered an “Honorable Mention” (#3 of 150 proposals) in the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Tamera was started in 1995, but it was only the latest evolution of a conscious series of community experiments starting in 1978 and some of those experiments still continue as well (e.g., ZEGG in Germany). It […]

Dialog with Sustainable Business Students

I just gave a talk on sustainable well-being to Tom Eggert’s class, Topics in Sustainable Business Practice, at UW-Madison. I’ve given a talk every year for the last 5 or so and every time it’s very rewarding, stimulating, and encouraging to hear thoughtful students engaging with this fascinating subject. In the past, I’ve spent more […]

Sustainable Well-being Retreats: Version 2.0

For the beginning of our third year of Swabi retreats, we started to explore transitioning the group to another phase. These videos explain this transition while also providing some idea of what the retreats are about. Part I, New Ways of Living, shows examples of cohousing and permaculture-inspired ecovillages as potential models for living sustainably. […]