This community called Findhorn is one of the first modern low carbon ecovillages that has radically transformed the notion of how to live, creating hundreds of earth friendly buildings with a biological waste water and sewage system, 3 wind turbines, hundreds of solar panels and even a green burial site, making the villages ecological footprint half the national UK average.
The community began in 1962, and over the past 60 years the village has attract well over 14,000 visitors from around the world. The ecovillage has several neighborhoods with approximately 500 people from 50 different countries living on 32 acres. A further 100 plus acres is managed by Findhorn hinterland trust and preserved for the wild land and precious dunes surrounding the community which is situated on the coast of Scotland.
There are several villages in the surrounding area where a further 1000 people live who are connected to the community. The Findhorn ecovillage has many amenities, there's an organic shop, a cafe, a pizza place, there are workshops of various kinds and offices for various businesses, everything you could need is within walking distance, and there is car sharing club, using electric powered vehicles.
The village is also known for having the United Kingdoms oldest and largest community supported agriculture system, theres an organic farm, a forest farm, allotments and front yards that are all growing food even in the tough conditions on this sandy Scottish peninsular.
Actually it was once thought impossible to grow vegetables on this sandy soil, so the locals would traditionally use the fields for grazing animals and barley but back in the early 1960s the founding members of the ecovillage managed to create a thriving organic garden with ginormous cabbages,
it was these miraculous super sized vegetables that began to put this virtually unknown place on the map, people from all over the world came flocking to Findhorn wanting to know not only how to grow food in such tough conditions but they also wanted to understand how to live a life in harmony with nature and with one another. The ecovillage started from very humble beginnings, it all began from a small caravan and it has now grown into a model for sustainable development across the world.
I took a 3 day tour of the ecovillage and interviewed members of the community to understand how the ecovillage works, from biological waste management, to sustainable power and ecobuildings, we will take a tour of this incredible place! where 500 people can live sustainably.
Now it's taking me ages to edit the video!
