Building an on-line, open-source "Solutions Library"

Everyone is invited to contribute to the on-line, open-source solutions library that is under construction at the Appropedia web site. Appropedia is "the appropriate and sustainable technologies Wiki," at https://www.appropedia.org.

This project was started by Tom Stanton, of Community Energy Solutions. This project has now been formally adopted by three major sponsors thus far. Participants include Appropedia (the Appropriate and Sustainable Technologies Wiki), Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), and the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC). 

The project aims to explore how ecovillages and intentional communities are using technologies, and governance and management systems that enable sustainable, resilient, and regenerative communities, while at the same time developing and expanding affordability and providing for inclusive and democratic decision-making systems and operating practices. The project goal is to inventory successful practices from existing ecovillages and from positive innovations in other communities that are ready to be replicated. The objectives for this work include: 

1. Providing an array of tools and techniques for diagnosing unsustainable practices. 

2. Exploring how communities can readily move away from unsustainability in any and all practices, using proven and ready-to-adopt, incremental steps that can be adopted at every meaningful scale from individual households to the largest cities and metropolitan regions.

3. Providing key examples, by topic, for all major community functions, arranged in ways that make it easy for decision makers to identify potential projects and address them in logical sequence. Ideally, early successes will help to set the stage for subsequent projects.     

A recent report (available here) explains that intentional communities are important sources of innovation about how best to achieve positive results that improve community outcomes.

[L]ocal initiatives . . . are far ahead in putting solutions into practice. . .. One example is ecovillages, which have been promoting a life in harmony with nature for decades. Existing data suggest that ecovillages often have over 50% reduction in their ecological footprint (a measurement of environmental sustainability) when compared to average communities. Community-led initiatives in general, and specifically ecovillages, are laboratories for sustainable ways of living.

The online platform includes these major topic areas:

• Building materials and methods

• Financing

• Food systems

• Governance, decision-making and social systems

• Energy

• Housing

• Landscape architecture

• Resource sharing

• Transportation

• Waste Management

• Water

• Research Questions and Needs

See the project "home page" on the Appropedia network here: https://www.appropedia.org/Ecovillages_%26_Intentional_Communities_Energy_and_Climate_Action_Research_Project

It takes only a minute to create your own user account on Appropedia, and then you are welcome to explore, suggest, comment, and add your own content any time.