Michigan Ecovillages and Intentional Communities Touring -- July 17 through 24, 2025

Join likeminded people July 17 through 24, as we explore Michigan examples of sustainability, resilience, and restoration. Events are free, but everyone should pre-register to let us know when and where you will join us, and whether you will join in person or by Zoom meeting. In person guests will provide their own transportation, meals, and lodging if necessary.

For July 2025, Tom is working on plans for Michigan Ecovillage and Intentional Community touring and education. All Michigan existing and planned ecovillages are invited to participate, and anyone interested in neighborhood, village, and community based development, sustainability, restoration, and resilency are invited, too. Plans for the tour are still being adjusted, and we welcome input from everyone about topics and presenters for discussion. Plans will be adjusted based on registrations and through communications with the registered guests. Please see the EVENTS listings here: https://www.communityenergysolutions.info/events. Each day of the tour has its own EVENT listing. Please click on the calendar page to switch it to show July 2025.

Co-sponsors for the tour include the Capital Area Friends of the Environment (https://517cafe.org) and Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (https://www.glrea.org). Co-sponsors are asked to assist with information sharing and are invited to provide content during any of the daily tour events.

Community Energy Solution's Tom Stanton is working on multiple projects centered around Ecovillages and Intentional Communities of all kinds. He has helped to establish multiple projects affiliated with Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) and a few of the regional groups that are included in the GEN family of organizations. Those include GEN-Europe, GENNA (for North America), and GEN-CASA (for Central and South America). Tom initiated what is now a joint project between GEN International and Appropedia (the open-source Wiki for appropriate and sustainable technologies). This project is focusing on success stories and all kinds of technologies, governance practices, decision making tools, and frameworks and guidelines for ecovillages. See https://www.appropedia.org/Ecovillages_%26_Intentional_Communities_Energy_and_Climate_Action_Research_Project.

Tom is also working with GEN International and the Foundation for Intentional Community, on a joint project that is generating a comprehensive database and global map to identify existing and planned ecovillages. https://ecovillage.org/map-update/.

Our partners are already exploring how to publish comprehensive listings of places to see and people to meet all over Michigan. We welcome volunteers to participate in these efforts, and as funding permits we will work with others to establish more Michigan tours.

Those interested in Ecovillages and Intentional Communities are invited to visit these web sites that contain extensive resources about such communities:

• Community Finders. https://communityfinders.com/programs/. This organization provides detailed assistance for helping those who are interested in ecovillages and intentional communities to define their needs and learn how best to find communities suited to their personal needs and interests. They are building extensive curricula, guides, and resources towards that goal.
  

• Ecovillage Tours. This company offers tours of ecovillages in Asia, Central America, Europe, India, and the United States. Additional countries are being added. https://www.ecovillagetours.com/   Also see the list of partners, with links, near the bottom of the ecovillagetours.com web site.

• Foundation for Intentional Community. https://www.ic.org/ref/135
  

• Global Ecovillage Network. https://ecovillage.org/