Ecovillage

As an eco-estate (ecological settlement, ecovillage ) refers to a village or district, that is respectively aligned to ecological criteria such as sustainability. This concerns in particular the transport planning (eg neighborhoods without traffic ) and energy standards, so for example, low energy houses, passive houses and a regional energy supply from renewable energy sources or cogeneration plants. Partial ecological communities are intentional communities, that is, the people living there have deliberately come together to align their lives according to certain values. But even " normal " parts of the city are known as " eco-estate " when they meet high environmental standards in their construction and transport planning.

To differentiate against such " ecological communities ", the term eco-village is often used. The idea of ​​the ecovillage is to integrate as all areas of life. So not only ecologically to live and then to drive every day to work by car, but also to organize production, education, social security, etc., within the Community. Worldwide there are a number of such projects.

Examples of ecological communities are the Freiburg Vauban district in Germany and " The Habitat " in Austria.

Examples of ecovillages in Germany are Siebenlinden, Krumm Hagen in the community Steinhagen and in Austria the project "Nice water " (formerly " cotyledon ecovillage ").

In Spain, for example, the village Matavenero to call, in Colombia the settlement Gaviotas, in the U.S. about the " Ecovillage at Ithaca " in Ithaca, New York.

The eco-villages and settlement projects organized increasingly around the world to learn from each other: in particular, in regions experience heavy pollution, desertification and deforestation try ecologically oriented pioneers counter positions with sustainable development and organic farming build. In Senegal, ecovillages are part of government policy. 14,000 rural communities are to be converted to ecological communities. So they have about the Global Ecovillage Network together. In December 2012, another network was founded in Sekem also for Africa.