Ecovillages have been around for thousands of years. They increased in popularity, particularly in Scotland and Ireland, as Celtic monasteries in the sixth through eighth centuries. The key term always associated with ecovillages is community. Ecovillages are also often referred to as “intentional” communities, which are defined to a great degree by a shared vision of inhabitants to embrace a land ethic and live peacefully and in as self-reliant a manner as possible. Ecovillages exist in virtually every country in the world and a substantial number are right here in America.
Many people confuse ecovillage living with the communal living movement of the 1960’s, which is unfortunate. Most ecovillages are not about dropping out and rebellion, they are about models for reducing our ecological impacts and helping preserve a healthier sustainable future on our planet. They frequently include artisans working their crafts for sufficient incomes that would qualify them for living almost anywhere. However, the typical ecovillager wants no part of the excessive consumption of material goods, fossil-fuel based energy, and industrially produced food that mainstream America is tiring of. A strong tendency toward educational eco-literacy and spiritual enquiry is also a trademark of ecovillage living.
The Sustainable Lifestyle Imperative
The Angwin Ecovillage was born of a request from a top California official to find a new and better model for suburban development. A model that treads lightly on the land, self-mitigates its own impacts while eliminating economic externalities, and inspires a systemic method of creating local community that is truly sustainable in that it is mostly self-sufficient in basic needs and preserves quality of life for future generations. It is a daunting task to create such a community. In the Angwin Ecovillage we believe, with Pacific Union College as an active participant, we have achieved the first developer-inspired ecovillage in California that reduces all of its impacts to insignificance without any need for over-riding considerations. This represents a paradigm shift in the manner in which development can provide local food, energy, education, shelter and public transportation to community residents in a most environmentally and socially equitable way.
Is the California citizen ready for this? We are sure of it. We know that the U.S. generates 25% of our planet’s greenhouse gases with less than 5% of its people. And we know that two-thirds of our polluting emissions come from the transportation sector. We cannot continue on the auto-centric trajectory we have followed for the past 100 years without further erosion to our own quality of life. The Angwin Ecovillage requires its residents to embrace and support a pedestrian, bicycling, and transit oriented lifestyle so innovative that it redefines Sustainable Transportation Management.
We also know that citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about the 1,400 average miles their food is shipped each day; the lack of safety oversight and the harmful industrial techniques used to produce that food. Organic growers are in demand, as are farmers’ markets and local foodshed awareness when people shop for groceries. The Angwin Ecovillage requires its residents to participate in the Angwin Agricultural Conservancy, a 30-acre organic farm adjoining the community that could produce 80% of the produce required by Ecovillage residents and college students, faculty, and staff.
We also know that conservation of potable water, and reclamation and re-use of such a precious resource, is essential toward a sustainable future. Water can and must be used and re-used far more efficiently than we currently use it. The Angwin Ecovillage does precisely that as it reduces homeowner potable usage to less than 50% of conventional residences, and uses 100% of its wastewater, recycled to tertiary level, for all outdoor landscaping and irrigation.
We also know that conservation of sensitive land is paramount to sustainable living. The preservation of forests, agricultural lands, and open space must be ethically considered with each attempt to accommodate the needs of the world’s expanding population, currently growing by 70 million people each year. California itself anticipates adding 10 million more residents by 2030. A critical balance is necessary between much more urban infill transit-oriented development and a healthier and environmentally benign way to grow in suburban areas as well. The Angwin Ecovillage sits on a very compact 63 acres of land (of which 75% is adaptively re-using previously developed areas.), about 3% of the college’s total land holdings of over 1,900 acres. Furthermore, the Ecovillage has conditioned itself to preserve in perpetuity over 1,000 acres of prime forested lands filled with private hiking and biking trails, to become public trails forever upon entitlement of the Ecovillage. And absolutely none of the college’s agriculturally zoned land will be used for anything but agriculture.
We also know that quality of life is important to every community. Angwin residents care deeply about preserving their semi-rural ambience, their quiet, starlit nights, and their independence. They are justifiably concerned that impacts will truly be reduced to insignificance with the addition of a new, albeit small, ecovillage next door. To address those concerns, the Angwin Ecovillage proposes to commit to an unusually stringent annual monitoring program rarely seen in this country. In essence, each year the Ecovillage conditions to minimizing traffic, protecting watershed, reducing energy needs, enhancing public safety, growing and stabilizing a local farm, providing a jobs/housing balance, mitigating impacts to schools, and providing locally based goods and services to Angwin will be monitored by local and County staff. If the mitigation programs are not meeting threshold targets, the development will stop until those targets are reached. This is an extraordinary commitment about impacts being made by Pacific Union College and the Ecovillage development team to all Angwin residents.
Finally, we see the tragic toll being taken on our families every day as they are forced to move farther and farther away from their places of employment. Despite all of its wonderful attributes, Napa County maintains the dubious distinction of being one of the least affordable housing markets in the U.S. Many of its managers and professional service providers are priced out of the market and sacrifice hours each day with their own families to commute from multiple counties where they can find housing they can afford. That should be unacceptable to every democratically-minded citizen in this country. But how and where one adds affordable housing must be handled properly to protect community values and to integrate those vital service providers with high-quality housing seamlessly integrated within market rate homes. The Angwin Ecovillage does precisely that and more, as it proposes a stellar example of “local preference housing” in a program designed to minimize the out-of-county second home buyer and to foster an Ecovillage community of healthy, productive Napa County workers.
Many Napa County residents have already asked how they can secure the ability to own a home in the Angwin Ecovillage. Many have said they dream of living just such a healthy lifestyle. And if it can be done in Napa County, perhaps it can then be inspirational to other jurisdictions in California, particularly those regions of the state sadly losing thousands of prime farm acres to development each year. There has not been any comparable community as sustainable as the Angwin Ecovillage created in U.S. history. Its time is at hand because there is no time to waste in changing our behaviors to sustainable living.