What is an Ecovillage?

• Urban or rural communities

• Creating a supportive social environment with a low impact way of life.

• Integrate various aspects of ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, green production, alternative energy, community building practices, and much more.

VILLAGE MISSION STATEMENT1999

“To create and manage a sustainable village in Ireland. TheVillage will serve as a model for sustainable living into the

21st century and will serve as an education, enterpriseresearch and service resource for all”

The Cloughjordan Ecovillage• Many kinds of ecovillage

worldwide • Common theme – living within

the planet's capacity to support us

Themes of our Ecovillage:

• A model development – educational

• Modern levels of comfort etc• A great place to live – for all

ages• A place where it's easier to

live sustainably

Community Buildings

• 3 Community spaces -potentially!

• Coach House

• Education Building

• Cultural/Artistic

Space

Economic Sustainability -earning a living

Economic sustainability is a key objective

Eco-Enterprise Centre Creation of new business

opportunities, co-ops, partnerships, synergies

16 live/work units Education and training

Sal isbury Bookbinders

Education • Green Building

• Renewable Energy

• Ecological Design

• Permaculture

• Organic Production

• Woodland Crafts

• Silviculture

• Transition Training

• Sustainable Planning

• Leadership Training

• Rural Development

• Resilience Skills

• Community

• Third Age Studies

• Systems Training

image by Solearth

Links and Partnerships• Carnegie UK

Trust

• Centre for Appropriate Technology

• The EDEN Foundation

• Irish Rural Link

• NUI Maynooth

• University of Limerick

• Tipperary Institute

• Transition Network

• Sustainable Ireland

• The Falkland Centre for Stewardship

• Centre for Human Ecology

• SERVE

ECO-ENTERPRISE CENTRE

Construction starts Summer 2010

750 sq m eco-enterprise centre

shared use offices

creative workshops

eco-innovation engineering spaces

food production unit.

€450,000 grant from Enterprise Ireland

POTENTIAL FOR.....

Production of:

food

biofuel

building materials

Use of local materials: eg myscanthus

16 LIVE-WORK UNITS

Ground floor space (30-70 sq m) for:

retail/ office use

demonstration

therapeutic clinic

First floor: living space

BUSINESSES EXPECTED.....

Space already booked for:

Architectural practice

Environmental consultancy

Organic bakery

How about you?

I.T. INFRASTRUCTURE

Each home / workplace will be connected to:

• a village Campus Area Network (CAN)

• via a 100Mbps Multimode Fibre

• a layer 3 ethernet network.

NETWORK FUNCTIONS (1)

1. Monitoring and Management of the District

Heating System.

2. Phone system:- Asterix (Free PBX) system in Comms Centre.

- IP phone in each home/workplace- office-type functionality for each unit - free internal calls- external calls at VoIP rates

3. High Speed broadband......

NETWORK FUNCTIONS (2)

3. High Speed broadband:

- This link will initially be provisioned at a 10Mbps symmetric, uncontended bandwidth

- Capable of providing 100Mbps.

FUTURE I.T. USES (1)

1. IPTV for:

• standard TV channels in all homes etc • WebEx or Video-conferencing facilities

2. Smart Electricity Metering:• economies of scale and more efficient use

of power when we generate our own power

FUTURE I.T. USES (2)

3. Servers:

Business-standard access speeds will be available, allowing high bandwidth server- based applications

Examples:- File Sharing, - Bulk and/or high quality printing- Local Currency Exchange bank.