Source: Traindevie

Solborg: A Camphill “Ecovillage”

Solborg is a Camphill Village located in southern Norway. Camphill was established in 1940 and from then until now has constructed "ecovillage style" communities throughout the world with a special emphasis on allowing residents with disabilities. Although not officially recognized by GEN as an ecovillage, it still reflects similar traits that make up the traditional composition of them. They believe society marginalizes disabled citizens and believe living at Camphill eneables them a chance to be productive and self sufficient.


In terms of waste, water and sewage Solborg carries out a few different attributes to ensure conservative, sustainable, and low impact usage of its resources. Waste for the most part is composted and later used for nutritious soil. They use horse to transport wastes to mitigate carbon emissions from motorized vehicles. Recycling is often done as well. I would assume they are connected to the local municipal services, but am unclear.


Sewage is typically treated with "ponds, reedbeds and "Flow Form" water cascades. There are many types of Flowforms, "but the central concept is that it is a vessel which brings streaming water into a flow pattern similar to that of liquid in the heart. See Picture.

Source: Storms Journal

Sources:

http://gen.ecovillage.org/iservices/publications/articles/CM117EcoVLandIc.pdf

http://home.earthlink.net/~johnrpenner/Articles/Flowforms.html

http://www.solborg.net/english/archive.html

Ecovillage of the Week II: The Farm

Nestled in the beautiful country of Tenessee lies an ecovillage called The Farm. It was literally started by vans full of Hippies in the early 1970's. It is considered an ecovillage but falls on top of much criticism with its operations.

In terms of water, the community scores big points by having its own ground water supply. This is mostly gravity-fed and distributed from a 25,000 gallon storage tank. It supplies water to 90+ residents. Aside from potable well water, the Farm does have and rain water catch systems. It has been claimed the Farm doesn't have any mechanisms for doing so however, a recent You Tube video claims there are rain collecting gutters which channel rainwater to a cistern for later usage. During the dry summer months they use electricity to pump there water. Critics see this as inefficient.

For sewage, the farm does treat its gray and black water anaerobically, but they channel it to the forest when it completes its treatment stages. Some of the phosphates from gray water are used to grow phosphate-loving plants.

Waste is composted, while reusage and recycling remain extremely important.

There is a limited amount of information available about this topic at this time.

Sources:

http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/antiochecovillages.html

http://www.ecovillagenews.org/wiki/index.php/Is_The_Farm_an_Ecovillage?

It's Alive! The Living Machine at Findhorn Ecovillage & Recycling

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Findhorn uses the Living Machine. The machine treats sewage water from the 300 residents living there. In addition to that, it serves as a brilliant example for many students and visitors to observe and study. Many can enjoy seeing the creative processes in action that make the Living Machine possible.

Findhorn currently uses the machine to undergo Phase I water treatment. They plan to install a Phase II treatment system in the near future to get off the "water grid" or mains they use now. This system will reuse the water for all purposes and distribute it accordingly. The final goal is to someday be completely self sufficient with their water resources.

As for recycling, Findhorn has a rather extensive system. They recycle paper, glass, batteries, metal and even have a clothing drive. They do not have plastic listed as being recycled, however the document may be a bit outdated. It is unclear what they do about non recyclable items, but I assume they are connected to the Findhorn's municipal trash service.

Sewage, Water and Waste

There are many attributes that contribute to the overall synergistic success of an ecovillage. In dealing with issues like sewage, water and waste one is left with the question of how to deal with these matters in a sustainable fashion. Many rural ecovillages are connected to the local towns sewer main or have a biological means of breaking down wastes via microorganisms , obtain and collect water from local sources or rain and deal with waste by recycling, reducing, reusing and composting. In an urban setting, things are a bit more difficult. For example a city like Philadelphia has thousands of row homes interconnected throughout the city. If a particular community were to establish sustainable systems of the aforementioned aspects, how would they go about doing so? What are the boundaries from one community to the next? Who can implement, regulate and maintain such systems?

These and many of questions will be addressed throughout this blog in posts to come. But first it is important to mention the what kind of technologies exist and how to apply them to an urban setting in a practical way.

Many ecovillages have self-sustaining systems which break down sewage and excess water. There are two types of waste water; Black water and gray water. Black water is waste water that contains fecal matter (sewage). It is very difficult for it to break down in a natural setting however, much thought has been put into how to develop a sustainable means of dealing with it. With all the energy/materials cost put into sewage transport and purification processes, it would be more logical to have the sewage system local. Technologies such as "reed-bed technology" or sewage gardens are a sustainable, autonomous solution to the problem. Reed bed systems work as followed

"Reed beds use common reed plants (phragnmites communis, a second cousin of the common marsh plant) to dewater solids in a confined area. The beds can be any shape to accommodate existing land conditions and areas. Specially designed ponds with underdrains covered by a sand and gravel mixture are constructed and filled with reed plants. Modified sludge drying beds also work well and are an ideal retrofit. They already have side walls, layers of sand and gravel, an underdrain system which collects and carries away filtrate, and an impervious membrane liner. Solids are pumped into the reed beds. Dewatering occurs through evaporation, plant transpiration, and decantation. Decanted water seeps through the bottom of the bed and through the layers of sand and gravel into the underdrains, traveling back to the wastewater treatment plant for secondary treatment. During dewatering the solids change from liquid to "cake." Six inches of solids and water will compress to a half inch of solid cake. The cake is left in the bed and the process is repeated. Sludge reed beds are a significant improvement over existing drying beds. Sludge can be dewatered and converted into biomass and a low-grade compost without chemical addition or energy. They have lengthy turnover time and are capable of reducing sludge volumes by up to 95% over time."

The technology is innovative, however in an urban setting spacial issues would present an indefinable challenge. Also it may be difficult to implement based on zoning laws, income levels, social participation and willingness to accept.

The second, more feasible type of water treatment is with gray water. Gray water is the water left over after showering, doing laundry and dish washing. It is ideal for houses to be equipped with two sets of drainage pipes: one for black water and one for gray so each can travel separately for further treatment without unnecessary mixing. A filtration system would be needed to filter out soaps, shampoos, etc... The benefits of collecting grey water are beneficial and less energy intensive. It can be used to water plants, to clean, brush teeth, etc... The hardest part of implementing such a system would be financing, design, maintenance, and government approval.

The technology is there but many hurdles keep it's implementation small scale. It is slowly catching on. More posts to come.....

Sources:
http://www.lagoonsonline.com/reedbeds.htm

Barton, Hugh. Sustainable Communities The Potential for Eco-neighbourhoods. Minneapolis: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2000.

Walker, Liz. Ecovillage At Ithaca Pioneering A Sustainable Culture. New York: New Society, 2005.

An Artist's Innovative Conception on Ecovillages

The artist Roger Dean, made famous for doing many album covers (amongst other achievements) in the 60's and 70's for bands such as Yes, Boston and Pink Floyd is now pushing his artistic abilities even further to enhance the present conceptions of sustainable design by inventing it through his unique vision. Truly remarkable. Check it out!

http://www.rogerdean.com/architecture/willowater.htm

About Ecovillages

Eco-villages are a relatively new idea that some say has Archaic roots. The goal of ecovillages, in the words of Hildur Jackson, is to "honour the cycles of nature and to live as beautifully and in as dignified a way as possible with them; respect the soil, the plants, the animals and our fellow human beings in an earth centered world view to follow the pulse of life." Current economic institutions are set up for egocentric exploitation among many competitors, which has now reached a global scale.
What does this mean for planet earth? This means further environmental degradation, resource exploitation, increased consumption and many many more environmentally related dilemmas. The current balance of earth has been severely disrupted and it must reach or strive towards a sustainable equilibrium. This balance will require a shift in consciousness on how we view our world, a break from egocentric, materialistic consumption and massive social participation. This also goes hand in hand with how we live our daily lives and what must change in order to reach the desired goal.
Eco-villages offer the possibility of a newly found conscious understanding of planet earth, helping to direct our actions and the choices we make. Members of the communities all do their part to contribute to the group collectively. All the members are free to think, exchange ideas, share items and live in a communal manner. The ecovillage's daily functioning will be based off ideas related to sustainability. For example food will be grown in an organic matter, energy will be renewable, waste and consumption kept at a standard, etc... The purpose of this blog is to elaborate on the potentials of ecovillages in rural and urban settings, how they can be implemented, the trade-offs, the positives and negatives and much more. The overall goal is to accurately describe to the public this relatively new idea.

Source: Jackson, Hildur. Creating Harmony: Conflict Resolution in Community Gaia Trust/ Permanent Publications. 1999