Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
As mentioned on our group blog Ecovillage Evolution, Kimberton is part of the Camphill Village movement. This movement began in Scotland and now has many villages throughout the world. Members of these villages are also natives from various parts of the globe. Camphill Villages emphasize ecologically sound living principles and community conviviality while recruiting members with disabilities, giving them a chance to be productive in life.
Water, like most ecovillages, is seen as a precious necessity to life. Looking after its health is of utmost importance at Kimberton. Along its rivers they maintain riparian buffer zones to prevent runoff, contaminants and other threats to the health of the water. The also took out many invasives. All water is sourced from the creek and a well, which are both located on the 422 acre property.
They use a cistern to collect toilet water, landscape water and laundry water while rain water is collected in specialized catchment areas. They use a Wetlands mimicking system to purify their gray and black water. It purifies sewage for about 50-60 people. They also use flow forms to add oxygen to the water to help purify it.
Conservation is also key here. They use low-flow-toilets and shower heads and even have 2 composting toilets.
The community tries very hard to watch its trash output. They donate clothes, have rummage sales, make art out of old jeans and monitor carefully them amount of trash they produce. There craftiness is a communal attempt towards internal recycling. They collect food from Kimberton Whole Foods and Tritter Joes and consume what they can, feeding the pigs and composting. Recyclable items are sent to Pottstown by local services. There trash is collected by the local service.
All in all I was very impressed to have seen the village firsthand and witness the wonderful things being done! A+ to Kimberton! Thanks for allowing our visit!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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
Monday, April 6, 2009
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?
Friday, April 3, 2009
There is a common dumpster where 160 of the residents deposit their trash in a 108-cubic-foot dumpster. This is a quarter of what the typical U.S. housing development generates per week. For the recyclables, there is a shed that has bins for each item. They are collected by the local Municipal service. It is diversely successful. Lastly there is a "reuse room" where residents can donate clothing, shoes, toys and other goods. It's all so well planned!
Sewage and water at Ithaca, like anywhere else, are of utmost importance. Water is perceived as a dire necessity and conservation is extremely crucial. Water use is limited daily, while many residents have composting toilets or toilets that use minimal water in comparison to conventional toilets. Plants that are grown there are intended to use little water, while the watering of them primarily occurs in the evening, to inhibit rapid evaporation. Rainwater is avidly collected, where gutters transfer it to the pond or rain barrels collect it. It is also transferred to an underground cistern, to be drawn from for later usage. It's used for watering plants and quenching the thirst of animals.
Sewage treatment is still linked to the local municipalities system mostly because an alternative treatment system is out of EVI's current price range. They would like to see a "Living Machine" implemented however it may be pricey so they think a wetlands or reed bed system may be more likely. In the meantime, houses are equipped with dual piping systems that separate gray water from black water. The next step is to build a filtration system to cleanse the gray water.
Sources:
Walker, Liz. Ecovillage At Ithaca Pioneering A Sustainable Culture. New York: New Society, 2005.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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.