An ecovillage is an intentional, traditional or urban community that is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes with the goal of sustainability in mind. Ecovillages are living laboratories pioneering beautiful alternatives and innovative solutions. They are rural or urban settlements with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in their actions towards low-impact, high-quality lifestyles. Ecovillages have the potential to model environmentally and socially sustainable ways of living.
Now at Roots, we endeavor to create an ecovillage in order to achieve our goal of environmental and social sustainability. This will involve growing our food through a community effort and permaculture design. We will also focus on reducing waste by continuing to compost, recycle and re-use materials, and utilize resources from our natural environment. We will conserve our most precious resource, water, by collecting rain water and gray water and cycling it through our ecosystem.
At Roots, our goal is not only to create a sustainable living space for ourselves, but to model sustainable living for the community and create a space where the community can come together to be together and develop creatively. We desire for our ecovillage to be a community space that will be welcoming for people from diverse backgrounds and of various identities, including immigrants, queer/trans people, disabled people, people of color, low-income people, non-english speakers, and other marginalized communities. At our home, we will take the knowledge we have cultivated in creating our space to host skill shares and teach our community about sustainable living, permaculture, personal security, and how to create a sustainable living community, among various topics. Furthermore, we aim to host space for members of the community to cultivate their own gardens in order to further the ability of those without their own space to grow and consume their own food.