The great challenge of our time is to build and nurture sustainable communities - communities that are designed in such a way that their ways of life, businesses, economies, physical structures and technologies do not interfere with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life . . .” Fritjof Capra

Over the last number of years, much of our cooperative spirit and sense of community has been lost. Western-style capitalism can weaken social capital – the 'glue' that holds our communities together- to the extent that it promotes competition and individualism as the ultimate goal, at the expense of cooperation and community. 

The Cloughjordan Ecovillage, under the banner building sustainable community, is a people-led attempt to reinvigorate some of the most important concepts of community and collective action. It is a recognition that we urgently need to take an evolutionary leap in the way we do things and to design systems from the bottom up in ways that fit this planet’s carrying capacity, and we need to do this together, as communities. 

With this in mind, sustainable communities are not merely just about 'sustaining' the quality of our lives- they are about improving them. They are about finding truth in the old African proverb which goes “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Read more about community resilience here (link to sustainability or resilience)

It takes a Village to raise a child

"One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade"  - Chinese Proverb

How are we to raise our children these days? What is their inheritance? Big challenges face us with no single answer. In the ecovillage we are looking for answers to these questions. Our aim is to create a safe, beautiful place to bring up our children.

As well as constructing homes to live in we are committed to constructing a new set of values that create a culture of thoughtfulness, watchfulness and community in which to raise our children.

It is people that make a village and children are central to this. By building an ecovillage together we are creating networks of support that benefit both children and adults. Our relationships are based on cooperation and trust. These build the village and help build a sense of community. It is these relationships and values that will hopefully be repeated by future generations.