Nothing Personal: A chance to meet inspiring people from around ECOLISE
Hi, please introduce yourself.
My name is Camilla Nielsen-Englyst. I live in Denmark in one of the many ecovillages that we have here. It is called Hallingelille. I’m engaged also in a national association of ecovillages and I’m part of GEN Europe as part of the Council as well. So, I’m quite connected to the whole ecovillage movement. My ecovillage is somehow a small one, we are 52 grownups and 35 children. I have been part of this since the beginning, so like the last 12 years. And currently I’m working on how to scale up and mainstream the whole ecovillage concept here in Denmark.
Why are you doing this work?
I think it’s important that living in community should not be seen as living in some kind of subcultural niche for hippies, but more like a response to that longing that most people have in them if they dare to listen to this voice inside. So that’s what I’m trying here. By scaling up we do not only become more mainstream involving more segments of people, but we become also more stronger as a movement. We have a stronger voice and we have a stronger position in carrying out societal tasks. Today I was in a dialogue meeting with the local municipality and you know, they often have a lot of people whom they categorise as being useless, stressed out people, alcoholics, people who have some kind of mental handicap, whatever… How to create meaningful occupation for this group of people who are of the age of the labour market. Why shouldn’t we as an ecovillage, be part of this and create something that’s much more meaningful than what they provide in the local municipality. That was actually the basis of our conversation. And I think actually that being an ecovillage, we can lift these tasks and we do it differently and we can do it better, and if we are more, we can also do it on a larger scale. So that living in a community becomes an asset somehow that people can feel that connection. People who are disconnected, can feel that connection back by being in community. I think this is powerful. We have a refugee project for instance here in our ecovillage which is called “Grow”. And these people they are traumatised, they don’t smile much. The system puts them in little square rooms with psychologists all the time. It’s not that what normally puts a smile on peoples faces. So coming here, being in nature, being in the garden, having community lunches and so on, it creates not only jobs for the local ecovillagers but it also creates something meaningful for both the refugees but also for the local municipalities who are somehow their hosts. So yes, there are plenty of reasons why we have to do this…scaling up!
What are your biggest challenges?
I think for now, one of the biggest challenges would be how to normalise what is seen already as being a subcultural phenomenon. How to make way and navigate through systems that are keen on another kind of normality that were are trying to introduce here. So I think to make ourselves know in the system as actually being a valuable contributor, not only rural development, but social development, people development, planet development, all kinds of developments, we could be part of that. And how to be seen as that, and not as a bunch of hippies living in a field together, I think that is a challenge we are at right now. Sometimes we are not well equipped for the tasks. We really have to work on the narrative and how to really create the good stories here. I think that’s a challenge and it’s a challenge that we could easily meet. We just have to change our perspective a little bit.
What lessons have you learned from this work?
I think what I learned from dealing with the people who get in touch with the ecovillage movement is that people find back to themselves again, they reconnect to their longings. The longings of being in community, a different life, and feeling also that they can cope with the climate crisis and all other crises in their everyday life. It’s about empowerment you could say, it’s about taking back the power to act and not just being passively accepting what’s there without feeling that you actually have a voice or have actions to do. I think people find that very much when they are together. So yes, living in community, acting together, finding that inspiration, getting that hope back from each other, I think that is the lesson learned that I can see is happening. When people meet and engage as groups.
What are your hopes for the future?
My hope for the future is that we succeed, that we create this change where pioneers have been struggling for. And we are planning to make this change more accessible, that more people can be part of this movement in their own ways. So we can see that in civil society, there is a massive force here. We talk about shrinking space for civil society action. Let’s not create shrinking spaces. Let’s unite forces all of us, civil society, corporate world, municipalities, everybody. If we should ever fulfill in living up to the SDG’s and do something. Something that is substantial and that really makes a change and difference in the right direction. We have to make people know, feel and experience that they can make that difference. I can do it. And we can do it together. So everybody can do it. That’s my hope.
Hi, please introduce yourself.
Hi, my name is David Somervell. I live in Edinburgh. I’m an Englishman by birth but I have lived here the last 45 years. I’m a convener of the Transition Edinburgh initiative, a network of individuals and community organisations across the city of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. I’m also a member of the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN), a network of over a hundred local community groups who are tackling climate change at a grassroots level.
What are you working on?
What I’m working on at the moment in Edinburgh: We’re engaging with the city authorities in trying to make the sustainable energy action plan of the city, which is a commitment under the Covenant of Mayors, to try to make this more real and to put some fuel in the tank. We are using the specific opportunities of the Scottish Communities Empowerment Act, which is encouraging community-led organisations to engage with authorities, especially as the authorities are being shrunk by the State.
In the wider network, as one of the over a dozen transition initiatives, which use that name, we have recently established a transition Scotland hub and they’re recognised by the Transition Network. We have nested that within SCCAN to minimise the number of different organisations and we recently had a wonderful, friendly, network weekend at Sustaining Dunbar on the East coast.
We are committed to local action, practical action and are effectively in many locations across Scotland, at low level.
What keeps you passionate about your work?
For me, I’m trained as an architect, I have worked most of my life at the University of Edinburgh as an energy manager and eventually sustainability advisor and always this vision of what we can do better, is what drives me. I think that while the politicians working at the top level above our heads, are often very well meaning, and they have wonderful words about climate change being at the heart of government etc. [But] they’re driven by other priorities frequently and so it’s absolutely essential that we at the grassroots, the local level, work out ways that in our communities, whether it’s through community supported agriculture, whether it’s through community growing, or conversion of buildings for community use, we can model a vision of the world we want.
Transition initiatives have this twelve step approach to achieving carbon neutrality. And I have to say, in Edinburgh we are quite stuck on the early stages, we are still raising awareness and laying the foundation. Since last year three of our members attended a course on Zero Carbon Britain at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. Since then, we have launched an initiative in Edinburgh, entitled at the moment Zero Carbon Edinburgh. It’s advocating for a carbon neutral Edinburgh, and Zero Carbon Britain record after ten years of a careful research that Britain could be carbon neutral by 2040. And of course we are then pressurising the Scottish government, we are pressurising our local administration to be ambitious in how we imagine the future and therefore how we put the measures in place to achieve that.
What are the biggest challenges in your work?
For us, I’m aware that there are many citizens who know there is a problem. But the biggest challenge is getting over that “Oh my God, I can’t do anything, it’s a disaster, we are going to hell in a handcart”. What we need to do somehow, is to see how we can empower citizens to realize that they can take an active role and that it can be fun on the way.
What is the future for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability?
So for us, looking ahead, we are hoping to slowly build our network of transition initiatives to collaborate more closely with permaculture initiatives and to encourage at the local level for the 32 local authorities to take on practical aspects of carbon mitigation, climate change adaptation and so on. But also for working at the national level, SCCAN also engages very positively and we are asked by the Scottish government sometimes to help organise workshops to bring together citizens from around the country. All of this is to try to model and exemplify the sort of place, the sort of living that we seek.
I hope that gives you a little flavour of SCCAN and you can obviously search for any of the terms online and we have got websites for both Transition Scotland Hub, for SCCAN and for Transition Edinburgh.
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Please introduce yourself by telling us your name, where you come from and where you live?
Soy Mauge Cañada. Naci en Bilbao que en el 60 era una ciudad industrial. Me fui en los 80 al proyecto de comunidad Lakabe, siendo desde el principio parte de este proyecto de vida alternativa. Después de mucho saños en Lakabe, algunos años en Villanueva de Yerri ( pueblo de 40 habitantes en Navarra) , en la actualidad vivo en la Ecoaldea/co-housing Arterra Bizimodu, de la que soy Co-fundadora; También en Navarra y cerca del muy querido Lakabe.
I’m Mauge Cañada. I was born in Bilbao which was an industrial city in the ‘60s. I left in the ‘80s to Lakabe community – from the beginning I was part of this alternative living project. After many years in Lakabe, and a few years in Villanueva de Yerri (a village of 40 inhabitants in Navarra), now I live in the ecovillage/co-housing project of Arterra Bizimodu, which I co-founded. It’s also in Navarra and close to my dear Lakabe.
What are you working on?
Muy diversas labores componen el mosaico de mi cotidiano. Profesionalmente soy Terapeuta ( psicologa Clínica y Social) y Facilitadora de Grupos. Experta en Sciocracia, Gestión de conflictos y Género. Soy hortelana, y es una de las labores que mas aprecio. Soy madre, abuela, amiga, hija , hermana y compañera, Vivir en comunidad es tambien una labor.. con muchas facetas! Constructora, a veces fontanera. Ahora indagando en la producción de Biochar. Formo parte de la Red Iberica de Ecoaldeas , y es como representante de esta Red que participo en ECOLISE. En esta Red hemos desarrollado la Incubadora de ecoaldeas en el 2009 ( acompañar nuevos proyectos), es una mis funciones coordinar este grupo.
Many diverse tasks make up my daily mosaic. By profession I’m a therapist (clinical and social psychology) and a group facilitator, as well as an expert in sociocracy, conflict management and gender. I’m a gardener, and it’s one of the activities I enjoy most. I’m a mother, grandmother, friend, daughter, sister and comrade. Living in community is also a kind of job…with many aspects! I’m a builder, sometimes a plumber…now I’m also researching on biochar production. I’m part of the Iberian Ecovillage Network (RIE), and it’s as a representative of this network that I participate in ECOLISE. In the network we developed the Ecovillage Incubator in 2009, which supports new projects, and one of my tasks is to coordinate this group.
Why are you doing this work?
Todas mis labores me dan algo; mucho mas que dinero. Me gustan, me apasionan, disfruto, y me sientocone ctada a una percepción de sentido . Me siento solida desde esa percepción. Todas mis labores llevan implicitas el mismo proceso, curar, transformar, mejorar, facilitar, acompañar, arreglar… Comprometida con una visión del mundo que sé posible en mi interior, y la que voy dedicando toda mi vida. Un mundo en paz, en femenino, en sostenibilidad, de escucha…las manos en la tierra. Una soñadora muy práctica, necesito concretar , materializar. Eso es lo que hago: materializar.
All of these tasks give me something, much more than money. I like them, I’m passionate about them, I enjoy them and I feel connected to a sense of meaning. I feel solid from this feeling. Implicitly, all my work is a part of the same process of healing, transformation, improvement, facilitating, supporting, fixing… I’m committed to a vision of the world that I know inside is possible, and that I’m dedicating all my life to. A peaceful world, a feminine world, one of sustainability, of listening … with our hands in the soil. I’m a practical dreamer, I need things to be concrete, to materialise them. That’s what I do: I materialise things.
What are your biggest challenges?
Personalmente mi mayor desafio es verficar mis limites, a veces no estar tan presente. Me siento parte de un desafío colectivo vinculado a ese otro mundo posible. Y en este desafío para mi se resume en transformar el sistema de dominación que esta devorando la vida ( guerra, patriarcado, explotación, muerte y destrucción de la naturaleza) , en un sistema de colaboración. En ello estamos.
Personally my biggest challenge is knowing my limits – sometimes they’re not so present. I feel part of a collective challenge linked to this other possible world. And for me this challenge can be summed up as transforming the systems of domination that are devouring life (war, patriarchy, exploitation, death and destruction of nature) into ones of collaboration. That’s what we’re doing.
What lesson or lessons have learnt from this work?
Innumerables!!!! La principal es que juntas podemos, vivir lo colectivo o comunitario como una esencia irrenunciable del ser humano, de los seres vivos.
La maravillosa capacidad humana de superar, de atravesar el dolor, de crear en medio del caos. Que las personas podemos vivirnos con una energía y poder enormes… una vez atravesado el encantamiento del … “no puedo”, “no es posible”, “nadie puede”.
Countless! The first is that together we can, that living in community is an undeniable part of what it is to be human, to be alive. Also that humans have a marvellous capacity to overcome, to break through pain, to create in the midst of chaos. And that as people we can live with immense energy and power … once we have broken the spell of “I can’t”, “it’s not possible”, “nobody can”.
What are your hopes for the future?
Dejar el mundo mejor de como me lo he encontrado…. Anclar una cultura de colaboración, paz y respeto por la vida por y para el presente y las generaciones futuras. Que se sumen mas personas a sostener este sueño y esperanza, sin dejarse aplastar por el miedo a un futuro indeseado; a ver si puedo cogerme una vacaciones de verdad en un futuro cercano!!!
To leave the world better than I found it … to ground it in a culture of collaboration, peace and respect for life, for the current and future generations. And that more people come together to hold this dream and hope, without being crushed by fear of an undesired future … Let’s see if I can take a real holiday in the not too distant future!
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Please introduce yourself by telling us your name, where you come from and where you live?
My name is Marco. I am Italian. After 10 years of living in UK, I moved back to my hometown. While I was living in the UK, I discovered one of the things that changed my life: permaculture. At that time I was doing something else. Nothing related to sustainibility, ecology, regeneration. So, one day I went to the London Permaculture Festival and the following day I handed in my resignation letter. My journey had just begun!
Since then life has been incredible: Permaculture Design Course, Transition Launch, International Permaculture Conference UK2015, forest garden, community building, social allotments, facilitation, sociocracy, Permaculture Teacher Training, Dragon Dreaming etc
What are you working on?
Training and Information. Part of my job is to run permaculture training courses. Also, I founded an online magazine called Permacultura & Transizione. It’s basically a blog. On one hand, we aim to give more visibility to Italian permaculturists, people involved in Transition initiatives or ecovillages. On the other hand, we have been translating and publishing articles from many international permaculturists, transitioners and people working in the global sustainability movement. In this way, we hope to meaningfully contribute to the creation of a sense of belonging to the international permaculture movement.
Why are you doing this work?
One of my favourite mottos at Permacultura & Transizione is ‘bring permaculture to people, bring people to permaculture’. Although the problems of the world are enormous, the power of individuals and communities is even bigger if we give them a chance to shift consciousness with small, simple solutions.
That’s permaculture – a simple tool to solve complex problems. Beyond the stories we publish there is a bottom line: And you can too! You don’t need to be a scientist or an environmentalist to understand permaculture and you don’t need to have skills to start. Just do it!
What are your biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges in this work is to make people understand that permaculture is not just a way of making an organic vegetable garden. In my talks and workshops I say ‘permaculture is revolution disguised as organic gardening’.
What lesson or lessons have learnt from this work?
Permaculture is a shift in consciousness. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We must be patient, use small and slow solutions to carve out a new sustainable life, just like a spoon whittler!
What are your hopes for the future?
Anyone can make positive changes in their lives and become self-reliant, even without access to large amounts of money. The future is already here, we just need to design it.
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Please introduce yourself by telling us your name, where you come from and where you live?
My name is Ana Huertas. I am from Madrid, Spain and I am living in Cardedeu, Barcelona.
What are you working on?
I am working with Red de Transicion, Transition Spain, the national Transition Hub and am the coordinator for the Municipalities in Transition project. I am also the vice president of ECOLISE. Those are the three main things. If I had to list everything it might take up too much space!
Why are you doing this work?
Bearing in mind the current situation in the world and our systemic crisis and the responsibility of human beings in that situation and their capacity to respond to it, for me there is no other choice. I want to work towards a world where we regenerate the resources around us. I think it’s important that we regenerate the connection between us humans and the rest of the world around us.
What are your biggest challenges?
I think the first is being 100 per cent coherent in my lifestyle and how I work. So much of my work is online and I travel as well and even though I think it’s for a good cause it’s not completely in line with what I preach.
One of the biggest challenges is to engage people in this work. The message we carry in the Transition movement is one of hope but it requires people to look at a reality that is quite grim and to become conscious of it. This is not the most welcome in a culture of consumerism and individualism.
The other challenge is of getting more people to work together. This can be difficult and challenging. There are always issues around power and access to resources.
The third big challenge in this work is getting the message through to that power – policy makers and those who have control of scare resources and getting them to change their mind about how we are operating as a species and that we could do better.
What lesson or lessons have you learnt from this work?
The first lesson is that we need to find effective spaces for collaboration between movements. It might be that we each have our own methodologies but even if we can’t collaborate all the time we need to find the space to do so.
The other lesson is that coming from the grassroots it’s always difficult to have meaningful conversations with those collectives that do have power – policy makers, businesses.
What are your hopes for the future?
For the more immediate future I would like to see us put care at the centre of the way we do relationships between humans and the rest of the world, not money or personal gain. I would like to see care in the centre of politics and as community. This includes integrating more feminist values and diverging from the kind of patriarchal, capitalist society that we know.
And that as a species we dare to do what needs to be done, to increase our connection and empathy and reverse the harm we’ve done so far.