O.U.R. Ecovillage: Success Through
Cooperation and Reworking Old Frames of Mind
-By Lucie Bardos
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| The Healing Sanctuary at O.U.R. Ecovillage |
Last week I went to visit O.U.R. Ecovillage[1] on
Vancouver Island with a few friends to help get a taste of what life is like at
these ecovillages I have long been hearing about. Let me tell you - life (and
lunch) there tastes healthy, organic, and delicious! But how is it all made possible?
According to Brandy Gallagher, the executive director and co-founder of the
village, it is thanks to cooperation with industry, businesses, policy makers,
and even building inspectors!
I have watched videos and documentaries, read articles and
had conversations about the topic of ecovillages and natural building. Something
that always jumps out at me is how many of these seem to vilify "the
system", a.k.a. the government, corporations and big industry that always
seem to pose this giant barrier to sustainable living and homesteading. It's
always about how to get around laws, legal battles, how to hide structures so
that they won't be seen by inspectors, and how to cut ourselves off from the
outside. I have often asked myself: can this kind of sustainability truly last?
Do we really need to make enemies? Are all of the bodies that we often vilify
actually so evil?
According to Brandy Gallagher, the answer to all of these
questions is a big fat NO. Her strategy for success lies in rethinking these
relationships and making them work better for everyone. We are all people, and
some people happen to work for the government or in the lumber industry - but
that doesn't make them unkind or closed-minded. In an episode of the online
television series Peak Moment (see bottom of page for link), Brandy talks about
how she and others at O.U.R. Ecovillage worked closely with different levels of
government, businesses, and industry to create a fully legal, highly diverse
and multifunctional ecological village that stands by its ethos of "for
community, by community, through community". It seems that once folks are
convinced that the intention of O.U.R. Ecovillage is to improve the experience
of ALL people connected to them through whatever ties, they can't help but jump
on board.
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| The family home at O.U.R Ecovillage |
One such example is their close cooperation with the lumber
industry. Recently, they have had success in procuring several trucks full of
fallen timber that would have otherwise been discarded as waste and hey presto:
a generous supply of low-cost building material! The lumber industry had a service
done - free waste removal - and O.U.R. Ecovillage dramatically reduced the cost
of building one of their new structures. Actually, an astounding percentage of
materials found at O.U.R. Ecovillage are salvaged. Everything from glass,
styroblock floor insulation, to metal and windows. Brandy says that they would
originally have to go out looking for these discarded or surplus materials -
now people call them whenever they have "waste" that needs to be disposed
of and members of O.U.R. Ecovillage simply come by, pick it up and give it a
new purpose.
They have built a large cob/straw-bale learning space
complete with a massage room, kitchen and bedroom called The Healing Sanctuary
for circa $30,000 and are in the process of building a super ecological and
efficient family home for around $80,000. Sound impossible? Well, Brandy is
somewhat of an expert at making the impossible possible. In fact, there is an
old cliché' that has established itself at O.U.R. Ecovillage, which is a
testament to that: "No" is just an uneducated "Yes". The
fact that it has been true enough times to be considered a cliché is quite
astounding. Brandy is convinced that just about everyone yearns for a sense of
belonging and community and believes that if you do your research, put in the
work, be creative, and be willing to work with
instead of against "the system", there is no such thing as
impossible.
During our visit Brandy proudly announced not only that
O.U.R. Ecovillage, has helped successfully create it's own legal zoning
amendment for their lot plan, but that it also is very close to setting up its
own mortgage for folks wishing to live onsite and join in the village life.
This is all part of the slow money trend, which together with slow food, is an
integral part of the O.U.R. Ecovillage mentality. O.U.R. Ecovillage has set up
its own community trust for ethical investment, which is backed by land. People
can even transfer their retirement savings plan to it and get higher returns
than at a bank! Slow money is all about helping redirect new capital towards
community-run initiatives, especially those dealing with food production such
as organic farms and local farmers, and helping improve and increase community
resilience and sustainability[2].
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| The Healing Sanctuary at O.U.R. Ecovillage |
Bandy's interview on Peak Moment was the first time I had
actually heard the term slow money. I
think it is just brilliant - and what a better example of slow money than
Seedstock Community Currency! Of course slow doesn’t mean that it doesn't
circulate! In fact, the more it circulates the better! Rather Seedstock is a
strategy for slowing the flow of money out of the community and helping create
value through the exchange of goods and services for as long as we need it. I
feel like Seedstock Community Currency was a much needed reworking of the
"money always burns a hole in our pocket" conundrum. When we have
money, we wish to spend it on things we want and need, but are always afraid of
how we are going to replace it. Seedstock seems to say "let's create a
situation where money burning holes in our pockets becomes a good thing and
spending becomes a way to gain value, not lose it." Because artists,
farmers and local businesses who spend Seedstock are ultimately going to see it
flow back in their direction - they can spend it on things that will help them
grow and develop without worrying so much about holes in their pockets.
It seems that reworking and rewording the fundamental
question at the heart of a problem, and essentially turning the problem itself
into a solution, is becoming a new trend. By employing this technique, people
are learning to revisit and improve their relationships with institutions,
food, and money to create abundance and space for creativity and personal
growth.
I couldn't help but think back to a recent article called
"Community Currencies and the Abundant Artist" posted on the
Seedstock website by Jordan a little while ago. It talks about Amanda Palmer, a
musician who employed crowd funding to raise 1.2 million dollars to help her
band record their independent album. The amazing thing is, her goal was only $100,000!
Jordan writes: "I was especially struck by what she says at the very end [of her TED
talk]: “I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question: How do we
make people pay for music? What if we started asking: How do we let people pay
for music?” I immediately thought of this when in her Peak Moment interview
Brandy discussed how in response to the local government telling her that the
plans for the ecovillage were not legal she asked: "How about if we help you make it legal?". She and
others then proceeded to volunteer at the local government office to
successfully help accomplish just that.
I am so glad to see this openness, this willingness to see
things from another angle. I feel like people are tired of being stuck in terms
of money and an unfulfilling lifestyle, and realizing that they are not stuck
at all if they are willing to shift their world view just a little. How empowering:
scarcity is giving way to abundance and immobility to a sense of freedom.
Here
is an interview entitled "Making the Impossible Possible" with Brandy
Gallagher of O.U.R. Ecovillage from 2007.
To
see the progress made at O.U.R. Ecovillage over 4 years, watch this interview entitled
"Awakening the Village
Heart and Mind"
with Brandy Gallagher of O.U.R. Ecovillage from 2011.