News in 2005
December 2005
Ecovillages: New
Approaches to Urban Regeneration in Brazil
GEN-Europe, ENA and ENA-Brazil members Jeff Clearwater,
May East, Michael Shaw, Marcelo Todescan, Otavio Urquiza
and others delivered a first training session Ecovillages:
New Approaches to Urban Regeneration within the framework
of a pilot year of CIFAL Findhorn. The session hosted by
CIFAL Curitiba Brazil presented an integrated model for
sustainability, as a resource to inspire the imagination
of urban planners and mayors, from Latin America and the
Caribbean encouraging environmentally responsible design
and development of Latin American cities.
Topics explored included
*Ecological building applied in popular housing
*Renewable energy systems
*Reduction of fossil fuels using biodiesel and biogas
*Low footprint natural waste water treatment
*Rainwater collection and use
*Biodiversity in cities as ecosystems
CIFAL is a network of centres
(there are currently 11) around the world who offer trainings
for sustainable development, mainly for local authorities
and urban planners. The United Nations Institute for Training
and Research-UNITAR, an autonomous body within the United
Nations, was created to deliver training and research programmes
worldwide, and it has developed CIFAL centres to serve government
and local authorities, recognising their critical role in
achieving the United Nations Development Goals highlighting
sustainability.
For further details http://dcp.unitar.org/spip/article185.html
November 2005
Aviva, the world's 6th largest insurance
group, has chosen John Talbott as one of
their forward thinkers in a series of unique film shorts featuring
people who have a particularly powerful vision of the future.
It will be shown on CNBC Europe television in Autumn 2005.
Click
here, to see the short film on John and the Findhorn Ecovillage.
July 2005
New Education for Sustainable Development Partnership
By the shores of the South Atlantic, at the recently inaugurated
Gaia Village Training Centre in Garopaba beach, Brazil, a
memorandum of Understanding and Partnership has been signed
between the Global Ecovillage Network, the Findhorn Foundation
and the University of Extremo Sul Catarinense (UNESC). This
is the result of a synergetic year of curriculum development
with Brazilian sustainability educators and practitioners
as well as UNESC teachers led by May East, coordinator of
Ecovillage Education at the Findhorn Foundation. Over the
next 12 months UNESC will be aligning financial and institutional
support for the first Brazilian University led Ecovillage
Training to start in July 2006.
In the picture from left to right May East, Findhorn Foundation,
Carlyle Menezes, UNESC Marcelo Todescan, ENA Brazil, Franco
Werlang, Gaia Village
March 2005
Findhorn Foundation supports the United Nations Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) 2005-14
The United Nations Decade
of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) aims
to see Education for Sustainable Development implemented in
thousands of local situations on the ground, integrating the
principles of Sustainable Development into a multitude of
different learning situations.
Over the next 10 years the Findhorn Foundation will be working
closely with UNESCO, the agency which leads DESD, designing
and delivering programmes to complement, correspond with,
and assist in setting a standard for the decade.
Official launch of the UNDESD,
March 1, at the United Nations New York headquarters
Planned programmes at the
Findhorn Foundation include the internationally acclaimed
annual Ecovillage Training, now in its 7th year at Findhorn
and endorsed by UNITAR. The new Ecovillage Designer Education
(EDE) programme, a timely, pertinent, global educational initiative
was officially inaugurated in the spring of 2004 by a group
of 23 distinguished ecovillage educators from around the world.
This curriculum educates for a globally sustainable culture.
For more info contact evt@findhorn.org
The vision of education for sustainable development is a world
where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from quality
education and learn the values, behaviour and lifestyles required
for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation.
For more information on UNDESD www.unesco.org
January 2005
EXPANSION OF FINDHORN
ECOVILLAGE WIND PARK APPROVED!
Our community demonstration project for sustainable renewable
energy was approved by the Moray Council Tuesday January 18,
2005.
We will erect three new
wind turbines next to Moya (identified
by the arrow above). The expanded wind park capacity will
be 975 kw and produce 1,800,000 kwh/year. The Findhorn Ecovillage
will be net self sufficient with our own renewable electricity.
We will begin the construction in February and anticipate
starting generating electricity in April. Our small scale
community sustainable project will be locally owned and operated.
Wind energy is today the world's fastest growing energy technology.
Our three new wind turbines are a local contribution to wind
power becoming major European energy source by the end of
the decade.
» 2004 news
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