Ecovillage Findhorn: new frontiers for sustainability

May East is a Brazilian social change activist who has spent the last 30 years working internationally with music, indigenous people, women, antinuclear, environmental and sustainable human settlements movements. Since 1992 she has lived at the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland where she is the Ecovillage Education Coordinator, the Director of International Relations between the Foundation, the Global Ecovillage Network and the United Nations. May is an sustainability educator and works internationally as Programme Director of Gaia Education. May is Director of CIFAL Findhorn, a United Nations Institute of Training and Research Associated Training Centre in Moray, Scotland.

Craig Gibsone born in an isolated farm in Australia. He is a builder of practical organic structures, specialised in retrofitting houses to passive solar. He has lived for the last 36 years at the Findhorn Foundation where he was involved in the construction of many community buildings, including the Community Center and the Barrel Houses. He is an artist and musician and teaches in the International Holistic University. Craig works internationally as ecovillage building consultant.

Jonathan Dawson is a sustainability educator and activist. He has spent much of the last 20 years involved in development work in Africa and South Asia, as a researcher, author, project manager and consultant, working primarily in the field of small enterprise and community economic development. He lives at the Findhorn Ecovillge where he teaches human ecology and applied sustainability studies. Jonathan is Board Member of the Global Ecovillage Network for Europe in which capacity he is heavily involved in writing, representational and networking activities.

Daniel Christian Wahl has ten years of experience as a sustainability researcher. Originally trained as a biologist at the University of Edinburgh (1996), he gained a distinction for his MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College in 2002, and completed his PhD on whole systems design for sustainability in 2006 at the Centre for the Study of Natural Design (University of Dundee). Since 2007 he is the academic director of the Findhorn College and a member of Gaia Education. Daniel teaches and publishes in English, German, and Spanish, and has worked internationally as a consultant in design for sustainability and education for sustainable development.

Michael Shaw's field is ecological design. He is a founding member of The Ecovillage Institute at Findhorn and is a resident Trustee of the Findhorn Foundation. He pioneered the Ten Stones ecovillage and cohousing community with others in Vermont, USA. An engineer by training, he has been involved in all phases of the development and implementation of natural wastewater treatment and bioremediation systems including Restorers since 1989 with Ocean Arks International (OAI). With Dr. John Todd, founder of OAI, he is the author of two wastewater treatment patents.

Alex Walker is a financial consultant who has advised numerous community and environmental groups in the UK on the subjects of community ownership, renewable energy, and affordable housing. He is chairman of Ekopia Ltd., a community benefit co-operative that raises investment capital for various local projects, a board member of Findhorn Wind Park Ltd. and of Development Trusts Association Scotland and a member of the Moray Housing Partnership.

Gabrielle Haworth Hamm, BSc Sociology with Environmental Studies University of Surrey, was born and raised in Findhorn. After volunteering in Ladakh, India she moved to London to study. While at University she coordinated a student political group, People & Planet campaigning for better environmental standards and accountability in the University and nationally. She worked as Partnership Manager for OneWorld UK , an International charity based in London using new media innovatively to spread awareness around environmental issues globally. She returned to Findhorn in 2007 to focalise the Ecovillage Training Ecovillage Training and now also Coordinating the Ecovillage Design Education. She also works with community youth in the Findhorn Youth Project.

Simon Richards has been a practicing architect for over 40 years and has spent the last 17 years working at the Findhorn Ecovillage. He was Co-Director of the Field of Dreams development team, and has designed and built over 20 of the communities high specification ecological dwellings. Simon now acts as a consultant advisor to many organisations within the ecovillage and chairs our internal planning committee, Park Planning Group. While currently involved in the development of high specification ecological affordable homes in Scotland, he intends to focus more time on sculpture.

John Talbott was responsible for the Ecovillage Project from its inception in 1982 to 2003, facilitating many community meetings and decision making processes in the ongoing development of The Park. John is a consulting engineer specialising in green building, renewable energy and infrastructure associated with the development of sustainable communities. He is the author of Simply Build Green, the UK's first technical manual on ecological building and his work continues to be inspired by the dream of the transformation of human settlements to integrated and diverse ecologies of cultural and ecological excellence. He is also an avid golfer, co-founder of Fairway to Heaven, a golf workshop exploring Golf as a path to enlightenment. Currently living Sydney, Australia with his wife Samantha and 3-year old son Taran, he remains committed to the project and part of the wider global team.