It’s no secret that eco-friendly practices and lifestyles are gaining popularity around the world. However, more people want to do good for the environment not only on their own, but within entire towns and cities centered around sustainable living. Unified by using collective means to do environmental good, these “ecovillages” are actually extremely diverse, and range from the most remote rural towns to the most populous urban cities.1
Within urban areas, two popular movements for green communities have come about: cohousing and new urbanism. Green communities often combine these two strategies in the pursuit of sustainability.2
Cohousing is when residents within a housing complex share common spaces and collectively plan their community. The idea behind cohousing is sharing things which tend to be used only rarely by individuals. Often, there is a common house, which can contain exercise facilities, guest rooms, laundry space, children’s playrooms, and lounging areas. This tactic reduces the waste of energy, space, and natural resources common in single-family housing units.3
New urbanism is a reaction against the environmental unsustainability of suburban sprawl. The idea behind it is that most cities have zoning laws, which keep businesses and homes miles away from each other, forcing the majority of people to travel mostly by car, rather than biking or walking. As a result, new urbanists emphasize mixed-use buildings, with residential housing units located right above businesses. Another central goal of new urbanism is to reduce the amount of roads within cities, and expanding sidewalks, plazas, and squares to encourage walking and community interaction.4
In rural areas, green communities are popping up in recently disaster-devastated areas, since people are inspired to work together to rebuild in an environmentally friendly fashion. The rural town of Greensburg, Kansas, for example, had basically been demolished entirely by a tornado. Now, this tiny town of 700 is becoming such a picturesque green community that the National Building Museum recently dedicated an exhibit on the process occurring in Greensburg. The town wants to power the town with wind energy, use street runoff and rainwater catchments to irrigate the plants, and construct all public buildings under the strictest requirements for efficient design.5 Sounds impressive for a small town by itself, but it doesn’t hurt that they’re partnering with Leonardo DiCaprio to produce a reality series on the process of creating a sustainable town.6
Green communities can also be found in some of the most surprising places around the world. When people think of China, “green” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, China’s Olympic Village was actually the first neighborhood in the world to achieve certification from the U.S. Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development. There are 42 buildings, where the 17,000 athletes resided. Right now, the same buildings are being reused by new residents who want to live in this neighborhood.7 The village was constructed with only environmentally friendly materials, is powered by solar heat and geothermal heat pumps, and consumes only about 1/30th of the energy as that of conventional buildings.8 For more information about China’s greening efforts in the Summer 2008 Olympics, check out the Greeniacs Article “A Green Demand at the 2008 Summer Olympics“.
Another major environmentally friendly project is in the oil-rich Abu Dhabi, a place where many would have expected it least. Slated to be completed in 2018, the futuristic Masdar City aims to be the first city to be carbon neutral, and to burn neither gas nor oil. Cars would be banned, but underneath the city one could find a personal rapid transit system, powered by solar energy, which would take you anywhere you wanted to go. It also plans to use water as many times as possible, and to have 80 percent of its water recycled. On top of that, it plans to have all waste either recycled or converted to energy. That includes human waste.9 Although Masdar City has some pretty ambitious goals, if even some of them were achieved, it would inspire the world about the potential of green communities.
Green communities in general open up amazing possibilities for the future of environmental living. Whether these communities prove not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also a sustainable way of life for the individuals living in them, is something that only time will tell.
