Jenny Pickerill, Professor in Environmental Geography, has been researching and working with eco-communities around the world for over 15 years.
With a background in environmental activism and experience in building her own eco home, Professor Pickerill’s expertise has brought her to explore the inspiring grassroots solutions to environmental problems across the globe, including the potential of eco-communities.
What is an eco-community?
An eco-community is a collective and collaborative project that seeks to balance human and environmental needs. It can encompass anything from an eco village to an intentional community, co-housing or a low impact development. But all eco-communities share a common concern for minimising environmental impact, maximising the use of renewable energy and materials, growing and making their own food, and seeking to reshape social living.
A large number of established eco-communities around the world are rural, usually due to land affordability and better privacy to experiment and try new things.
“That’s all well and good if you want to go and live in the middle of nowhere,” said Professor Pickerill, “but given that most of the population live in urban spaces, we need more eco-communities in cities.”
Exploring eco-communities as an urban solution
Funded by the Urban Studies Foundation, Professor Pickerill and her team were able to explore what urban space means for eco-communities and ask ‘what can we learn from eco-communities to understand if they could work in cities?’
“What we’ve found is that there are increasingly more eco-communities being set up in cities. There’s one in Leeds and in Tasmania and Adelaide, too, and they are inclusive in all kinds of ways,” said Professor Pickerill.
“But what is really interesting is that they have managed to build affordable, ecological housing that means that a diverse population of people can live there.
“There is a myth that eco housing is more expensive, but eco-communities have managed to find different funding mechanisms to mean that houses are actually affordable while still being ecological and comfortable.
Along with affordability, the inner city eco-communities that do exist have shown that it is possible to take degraded or marginalised land and turn them into engaged public spaces.
Professor Pickerill added: “It’s not just about building homes for the people within the communities themselves. There is always an outreach element like gardens that the public can access, for example.
“There’s also a saying within the community that the new urban future shouldn’t be private. It’s about having collective green spaces or growing spaces, or spaces for chickens in cities and that other people can benefit in multiple ways.”
Eco-communities have managed to find different funding mechanisms to mean that houses are actually affordable while still being ecological and comfortable.
How could bringing more eco-communities into urban spaces radically change cities?
According to Professor Pickerill, there are multiple ways, and on multiple scales, that eco communities can radically transform cities, both for the environment and for society.
The main factor is that eco-communities have reduced energy use in the buildings themselves, meaning they don’t need as much energy to run. “They tend to use solar panels, air source heat pumps, and are built from low energy materials.”
“They also aim to produce less waste and buy in bulk or do things that require less plastic or packaging by working together. And because they’re in urban spaces, it means that people can use public transport, so they’re designed so you don’t need a car.
“On the other hand, eco-communities can be excellent ways to feel a sense of community and belonging where living alone may feel isolating. There is a great deal of informal sharing and mutual care like checking in and running errands for each other, sharing cooking, looking after the communal spaces together.”
“Ultimately they make it very doable, so they set up structures where you can live in a house in conventional ways, but you don’t need to be using as many resources so there isn’t any sacrifice.
“There has been a lingering stereotype from eco-communities in the 1970s that they were restrictive,” said Professor Pickerill. “That you have to live a certain lifestyle as approved by the community, or you have to be responsible for onerous time-consuming group chores. But it’s just not like that anymore.
“There is much more recognition that people have different lifestyles and different responsibilities and will want to make different choices in those lives. There seems to be a shift in understanding that if eco-communities remain ‘hardcore green’ and require their residents to restrict or sacrifice in some way, they will simply be separate communities that have limited impact. Instead, if they ask their residents to get involved with initiatives every now and again, that has much more impact and resonates with a wider group of people.
“Most residents want to have a nice life and want more social activity with their neighbours but that doesn’t mean they don’t want private time as well. It’s more about ‘we want to live in a nice house that doesn’t destroy the environment that we can afford’ and sometimes that’s as far as it goes.”
There is much more recognition that people have different lifestyles and different responsibilities and will want to make different choices in those lives.
The power of self-sufficiency
One of the other ways eco-communities have brought about radical change is the production of food in urban spaces. When it comes to feeding the world, discussion often moves into large scale farming, and misses the opportunity of small scale growing in urban areas, like in allotments or other community spaces.
“It’s not about feeding ourselves entirely,” added Professor Pickerill, “but it is about us understanding where food comes from and producing some of that in low cost ways where we benefit, not only from eating the food, but in learning about the process of growing. The ability to grow fruit and vegetables is often underestimated in its impact on people’s daily lives.
“And when it comes to transport, many of the eco-communities around the world have created ways to make cycling easier, with improved cycle routes, cycle storage and encouraging more people to cycle.”
One outcome of Professor Pickerill’s work has been understanding the importance of encouraging people to visit eco-communities. “Many people won’t fully understand what these spaces actually look like and how they function. And in my experience, many are pleasantly surprised when they visit and see that it is possible and affordable to live like this.”
“Eco-communities are an excellent way to see how many of the ideas talked about at COP26 are already being put in place and work,” Professor Pickerill concluded.