THE FINDHORN FOUNDATION – PIONEERING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS
The Findhorn Foundation and surrounding community at The Park, Findhorn and at Cluny Hill in Forres is a vibrant, creative home to more than 400 people from all over the world. Together, and with the thousands of people who visit each year, we are exploring the challenge and task of creating new ways of living. By being the change we want to see in the world, listening to the deepest part of our being and cooperating with nature and with each other, we have since 1962 been at the forefront of creating a positive future for humanity and for Gaia, the living planet that sustains us.
The Findhorn Ecovillage, situated at The Park in the beautiful Findhorn Bay of Moray, has been pioneering a holistic approach to sustainability since 1985. The ecovillage model for living meets the increasingly urgent global need for viable, sustainable human settlements by providing environmental, social, economic and spiritual sustainability, and an enhanced quality of life for all. Aiming to restore the balance between the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – and working with the simple principle of not taking more away from the earth than we give back, ecovillages are consciously diminishing their ecological footprint and returning humans to a sustainable relationship with all other communities of life. The principles of an ecovillage apply equally to urban and rural settings, to both developing and over-developed countries.
Within the Findhorn Ecovillage, sustainable values are expressed in the built environment with ecological houses, innovative use of building materials such as local stone and straw bales, beauty in the architecture and gardens, and applied technology in sewage treatment, heating systems and energy generation. Sustainable values are also expressed in the community’s social, economic and holistic learning activities.
Through all our activities we do our best to put spiritual values into practice and to demonstrate new and sustainable ways to live: as a learning community for personal and social change, cultivating an ecovillage, creating a culture of peace through our commitment to open and honest interactions, growing food, building houses, running businesses, erecting wind turbines, recycling, meditating, exploring alternative economic systems, our family life.
Points of interest about the Findhorn Foundation and ecovillage:
- a major centre of adult learning serving 9,000 visitors a year from over 50 countries
- ecological footprint is half the national (UK) average
- large and diverse organic food production network
- 61 ecological buildings, including the famous whisky barrel houses
- installed a 250 kW biomass boiler to service the central Park area, reducing carbon emissions by 80 tons a year
- 4 wind turbines with a total capacity of 750 kW
- a biological Living Machine sewage treatment system
- numerous solar water-heating systems
- comprehensive recycling scheme
- publisher of theUK’s first technical guide to ecological housing
- own bank and community currency
- site of CIFAL Scotland – a UNITAR Associated Training Centre
The Findhorn Foundation is a founding member of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) and in 1998 the ecovillage received UN Habitat Best Practice Designation. Thousands of individuals and hundred of ecovillage initiatives and existing ecovillages have joined the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) since its creation in 1995, becoming what has been called the Habitat Revolution.
Our vision for a positive future is expressed in everything that you see around you when you visit the Findhorn Foundation. It is in the people who live here, and in the people who visit here and leave here inspired, knowing that it is possible to make a difference in the world and do that in their own ways, every day, around the world.
As our service, we aim to pioneer, inspire, demonstrate, encourage and share our experience. It is the consciousness, motivation, mindfulness, creative energy and joy that we bring to all of these activities that make visions a reality and bring lasting, positive change to the world.
The Findhorn Foundation offers many programmes/workshops which have ‘sustainability’ at their heart. Details of these can be found on the Foundation’s website at http://www.findhorn.org/calendar/workshops/c/45/
ARTICLES FROM FINDHORN
“The ecological footprint of the Findhorn Foundation has been significantly reduced with the installation and commissioning of an efficient new biomass boiler at The Park towards the end of 2010.”
One year after installation, the Findhorn Foundation reports the success of its energy-saving biomass boiler in the Park. Click here to read the rest of the article.
“It’s an historic time of commemoration and celebration as the Findhorn community enters its 50th year at The Park as a force for positive change and pioneer of new ways of living harmoniously and sustainably.”
Findhorn Foundation celebrates 50 years of peaceful and sustainable living. Click here to read the rest of the article.
“Last year the Findhorn Foundation community installed a new biomass boiler at its main base: The Park, Findhorn, near Inverness in Scotland.
The new biomass boiler will reduce carbon emissions by more than 100 tons a year and save about £1,000 each month in fuel costs.
The 250 kW boiler, which is fuelled by woodchips made from waste wood from a local sawmill, went operational during September, replacing all existing gas and oil boilers in the Community Centre, Universal Hall, Park Building and eight residential buildings in the heart of The Park.”
Findhorn Foundation’s report on the installation of the new biomass boiler at The Park, Findhorn. Click here to read the rest of the article.
