O.U.R. Ecovillage is a sustainable educational center and a presentation ground situated in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Their activities are rooted in Permaculture standards and give educational opportunities for natural architecture, sustainable food production and leadership. Situated on an amazing 25 acres near Shawnigan Lake, Ecovillage began working in 1999 with a dream to create an exemplar sustainable village community based on social, ecological, and economic well being.
The land movement is having its time once again. A few hundred thousand elderly ex-hippies or maybe enduring hippies who net rural back in the 1970's have now been joined by a younger generation, many of whom have abandoned the cities in the past few years as economic conditions have worsened. Some were forced out because of debt, others because of insecure jobs. They used the downturn to re-appraise their values, they're sick of traffic, pollution, and consumer driven society; they've lost all trust in bankers and politics, and are looking for a better way.
They throw themselves into this because they want to do something out of their comfort zone and because they've never really built anything before. It is a strong desire to get more nestled into the Earth and to live with as little as waste as possible, as little involvement with the monetary system as possible, and being able to have a place where they can trade their time, focus and energy for knowledge.
Ecovillage is leading a group of 17 people in a 4 months program where they're building a 550 square foot sustainable house from the ground up, and this is a group of people who want to learn to build their own home, some of them want to become natural builders as a profession and some of them want to become teachers to teach others how to run workshops.