A Green Home Community

Creating a green home is a challenge when you’re doing it alone. Some committed to the cause are taking a community approach and creating new “utopias,” where groups of like-minded individuals live, work and share resources. Some might call it a throwback to the communes of the 60s, but today’s communities have less to do with free love and more to do with loving the earth.

Rural and semi-rural eco-villages are fast-growing housing options near large cities, full of twenty and thirty-something artists and professionals who eschew capitalism in favor of freeganism (using a barter system to get items at no cost, rather than feeding the cycle of consumerism) and living from the land. While some communities have roots in veganism or a religious belief, most have been driven by a desire for environmental stewardship. The Intentional Communities web site shows that there are currently about 900 of these communities in the U.S., a 33% increase in the past 15 years. Most of them champion communal farming, energy conservation and shared resources.

This is an extreme example of green living, but their principles can be applied to your own green home. How can you change the way you live to be more reflective of a “utopian” green society? [Forbes]