A new website look and greater clarification of where we are going and what we are doing
September 2008
Well we are well on our way to eco-farm-topia. The general idea of what we are embarking upon with the 'eco-farm projec' is that Abeo will have a share, and so will a community of other people with similar but not fully 'abeo' ideology. In other words, Abeo is too ideological to gain $$ for doing the things we'd like to do, so we are creating this new entity (the eco-farm - no final name selected yet) to be the bridge, allowing abeo and others to invest and use the land and other resources available. Make sense? It will also give us opportunity to engage the wider community with a less frightning face - as a share farm (which isn't uncommon here) as opposed to an 'intentional tribe', which isn't something anyone these parts would understand very easily.
the new - new plan
February-March 2008
Despite our worries that people might start thinking we're pretty wishy-washy, we've changed plans again. . .we'd like to do something bigger, but we are still only two core people and the load is far to great for us to manage alone, so we are just being practical. If you didn't see the link on the home page, here it is again:
http://abeo.earthsociety.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=EcoFarm_Initial_Letter
Also there will be updates emailed to subscribers (-you- if you are reading this) that will be poseted here:
http://abeo.earthsociety.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=EcoFarm
If this 'vision' page is way confusing for you, please email us for an explaination. (abeo@earthsociety.org)
- The old - new idea**
October 2007
We are now considering a new business idea that may be a bridge to building what is detailed in the "old plan" (described below the new plan on this page), or something else entirely (who knows) - This new idea is to build a more traditional ecovillage, seeking investment from 'green' baby boomers who wish to move or retire into a well planned out environmentally friendly 'green' ecovillage outside of an urban setting.
Some details we are considering:
1. Strata-title structure: Shares in the 'community' will be 'sold-off' in phases. Phase one is a share exchange for people who will contract to administer and work onsite for the first 5 years (this is our groups ticket into the project). Phase two will sell discounted shares to raise the capital to purchase the land, hire architects and purchase equipment to begin construction - alternatively we may hire out to do the earthworks - we are aware of a company here in Tassie that is already doing this work and their rates are very reasonable. Phase three will be full priced shares that will raise the money necessary to build the community center (see details below) and all the rest of the construction with money left over to put into any agreed upon investments.
Alternative structure to the above: A legal 'association' (like the permaculture association of tasmania). There would be a once-off membership fee (sizable amount obviously as we'd still have to raise similar levels of capital) with a yearly fee (small amount) to cover other costs (yearly fee may or may not be necessary depending on our financial situation). Under this structure, we would have a very similar set of phases, but we would not be 'selling-off' titles per se, this structure might allow more felxibility during development, but may reduce re-sale value of, in this case, membership in the association - or maybe not. . .predicting the future is a hard thing to do.Construction phases & (ultra) preliminary share costing
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 contractual labor exchange - this is Abeo's free ticket to gain a block in the ecovillage $100k1 each share or a total of $3.6MM $150k1 each share or a total of $14.4MM 14 shares - 1 block, max 28 bedrooms2 42 shares - 3 blocks, max 84 bedrooms2 104 shares - 8 blocks, max 208 bedrooms2 1Share price is for basic 2 bedrooms and assumes 2 members; additional members budget at an additional $20k each with a maximum limit of 2 persons per bedroom. All monies left after construction phases will go into a general fund for community maintenance and any future community projects.
214 - 2 bedroom homes through to 1 - 28 bedroom home. Depending on number of shares purchased, the shareholder can determine the overall size of the house, however they will be unable to change the sustainable limits built into the design, i.e. maximum number of persons per block is 56. Our goal here is to keep the ratio of person per acre of land to be near and preferably less than one.2. purchase of a large ex-dairy farm on the north coast of Tasmania 500+ acres - best soil in the state is on the North coast (volcanic soils) and large blocks of land are cheapest per acre. Old dairies are already cleared less likely to be contaminated with chemicals than orchard land.
3. passive solar rammed earth (wrapped with straw bale) housing. Rammed Earth provides thermal mass, is an excellent structural material and is acceptable practice in australian building code. Straw bales as insulation will hold the heat energy stored in the thermal mass keeping the structures very stable temperature-wise.
4. 13 complexes each with 14 units centered around a large community center. All buildings would be clustered into 50 acres or less.
5. Community Center - potential Includes:a. Offices for administration and planning, Classrooms for teaching and training, central library.
b. Commercial Workspaces, Stores, Floor space, and Shops - visitors to the community can shop and trade here - provides jobs for many of the community members.
c. Large Greenhouse & Conservatory - many uses, from growing out of season produce, growing tropicals, conservation & education.
d. Fitness center & spa with saunas, heated pool, etc.
e. Health & Longevity Clinic - People who retire here can expect to be able to live here throughout there lives without the need to relocate to a nursing home late in life.
f. Community Car Garage - Instead of re-creating suburbia in the woods, members and visitors will share a large parking garage. Additionally, regular scheduled busing and community car rental will be available to members.6. Internal transportation - community bus.
7. Anerobic sewerage & composting system capable of producing 1.) large quantities of methane gas useful for generating power and operating gas converted vehicles & 2.) large quantities of high grade fertilizer for community gardens.
Old plan
2005-06
- still in the works, some if not all of it might be incorporated into the new plan - in other words they will have overlap and may somehow merge. ****
Our vision is evolving - as it must. What we are planning/intending at the moment is for two ecovillages -each with its own focus. One will be centered around crafts/building, the other will be centered around health/well-being and real education (empowerment).
For the time being, as we have not yet selected names for these ecovillages, we'll substitute the term eco-one for the crafts ecovillage and eco-two for the well-being/education ecovillage.
Each ecovillage is its own experiment. Each is part of the Abeo community. Each will be organized according to the principles of its founders. However, each must build upon existing knowledge and theory and may not merely copy an existing model.
We have determined the legal structures necessary for our vision and it is being implemented. The bare basic description is thus:
Oroborus Sustainable Research (OSR) is a not-for-profit company being set-up to work with the Abeo Trust and to be its beneficiary -this seeming complexity gives legal isolation, legal protection, and tax benefits. The membership of Abeo (Eco-1 & Eco-2), will be employed to operate the varied research enterprises run by OSR.
If you are interested in any of the details please send your questions to: abeo@earthsociety.org
eco-one
The crafts ecovillage - a model has not yet been suggested, we are seeking a leader and effective manager as well as persons with relevant experience to join us and help to flesh out a model. Crafts may range from metal-work to pottery, sewing to furniture making.
eco-two
The well-being/empowerment ecovillage - This ecovillage model as described in the below two links, is under development by Tyler Jordan. Comments, arguments, contributions may be sent to: tyler@earthsociety.org