Narara Ecovillage is a Finalist in the 2024 Banksia Sustainability Awards: Place Making.
This category celebrates sustainability through innovative design and practices, resource conservation, energy efficiency, circularity, renewable energy and biodiversity, as well as social sustainability, inclusivity, mobility, well-being, and community engagement.
Narara Ecovillage has been named as a Finalist in the 2024 Banksia Sustainability Awards in the category of Place Making.
This award “celebrates infrastructure and built environment projects that prioritise sustainability through innovative design and practices. These initiatives demonstrate resource conservation, energy efficiency, circularity, renewable energy adoption, and biodiversity preservation, while emphasising social sustainability, inclusivity, mobility, well-being, and community engagement.”
A summary of Narara Ecovillage’s submission is below.
Introduction
Narara Ecovillage (NEV), 86km north of Sydney, is a resilient and inclusive sustainable intergenerational community that demonstrates ways to thrive within the earth’s ecological capacity.
Objectives and Challenges
The project started with a group of people in Sydney wanting to live more sustainably in a community, rather than in traditional housing and in nuclear families. The Narara Ecovillage Co-operative (NEV) purchased the site from the State Government in 2013. Finding the site, raising the funds needed for purchase and negotiating with both the NSW Government and (then) Gosford City Council were all challenges that needed to be met.
Strategies and Actions
Prior to new houses being built, volunteers established systems to encourage a strong sense of community belonging through encouraging neighbourly interaction while respecting people’s privacy. NEV has adopted a form of governance called Sociocracy, which allows all voices to be heard, and makes for better decisions with greater buy-in from those affected by the decisions.
Houses minimise environmental impact through careful orientation, use of thermal mass, planting for privacy and temperature control, insulation, low water use, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly materials. Solar panels and a community battery provide almost all the village’s power needs. Green transport policies and waste minimisation are priorities. Food provided through the Coffee Cart and at Ecovillage meals is sourced on the Ecovillage land and from sustainable local suppliers, and a circular economy is in place. Bush regeneration is carried out on a large scale.
Impact and Results
The Narara Ecovillage Strategic Plan was developed in April 2022 and guides activities for the period from 2022-2030. The Strategic Objectives aim to increase biodiversity on NEV land; to produce 15,000kg of food annually; to improve Ecovillage members’ ratings for trust, collaboration, commitment and satisfaction; to achieve a reduction in net annual operational carbon emissions for NEV households; to provide worldwide outreach for its work; and to derive 30% of its annual operating costs from regenerative businesses by 2030.
Results to date show that bird and frog species are increasing; almost 2000kg of food is grown annually on NEV lands or by partners; community cohesion is promoted through conflict resolution and community activities; at least 397,000 people have been reached through media stories about the Ecovillage; and regenerative businesses are starting to contribute to operating costs.
Innovation and Uniqueness
Narara Ecovillage was conceived of from the beginning as a multi-generational community in which everyone from babies to the elderly can co-exist in safety and be supported to participate in both educational and enjoyable activities. One of the most common responses heard on Open Day is from visitors from Asia or Africa who say: “At last! I have never before seen in Australia a village like my home.”
Conclusion
Narara Ecovillage is only at the beginning of what is planned as a decades-long process. It provides a demonstration of an alternative to living in isolation and in sprawling houses on massive blocks. It is the way of the future for living sustainably in community.
The winners of the 2024 Banksia Sustainability Awards will be announced on 15 November 2024.