HISTORY OF "ECOLOGY ACTION"

In 1966 Alan Chadwick, English gardening master, brought his synthesis of the biodynamic/French intensive method to the US and converted a barren slope at the University of California-Santa Cruz into a flourishing garden. In 1971 the city of Palo Alto, California invited Stephen Kafka, Senior Apprentice at the University’s student garden, to give a four-hour class on the method. Ecology Action had been started that year and had developed a recycling program that was so successful it had been taken over by the city.

Members of Ecology Action were excited about the class and wanted to make the information more readily available to the public. In January 1972 the Board of Directors approved a Biointensive research and education project whose purposes would be to teach regular classes, collect data, make land available for gardening and publish information on the method’s techniques. John Jeavons became the project’s director. The Common Ground Organic Garden Supply and Education Center in Palo Alto was also started at this time as part of the Ecology Action organization.

After a five-month search for land, the Syntex Corporation offered three and three-quarters acres of their grounds in the Stanford Industrial Park, with all the necessary water. A half acre was kept for the research garden and the rest became a community garden. Alan Chadwick visited the garden site and gave us basic advice on how to proceed. We then attended a series of lectures he gave nearby. In the spring we started teaching our own classes, based on Chadwick’s classes and Stephen Kafka’s.

The Santa Fe Institute is a private, not-for-profit, independent research and education center founded in 1984, for multidisciplinary collaborations in the physical, biological, computational, and social sciences. Understanding of complex adaptive systems is critical to addressing key environmental, technological, biological, economic, and political challenges.

Renowned scientists and researchers come to Santa Fe Institute from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and private industry to collaborate in attempts to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the deep simplicity present in our complex world.

Centre for Ecology Development and Research     "Sustaining livelihoods through ecosystems management"

CEDAR aims to bridge the gap between policy makers and development practitioners by bringing rigor of applied research to the wealth of grassroots understanding of development, environment, livelihoods, and rural communities. CEDAR has a registered office in Delhi and the head office is located in Dehradun.

Organisation 

Folkecenter is an independent, non-profit institution, managed by a board of 11 members representing the trades, local authorities, energy organisations, sciences and concerned citizens. Folkecenter forms part of international networks including partners in Western, Eastern Europe and in the Developing Countries.

Folkecenter is an ECOSITE; is Danish co-ordinator for EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energies and the European Solar Prize; supports the World Council for Renewable Energies, WCRE; IRENA, the initiative of an International Agency for Renewable Energy; and EREF, the European Renewable Energy Federation. Is member of InForSe, the International Network for Sustainable Energy; of WWEA, the World Wind Energy Association; and secretariat for the World Wind Energy Institute http://www.wwei.nu/. Folkecenter staff were from 1981 till 2002 members of Danish national committees for Solar Energy; Hydrogen for transportation; Wave Energy; and Photovoltaics. 1995 till 2005 member of the National Rural District Development Committee.  

F a c t s 

Objectives:
Research & development, testing and implementation for innovation within the renewable energies and other environmental technologies, with small and medium size enterprises as special target groups.

Premises & Location:
4.000 square metres of buildings including offices, workshops, exhibitions, training centre, etc. Test stations for wave energy machines and windmills up till 30 KW. Owns 8 hectares of diverse land with rolling hills, close to historical sites from the Bronze Age and the Viking period. From our windows we enjoy scenic views overlooking Skibsted Fjord and western Limfjord.

About Us

The No Impact Project is an international, environmental, nonprofit project, founded  in the spring of 2009. It was inspired by the No Impact Man book, film, and blog.

Mission

To empower citizens to make choices which better their lives and lower their environmental impact through lifestyle change, community action, and participation in environmental politics.

The No Impact Project was conceived by Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, following the success of his blog, book, and film, which chronicle his family’s year-long experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle in New York City. Central to his thesis is the notion that deep-seated individual behavior change leads to both cultural change and political engagement. Living low-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement. This thesis is the bedrock of the No Impact Project.

Goals