service – VillageLab https://www.villagelab.net Community design Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:21:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.2 https://www.villagelab.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-VillageLab-Logo-3-e1590913054758-32x32.png service – VillageLab https://www.villagelab.net 32 32 Visioning and Strategic Planning https://www.villagelab.net/vision_and_strategy/ Sat, 21 Mar 2020 20:59:38 +0000 http://www.villagelab.net/?p=3057
“Utopian visions, and the social experiments they inspired, are a product of our most freely creative faculty, the human imagination. They are an expression of the universal impulse to create the new –to reshape culture and even consciousness itself”.  Jessica Roemischer.
Visioning and Strategic Planning
  • Vision and Mission
  • Founders Coaching
  • Organizational Development
  • Agile Culture Design

Bringing inspired vision to reality – this is the basis of all great work!  We love our visionaries and cultural creatives!  Without them the world would be a dull place – in fact we probably wouldn’t survive!

But how do we best bring vision into being – especially for something as complex as community?  How do we accurately translate the vision into the various social, economic and technological forms it needs to thrive?   How do we preserve the integrity of the original vision while allowing for more to come – for synergy with multiple visions – for evolution as we go forward?

And once we have a mission – and a strategic plan – how do we develop an organization that walks it’s talk – that embodies the values inherent in the mission in it’s very structure and function?  How do create a organizational culture that matches our values and deepest motivations?

At VillageLab we have been students of the process for many years and hope to be for many years to come!  We thrive on this process!  And over the years we have gathered and honed many tools and processes to help us.  We look forward to working with you in this most foundational and essential part of the whole systems design process!

]]> Eco-tech System Design https://www.villagelab.net/eco-tech-system-design/ Tue, 05 Dec 2017 16:48:18 +0000 http://www.villagelab.net/?p=3068
“Ecovillages offers that rarest of gifts: wisdom. It asks not simply how to address the build-up of carbon, dwindling of species, and toxification of our world, but how we can live together joyously on a single earth.”
Paul Wapner
Eco-tech System Design
  • Food, Water, Energy, Shelter
  • Appropriate Tech
  • Permaculture
  • Eco-Reintegration
Envision yourself as a member of an established regenerative community settlement, in the bioregion of your choice. You have arrived with your chosen peers, in a thriving enclave of the near future. Where will you source your food and water? What provides you with power, heat, and protection from weather?
Sustainable ecological infrastructure is often the first issue that comes to mind for individuals and groups choosing to pursue an ethical lifestyle in community. Perhaps you can picture a cluster of resilient Earthship dwellings, or an array of sun-tracking PV panels adjacent to a fertile food forest. Is such aesthetic natural abundance within reach of anyone? There are many appropriate technology solutions to consider, and new innovative approaches always in development.
The range of possibilities can be daunting, and even more so the time, energy, and resources needed to implement many of the more elaborate solutions. Most importantly, decisions about infrastructure usually involve a long term commitment that will go hand in hand with essential decisions and development in other key areas of a whole systems approach to community: social and economic.
VillageLab consultants take this integrated approach from the beginning, working towards optimal, achievable results that are designed to evolve and grow with the project as a whole. The design methodology of Permaculture is central to our work in this area, offering a pragmatic long-term approach that incorporates three pillar principles at its core: earth care, people care, and fair share. 
While much of this work with infrastructure takes time to truly flourish, there are many eco-tech improvements that are available for rapid integration and short term advantage too. We offer a depth of experience in implementing renewable power systems for community scale grid-independent energy supply, and can bring together expertise for most other types of green utility or appliance. 
At larger scope, we will convene a dedicated team to address building design and site master planning in support of a full-fledged vision for regenerative habitat.
In some cases it may make sense to start at a smaller scale in multiple directions at once to determine which solutions are going to work best in a given context – or to implement experimental new ideas. We are looking for opportunities to partner with groups who wish to take on a rigorous research and development program to advance these technologies towards greater effectiveness and availability in the world. Let’s talk!
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