Online Zoom Forum: Ecovillages: Spiritual, Social-Economic, Ecological, and Cultural Perspectives.
Date: Wednesday 8 October 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Dr Sara Trevelyan:
Bio: I am delighted to host this call where we explore together this important topic.
I have encountered ecovillages through having a home at Findhorn which is one of the first and most well known of ecovillages which has as 60 + year history.
Ecovillages developed in the late 80s as an alternative to cultures of consumerism and exploitation. A conference on Ecovillages held at Findhorn in the mid nineties became a major catalyst in the development of this movement.
I have benefitted from the consciousness of high quality, low impact lives through many of my experiences of the community at Findhorn. I have also visited another very well known ecovillage, Auroville in India. My knowledge of ecovillages has also come through friends I have known who are intimately involved in and very committed to this movement.
I am also a psychotherapist, Barbara Brennan energy healer, and interfaith minister.
As a relatively new grandmother I am passionate about creating a resilient and sustainable future. As the gap between Climate agreements and what is actually happening widens it is important to develop our understanding of the ecovillage movement which offers an invitation to step away from the mainstream and and evolve better, more nourishing, connected and fulfilling ways of leading our lives.
Speakers:
Dr Daniel Greenberg:
Title: What is an Ecovillage?
Description: Around the world, thousands of ecovillages are demonstrating that it’s possible to live both high-quality and low-impact lives. They are living laboratories, experimenting with solutions to some of the greatest challenges of our time, and showing us that another way of living together is not only possible, but already happening.
Bio: As founder and CEO of Earth Deeds, Daniel is passionate about new paradigms, worldviews and “stories” that can help humans live in greater harmony with each other and all life. While a visionary and a “big thinker”, his organizational and interpersonal skills has enabled him to be a successful social entrepreneur, international educator, and sustainability consultant.
After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University with a B.A. in Psychology, Daniel received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota with a focus on education within intentional communities. In 1999, he founded the educational non-profit Living Routes, which partnered with UMass-Amherst to run study abroad programs based in ecovillages around the world. Over 1,500 students have been transformed by their experiences in sustainable communities such as Findhorn in Scotland and Auroville in south India.
While leading Living Routes, Daniel set up a system where students measured their travel emissions and supported sustainability projects within their host communities. It worked so well, Daniel left Living Routes in 2012 to start Earth Deeds and further develop these tools to help others similarly understand and respond to their impacts.
Daniel has been a leading advocate for sustainability within international education and the ecovillage movement. He chaired Sustainability Task Forces for NAFSA and the Forum for Education Abroad and has been a frequent presenter at national and international conferences. He served President of the Global Ecovillage Network from 2015-2019 and is a co-founder of Gaia Education, a UN-affiliated NGO which has run Ecovillage Design Education courses for over 6,000 students in 35 countries. Daniel is currently Director of Networking and Partnerships at the Foundation for Intentional Community.
Dr Marilyn Hamilton:
Title: Ecovillage Findhorn as Laboratory and Beacon.
Description: Findhorn stands as both a **laboratory** and a **beacon**: a small-scale, spiritually rooted, regenerative ecology that mirrors the dynamics of whole cities and contributes to the healing of meta-crises at planetary scale.
These themes will be explored in the EICSP Event (and are expanded in this series of Blogs with the same titles):
1. Listening to the Inner Voice: Findhorn’s Call to Community
2. Scaling Up Consciousness: Applying Integral Frameworks from Local to Global
3. Hospitable to the Soul: Living with Beauty, Truth, and Goodness
4. Gaia’s Reflective Organs: Cities, Communities, and Consciousness
5. Governance in Transition: Tough Love and Collective Responsibility at Findhorn
6. From Eco-Village to Regenerative Learning Community: A Microcosm for the World
Bio: Dr Marilyn Hamilton is Co-Founder of Living Cities.Earth and Founder of Integral City Meshworks. Author of the Integral City Book Series and Tales of the CROFT Regenerators Novella series, she co-designed Cities Rising for a Regenerative World & curated of Urban Hub 20, City Change in a VUCA World (English and Spanish).
Marilyn is an international keynote speaker, faculty of Royal Roads University (and associate faculty of four other Us), designing courses that build capacity for the 4 archetypal City Voices: Citizens, City Managers, Business/Innovators, 3rd Sector/Civil Society. She is or was SCIO Trustee, CEO, COO, CFO and CIO in multiple sectors and an Evolutionary Leader, a founding member of the Integral Europe Academic Consortium and Global Accreditation Council. Marilyn is a Findhorn Fellow, past Fellow for Urban Arena Europe and World Unity Week Ambassador.
Currently Marilyn is passionate about humaning well, AQtivating Soulpower in Living City Regeneration Hubs and Cities of Peace.
Marilyn lives in Findhorn Ecovillage Scotland (where she returned to the land of her ancestors from British Columbia, Canada in 2018). www.integralcity.com, www.livingcities.earth, https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilyn-hamilton-629494/
Dr Luz Gonçalves Brito:
Title: Self-transformation and Social Action in Brazilian Ecovillages.
Description: During my doctoral research in ecovillages, I discovered that for those people neither spirituality is just an intimate practice nor ecological communities are self-contained.
Bio: Dr Luz Gonçalves Brito holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University Federal do Rio Grande do Sul/UFRGS, Brazil. She is committed to environmental humanities, phenomenology and intersectionality. Her current research interests include political ecology, gender, race and mental health.
Sally Bogale:
Title: Gaia Education for Regenerative Cultures - distilling ecovillage learning to support all communities everywhere to become regenerative.
Description: Introducing how Gaia Education's holistic 4D Design Framework distils the learning of ecovillages and other eco-spiritual communities in order to support all communities, no matter what their context, to reconnect more deeply to themselves, each other and the natural world around them and transition to more authentically regenerative cultures. By bringing this Worldview/Cultural dimension into the traditional social, ecological, and economic dimensions of sustainable design, humans can re-immerse ourselves as a more harmonious part of a bigger 'Whole' once again, in whatever way is most socio-cultural appropriate for each of us. Whilst making careful use of beneficial innovations and technology, we can reverse the extractive tendencies of the current dominant global culture to rediscover ourselves as peaceful stewards of our natural surroundings in a way that indigenous cultures of the Earth would recognise. Examples of different projects and innovations will be given.
Bio: Sally has worked for over 18 years as a project manager, project development manager and fundraiser in the fields of international development, humanitarian aid, and sustainability/regeneration. Having worked for Ecovillage Findhorn as Youth Project Manager for 2 years, she joined the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2007 in the Philippines and Guinea. Returning to Scotland in 2012 with Ecologia Youth Trust, she joined Gaia Education in 2016, holding various roles in projects, resourcing and partnerships, until she was made Co-CEO in 2022. Her passion is to support pioneering partners to lead their communities in designing regenerative lifestyles and livelihoods - particularly in areas on the frontline of climate change effects and ecosystem degradation, and to showcase their learning across the world. Within Gaia Education, with her Co-CEO, she prioritises developing healthy and supportive internal systems to support the wellbeing and capacity of the wonderful international team.
Dr Ana Margarida Esteves:
Bio: Dr Ana Margarida Esteves currently works at the Centro de Estudos Internacionais, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Ana Margarida does research in Socioeconomics, Feminist Economics and Economic Sociology. Her current project is 'The Emerging Action Fields of Solidarity Economy.'
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Booking: By Paypal.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.
NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.
Here are the bank transfer details:
Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:
The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
BIC:
BOFSGB21168