The document discusses two ecovillages in South Africa - Lynedoch EcoVillage in Stellenbosch and Tlholego Ecovillage and Learning Centre in the North West province. Lynedoch EcoVillage uses sustainable building materials and energy sources, resulting in the lowest electricity consumption in the country according to Eskom. It also has a research project exploring domestic solar power generation and trading energy credits. Tlholego Ecovillage was established in 1991 and demonstrates aligning social upliftment with sustainable practices through organic farming, water harvesting, and climate-adaptive architecture. It provides training to the local community in these techniques and has educated over 3,000 people.

1. 62 COR P OR ATE SOCIA L INVESTMENT
[ CON SE RVATION ]
IMAGES:LYNDOCHECOVILLAGE,SUPPLIED
unrivalled insights into what it means to build
sustainably from the ground up. Every home in
the village is built using alternative materials such
as sandbags, clay and straw, unfired clay brick,
and low-maintenance materials for roofing and
window/door frames. The homes have solar
geysers, with gas energy used for cooking.
“According to Eskom, the village has the lowest
electricity consumption in the country,” says Harris.
“As a result of its sustainable foundations, the
village has embarked on an opportunity to harness
and trade the much sought-after resource, energy,
with the power utility.”
The Eskom PV Project is a research project on
an on-grid solar solution where homes serve as
the power plant. Harris says: “The project will
benefit residents. However, for now, it is a rooftop
power-generation experiment across multiple living
standard measures. Because of this, one has to ask
what are the possibilities that the power utility will
ease reliance on coal and nuclear?
“One of the key components for us is the
opportunity for residents to trade energy credits
and for energy to become a currency; now that’s
an interesting avenue of exploration,” he adds. The
village has waste treatment systems, with water
from this process used to flush toilets, resulting
in very low water usage.
Farther afield, the Tlholego Ecovillage and
Learning Centre, founded in 1991 by the Rucore
Sustainability Foundation, and the flagship project
of the Rural Educational Development Corporation,
demonstrates the possibilities of aligning social
upliftment to environmentally sustainable
practices within a community.
“In Setswana, tlholego means ‘coming from
nature’, a fitting name for this village that was
built using holistic land-management practices,
organic food production and climate adaptive
architecture,” says Paul Cohen, executive director
at Rucore. “Today, a Land Trust has been formed
whereby the previously landless farmworkers
now own 22ha of the Tlholego farmland and are
key stakeholders in the village,” he says.
Cohen says the 20 farmworkers/owners
community are employed full time at the Learning
Centre. Over the past 15 years, they have built up a
skill base in workshop facilitation, group catering,
traditional construction methods, woodwork and
intensive food production.
The village offers ongoing training workshops
and has, over the past 25 years, trained more
than 3 000 people in the promotion of ecological
awareness, together with local food production
techniques, climate adaptive technologies, and land
restoration methods.
FOCUS ON EDUCATION
Cohen says the core focus at Tlholego Ecovillage
is on providing a tangible, physical experience of
what can be done using regenerative methods of
food production, water harvesting management,
and other climate adaptive technologies to improve
people’s lives.
Community engagement identifies specific needs
and challenges, and aligns solutions along the
principles of healthy ecosystems.
“The use of experiential learning as the method
of skills transfer creates a participatory learning
experience, where local knowledge and experience
informs the learning process,” says Cohen.
In Stellenbosch, Harris says education and
learning are key tenets of the village, which has
four educational facilities. “There is Spark School,
formerly Lynedoch Primary School,” he says.
“Children from the former school were all offered
full scholarships to attend the new low-cost private
school. The decision to have Spark in the village was
based on the ability to provide quality education at
no cost to children from the former school and other
disadvantaged children in the area.”
Furthermore, there is the Montessori Pre-School,
the Lynedoch Community School, and the
Sustainability Institute.
“Accessing good education is key for children in
this village as they will grow to appreciate the work
being done now; this enables them to preserve it for
the next generation. So education will unlock this
door,” says Harris.
Sustainable practice is often perceived as a
middle-class pursuit, and that is a problem, notes
Harris, adding that it is important to look at
other layers of social justice and then only can
sustainability start to make sense as demonstrated
in the way Lynedoch operates. “People live and
work in the community and their children are
schooled here, too,” Harris says. “It’s real, and we
start asking how we change the way we live to
preserve our environment, at the same time reaping
benefits economically, socially and otherwise.”
Cohen notes that many people are unable
to appreciate the value of conserving the
environment, but he has found that continuous
learning as well as engagement with society
increase the probability of success.
“If communities can see the personal economic
benefit in conserving the environment, they are
more likely to continue with CSI conservation
projects,” Cohen says. “Corporates should include a
focus on developing the human natural economy
while simultaneously doing their core business in
the market economy. ■
“ACCORDING
TO ESKOM,
THE LYNDOCH
ECOVILLAGE HAS
THE LOWEST
ELECTRICITY
CONSUMPTION IN
THE COUNTRY”
Making earth blocks at
Tlholego Ecovillage in
the North West.
Tlholego Ecovillage
and Learning Centre.
Upcycled wood products
for sale at Tlholego.
Organic gardens are used to
generate income at Tlholego.
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