Innovation: Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood

New Zealand

AAI Domain: Participation in society (social connectedness, political participation, inter-generational activity)

Environmental sustainability and ageing populations are two of the great challenges that societies in the twenty-first century need to address in socially innovative ways. This dual challenge requires holistic solutions that recognise the importance of the social determinants of health over the life course – the circumstances into which people are born, grow up, live, work and age – strongly influence how long and well people live. An inspiring and impressive example of developing a social innovation, co-housing, to meet environmental and social sustainability concerns is the Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood at Ranui near Auckland.

The concept of Earthsong started in the mid-1990s with a group of people committed to designing and living in a model community that adhered to the principles of a cohesive neighbourhood with clear processes for living cooperatively in an environmentally responsible way.

Three statements of values in the group’s vision statement encapsulate the ethos of Earthsong:

1. To design and construct a cohesive neighbourhood whose layout, buildings and services demonstrate the highest practical standards of sustainable human settlement.

2. To develop and foster a living environment which uses clear communication, decision-making and conflict resolution guidelines that promote tolerance, safety, respect and co-operation.

3. To assist in education and public awareness of sustainability by demonstrating and promoting innovative community design and environmentally responsible construction.

Largely self-build construction began in 2001 and the development was completed in 2008 and consists of a range of houses from one bedroom apartments to four bedroom houses with a mixture of owners and renters that caters for a community of more than 100 people. There is a common house where meals are prepared by one of eight cooking teams and shared twice a week and a range of activities and meetings are held for all members of the community.

Earthsong has a number of socially innovative features including a commitment to permanent agriculture that is collectively maintained. In relation to active ageing, there is a robust social infrastructure based on cooperation based on strong social connections with everybody knowing each other. There is a strong emphasis on inter-generational activities in the life of the community as it takes a village to raise a child and there is a participatory process to the management of the community.

All adults are members of the deliberative process and a system of coloured cards for facilitating discussion and decision making although voting has rarely been used as there is invariably a high degree of consensus about issues. Active ageing occurs over the whole of the life course and through co-housing with a strong commitment to environmental and social sustainability the Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood provides a fine example of a cooperative approach.

Earthsong website