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Living in an intentional community is challenging. Building relationships with neighbors and trying to reach consensus on shared values and projects is daunting especially given the fact that the people who live here come from a variety of backgrounds. Many intentional communities struggle with these issues, but they do so without the added pressure of being a living laboratory for sustainable community.
 Partnerships with nearby Cornell University and Ithaca College have made my community EcoVillage at Ithaca gave us high visibility in our local community. National and international interest soon followed with the 2005 publication Ecovillage at Ithaca, by executive director Liz Walker, and a wide variety of national and international media coverage including an article in Time Magazine.
So, we have chosen to actively welcome hundreds of
visitors each year who come to learn from us and take what
they have learned back to their own communities, for
example:
- The 3-40 curious people who show up on our common house porch each month for our regular tour of the community.
- The ubiquitous groups of college students who wander around laughing and talking
as they check us out.
- The participants in our EcoVillage Experience weekend who are learning by doing as they help put a living roof on the community bus shelter.
- The Japanese permaculture expert who leads his students from Tokyo around one of our community gardens.
- The group of Maryknoll nuns who eager for sustainability and community projects that can be implemented in their foreign missions.
Sharing Vulnerable Moments
As a resident of EcoVillage and a former tour guide and Visitor Coordinator, I know what it is like to juggle both the joys and struggles of living in community and the added pressure of presenting a clear and accurate picture to those visiting. People come to us with a variety of expectations of what living in community might be like. Sometimes the only way for them to learn about us is to be present for our most vulnerable moments.
There is tension in this community meeting. The process observer raises a yellow flag. Someone says we need to stop and take a breath before the discussion gets too heated. We pause. The discussion continues. We need to decide whether we have enough time for a meaningful discussion that allows all voices to be heard. We decide to continue the discussion at the next meeting when we can devote more time to it.
Our community meetings, in which the majority of our decision-making processes occur, are sometimes tense. When conflict arises over a controversial decision, tempers flare and voices may be raised in anger. These kinds of meetings are hard enough on the community when only community members are present,
but we often open these meetings to those who wish to live at Ecovillage as well as those who are interested in observing our process.
 One of the most rewarding things at these times is when the conflict gets resolved in respectful and constructive ways that provide a learning experience for both the community and those visitors present.
At the conclusion of such meetings I sometimes talk to the visitors present and ask what they think. Do you want to go running from the community while you still have the chance? I ask. More often than not the visitors are impressed with the process that takes place.
Social Sustainability
EcoVillage at Ithaca, while a living laboratory for sustainability and community living for the larger world, is at the same time an ongoing internal experiment in what it means to live well with a diverse group of people whose values and backgrounds differ immensely. Social sustainability lies at the heart of all other types of sustainability we practice here.
I am sitting with a group of my neighbors. We have recently formed what we call the Peace and Reconciliation Council (PARC). We discuss what our role in the community will be. We know that conflict is an integral part of living in community. We want to be able to empower neighbors to be able to deal with it constructively. We want to give them appropriate tools for doing so.
Our social sustainability skills are set to be tested as the community implements plans to add an additional
30 households a third cohousing neighborhood to join the existing two. We are being challenged to rethink how we do governance. We talk about what has worked for the existing
60 households and wonder what changes especially to the process we rely on to reach consensus will need to be made.
Some take on a special responsibility to research the issue. They attend seminars on conflict resolution for nonprofits. They consult individuals who are experts on community relations. Then we bring the learning process back to the community, hiring a team of outside facilitators to deliver a daylong workshop.
In her book, Ecovillage at Ithaca, Liz Walker writes,
I sometimes say that we live in a cauldron of personal growth here. As we learn to relate thoughtfully with the other 160 children and adults in our community, we inevitably discover clashes in values, lifestyles, personalities, and preferences. The key is not only to be open to others, but also to look closely at our own behavior.
A group of EcoVillage Experience workshop participants are sitting around in the common house sitting room. Residents have joined them for an informal dessert and discussion evening. The participants get to ask residents what it is really like to live in our community. Several residents share their experiences.
It comes around to me and I answer with my standard, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, answer. The best thing about living here is that you get to know your neighbors really well. The worst thing about living here is that you get to know your neighbors really well.
I joke about this but I realize that getting to know my neighbors really well is the most important part of living in community. If we cannot learn to live together in meaningful ways, we cannot hope to work together to be the change we wish to see in the world.
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