July 17 through July 24, 2025.
Michigan’s first ever “Ecovillages and Intentional Communities Tour” begins with a full day of activities at Interlochen Center for the Arts on Thursday July 17th. Visitors will tour the campus, learning about Interlochen’s many sustainability efforts and its climate action plan, reviewing Interlochen’s history, and brainstorming ideas for implementing more sustainable and restorative practices in Interlochen’s second century.
Daily tour agendas and RSVP forms are available in the July Events Calendar here:
Events are free of charge, but participants are asked to provide their own transportation, meals, and lodging. Guests are invited to attend any of the events in person, and Zoom meeting access will be provided where possible. Event highlights will be provided afterwards, for those who are not able to attend in person.
Participants are invited to explore both existing and planned Michigan ecovillages and intentional communities. Though there is no accepted standard for what constitutes an ecovillage, most include one or more practices for local agriculture and food production, often including permaculture and forest gardening, land-use protections for valuable natural habitats, and building practices to help residents lower utility bills and use local renewable energy where practical. This tour highlights successful approaches to community-building and ecological practices in those and other realms.
Representatives from all Michigan ecovillages and intentional communities are invited, as well as anyone curious about ecological living. Tour designers are already in contact with and inviting participation from about 50 existing and newly-forming Michigan ecovillages.
“A major premise for this project,” explains organizer Tom Stanton of Community Energy Solutions, LLC, “is that all Michigan communities are wanting to learn about sustainable and restorative projects. Ecovillages and intentional communities already use many well-proven solutions that are poised for implementation in all communities.”
On July 18, the tour is visiting the GrowBenzie campus and community center in Benzonia, Michigan, Telford Farm in Cedar, Michigan, and Traverse City. Major themes for the day include local community energy futures and a presentation from the Leelanau Energy Project that is working to bring 100% clean and renewable energy resources to Northport and the Leelanau Peninsula. Food systems and local economic development will be explored with GrowBenzie, and the group will tour Telford Farm intentional community. Guests will be invited to dinner and discussions at the Traverse City Farm Club, a local farm-to-table restaurant and community hub.
July 19 plans include a tour of GasTechno, Corporation’s “energy center” facilities that are being constructed at Boyne Falls, Michigan, from 11:00AM to 4:00PM. GasTechno will introduce the many projects it is gearing up to implement there, including bio-energy production with greenhouse gas emissions certification and accounting, local agriculture and food processing for fruits, vegetables, and aquaculture including yellow perch, converting vehicles to operate on clean biofuels, and preparing and delivering biofuel substitutes for fuel oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, propane, hydrogen, and more.
Also at the GasTechno Energy Center, Chris Miller, current president of the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3) will give a presentation about community investing options and progress towards community investing in Michigan.
Afterwards, from 5:30PM to 7:30PM, in Traverse City, the tour will explore options for high-efficiency buildings powered in part by renewable energy, exploring innovations being implemented by multiple Traverse City groups.
July 20, the tour visits Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville, Michigan, from 10:00AM until 1:00PM. Participants will learn about the many sustainability and environmental activities being implemented there. Then the tour heads south to Grand Rapids for the late afternoon and early evening. Plans include a visit to the new Tiny Home Neighborhood being built in Grand Rapids, that is working to relieve and reverse homelessness.
July 21 events will be held in Lansing, East Lansing, and the Michigan State University campus. The tour will visit a Lansing Co-Housing Neighborhood, explore Lansing and East Lansing area composting and urban agriculture operations, and explore research and development options at Michigan State University, including state of the art practices for circular economies, food systems and food waste conversion to valuable byproducts, sustainable packaging, bioeconomy options, and MSU’s new experimental dairy farm.
July 22 in Ann Arbor, the tour will visit the new Veridian Farms “Thrive Community” Ecovillage, and one of Ann Arbor’s co-housing neighborhoods. Tim Tate, from Sesame Solar, based in Jackson, Michigan, will share information about this world leading supplier of portable and movable microgrids, that can operate entirely off grid when necessary. Systems meeting each client’s needs are designed and pre-configured in the Jackson facility, and when they are delivered to their destinations the microgrids can be switched on and providing energy within minutes.
July 23, the tour moves to Detroit, including visits to the Detroit Arboretum, urban gardens and food producers, and Detroit Ecovillage neighborhoods.
July 24, the tour concludes with visits to the Motown Museum, and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Guests will pay their own entrance fees. Guided tours will explore the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House exhibition that is on display in the Henry Ford Museum and the Thomas Edison Workshop inside Greenfield Village.
Future tours are also being planned, and an internet database and a Michigan map are in development, to identify any and all Michigan intentional communities and highly successful innovations.
Co-sponsoring organizations include:
- Capital Area Friends of the Environment (CAFÉ, https://517cafe.org)
- Community Energy Solutions, LLC (Lansing, https://communityenergysolutions.info)
- Ecovillage Cooperative (Boyne City, https://www.ecovillageco-op.org/)
- Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA, https://glrea.org)
- National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3, https://nc3now.org)
- SEEDS Ecology & Education Centers (Traverse City, https://ecoseeds.org/)
- Sesame Solar (Jackson, https://sesame.solar)
- Telford Farm Intentional Community (Cedar, https://www.facebook.com/p/Telford-Farm-100064254566464/)
For more information contact:
Tom Stanton, Community Energy Solutions, LLC. [email protected]
Additional resources:
- Weblog describing these activities: https://www.communityenergysolutions.info/post/michigan-ecovillages-and-intentional-communities-touring-july-17-through-24-2025
- Daily agendas and RSVP forms, on the JULY 2025 calendar of events: https://www.communityenergysolutions.info/events
Article provided by Tom Stanton, Lansing Michigan
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