The Ecovillage Impact Assessment

Are you curious about what ecovillages are doing and how they are contributing to creating a more sustainable world?

We are, so we worked together with researchers and ecovillages from around the world to create the Ecovillage Impact Assessment – a tool for communities, groups and people to map, analyse and showcase their work for participatory cultural, social, ecological and economic regeneration. Click on the figures below to explore results for all of GEN.

Average for all Impact Assessments - SDGs

Average for all Impact Assessments - Map of Regeneration

Economy

Social

Ecology

Culture

Integral Design

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Culture hide	Avg
Clarify vision and higher purpose
My community has a clear vision or higher purpose that is shared amongst its members	7.07
My community’s vision or higher purpose is clearly reflected in our practices and day-to-day life	6.56
Nurture mindfulness and self-reflection
People in my community are aware that mindfulness and self-reflection are important for living well together	6.64
We have shared practices that support personal and collective self-awareness and reflection	6.35
Enrich life with art and celebration
Community members are encouraged and supported to express themselves through art and creativity	6.40
We often come together to celebrate and to honour life	6.60
Honour indigenous wisdom and welcome positive innovation
We respect and incorporate local, indigenous and traditional wisdom, skills and practices in the way we live	6.58
We are skilled at innovating and integrating new ideas, practices, technologies and ways of living	6.95
Engage actively to protect communities and nature
We take action to protect the rights and wellbeing of nature, communities and people locally	6.58
We take action to protect the rights and wellbeing of nature, communities and people beyond our local area	6.03
Reconnect to nature and embrace low-impact lifestyles
Our lifestyle connects us to nature and its cycles	6.95
Our shared lifestyle minimises our negative impact on the environment	6.99
Ecology hide	Avg
Grow seeds, food and soil through regenerative agriculture
We promote local and regional food security by growing our own food and seeds	6.48
We grow and/or obtain our food in ways that regenerate soils and ecosystems	6.59
Clean and replenish sources and cycles of water
All our wastewater is safely reused or treated in ways that benefit the local ecosystem	6.02
We harvest and use water sustainably	6.59
Move towards 100% renewable energy and transport
All our energy comes from renewable sources	4.99
We choose modes of transport that minimise the use of fossil fuels	4.87
Innovate and spread green building technologies
We cultivate and spread green building skills and methods	6.34
We build or retrofit using low impact, natural, locally appropriate and renewable materials	6.44
Work with waste as a valuable resource
All our waste is treated as a resource through reusing, recycling, refurbishing or composting	6.15
We eliminate waste by paying attention to the types and amounts of goods and materials we consume	6.11
Increase biodiversity and restore ecosystems
We increase the diversity and varieties of species and habitats in our territory	6.64
We engage actively in ecosystem regeneration	6.77
Economy hide	Avg
Reconstruct the concepts of wealth, work and progress
Our economic activities reflect that true wealth and progress require ecosystem health and community wellbeing	6.08
We organise and value work in a way that helps us recognise diverse contibutions and live meaningful lives	6.67
Commit to responsible production, consumption and trade
Social responsibility and justice is a priority in how we produce, consume and trade goods and services	6.26
Ecological health is a priority in how we produce, consume and trade goods and services	6.81
Cultivate social entrepreneurship for local regeneration
We support and prioritise enterprises that regenerate and enrich our local economy	6.80
We promote and cultivate entrepreneurship with positive social and ecological impact	6.57
Increase economic justice through sharing and collaboration
We have shared practices that create an economic life based on collaboration, generosity and mutual support	6.41
We work to remove economic barriers to being part of our community and its activities	6.06
Ensure equitable access to land and resources
We own, hold or share land in ways that promote equitable access to all community members	6.04
We value, safeguard, and expand the natural and cultural commons	6.61
Use banks and currencies that strengthen communities
We use currencies and other exchange systems designed to strengthen local economies and relationships	4.97
We save and invest using practices and institutions dedicated to positive impact and community benefit	6.09
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Nurture diversity and cohesion for thriving communities
We actively make our community welcoming to people of different backgrounds, means, genders, ages, cultures, religions and abilities	7.09
We share a sense of belonging and have plenty of opportunities to celebrate achieving our shared goals together	6.74
Develop fair, effective and accountable institutions
We have clear ways of holding each other accountable for how we act and the decisions we make	6.40
Our community services and organisations are trustworthy and achieve their aims in ways that are fair and effective	6.64
Empower collaborative leadership and participatory decision-making
We share power and responsibility in ways that enable engagement and collaboration	6.71
Members of my community actively take part in making decisions in areas that affect them	6.94
Practice conflict facilitation, communication and peacebuilding skills
We have shared practices for peacebuilding and mediating conflicts in a supportive and reconciliatory way	6.14
The way we communicate and work together generates trust and empathy between us	6.81
Ensure equal and lifelong access to education for sustainability
Lifelong sustainability education, curiosity and knowledge exchange is encouraged and practiced in our community	6.85
Our community or its members provide sustainability education and training to a diversity of people	6.43
Promote health, healing and wellbeing for all
A holistic view of health, healing and wellbeing is embedded in our day-to-day community life and decisions	6.50
All members of our community have access to healing and healthcare	7.13
Integral Design hide	Avg
Learn from nature and practise whole systems thinking
We observe and learn from natural patterns in order to design resilient systems	5.94
We understand that everything is interdependent and part of a greater whole	7.21
Identify assets needs and leverage points
We build on our strengths and address our needs to further the health of the whole system	6.66
We prioritise opportunites where a small effort can create a big shift	6.71
Adapt solutions to scale and context
We design considering the history and condition of place to express its full potential	6.58
We amplify our impact by intervening at the appropriate level and scale	6.08
Be aware of privilege and use it for the benefit of all
We actively build awareness of individual and collective privilege and how it influences our perspectives and interactions	5.75
We use any privilege we have to support those in marginalised positions and create systems that benefit the whole	6.17
Build alliances across all divides
We seek common ground and shared visions to enable collaboration with a diversity of others	6.74
We amplify our impact by working together with others	6.95
Engage all stakeholders in designs for the future
We have processes to integrate a broad diversity of perspectives in our plans and projects	6.43
We cocreate interventions by inviting the active participation of all those affected	6.55
Spread core patterns of regeneration
We identify, distill and implement solutions that lead to regeneration	5.75
We share, teach and spread regenerative principles and practices	6.40
Listen to the feedback of the world
Being open to and learning from feedback is an integral part of how we function as a community	7.00
We design systems with feedback loops that allow us to keep improving our interventions	6.01

Culture – Level 2	Score
Clarify vision and higher purpose
Which of these is true for your community’s vision or higher purpose?	8.89 / 3
Do you have practices or activities directly linked to your community’s vision or purpose?	7.71 / 2
Nurture mindfulness and self-reflection
Do you have practices that support personal and/or collective self-awareness and reflection	8.33 / 3
How many community members tend to engage with these practices?	6.25 / 4
Enrich life with art and celebration
Is there time and opportunity for community members to express themselves through art, music, dance, or other forms of creativity?	8.61 / 3
How often do community members have opportunities to participate in artistic or creative events and activities?	8.23 / 4
How often do community members come together to celebrate and appreciate each other, achievements, events, natural cycles, anniversaries etc?	7.5 / 4
Do you have shared ways (traditional, reclaimed or newly created) to mark important events and cycles?	7.92 / 4
Honour indigenous wisdom and welcome positive innovation
Which of the following does your community engage with to nurture local, indigenous and traditional wisdom, skills and practices?	7.29 / 4
Do you have processes or spaces where community members can bring up new ideas, practices and technologies relevant to your shared lives, vision and aims?	9.17 / 2
Do groups and circles in your community have processes for reviewing how you do things in order to learn, adjust and integrate new ideas and solutions?	7.92 / 2
Engage actively to protect communities and nature
The Rights of Nature is a way to recognise Earth as a living being with its own right to life, health and wellbeing. Do you do anything to promote such a perspective (by that or any other name)?	6.39 / 3
How many community members tend to partipate in actions and events to protect the rights and wellbeing of nature, communities and people locally and/or globally?	4.9 / 4
Does the community or its members lead or organise actions or events to protect the rights and wellbeing of nature, communities and people?	4.58 / 4
Reconnect to nature and embrace low-impact lifestyles
Do you actively nurture a sense of interdependence and interbeing - knowing or experiencing youselves as parts of nature?	6.67 / 2
What are you doing to make your impact on local or global ecoystems visible, so that you can learn and adjust what you do?	6.67 / 3
We have shared values and practices that make it easier to...	8.65 / 4
Total level 2 score for Culture	0.00
Ecology – Level 2	Score
Grow seeds, food and soil through regenerative agriculture
Do you grow or produce food within the community?	9.58 / 2
What percentage of the food you consume is grown or produced within the community?	4.44 / 3
What percentage of the food you consume is grown or produced outside the community but within your bioregion?	3.47 / 3
Do you do any of the following to protect seed diversity and grow seeds and plants adapted to local conditions?	7.91 / 3
Do you do any of the following to improve or regenerate soil conditions?	7.91 / 3
What percentage of the food grown in the community is organic (certified or non-certified)?	8.61 / 3
What percentage of the food you consume in the community is organic (certified or non-certified)?	5.28 / 3
Clean and replenish sources and cycles of water
What percentage of water used is naturally treated and/or used as greywater before being returned to natural systems?	4.86 / 3
What do community members do to use water wisely?	7.77 / 3
Do you take action in any of these areas to manage erosion and restore or replenish sources of water?	6.39 / 3
Move towards 100% renewable energy and transport
What percentage of the energy used by the community comes from clean and renewable sources?	5 / 3
What percentage of the energy used by the community is sourced or generated within the community?	3.47 / 3
What is the total amount of renewable energy produced within your community per year, in kWh?
To minimise the use of fossil fuels in transport, we actively...	5.56 / 3
Innovate and spread green building technologies
We design, build and/or retrofit our built environment in ways that showcase and teach...	7.92 / 3
What percentage of buildings have been built or retrofitted using natural, renewable or recycled materials?	4.16 / 3
What percentage of buildings have been built or retrofitted using locally sourced materials?	3.47 / 3
What percentage of buildings are energy efficient?	4.31 / 3
Work with waste as a valuable resource
What percentage of organic leftovers from community kitchens or activites do you compost or recycle?	6.98 / 4
Do you have agreements, rules or policies for minimising waste and encouraging recycling and composting	6.88 / 2
What percentage of non-compostable resources used in the community are reused or recycled?	3.75 / 3
Does your community or its members provide shared facilities for any of the following actions to minimise or eliminate waste?	7.36 / 3
Increase biodiversity and restore ecosystems
Do you do any of the following to protect seed diversity and grow seeds and plants adapted to local conditions?	6.81 / 3
Do you take action to increase or safeguard wild habitats and species?	6.11 / 3
How much of your community land is conserved, restored, or sustainably managed, as a proporition of total area?	6.11 / 3
Have you measured the ecological footprint of your community?
Have you measured the carbon footprint of your community?
Do you do any of the following things to restore ecosystems and sequester carbon?	6.92 / 5
If you plant trees, how many have you planted?
Total level 2 score for Ecology	0.00
Economy – Level 2	Score
Reconstruct the concepts of wealth, work and progress
Which of these statements is true about your local or community economy?	5.94 / 4
Considering the businesses and organisations based in your community, how many have clear targets, guidelines and/or policies for prioritising fair trade goods and services?	3.65 / 1
Considering the businesses and organisations based in your community, how many have clear targets, guidelines and/or policies for social justice and community benefit?	3.54 / 1
Considering the businesses and organisations based in your community, how many have clear targets, guidelines and/or policies for ecological sourcing, production and consumption?	3.96 / 1
Does the community count, value, remunerate or compensate for any of the following forms of work in the same way it treats more traditional ‘productive labour’?	6.25 / 4
Commit to responsible production, consumption and trade
Do you have a community code of ethics or shared agreements to guarantee that your own business practices as well as those of the people with which you work and trade contribute positively to social justice and welfare both locally and globally?	2.81 / 4
Does your community have shared rules, agreements or practices to ensure you source, produce and consume in an ecologically responsible way?	6.98 / 4
What percentage of the businesses and organisations based in your community report transparently on their social impact	2.6 / 2
What percentage of the businesses and organisations based in your community report transparently on their ecological impact	3.23 / 2
Cultivate social entrepreneurship for local regeneration
Do you have shared agreements for individuals and organisations in your community to actively support local economic regeneration?	6.15 / 4
Which of the following ways to encourage and promote local enterprise exist in your community?	5.31 / 4
Increase economic justice through sharing and collaboration
What kinds of resources and assets do you have systems for sharing, owning together, or otherwise collectively providing?	8.23 / 4
Do you have any form of solidarity systems that support community members in times of financial need or hardship?	5.42 / 2
What methods do you have in place to lower the financial barriers of being part of your community and it’s activities?	6.46 / 4
Ensure equitable access to land and resources
Do you have ways of owning or sharing land and other natural resources that guarantees equitable access, ensures participatory control and safeguards it for future generations?	5.27 / 3
Do you do any of the following to strengthen the commons - knowledge and resources we collectively depend on, manage and govern together?	6.11 / 3
Use banks and currencies that strengthen communities
Do you provide or use any complementary or alternative exchange systems and currencies?	3.96 / 4
Do you provide or use any financial services that are ethical and generate community benefits?	4.38 / 4
Do you have an explicit community policy regarding ethical banking and investment?	3.33 / 2
Total level 2 score for Economy	0.00
Social – Level 2	Score
Nurture diversity and cohesion for thriving communities
What methods do you have in place to welcome and work for diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic, cultural and religious background in your community?	5.42 / 4
What methods do you have in place to welcome people with special needs in your community?	3.75 / 2
What do you do to build and strengthen community glue - the connections, friendships and sense of togetherness of community members?	7.33 / 5
How many community members tend to engage with these practices?	5.83 / 3
Develop fair, effective and accountable institutions
Which of these things do you have in place to hold each other accountable? Please check all that apply	6.53 / 3
Which of these things do you have in place to ensure that the organisations or groups that make decisions about your shared community life and services are trustworthy, fair and effective in serving the community?	6.35 / 4
Empower collaborative leadership and participatory decision-making
Do you have a clear, agreed upon and shared process for addressing conflicts within the community?	5.12 / 3
Is the way the community manages conflict designed to support community members...	7.22 / 3
Does the community offer new and existing members training in your shared conflict resolution method and/or how to resolve conflicts in a reconciliatory way?	3.75 / 3
Do community members have opportunities to be trained in compassionate, respectful and collaborative communication practices	6.67 / 3
Practice conflict facilitation, communication and peacebuilding skills
Which one of these is true regarding how you approach leadership in your community?	6.42 / 5
What is the percentage of women in decision-making bodies in your community?	5.41 / 3
What percentage of leadership roles are filled by women?	6.38 / 3
What percentage of community members are actively involved in community decision-making processes?	5.55 / 3
Are there systems in place through which community members give their input in decisions that affect them and your shared community life?	5.82 / 3
Ensure equal and lifelong access to education for sustainability
Does your community and/or its members provide learning opportunities, such as trainings, workshops, experiential learning, schooling, internships, etc?	5.83 / 2
Does the community or its members provide training or learning opportunities in fields related to regenerative living and/or sustainability?	6.25 / 2
Does the community or it’s members provide training or learning opportunities related to climate change mitigation and adaptation?	4.58 / 2
In which fields does the community or its members provide opportunities for learning?
Promote health, healing and wellbeing for all
What you have in place to help you create a shared daily life that supports health and wellbeing in a holistic way?	7.21 / 6
Does your community organise or provide access to basic healthcare and health education, with an emphasis on prevention?	2.08 / 2
Does your community organise or provide access to complementary or traditional medicine, wellbeing or healing practices?	3.96 / 2
Does your community organise or provide access to mental health care?	2.29 / 2
Total level 2 score for Social	0.00

Results based on 111 surveys for 58 ecovillages between Feb 2021 and Mar 2023.

Results from “Butterfly Communities” open project, ahoxus, Aldinga Arts Ecovillage, As One Suzuka Community, Atahualpa Habaspamba, Bafut Ecovillage, Balaya Buyul Community, Boekel Ecovillage, Borgo Basino Folk School Ecovillage…, Buenviví, Cantón Gualaceo parroquia Zhidmad comunidad…, Christie Walk, Comunidade Aldeia – Terra Preta, Cotocollao, Quito, Crystal Waters, Damanhur Federation, Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood, Ecoaldea Huehuecoyotl, Ecovila Terras Altas, Edenhope Nature Preserve, Farkha, Findhorn Foundation Community and Ecovillage, Govardhan Ecovillage, Green Village Chhattisgarh, Green Village Lebanon, Green Village Nepal, Green Village Phillipines, Green Village West Bengal, Heathcote Community, Hertha Levefællesskab/Hertha Living Community, Huaravito Reserve / Sacred Natural…, Hundredfold Farm, imece Evi, Inla Kesh, Jackrabbit Permaculture Homestead, Kajulu Hills Eco-Villages, Kibbutz Gezer, Kufunda Village, Los Portales, Narara Ecovillage, One Planet Valley, OPC (Obrobibini Peace Complex), OUR Ecovillage – Shawnigan Lake,…, Parroquia La Villegas, ReTribe at NorthernShire, Schloss Glarisegg, Sementeira, Shiram, Southern Life Community, Sun Clover Ecovillage, Sunny Hill Association, Sunseed Desert Technology, The Ecovillage at Currumbin, The Farm, TI EcoVillage, Vila das Borboletas, Well Yokodai, Whole Village

The Impact Assessment gives results in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the GEN Map of Regeneration. Here you can learn more about how we adapted the SDGs to measure contributions from grassroots action.

The Ecovillage Impact Assessment is a survey with two levels:

Level 1 – the Personal Community Assessment measures the subjective opinions of community members about their shared lives and practices. This survey can be filled in by all community members, and the results are more reliable and count more towards the community’s total results if more people do it. Encouraging others to fill it in, is a great way to go! You will need to log in to, or create, a user profile on this site in order to do an assessment.

Level 2 – the Collective Community Assessment measures the presence, scale or frequency of specific practices for cultural, economic, ecological and social regeneration in a community. These answers are recorded only once, through the official account of the ecovillage. If you want to do the Community Assessment, you need to log in with the same email that was used when you created its official profile in the GEN Database.

We think it will take you about 20 minutes to complete a personal assessment. The community assessment will take longer, since it requires you to gather data you most likely do not have at hand.

To do the assessment or to see current results, select a community in the drop down menu below.

If your community or initative is not there, you first need to register it in our database.

You will see your results immediately after finishing – in relation to the GEN Map of Regeneration, and in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. If you want to know more details about how the assesment was constructed and how it is scored, head over to our in-depth explanation (coming soon). To learn more about how we worked with the UN SDGs to measure ecovillages, head to the page on Sustainable Development the Ecovillage Way

We created this tool to:

• Showcase and celebrate the activities of community-led initiatives
• Support community evolution through easily understandable data and results
• Inspire further action
• Provide data for understanding and improving the impact of ecovillages, community-led initatives, GEN, and the wider movement for regeneration.

It has been developed together with communities, ecovillage experts and researchers from around the world, and generously supported by the European Union. More functionality is coming. If you encounter a bug or problem, please let us know!